Caregiving in the U.S.

(excerpted from http://research.aarp.org/il/us_caregiving.html ) "The purpose of this study – a joint project of the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP and funded by MetLife Foundation – is to update and expand knowledge about the activities caregivers say they perform, the perceived impact of caregiving on their daily lives, and the unmet needs of this population. Its findings are based on a national telephone survey of 1,237 caregivers age 18 or older, including approximately 200 African-American, 200 Hispanic, and 200 Asian-American caregivers. Interviewing was conducted from September 5 through December 22, 2003."

US Public Beliefs on Iraq and the Presidential Election

According to this new survey, conducted by the University of Maryland's Program in International Policy Attitudes, a majority of Americans (57%) continue to believe that before the war Iraq was providing substantial support to al Qaeda, including 20% who believe that Iraq was directly involved in the September 11 attacks. Forty-five percent believe that evidence that Iraq was supporting al Qaeda has been found. Sixty percent believe that just before the war Iraq either had weapons of mass destruction (38%) or a major program for developing them (22%).

Ms.Lebeau's Homepage

Teacher Sue Lebeau has done an impressive job of compiling web resources for students and teachers - see Ms.Lebeau's homepage.

Nancy Snow's website

Nancy Snow is a former intern at USIA and State, was a Fulbrighter in Germany, and is currently an Assistant Professor in the College of Communications at California State University. She has written extensively about public diplomacy, with a focus on "U.S. foreign policy, American persuasion, influence, and propaganda, entertainment and media culture in American society, communications in the public interest, and the impact of global communications theory and practice on democratic participation and community development" - relevant stuff for our line of work, in other words! Her website, www.nancysnow.com contains much interesting reading.

NAFTA Dossier updated

The Benjamin Franklin Library announces that the electronic compilation NAFTA Dossier has been revamped.

All key policy statements were replaced by newer items, current evaluation papers added, as well as more recent hearings and government reports. It links to the latest versions available for every document, with an abstract for each record and, in addition, it has a new design.

English: http://www.usembassy-mexico.gov/bbf/bfdossier_NAFTA.htm
Spanish: http://www.usembassy-mexico.gov/bbf/bfdossierS_NAFTA.htm

U.S. Blue Pages - USG Phone

(excerpted from the "About" section) "The U.S. Blue Pages project is devoted to helping you connect with your federal government agencies and services. The U.S. Blue Pages are funded by the federal government and administered by the U.S. General Services Administration. The U.S. Blue Pages are a multi-agency effort that establishes a standard, easy-to-use format for acquiring key federal telephone listings. The effort includes gathering, validating and formatting information for publication in local telephone directories and this website."

New FindLaw for the Public Launches

FindLaw, a Thomson business and a provider of client development services for the legal profession, has launched a new version of its “FindLaw for the Public” Web site (http://public.findlaw.com/) with many new features, including a redesigned look-and-feel and state-specific legal content. It also offers users improved access to lawyers through searching the West Legal Directory (with one million lawyers listed) to find and research lawyers in their areas.

The new user interface offers tab-based site navigation and expanded topic-specific navigation for more than 40 legal topics. Other new features include expanded content on legal topics, such as bankruptcy law and criminal law and procedure, as well as links to national and state crime-prevention resources.

Historical newspapers

For the occasional historical/genealogical reference query, www.newspaperarchive.com is impressive...although you have to pay to view the articles themselves, it's a great tool for finding references (a lot of inaccuracies however, as is generally the case with OCR generated datbases)