Older Americans Month May 2004:

U.S. Census Bureau offering

"Between 2011 and 2015, the Older Population will grow at a rate 4-5 times faster than the general population. Baby-boomers — people born between 1946 and 1964 — begin to turn 65 in 2011. By 2030, about 1-in-5 people will be 65 or over. "

-- The U.S. Census Bureau provides an updated look at the Older American population in the United
States.

Oregon Casualties List

The list of Oregon casualties is now available on the News Research Web (accessible from the newsroom home page) or click here and bookmark - Oregon Casualties list

The casualties are listed in order by date of death and each is linked to one of our stories and to the official Department of Defense announcement.

The criteria for inclusion, is "strong ties to Oregon."

This list will be updated as often as necessary. Soon to come will be the Washington casualties list.

Map Machine by National Geographic

Oldie by goodie - upgraded ~

"MapMachine is a dynamic atlas that lets you explore hundreds of maps -- political and street maps, historic maps from the Library of Congress, population maps, USGS topographic maps, and satellite images."

New features include Aerial imagery, Customization (add-your-own-layers), extensive searching capabilities, and Maps in the News.

Suggested by Jonathan Dube, Poynter Online Web Tips.

CDC WONDER

Oldie but goodie~

"WONDER is an easy-to-use internet system that makes the information resources of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) available to the public.

Locate reports, articles and statistical research data published by CDC, as well as reference materials and bibliographies on health-related topics.

Query numeric data sets on CDC's mainframe and other computers, via "fill-in-the blank" web pages. Data sets include deaths, cancer incidence, HIV and AIDS, behavioral risk factors, diabetes, natality, census data, etc. and the results are readily summarized and analyzed.

Everything is menu-driven, and requires no special computer expertise. "

Correction/Clarification regarding the coffin photos posted on The Memory Hole.

They've been re-categorized into two sets, one being the remains of Columbia astronauts, and the other being the coffins of dead soldiers at Dover Air Force Base. FYI, if Russ Kick's clarification is correct, The Oregonian published only photos of the caskets of war dead.

Here is the email from Russ Kick:

===========
From: russ@MINDPOLLEN.COM
To:
Date: 4/25/04 12:34PM
Subject: [IRE-L] Correction/Amplification Regarding Dover Casket Photos

Because The Memory Hole has been overtaxed to the point of paralysis, I
haven't been able to post the following further info about the Dover
photos, so I'm sending it to various mailing lists:

---------------------------------------------------------

Correction/Amplification Regarding Dover Casket Photos

Among the 361 Dover casket photos are a minority of images showing
coffins of the Columbia astronauts. I didn't realize this at the time
that I posted them, mainly because when the Air Force asked for
clarification during the process, I specifically told them that I wasn't
requesting photos of the Columbia astronauts, only military personnel
killed overseas.

(Not that I have anything against astronauts. One of the tricks for
writing successful Freedom of Information Act requests is to make your
request as narrow as possible. I was afraid that including the
astronauts in the request would give the Air Force another excuse not to
release the photos. As in: "Well, since you want the astronaut photos,
we're going to have to clear that with more federal agencies.....") I've
since been told by a reporter that NASA released the astronaut casket
photos at the time and has never objected to their use. Quite a marked
difference from the battlefield dead, who are swept under the rug by the
Pentagon.

So, out of 361 photos, the first 73 were of the astronauts. Doing the
math, this means that 288 photos are of military personnel who died
overseas.

Where exactly were they killed? The photos as released offer no clues,
nor did the Air Force's cover letter with the photos. But let's do some
more math. From March 2003 to the present, 726 US soldiers have been
killed in Iraq. During that same time period, 38 have died in
Afghanistan. Thus the odds are 19 to 1 that any given casket contains
someone killed in Iraq. Put another way, there's a 94.8% chance that a
casket comes from Iraq.

Plus, in no instance have more than seven soldiers been killed at once
in Afghanistan. One set of pictures shows 20 caskets in the plane's
hold. This group must be from Iraq.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who might definitively know
(through visual clues, for example) where the other caskets are from.

I apologize for the oversight on my part and hope that this
misidentification hasn't upset anyone.

