No. 257 June 2004
FOREIGN GIFTS TO FEDERAL EMPLOYEES Gifts from foreign government representatives are not an issue unless the receiver is a federal employee. From the latest State Department issued gift list for calendar year 2000, in January 2003 an Italian governmental visitor presented President Bush with a gift when visiting the Whitehouse. When foreign diplomats and officials present tangible gifts, gifts of travel or travel expenses of more than minimal value to Federal employees these gifts be reported to their employing agency. The Department of State then compiles a list of all the gifts, and the list must be published each year in the Federal Register as a Notice. Each entry cites the name or title of the Federal employee who received the gift, its estimated value, and its current disposition or location. The identity of the foreign donor is the third item of information, and last are the circumstances justifying acceptance. Currently, the latest list, 52 pages long, is “Department of State, Office of Protocol; Gifts to Federal Employees From Foreign Government Sources Reported to Employing Agencies in Calendar Year 2003, Notices” Federal Register V. 69, No. 147, August 2, 2004 pages 46325-46376 (AE 2.106:69/147). In the 1987 movie No Way Out with Kevin Costner, he searches the Foreign Gift to Federal Employees database to identify a the federal employee who received a woman’s bracelet which was a foreign gift.
DRUG(S) PRODUCTS FROM INTERNET PHARMACIES The Internet, currently a purchasing tool for consumers, has enabled people to go shopping, make purchases, and pay for products electronically with their computer. When you go to the retail outlet to buy some shoes, or a pharmacy to buy drugs you try on the shoes and may see the druggist fill your prescription. This purchase has a high level of security and low level of risk about your purchase. Every electronic, expedient, and money saving purchase made over the internet has a lower level of security and higher risk of your not getting what you are buying. Many people save time and money, but some don’t. The General Accounting Office (GAO), which is the official U. S. investigative agency tried to purchase sample of 13 drugs from Internet pharmacy web sites in the United States, Canada, and other foreign countries. Putting it simply, the results were not good and 14 of the 68 pharmacy web sites from which the GAO obtained samples were found to be currently under investigation by the drug regulatory agencies for the selling of counterfeit drugs and providing prescription drugs illegally. Internet Pharmacies, Some Pose Safety Risk for Consumers, GAO Report GAO-04-820 at http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-820 is a 29 page June 2004 report of the GAO investigative research findings. A companion Internet Pharmacies, Some Pose Safety Risks for Consumers and Are Unreliable in Their Business Practices, June, 2004, GAO Report GAO-04-888T at http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-888T is the Congressional Testimony of Marcia Crosse, before the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs. Ms. Crosse summarized the content of this GAO report interpreting it for the Senators investigating the problems of drugs purchases from Internet pharmacy web sites.
WEEDS AND SPAM A weed, as
defined in the Second Edition of the American Heritage Dictionary is “a
plant considered undesirable, unattractive, or troublesome, especially one
growing where it is not wanted, as in a garden.” Anyone who has a garden or
lawn knows about weeds; and anyone who has a computer and an electronic (e) mail
account knows about spam. As there is information about weeds (see next
article), there is information about spam, but where do you find it?
Information about spam can be found in the new anti-spam law. “Section 2.
Congressional Findings and Policy” is a very concise two page summary of this
international problem. Thus, from the FTC press release, we find “in December
2003, Congress passed the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography
and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM Act, Public Law 108-187 (117 STAT 2699), which
called for the Commission to develop a plan and timetable for establishing a
National Do Not E-mail Registry; explain any practical, technical, security,
privacy, enforcement, or other concerns; and explain how a Registry would be
applied with respect to children with e-mail accounts.” The June 5, 2004 FTC
Press Release, New System to Verify Origins of E-Mail Must Emerge Before “Do
Not Spam” List Can Be Implemented, FTC Tells Congress, (http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2004/06/canspam2.htm
) also provides a link to the current FTC Report, National Do Not Mail
Registry, A Report to Congress, June 2004 which is a pdf file (http://www.ftc.gov/reports/dneregistry/report.pdf
). For some statistics on specific kinds of Spam and some “economics of Spam,”
read Aron Steelman, “No, Thank You, How economics may slow the onslaught of spam
e-mail” by in RegionFocus, V. 8 No. 2 Spring 2004, which is in the
Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond website at
http://www.rich.frb.org/pubs/regionfocus/spring04/spam.html
WEEDS PICTURES In addition to a definitive definition of weed, some pictures
would be most helpful in furthering a weed education. The U. S. Department of
Agriculture has issued some definitive books on weeds. Selected Weeds of the
United States, 1970 reprinted 1976 Agriculture Handbook No. 366 463 pages,
common, scientific names, pictures, geographic location maps. A 1.36:366.
