[govinfo] GovInfo News 8-23-2007

- Spy court gets new home outside DOJ
- Gov't Argues for Withholding Records about Missing WH E-mail
- DOD ending TALON military database of domestic terror threats in September; 
will keep data
- How records managers view their processes

Patrice McDermott, Director
OpenTheGovernment.org
www.openthegovernment.org
202.332.OPEN (6736)
- Spy court gets new home outside DOJ
By Matt Apuzzo, Associated Press Writer
The nation's spy court is moving from its longtime home at the Justice 
Department to a nearby federal courthouse, a move that some hope will assert 
the court's independence even as Congress shifts some of its authority to the 
Bush administration.    U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth, who presided 
over the court from 1995 to 2002, agreed the arrangement was never ideal 
because of that perception. But space at the Washington federal courthouse was 
scarce until the completion of an annex in 2005. more [AP via SanLuisObispo.com]
***
- Gov't Argues for Withholding Records about Missing WH E-mail
Pete Yost, AP Writer

Opening a new front in the Bush administration's battle to keep its records 
confidential, the Justice Department is contending that the White House Office 
of Administration is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.    The 
department's argument is in response to a lawsuit trying to force the office to 
reveal what it knows about the disappearance of White House e-mails.    The 
Office of Administration provides administrative services, including 
information technology support, to the Executive Office of the President. Most 
of the White House is not subject to the FOIA, but certain components within it 
handle FOIA requests. Last year the Office of Administration processed 65 FOIA 
requests   ...the Justice Department maintained in court papers filed Tuesday 
that the Office of Administration has no substantial authority independent of 
President Bush and therefore is not subject to the FOIA's disclosure 
requirements.     The Justice Department Web site, which lists all FOIA 
contacts inside the government, identifies seven units inside the Executive 
Office of the President as responding to FOIA requests, including the Office of 
Administration. more [AP via newsvine.com]
***
- DOD ending TALON military database of domestic terror threats in September; 
will keep data
Leslie Schulman
August 21, 2007

The US Defense Department's controversial Threat and Local Observation Notice 
system, or TALON database, will be discontinued on September 17 but the data it 
has collected will be retained in accordance with intelligence oversight 
requirements, Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Gary Keck said Tuesday. Keck said 
that TALON is being suspended because it no longer has "analytical value." Keck 
announced that a new reporting system has not yet been implemented and, in the 
interim, the Department of Defense will use the Federal Bureau of 
Investigation's Guardian reporting system.   The program, known as TALON, was 
created after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and was designed to maintain 
a base of information on reported potential threats to military facilities and 
personnel.    In December 2005 it was disclosed that the system included data 
on anti-military protests and other peaceful demonstrations. more [Jurist and 
AP]

***

- How records managers view their processes
August 13, 2007


More than half of the 70 senior records management professionals surveyed at 
the most recent conference of the Association of Records Managers and 
Administrators said their e-discovery processes were ineffective or needed 
improvement. E-discovery is the procedure for locating old electronic files, 
such as e-mail messages, that may be relevant in court cases and 
investigations. The report also found that 55 percent of the organizations in 
the survey spend 5 percent or less of their budgets on records management [GCN]


Link: Robbins-Goia Records Management Survey

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