Be this as it may, the significance of the photo-release remains unchanged:

We were not allowed to see the war dead arriving at Dover.

Now we are.

----------------------------------------------------------

As mentioned, changes will be reflected on the site when I'm able to
update it again.

-Russ-
The Memory Hole [www.thememoryhole.org]

How to Read the IRS Form 990 & Find Out What it Means

The 990 is filled with information about the nonprofit that filed it. "But you need to know where to find this information and how to interpret it. To help you do this, we offer a list of the ten most significant pieces of information that can be found in the Form 990 and show you exactly where you can find the information.

From Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York

Stateline.org: 50-state rundown on gay marriage laws..

From Stateline.org - updated April 22, 2004. What's going on in states other than Oregon.

BASEBALL-LINKS.COM - John Skilton's Baseball Links

And for the Baseball fan....

"And what categories! high school baseball. College baseball. International baseball. Stats. Cards. History. Etc. (LOTS of etc.) Each category lists a date showing when it was last updated. There are some sub-categories available but unfortunately there are no annotations for the listings. A little R icon lets you review the site, while sites which have been reviewed have starred icons next to them. The site also offers a newsletter and baseball news links."

From ResearchBuzz

Political Money Line-Oregon Donors

Oregon donors have given $7,844,658 to candidates, PACs, and 527 Committees during the 2004 election cycle. FECInfo has sliced and diced this information every which way... by city, by office, by candidate, by PAC, by address.

The Memory Hole > Photos of Military Coffins (Casualties From Iraq) at Dover Air Force Base

"Exclusive: Due to a Freedom of Information Act request from The Memory Hole, the Air Force has released 361 photographs showing soldiers' remains arriving home. These are the images that the Pentagon prevented the public from seeing."

From -Russ Kick-
pub-editor of The Memory Hole

Also see (our friend) Hal Bernton's 4/22/04 Seattle Times story, Woman loses her job over coffins photo

JANE KIRTLEY - Cases and documents that she referred to in her FOIA presentation Friday in The Well.


NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMIN. V. FAVISH
U.S. Supreme Court opinion decided March 30, 2004 in regards to Favish challenge to gain access to Vincent Foster Jr. crime scene photos.

NEWSPAPERS DROP CHALLENGE TO AUTOPSY-PHOTO LAW Published April 13, 2004 in the Orlando Sentinel
In light of recent court rulings, the Orlando Sentinal and the South Florida Sun Sentinal "dropped their legal challenge of a Florida law passed after the death of Dale Earnhardt that restricts public access to autopsy photos."

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE et al. v. REPORTERSCOMMITTEE FOR FREEDOM OF THE PRESS et al.
U.S. Supreme Court opinion decided March 22, 1989
"The court held that the fact that an event was not wholly "private" did not mean that an individual had no interest in limiting its disclosure. The privacy interest in a rap sheet was substantial. Whether an invasion of privacy was warranted had to turn on the nature of the requested document and its relationship to the basic purpose of the FOIA, which focused on the citizen's right to be informed about the government's actions. The news groups in this case did not intend to discover anything about the conduct of the agency, and response to the request would not shed any light on the agency's conduct. Thus, the public interest in release of a rap sheet was not the type of interest protected by the FOIA"

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Threats and Protection - Critical Infrastructure
DHS Launches Protected Critical Infrastructure Information Program to Enhance Homeland Security, Facilitate Information Sharing. This is the agreement to keep certain private enterprises from scrutiny.

OpenTheGovernment.org

Initially announced here on April 1, OpenTheGovernment officially launched their site today. Their initial offerings include an article 'Ten Most Wanted' List Highlights Government Secrecy, which indeed lists the 10 most wanted documents for 2004.

OTG says of themselves - "OpenTheGovernment.org is a new unprecedented coalition, bringing together First Amendment advocates, good government groups, journalists, environmentalists, and organizations representing working men and women. The coalition will work to stop the growth in government secrecy and will advocate for greater public access to government information. The coalition is housed at OMB Watch in Washington, D.C. The web site is at www.openthegovernment.org."

