Fastest Growing Small Companies

From Fortune Small Business:

Lists & Rankings: FSB 100: America’s fastest-growing small companies, 2007

America’s 100 fastest-growing small public companies. See the full results, plus top 25 companies by revenue growth, stock performance, and more

Lists for 2005 and 2006 are also available.

Slide Show about Top 25

Alternative Medicine

From the University of Maryland Medical Center:

Complementary and Alternative Medicine Index (CAM)

Collection of material about different types of CAM, such as acupuncture, biofeedback, herbal medicine, hypnotherapy, massage, and yoga.
Includes discussions of conditions (by organ and symptoms), and drug, herb, and supplement interactions and uses.

URL: http://www.umm.edu/altmed/

The Big Read - NEA

From the National Endowment for the Arts:

The Big Read Becomes The Largest Federal Literature Program Since The W.P.A.

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) today more than doubled the number of communities taking part in its nationwide reading program, the Big Read. One hundred seventeen cities were awarded grants to produce celebrations of American literature from September through December 2007.

The Big Read, launched nationally in October 2006 by the NEA, in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and Arts Midwest, encourages literary reading by asking communities to come together to read and discuss one book.
Big Read website

Participating Big Read Cities - 2007 Cycle 2

Philanthropy

From Giving USA:

U.S. charitable giving reaches $295.02 billion in 2006
(PDF; 101 KB)

U.S. charitable giving reached a new record in 2006, an estimated $295.02 billion, according to Giving USA 2007, the yearbook of philanthropy published by Giving USA FoundationTM and researched and written by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.

Donors gave an estimated $11.97 billion more than in 2005, a 4.2 percent increase (1.0 percent adjusted for inflation) over a revised estimate for 2005 of $283.05 billion. The 2005 estimate includes nearly $7.4 billion in extraordinary disaster relief giving. If disaster gifts are excluded from the 2005 total, giving in 2006 rose 6.6 percent (3.2 percent after adjusting for inflation).
Full publication available for purchase

Congressional Pictorial Directory

From GPO Access:

Congressional Pictorial Directory: 110th Congress (PDFs)

The 110th Congressional Pictorial Directory provides a color photograph of each member of the House of Representatives and the Senate for the 110th Congress. It also includes information about a Member of Congress’ length of service, political party affiliations, and Congressional district.
Also contains pictures of the President, Vice President, and House and Senate officers and officials.

Agricultural Requirements from the EPA

New from the EPA:

From the news release:

EPA has created a regulatory matrix titled, “Major Existing EPA Laws and Programs That Could Affect Agricultural Producers” that provides a succinct, general description of EPA’s requirements for both regulatory and voluntary programs.
This compliance assistance tool should be used by agricultural producers, federal and state regulators, and third party information providers who provide information and services to agricultural producers.

Direct to Matrix Web Site

Sustainable Development

The SustainLane Government Knowledge Base was open only to government officials until just recently, which it became accessible to the general public. According to Warren Karlenzig, SustainLane director:
Now you can read full documents submitted by urban planners and sustainability managers from across the country. Find out what cities, counties, and states are doing to improve their carbon footprints, quality of life and resource efficiency. Find the latest programs in urban ecology.
We anticipate that several different audiences will find this database valuable, including journalists and citizen activist groups. It’s easy to use. Halfway down the front page is a listing of topics, each of which links to relevant materials in the database:
Climate Change Policy
Economic Development
Energy/ Energy Efficiency
Food/ Agriculture
Forestry/ Street Greening
Green Building/ Development
Land Use/ Planning
Parks/ Open Space/ Habitat
Purchasing/ Investing
Sustainability Management
Transportation/ Fleets
Waste Management
Water/ Wastewater
Just below this listing are links to the most recent materials added to the database, including things like the Philadelphia Local Action Plan for Climate Change, a document about Heat Island Effect Mitigation (from the City of Houston), a Plastic Bag Reduction Ordinance from San Francisco, and more. New materials via user submission are added on a continuing basis. A search form allows keyword and fielded searching — e.g., by author, city, county, state, category, city size, document type.

