Government Resources on the Web
WHAT'S NEW
Last updated on April 25,
2008
- April 25, 2008
- Vital
Stats
- Create your own tables, charts and graphs and births (since 1990)
and perinatal mortality (since 2003) for states and counties in the
nation
- Detailed cross tabs on conditions of the pregnancy or demographic
characteristics of the mother
- As of April 2008, a similar database for death statistics is under
development
- Primary location: Health
Statistics
- April 23, 2008
- April 21, 2008
- Food
Availability (Per Capita) Data System (USDA Economic Research
Service)
- Data base of spreadsheets
- Nutrients available per capita per day since 1909 (calories, carbs,
fats, proteins, vitamins) for the U.S. public
- Specific foods available per capita per year since 1909 (e.g. 254
eggs available per person per year in 2005)
- Daily per capita servings available of food adjusted for spoilage
(in 2005 there were 1.48 ounces of chicken available per capita per day
but only but only .026 servings of broccoli
- Primary location: Agriculture
Statistics
- Global
Insight (UMich Only)
- Business database with news and time series data on general
economics as well as the automotive, energy medical and pharmaceutical,
and telecommunications sectors
- For ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL DATA, choose
DataInsight-Web on the lefthand side of the screen
- Under historical data, choose Global Economy, Financial Markets, US
Economy or US Regional Economy
- Select in a separate box the indicator , the geography, and source;
then choose frequency (e.g. monthly quarterly); then press GO
- Highlight the table of interest and note any INFORMATION in the
lower lefthand box (sometimes the spreadsheet doesn't identify a country
or other information
- Export the selected data
- Subjects include IMF, Direction of Trade, Balance of Payments and
OECD main economic indicators
- US economic indicators include Daily Treasury Statements, housing,
prices, retail trade, industrial output, labor markets, national
accounts as well as state breakdowns for many of the indicators
- Some time series date back 40 years
- Sample search
- For Automotive, Energy, Healthcare and Telecoms, use the link
provided under MYINSIGHT SERVICES on the lefthand side of the main
screen to select options which will eventually appear on the lower part
of the lefthand side
- AUTOMOTIVE - production and sales by country and by
automotive company
- ENERGY - primarily country reports on oil, gas, electricity,
government policies, and political risks
- HEALTH CARE - country data on causes of death, health care
expenditures per capita, the pharmaceutical market; US FDA approved drug
list
- TELECOMMUNICATIONS - country data on land line and mobile
phone as well as internet users; market penetration by company
- Primary locations: Economic
Statistics and Foreign Statistics
- TracFed
(some files UMich Only)
- Search number of prosecutions and convictions by federal court,
judge, or agency
- Track actions of U.S. attorneys by offense and district as well as
IRS audits
- Salaries of federal judges, attorneys and U.S. officials earning
over $100,000
- Primary locations: Federal
Civil Service and Federal Judiciary
- April 18, 2008
- Canada
Yearbook, 1867-1967
- Yearbook is an annual summary of Canadian economics and culture
supplemented by statistical tables, similar in scope to statistical
abstract
- Browse 100 years of the yearbook by year or subject to find Members
of Parliament, insurance statistics, Canadian participation, size of the
militia, photos of the army in World War I
- Extracts from the current edition are also on the
Statistics
Canada web site
- The Graduate Library has the series in paper as HA 741 .A3 with the
current edition in the Documents Center
- Primary location: Foreign
Governments/North America
- April 15, 2008
- Upjohn
Institute Employment Research Data Center
- Conducts research for Dept. of Labor on labor force issues
- Summarizes results of various surveys: continuous longitudinal
manpower survey, persons who exhaust unemployment insurance benefits,
lifelong learning, job corps
- Data sets available from Upjohn upon request
- Primary location: Labor Statistics
- February 13, 2008
- U.S.
