U.S. Government

New Participatory Project: Help Sen. Durbin Write a New Internet Bill

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) has opened up the legislative process to citizen participation for a new "national broadband strategy" bill that would cover network neutrality policy, broadband Internet availability and spectrum policy. He has been blogging and asking for suggestions at the new OpenLeft.com site and his office has encouraged CMD to setup a parallel project on Congresspedia where we are collecting all the arguments, data and research needed to draft and evaluate the legislation when Sen. Durbin posts it online.

You don't need to be an expert to join this effort - Simply go to the project homepage and check it out. If you'd like to pitch in, leave a note on the project's discussion page or email the Congresspedia managing editor at CKenny [at] Congresspedia.org.

If this is your first time editing on SourceWatch, you can register here, and learn more about adding information to the site here and here. And if you'd like to work on something else, earlier citizen journalism projects are here and here.

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TheWeekInCongress (July 23-27, 2007)

It was an eventful week on Capitol Hill, as high-profile issues were debated and considered in both the House and Senate. Numerous spending measures were taken up, as well as campaign finance legislation. For an in-depth look at the major bills considered in Congress since Monday, we again turn to Robert McElroy’s TheWeekInCongress. His site is a great resource for citizens wishing to keep track of what their members are up to in Washington, and we urge you to check it out.

Prisoner 345

"For the past five years," Sami al-Haj, a cameraman for Al Jazeera, "has been the only journalist known to be held in Guantánamo Bay," reports Rachel Morris. Al-Haj was originally detained in December 2001 while trying to cross the border into Afghanistan with a team of other journalists. After examining his case, Morris can find little evidence to justify his detention.

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Bush's Concern for the Poor Shines Through on Cigarette Tax

Poverty Brand CigsThe Senate Committee on Finance by a vote of 17-4 last Friday approved a hike in the federal cigarette tax to expand health insurance coverage for children from low-income families, but President Bush has vowed to veto the measure.

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Blocking the Sunshine

A recent study by the National Security Archive of George Washington University finds that U.S. government agencies are stalling on public requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act. Five U.S. agencies — the State Department, the C.I.A., the criminal division of the Justice Department, the Air Force and the F.B.I.

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