Economically Important Foreign Weeds, Potential Problems in the United States,
April, 1977 Agriculture Handbook No. 498. (A 1.36:498) is 746 pages of
information which includes the scientific and common names, description,
country(ies) of origin, locations of plants found in United States. Of these
two titles, the former will cover our native or domestic weeds and the latter
title is an established title for the foreign weeds that arrived any time prior
to 1977. However, foreign weeds information in the United States needed to be
updated, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has a website with very current
information. The Natural Resources and Conservation Service has created a
National Plants Database which includes an Invasive Plants website. The
Invasive Plants website (http://plants.usda.gov/cgi_bin/topics.cgi?earl=noxious.cgi)
includes the Federal Noxious Weed List, State Noxious Weed Reports, Invasive
Plants of the U. S., and a State and Federal Composite List of All U.S. Noxious
Weeds. There is also a list, Introduced Plants of the U.S.,
which list the plants that may be harmless when brought into the United States
but can become harmful after they are here.
PLANTS PICTURES What do weeds look like? Would you recognize Tumbleweed? How does it differ from a Hibiscus? a Lilly of the Valley? or a Philodendron? The National Plant Database has an Image Gallery http://plants.usda.gov/gallery.html which provides selected images of U. S. plants. A search of the term “tumbleweed” resulted in several tumbleweeds. For each tumbleweed plant, there is a Plant Profile which includes a TTIF image, which is printable or can be downloaded. I selected the “tumbleweed” Profile with the Symbol SIAL2. It included: this plant’s TTIF image, Scientific and Common Name, Symbol, Group and Family Names, Growth habit, Duration, U.S. Nativity, Plant Synonyms, Color photographs, Plant distribution by state, Invasive information, Wetland Indicator Status, Taxonomic Hierarchy Information, and Integrated Taxonomic Information System Code Number. Typing in just the word “iris” resulted in about seventy items (species?) to review. There are several searching, viewing, and sorting options to choose from when setting up a search querry. This allows the botanist to execute sophisticated searches very quickly and easily, yet a basic search by common name, may find your plant image very quickly. If you like plants, spending some time searching for images of your favorite plants, should be educational, since you will learn a lot about these plants while looking for their images. If you are a “budding botanist” who has found a new plant not yet in the National Plant Database, then inquire about submitting it. Check the guidelines at National Plant Data Center Guidelines for Submission of Images to PLANTS (i.e. National Plants Database) http://plants.usda.gov/cgi_bin/gallery_page.cgi?earl=photo_submit.html .
