Homeschooling?

Cash for Clunkers Press Release

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's press release for the Cash for Clunkers program on Aug. 26, 2009. See Cars program stats for top 10 vehicles purchased and trade-ins.

The Budget

It's time for the Mid-Session Review of the Budget of the United States Government. The review updates estimates and other changes that have occured since the budget was released in May.

Latest & Greatest: New Documents

Our newest print documents are:

• Congressional Pictorial Directory


• The Redesigned (New) Naturalization Test


• Expanding ESL, Civics, and Citizenship Education in Your Community


• Junior Ranger Night Explorer


• An Analysis of the Army's Transformation Programs and Possible Alternatives


• Join the Voices for Recovery


• Incident Management Handbook


• Perspectives on Leadership


• Generalship: Historical Perspectives


• Effects of All-Terrain Vehicles on Forested Lands and Grasslands


• 2007-2008 Tribal Resource Guide


• Bodyworks: A Toolkit for Healthy Teens & Strong Families

Transparency Tuesday & a NTIS School Flu Toolkit

Our transparent government site for this Tuesday is GovTrack.us. From the homepage "We help you keep tabs on the U.S. Congress. This is the independent, nonpartisan website that started the "civic hacking" movement in the United States." GovTrack.us pulls information from Thomas & other sources for you to track via feeds or email. This site also makes it easy to research the members of Congress. I think this feature will help us fill in a gap made by budget cuts.

Don't be complacent about the flu. Wash your hands & cough/sneeze in the crook of your arm or in a tissue. The NTIS has a free School Flu Toolkit for grades K-12.

Read the House Health Care Reform Bill

The House Health Care Reform Bill (H.R. 3200) is now available for your reading pleasure on FDsys (GPO's Federal Digital System).

Documents of the Week: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

This week, we will display documents from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, with emphasis on sustainability, emissions, and water quality.

• Tap into Prevention: Drinking Water Information for Health Care Providers (CD)
• WAVE: Saver for Office Buildings, Water Management System (CD)
• Keep Your Paws off Mercury (CD)
• Today's Special: Energy Savings
• Should I Eat the Fish I Catch?
• Read this if you plan to breathe this summer
• Charlie goes to town (keeping children lead-free)
• Citizen's Guide to Ground-Water Protection
• Clear Your Home of Asthma Triggers
• Diagnosing Vegetation Injury Caused by Air Pollution
• Atlas of America's Polluted Waters
• Purchasing Strategies to Prevent Waste and Save Money
• A Decade of Children's Environmental Health Research
• U.S. Climate Action Report, 2002
• An Organizational Guide to Pollution Prevention
• Climate Change, Wildlife, and Wildlands: A Toolkit for Teachers and Interpreters

Battling Childhood Obesity at Home

We're battling childhood obesity at home. It's a difficult battle. It's really hot outside, candy & soda are offered by well-meaning people and to top it all, the school has this wonderful watermelon drink. I was fine with it until I heard it was green. If it's real watermelon, wouldn't it be red? Plus, how often do you see watermelon juice? How can you get a child to eat fruits and vegetables without forcing it down his throat? It's taking a lot of time and creativity.

Needing more resources, I turned to USA.gov. I found a Childhood Obesity Health Topic from the CDC. It's full of statistics and strategies. The Department of Health & Human Services has a nice report on Childhood Obesity. Finally, with a lot of useful links, the Alabama Cooperative Extension System's Newsline has published a report about Childhood Obesity.

Updated Guidance for Businesses and Employers for the Fall Flu Season

The Flu.gov site has updated the flu information for businesses. Consider signing up for updates to the site.

Updated Guidance for Businesses and Employers for the Fall Flu Season

Transparent Tuesdays

Continuing with our transparency in government series, our next site is the Sunlight Foundation. They offer an up-to-date blog that discusses current issues, applications that enable you to keep up with with congress, along with a variety of other projects. You can also join the transparency movement by signing up for their mailing list. Use Twitter? Consider following Sunlight on Twitter.

From their About Us page:

"The Sunlight Foundation was co-founded in 2006 by Washington, DC businessman and lawyer Michael Klein and longtime Washington public interest advocate Ellen Miller with the non-partisan mission of using the revolutionary power of the Internet to make information about Congress and the federal government more meaningfully accessible to citizens. Through our projects and grant-making, Sunlight serves as a catalyst for greater political transparency and to foster more openness and accountability in government. Sunlight’s ultimate goal is to strengthen the relationship between citizens and their elected officials and to foster public trust in government."

Are you following Claudette?

Tropical depression (at this time) Claudette is making her way up Alabama bringing gusty wind and rain. Along with my local weather sites, I'll be checking Weather.gov for more information regarding Claudette and future weather systems. Weather.gov includes: storm data, warnings, forecasts, NEXRAD radar displays and so much more.

Transparent Government

I thought it would be interesting to do a series on organizations that help make our government transparent. As a user, you will want to carefully consider the about information for each organization and draw your own conclusions.

Let's begin with OpenCongress.org. This organization is a project of participatorypolitics.org and sunlightfoundation.com. OpenCongress allows you to track a bill, a member of Congress or an issue by utilizing web 2.0 tools and applications like RSS feeds and a blog.

Finding Reports

Need a report? From eduction & housing to civil rights, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) produces reports on a variety of topics for the members of Congress. As a matter of fact, GAO is an independent, nonpartisan agency. It's possible to search for reports by date, topic or agency.

To give you an idea, here are some titles of recent reports:

• Characteristics and Performance of Nonprime Mortgages

• Climate Change Policy: Preliminary Observations on Options for Distributing Emissions Allowances and Revenue under a Cap-and-Trade Program

• Energy Markets: Refinery Outages Can Have Varying Gasoline Price Impacts, but Gaps in Federal Data Limit Understanding of Impacts

• Homeland Defense: Preliminary Observations on Defense Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and High-Yield Explosives Consequence Management Plans and Preparedness

Sotomayor has been confirmed by the US Senate

White House Blog

New York Times

Washington Post

College Freshmen & Credit Cards

Much of the credit card discussion has focused on adults currently using credit cards. But what about the new batch of college freshmen? (I know, most of them have had credit cards since what, 3rd grade?) Many students will be targeted with temptation beginning late August. How will the credit card companies deal with this new batch of consumers? Never fear, the new Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act of 2009 specifically mentions college students:

Cleans Up Credit Card Practices For Young People at Universities. The act contains new protections for college students and young adults, including a requirement that card issuers and universities disclose agreements with respect to the marketing or distribution of credit cards to students. (from White House FACT SHEET: REFORMS TO PROTECT AMERICAN CREDIT CARD HOLDERS)

Read Public Law 111-24

FDA: For Women

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has a site just for women. Here's an excerpt:

"In their daily lives, women use many products that are regulated by the FDA including medicines, cosmetics, pregnancy kits, microwaves, pet foods, and vaccines. Throughout its 100-year history, FDA has been committed to providing women with up-to-date information on all of the products that it regulates. Check the links in this section for information on women's health topics as well as news about product recalls, safety warnings, and other FDA activities."

I'll be reading the microwave use information.