Federal Government Information

From the Sunlight Foundation:

Databases: Library Of Unified Information Sources (LOUIS) (Beta)

The Library Of Unified Information Sources is a project of the Sunlight Foundation, and an effort, to paraphrase Justice Louis Brandeis, to illuminate the workings of the federal government. The ultimate goal is to create a comprehensive, completely indexed and cross-referenced depository of federal documents from the executive and legislative branches of government. These documents are organized in a user-friendly interface, with a powerful search engine.

You can search broadly for keywords or limit searches to a single document set or range of dates. LOUIS, which daily updates its document depository, even allows you to set up a “standing query” as an RSS feed. LOUIS can alert you every time there is a new document that references your query. For example, if you want to follow “lobbying reform,” and Senators debate the lobbying reform measures of an ethics bill, the LOUIS notifier feed will send an update with a link to the relevant transcript from the Congressional Record.

Sources Currently in LOUIS Database:

Seven sets of federal documents:
Congressional Reports
Congressional Record
Congressional Hearings
Federal Register
Presidential Documents
GAO Reports
Congressional Bills & Resolutions

Information Technology Jobs

From Computerworld:

Lists & Rankings: 100 Best Places to Work in IT 2007
Direct to Complete List

Top 5:
1) Quicken Loans Inc.
2) University of Miami
3) Sharp HealthCare
4) The Capital Group Cos.
5) The Mitre Corp.

Methodology

Lists in various categories:
Total employees
Total IT employees
IT employee turnover in 2006
IT employee promotions in 2006
Training days offered per IT employee in 2006
Training budget per IT employee in 2006
Percentage of IT managers who are women
Percentage of IT managers who are minorities
View by Company Size and by Region

Public Transportation

From the Census Department:

Public transportation users concentrated in a handdful of large cities -

http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2004/NewsMediaKit.html>
2005 Data User’s Guide

http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2007/Pub_Trans_Tables.xls>
Graphic

Despite rising fuel costs, commuters continued to drive their cars in 2005, according to a new U.S. Census Bureau analysis of data from the American Community Survey. The survey, gathered over the course of the year, found that driving to work was the favored means of commute of nearly nine out of 10 workers (87.7 percent), with most people (77 percent) driving alone.

In contrast, 4.7 percent of commuters used public transportation to travel to work in 2005, an increase of about 0.1 percent over 2000 levels.
About half of the nation’s public transportation commuters can be found in 10 of the nation’s 50 cities with the most workers age 16 or over:

Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C. These cities account for 2.9 million of the nation’s 6.2 million users of public transportation (see detailed tables).

Beyond the total number of public transportation users, these cities also had relatively high rates of public transportation use. However, Los Angeles and Houston, with rates of 10.3 percent and 5.1 percent, respectively, had lower rates than many other smaller cities, including Minneapolis (12.5 percent); Oakland, Calif. (16.5 percent); Portland, Ore.
(13.3 percent) and Seattle (17 percent).

"This is a prime example of the value of an ongoing survey such as the American Community Survey," said Census Bureau Director Louis Kincannon.
"With each succeeding year, we’ll be able to see how people respond to changing circumstances, such as rising gas prices."

Hot Growth Companies

From Business Week:

Lists & Rankings: Hot Growth Companies 2007

The companies on this list are among the most innovative and nimble players around. Our interactive table lets you dive into the numbers to explore the financial performance of the Hot Growth 100.

Want to compare the growth of the No. 1 ranked Hot Growth company to that of No. 100? Or sort the list to find out which company has the absolute highest three-year return on invested capital?
You can sort the list using numerous criteria including:
Location
Name
2006 Rank
12-Month Profits
3-Year Profits

Additional materials located here.

Stem Cell Research - State Laws

From NCSL:

Comparison of state laws relating to embryonic stem cell and fetal research, with charts showing whether each state specifically permits research on a fetus or embryo, restricts research on the aborted fetus or fetus/embryo resulting from sources other than abortion, has consent provisions, and restricts the purchase or sale of human tissue for research.

Includes an overview of the issue and links to laws and to related resources.

URL: http://www.ncsl.org/programs/health/genetics/embfet.htm

Educational Statistics

The National Information Center for Higher Education Policymaking and Analysis

Provides comparative data for states regarding postsecondary education.

