Robert's US Government Info Blog September 2003 Archive

So, you were wondering how for a flightless Mormon cricket could walk in a day. Well, even if you weren’t, the USDA wants you to know and conducted a ... Read More

Several controversial "sneak and peek" personal surveillance measures legalized by the terror-fighting USA Patriot Act would have their claws trimmed under a proposed bill just introduced by Democratic presidential candidate ... Read More

Since a U.S. District Court in Colorado has ruled that enforcement of the anti-telemarketing National Do Not Call List Registry violates telemarketers’ First Amendment right of free speech, what is ... Read More

In a world where everything is just a little bigger than a single atom, how do see? Hey, you need a “nanoscale flashlight.” So, the scientists Los Alamos National Laboratory ... Read More

"There is so much pork in this bill, I couldn't flip a page without hearing a squeal," said Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) upon reading the FY04 Defense Appropriations Bill. “Pork” ... Read More

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer contends that Muslim chaplains hired by the U.S. military and federal prisons must be approved by two organizations that are affiliated with the American Muslim Council, ... Read More

NASA and NOAA scientists say this year's Antarctic ozone hole is the second largest ever observed. At 10.9 million square miles – larger than the entire North American continent – ... Read More

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is most unhappy with the Mexican government’s establishment of trade barriers meant to block imports of U.S. farm products. How unhappy? Grassley called the act “short-sighted, ... Read More

Snubbing the wishes of Congress and more than 50 million Americans, a second federal judge has issued a ruling that would block the anti-telemarketing National Do-Not-Call List Registry. According to ... Read More

Within weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Social Security Administration began paying benefits to the surviving families members of victims. And that help has continued, with Social Security ... Read More

An Oklahoma federal judge has put the anti-telemarketing Do-Not-Call Registry on hold by ruling that the Federal Trade Commission lacked the authority to create the registry. The ruling by U.S. ... Read More

Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory have developed a tiny battery that can be implanted into the body to power a vast array of medical devices. Called "bionic neurons,” the batteries ... Read More

Touting their effectiveness as a gun control tool, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) reports that Brady Act criminal background checks triggered the rejection of a record 136,000 applications from ... Read More

Rather than chance allowing the spacecraft to contaminate potential life under the frozen surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa, NASA has decided to allow the Galileo spacecraft to burn itself ... Read More

Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) added his support to a proposed constitutional amendment which would define marriage as a legal union between a man and a woman only. The proposed Federal ... Read More

More than 50 million Americans who are sick and tired of being disturbed by telemarketers have now registered their phone numbers with the National Do Not Call List, designed to ... Read More

It may not be extraterrestrial in nature, but there is something at Area 51 that the government is determined you will not find out about. For the fifth year in ... Read More

Whether you’re a student curious about the existence of the rumored Alaska worm salamander or a biologist eager to add to your knowledge of the Alaska’s reptile and amphibian species, ... Read More

Did you know that over 70 percent of all businesses in the United States are home-based businesses with no paid employees? It's a fact, according to a U.S. Census Bureau ... Read More

Along with NASA’s suite of Earth-observing satellites, NASA Science Officer Ed Lu and Commander Yuri Malenchenko aboard the International Space Station, are taking some amazing photographs of Hurricane Isabel as ... Read More

Quick! Who’s the President of Burundi? Who’s the Prosecutor General of Moldova? Somewhere, someday, a civics teacher may want to know, and with the CIA’s database of Chiefs of ... Read More

President Bush’s proposal to add even more investigative powers to the already controversial Patriot Act has churned protests from civil liberties groups. As reported in this Arizona Daily Star article, ... Read More

Recalling the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, President bush outlined the three objectives of the global war on terrorism in his weekly radio address. The President said, “Two years ... Read More

NASA-funded researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Mass., have cooled sodium gas to the lowest temperature ever recorded, one-half-billionth degree above absolute zero. Absolute zero is the ... Read More

An estimated 22 million Americans abused or were dependent on drugs, alcohol or both, in 2002, according to the latest report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration ... Read More

Now, where were those Iraqi weapons of mass destruction? National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice has promise to provide "a full picture of what has happened" to Saddam's weapons of mass ... Read More

It won’t be long now until America’s forestlands begin to show off their glorious fall colors. To help travelers get the best views of nature’s pre-winter show, the National Forest ... Read More

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has established a Water Security Division to help safeguard the nation's drinking water and wastewater systems from terrorist attack. "Shortly after the terrorist attacks of ... Read More

Moderate physical activity can be as effective as an intense workout for women trying to lose weight, according to a recent study by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute ... Read More

The foreign-born population of the United States exceeded 33 million in 2002, slightly more than the entire population of Canada, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's latest American Community Survey ... Read More

According to this Bureau of Transportation Statistics press release, the average American spends 26.5 minutes a day driving to work, a number that has remained the same for many years ... Read More

While the initial collapse of the World Trade Center in the 9-11 terrorist attacks injected masses of large particle contaminants into the air in New York City, a second wave ... Read More

Led to the site by local villagers, U.S. Marines in Iraq have unearthed the mass grave of over 3,000 Shiia Muslims killed following the uprising against Saddam Hussein in 1991. ... Read More

Despite the war's ever-growing toll in lives and money, President Bush promised the American people that the United States would spend as much as necessary to maintain U.S. troops in ... Read More

Well, I’m sure you’ll feel much more secure knowing that Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has determined that a small quantity of plutonium gone missing from their facility ... Read More

Want a raise? Don't beg to your boss. Just vote yourself one. That's what the United States Congress just did. For the fifth year in a row, lawmakers voted not ... Read More

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new birth control pill that will allow women to delay their menstrual cycle for up to three months, instead of three ... Read More

On Dec. 18, 2001, Congress passed a resolution declaring September 11 of each year as "Patriot Day” in honor of the more than 3,000 innocent people who died in the ... Read More

In remembrance of the second anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington D.C., President Bush has issued a proclamation declaring Sept. 5 through Sept ... Read More

While 1 out of every 142 Americans is now actually in prison, 1 out of every 32 of us is either in prison or on parole from prison, according to ... Read More

Over the Labor Day weekend alone, more than 6 million people added their phone numbers to the anti-telemarketing national Do Not Call list. According to the Federal Trade Commission Over ... Read More

Death rates from the “big four” cancers -- lung, breast, prostate, and colorectal – continued to decline during the late 1990s, according to this statement by Health and Human Services. ... Read More

Justices of the San Francisco-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit have overturned the death sentences of more than 100 death row inmates in three Western states. According ... Read More

The U.S. Mint has announced that the 2001-dated 50 State Quarters Greetings from America Portfolios and State Card Sets are now available. The 50 State Quarters Greetings from America Portfolio ... Read More

Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge is expected to announce plans to place an additional 5,000 armed law enforcement agents onboard commercial airliners. According to this Reuters article, Ridge plans ... Read More

Congratulations American car buyers, you've finally done it. For the first time in the nation's history, the average American household now owns more cars than drivers for them, according to ... Read More