Veterans Affairs Puts Over Three Million Cemetery Records Online

The DVA has put a database of over three million veterans' cemetery records online. The records cover veterans and dependents buried in VA cemeteries (there are 120 of those) since the civil war. There are also some records of burials in state veterans' cemeteries, and burials in Arlington National Cemetery from 1999 to the present. The DVA promises the site will be updated nightly.

To search, choose the Nationwide Gravesite Locator link at the left. They offer both simple and advanced searching.

Search results include the rank and military branch of the person (if they are military, this information is at the top of the listing. Spouses and dependents are noted at the bottom of their listing.) Listings also include veteran service dates (if known), date of birth, date of death, date of internment, location of the gravesite, and a link to and contact information for the cemetery. Not all information is available for a listing, especially the civil war veterans.

From ResearchBuzz

OPENonline - Tip of the Week

Need a Public Record Term Defined?

If you need to find the meaning term on a criminal or civil record, check the new Public Records Terms glossary.

Check it out when you come across an unfamiliar word or term on court, criminal and other types of public records.

Click on Public Records Terms in the topmost right-hand corner of each page.

IWS - The Information Warfare Site

Out of the UK, this site includes a compilation of CRS [Congressional Research Service] reports as they're released, and offers news archives on subjects ranging from al Qaeda to cyberterrorism.

This site was suggested by Poynter's Sree Sreenivasan who gleaned it from Oxblog.

2003 County Population estimates

The Census Bureau has lifted the embargo and data is now available for publication.

Detailed tables, charts and state contacts are available on this site.

U.S. Blue Pages

Provided by the GSA, the Federal Government Blue Pages Listings website offers a "new and improved site provides an easy and fast way to search ... listings by state, city, area code, agency or service, and keyword." Search tips are published right on the search form.

Thanks to ResourceShelf.

Hampton's Hidden Landmarks

Searchable by category or by state, Hidden Landmarks offers a "one-of-a-kind travel guide featuring the images and places of American Pop-Culture." Select Oregon and you find the spot where D.B. Cooper disappeared, where the 1942 Japanese Bomb landed, that Timberline Lodge was the setting for The Shining, that Landis' Animal House was located at Animal House the University of Oregon at Agate and Thirteenth Avenue in Eugene, OR., etc.

From the ResearchBuzz.

Facts About Newspapers 2003

From NAA, this statistical study of the newspaper industry has a very comprehensive index that makes it easy to click directly on each of the statistics tracked.

Thanks to ResourceShelf.

Gmail by Google

You may have heard of Google's new email service with its nearly unlimited storage. And you may have heard that somehow it will involve ads - targeted to your interests. Here's Motley Fool's take (subscription is free) and here's AP's story.

SYMBOLS.com -- encyclopedia of Western signs and ideograms

Fun and informative site.
Can be used when you need an idea for a new tattoo or when you need to identify a symbol you spied.

SYMBOLS.com contains more than 2,500 Western signs, arranged into 54 groups according to their graphic characteristics. In 1,600 articles their histories, uses, and meanings are thoroughly discussed. The signs range from ideograms carved in mammoth teeth by Cro-Magnon men, to hobo signs and subway graffiti.

2004 Pulitzers announced

The Los Angeles Times wins big-time!

Go to the very top of the screen, scroll to the far right and click on 2004.

FindLaw

Oldie but Goodie with a new offering

Search for everything legal in one place; laws by state, lawyers, legal news, and cases and code. It's conveniently divided into into areas by user; for legal professionals, for students, for business, and for corporate counsel.

Their new offering is Findlaw for the Public.

Topix

"Holy-Cow-When-You-Said-Local-You-Weren't-Kiddin' news site" -

"Topix allows you to get local news. I mean really local. I mean city level, though you can specify zip code." Now offering 6,000 News Sources of which almost a quarter of the sources they're crawling are daily newspapers.

Click on "more cities" and get a map of the U.S. Click on Oregon (or any other state) and get links to pretty nearly every city in the state. I mean "Holy Toledo"...check out Toledo, Oregon!

From ResearchBuzz

Open The Government - Americans for Less Secrecy, More Democracy

This is a beta site that "advocates defining the First Amendment, promoting free expression, strengthening national security and fighting censorship."

Coalition partners include SPJ, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, American Library Association, UM J-school's Freedom of Information Center.