This mock commencement speech by Norman Solomon addresses the graduates of today's "communications" schools, which mingle training in journalism with training in public relations: "You have studied how to write news articles and contrive news releases; how to dig for truth and how to obscure it; how to produce journalistic sensations as well as public relations; in short, how to unspin and spin. Like many others around the country, this school of journalism imparts vital skills of reporting and distorting."

An Oregon law firm has created a new web site to assist people interested in accessing public records through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) or state public records laws. It has links to the public records laws of all 50 States as well as relevant branches of the federal government. It also has materials to assist in the making of initial document or fee waiver requests, their appeals, litigation and a discussion of the FOIA exemptions.

A new industry-sponsored cheering section for Bush/Cheney's energy policies has been formed, called the "Alliance for Energy and Economic Growth."