FIRE STATISTICS The Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2003 (C 3.134:2003) has only three tables (Nos. 356, 257, 258 found on page 222) of Statistics for FIRE. The information from these tables comes from the National Fire Protection Association and the Insurance Information Institute. This Stat Abstract has 1384 tables of data in 895 pages. So where do we go for more fire statistics? How about the U. S. Fire Administration (USFA), as a start? The USFA has a website at http://www.usfa.fema.gov/ which is used to provide information to the public. The goal of USFA is fire prevention through research and training, public education, and data collection. Data is collected through the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFRIS) http://www.usfa.fema.gov/inside-usfa/nfdc/nfirs/nfirs.shtm to collect, analyze, and make available fire statistics and related information. NFRIS data comes from fire departments from 49 states and the District of Columbia and over 11,000 fire departments report data to the NFRIS each year. Participating fire departments report an average of four millions fire incidents and an average of 550, 000 fires each year. Per the information on the website, NFRIS is the database and these are the fire statistics from which the USFA can draw to issue its wide range of publications. These USFA Publications and data should have been included in the Stat Abstract for topics such as firemen fatalities, night club fires, alcohol related to fires, fire departments census information, and kids’ fire education publications. USFA Publications http://www.usfa.fema.gov/applications/publications/ is a place to begin and will identify Sesame Street Fire Safety Station Color and Learn for all Sesame Street aficionados. Under the National Fire Data Center web site page for FIRE DATA, the Topical Fire Research Series http://www.usfa.fema.gov/inside-usfa/nfdc/pubs/tfrs.shtm will lead to all the publications and data on such detailed topics as (fires at) night clubs, fire departments, churches, medical facilities, cooking grills, schools, high rise buildings, rail terminals, and highway vehicles (to name a few).
MINIMUM WAGE, WHITE COLLAR/BLUE COLLAR, AND FAIRPAY LEGALITIES/COMPLEXITIES To quote the latest FAIR PAY Final Rule, “the minimum wage and overtime pay requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) are among the nation’s most important worker protections.” However, the FLSA, which defines and sets the limits for “white collar” executive, administrative, and administrative employees needed to be updated. Related concepts such as minimum wage and overtime requirements need to be updated. The minimum salary level was last updated in 1975, almost 30 years ago, and the minimum weekly wage was raised from $155 to $455 per week. The job duty requirements had not been updated since 1949. These latest changes and updates relating to limits, tests, and qualifications of jobs, occupations, professions, and employees, apply to both white and blue collar employees as to who qualifies or are exempt from overtime pay. “ Wage and Hour Division, 29 CFR Part 541, Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Professional, Outside Sales and Computer Employees, Final Rule” Federal Register V. 69, No. 79, April 23, 2004, pages 22121- 22274 is the text of this latest minimum wage law. “Department of Labor FairPay Overtime Initiative” Program is publicizing this new regulation which goes into effect August 23, 2004 is publicized through its FairPay web site http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/fairpay/main.htm . The FairPay site contains its Regulation (as a PDF file), a related Economic Report, a Calendar, Enforcement (File a Complaint, Statistics) Information, Downloadable Online Training Seminars, and Fact Sheets of Information by 8 types of Exemptions, by 7 Occupations, and E-mail signup for questions and updates.
REPORTS TO BE MADE TO CONGRESS Most users of U. S. Government publications recognize such titles as MMWR, United States Statutes at Large, Statistical Abstract of the United States, and the 2000 Census of Population and Housing easy to identify and locate. Another, possibly lesser known publications are the Reports which must be compiled and sent to Congress. Many Federal laws which have been passed by Congress to create an office, agency, or program, include a section which mandates and authorizes the compilation of a report. A report related to the work or achievements of that agency or program which is to be submitted to Congress annually, quarterly, or as specified in the Public law. Many of these reports are readily accessible to the public, yet many are not. Many reports are well known, and some are not. All current congressionally mandated reports are listed in Reports to be made to Congress, communication from the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives transmitting a list of reports, pursuant to Clause 2, Rule III of the Rules of the House of Representatives. Reports, issued since 1922 will identify the older titles not included in the latest edition, for the 108th Congress, 1st Session, was issued as House Document No. 108-14 in 2003. Y 1.1/7:108-14 will identify this title in Depository Libraries paper or microfiche version, but this edition is also online and accessible with a computer. The Reports has an agency, department, office index of reporting departments and agencies. This index also includes the names of Federally Chartered Private Corporations and Organizations, Commissions, Boards, etc. Each entry in Reports includes The Report Name, Authority (Public Law/U.S. Code Cite), and Frequency Information is given for each report listed. The titles of Congressional reports not included in the 2003 edition will be found in the earlier editions of Reports which dates back to 1822, when it was first issued. This 2001 edition is the first electronic version found as an html file at http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS43120 and as a pdf file at http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS43124.
September 19, 2004
http://www.nku.edu/~yannarella/news0406.html