Includes maps, graphs, and data about preparation, participation, affordability, student learning, completion, benefits, employment, and finance.

Also includes special analyses, race/ethnicity data for selected states, answers to policy questions, and interactive data and map generation features.

From the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems.

URL: http://www.higheredinfo.org

StateList

The Electronic Source for State Publication Lists

"This site provides links to state publication checklists and shipping lists that are currently available on the Internet from 37 states." Can be browsed by state. A joint project of the Documents and Law Libraries at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

URL: http://www.library.uiuc.edu/doc/statelist/check/check.htm

Climate Change

Nature Reports Climate Change

Nature Publishing Group (NPG) announces the launch of a new website-Nature Reports Climate Change

The Nature Reports sites highlight topical science issues by providing thorough investigative reporting based on peer-reviewed, primary research. The sites will report “the science behind the news, the news behind the science” and explore the social, political and economic implications of the highlighted topic.

Content is accessible for users of all levels of expertise, from scientists, journalists and students, to members of the general public interested in getting the facts behind the headlines, with a vast majority of it freely accessible.

Crime in the United States

From the FBI:

Documents in the News: Preliminary Uniform Crime Report 2006: Crime in the United States

The stats, which we collected from more than 11,700 law enforcement agencies nationwide, show a rise in violent crime for the second straight year. The increase, however, is less than the 2.3 percent figure reported for 2005 and the 3.7 percent increase reflected in the preliminary six-month report for 2006 released in December.

A snapshot of the other key numbers for the full year:

Violent Crime

Murder: Is up 0.3 percent overall. The number of offenses increased the most—6.7 percent—in cities with a million or more residents and decreased the most—11.9 percent—in non-metropolitan counties.
Forcible rape: Decreased nearly 2 percent overall. Only two population categories experienced increases, both with populations less than 100,000.
Robbery: Rose 6 percent, the highest increase in any violent or property crime category. Each population group except non-metropolitan counties saw an increase.
Aggravated assault: Experienced a slight overall drop of 0.7 percent. The largest cities experienced the greatest declines.
Regional breakdown: Three of four geographic regions (except the Northeast) showed violent crime increases. The largest increase was in the West, with 2.8 percent.

Property Crime
Burglary: Increased slightly, 0.2 percent. The greatest increase—3.3 percent—came in cities with 500,000 to 999,999 residents.
Larceny-theft (down 3.5 percent overall) and motor
Arson: Is up 1.8 percent in all but one population group. Arsons are tracked separately from other property crime offenses.

The stats also include:
A breakdown by major cities;
The overall percent change compared to the prior year since 2003;
National totals for each category by geographic region.

Direct to Full Text Report

News Release

Global Warming

The Discovery of Global Warming

Expansion of a 2003 book that "tells the history of climate change research as a single connected narrative."
Topics include influences on climate (such as the greenhouse effect and aerosols), models of climate change, climate modification schemes (such as rainmaking), and social relationships and climate changes.
Also includes a timeline through the 1970s and bibliography.

URL: http://www.aip.org/history/climate/

Nanotechnlogy

From the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Pew Charitable Trusts

Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies

Publications and other materials from this project "dedicated to helping business, government and the public anticipate and manage possible health and environmental implications of nanotechnology," the "ability to measure, see, manipulate and manufacture things usually between 1 and 100 nanometers."

Includes an inventory of consumer products that use nanotechnology, event webcasts, and topical collections.

URL: http://www.nanotechproject.org/

Presidential Elections

From the Center for Responsive Politics


New Database: Presidential Election (2008 Cycle) Expenditures

The latest database added to the collection of resources at OpenSecrets.

Includes a pie chart and a direct link to access expenditure data for specific candidates.

Hunger Awareness Day

From America's Second Harvest:

June 5, 2007 "serves as a platform for domestic hunger-relief organizations to raise awareness about hunger in America and the work ... [they] do."

The site features a listing of local events throughout the country, and suggestions for individual, group, and corporate actions for helping to end hunger in America. Also includes links to publications on hunger and poverty in the U.S.

URL: http://www.hungerday.org