From Health Highlights:

Last week, California research librarian Gloria Won prompted Johns Hopkins officials to change a U.S.-government-funded web site dealing with population issues so that the word "abortion" was restored as search term in the site's search engine. In response to an inquiry from Ms. Won, Debra L. Dickson, an administrator of the POPLINE database, admitted that abortion had recently been made a stop word. "As a federally funded project, we decided this was best for now," said Dickson. Dr. Michael J. Klag, Dean of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Friday (April 4) told POPLINE administrators to restore "abortion" as a search term "immediately."

Ever wonder how much money the U.S. government is spending on its contracts, or which contractor receives the most money from the government? A newly unveiled website, USASpending.gov, tracks federal contracting dollars and grant awards by contractor, contracting agency and place of performance in response to the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006.



By the way, PepsiCo received over $191 million in 2007 while The Coca Cola Company received $27 million in the same year.

The Washington Affairs Office (WAO) of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) just launched their Washington Blawg as a way to keep law librarians and the general public better informed about government activities relating to government information, copyright, digital authentication and open government issues.  The Washington Affairs Office is located here at Georgetown Law Library, where they've had a presence for nearly two decades.

Initial posts to the Washington Blawg include information about AALL activities during Sunshine Week as well as an update on legislative action involving amendments to the Presidential Records Act. This looks like a great new development, and a perfect way to keep informed about legislative, judicial and regulatory activities that matter to lawyers, law schools and law librarians alike.

The Government Printing Office has authenticated the online Federal Budget using a digital signature. This new security technology assures the public that documents have not been altered and is akin to a handwritten signature or wax seal on traditional printed documents.

If you're looking for the Budget of the United States for Fiscal Year 2009, here it is.

The Law Library now offers automatic access to the Homeland Security Digital Library.

The HSDL provides quick access to U.S. policy documents, presidential directives, and national strategy documents as well as specialized resources that include theses and reports from various universities, organizations, and local and state agencies. When you are on campus, you do not need to register for use, but when you are off campus, you must set up an individual account.

Many groups have created interactive maps to help us keep up with all aspects of the current presidential elections.  My favorites so far are:

CNN's interactive map showing how much each candidate has raised in each state. The FEC's map tracks where the campaign donations are coming from.

NPR is keeping track of the primary results.

Election Law @ Moritz's maps compare presidential election recount and contest laws across the states.

Sangria, because it is a mixture of spirits and wine, cannot legally be served at a restaurant or bar in Virginia. Read the current law here. 

The Virginia General Assembly is considering changing the law. House Bill 1269 would provide an exception for Sangria.

Sources:  Washington Post  & WSJ's Law Blog

Peggy Garvin reviews the new version of Regulations.gov in the latest issue of LLRX.com. Changes include a new Google-like search engine and an RSS feed of additions to the Regulations.gov database.

Two popular statistical reference sources have released their 2008 editions online. Check out The 2008 Statistical Abstract of the United States, published by the Census Department and the Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics Online, published by the Bureau of Justice Statistics.