Population Projections: 2005-2050 (Pew Research
Center)
- Reports show that by 2050, non-Hispanic whites will be a minority
(47%) and blacks will remain the same while Hispanics and Asians will
grow as a percentage
- The elderly will nearly double in size, and 19% of the nation will
be immigrants
- Full text of report released in pdf format on February 11,
2008
- Primary location: Demographic
Statistics
- February 8, 2008
- Earth
Platform
- Environmental search engine to news reports and web sites
- Subjects include nature, animals, energy, pollution
- Section devoted to Global
Warming
- Organizations represented include government agencies, non-profits,
and business
- Primary location: Environmental
Statistics
- February 2, 2008
- Rockridge
Institute
- Progressive think tank "committed to the democratization of
knowledge about politics"
- Studies values behind conservative and progressive discourse
- Includes positions on economics, health, environment, family
values, and religion
- Text of George Lakoff's Thinking Points
- Primary location: Political
Science Think Tanks
- February 1, 2008
- Commission on the National
Guard and Reserves
- Commission authorized by Congress to assess homeland readiness for
outside attacks and disaster recovery
- Final Report, dated January 31, 2008, concludes that the National
Guard and Reserves need to be
integrated into the military and serve as an operational rather than
strategic organization
- Also addresses fundamental reforms to reserve roles, personnel
management systems, equipping and training policies,
policies affecting families and employers
- America's War on
Terrorism
- January 21, 2008
- Exit
Polls (MSNBC) [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21660890/]
- Exit polls conducted by Edison as part of pooled news election
coverage
- Questions of voters break presidential choices by state and then
factors such as sex, race, age, education, and income of the
voter
- Primary location: Elections
2008
- December 18, 2007
- Congressional
Hearings (Rutgers-Camden School of Law)
- Full text of over 7000 Congressional hearings published 1970-98
- Searchable by full text
- Hearings may be downloaded page-by-page or in segments
- Primary location: Federal
Legislative Branch
- December 4, 2007
- Iran:
Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities (National Intelligence
Estimate)
- Report suggests that Iran halted its nuclear weapon program in 2003
as the result of international pressure
- Believes Iran could still continue its weapons program in the future
but it would not be ready before 2015
- Released December 3, 2007
- Primary locations: Elections 2008 and
Documents in the News
2007
- Elections 2008
- University of Michigan mega-index to all things electoral
from presidential/voter matching services to advertising, public opinion
polls, and data sets on historic U.S. elections
- Weekly tracks
Congressional candidates not running for re-election.
- Links to election
data provided by the 50 states and key documents relating to policy
issues
- For public and academic use.
- September 17, 2007
- Food
Security Statistics (fao)
- Spreadsheets provide malnourishment data,
nutrient consumption, access to food, and health statistics for
individual countries
- PDF summaries for individual countries provide the same data on
nutritional
status
- Primary location: Agriculture
Statistics
- Gender
Statistics (UN Economic Commission for Europe)
- Section on Public Life and Decision Making provides statistics on
males and females as members of parliament, cabinet ministers, municipal
councils, heads of universities, and journalists
- Data for individual European countries
- Covers various periods, 1980+
- Primary location: Foreign
Politics
- September 10, 2007
- September 5, 2007
- August 22, 2007
- August 17, 2007
- July 19, 2007
- Terrorist
Threat to the U.S. Homeland (ODCI)
- Extract of July 2007 report suggests Al-Qaida is regrouping for
another major attack on the United States
- Chemical, biological or nuclear weapons could be used
- Hezbollah could become involved if Iran perceives the U.S. is a
threat
- Part of the National Intelligence Estimate series
- Primary location: America's War
Against Terrorism
- July 10, 2007
- Trial of
Saddam Hussein (Law Library of Congress)
- Very clear description of historical context, court procedures,
indictment, and appellate decision
- Includes related treaties, additional readings and web sites
- Primary location: Iraq
War
- June 27, 2007
- June 26, 2007
- Central Intelligence
Agency
- Searchable archive of declassified CIA documents since 1940
- Family
Jewels
- A subsection of the CIA web site but also available separately
through the National Security Archive
- A 700-page document with possible illegal activities of the CIA
(assassination attempts, wiretapping journalists, etc) collected by
director James Schlesinger in 1973, and released on June 26, 2007
- Primary location: Federal
Bibliography
- May 24, 2007
- Rising
Prices at the Pump (New York Times)
- Graph showing cost of gasoline at the pump from 1918 to May 2007 in
2007 dollars
- Links data to the Arab oil embargo, 9/11 and Iraq War
- Published by the New York Times on May 24, 2007
- Primary location: Transportation Statistics
- May 14, 2007
- Social
Explorer
- Data base of Census tracts for every ten years since 1940 with
population variables expressed as a percentage
- Choose year and then variable
- Zooming into an area reveals more detail, include tract number and
street name
- Sponsored by the National Science Foundation and New York Times
- Primary location: Demographic
Statistics
- April 19, 2007
- April 6, 2007
- Center for
Educational Performance and Information
- Data
includes district and school building data on student headcounts, free
lunch eligibility, and dropout rates
- School staffing surveys, school
safety and expulsion data
- Financial summaries include Bulletin 1011
(Analysis of Public School Revenues and Expenditures) and Bulletin 1014
(Michigan Public Schools Ranked by Select Financial Information)
- Most files in dbf format
- Primary locations: Michigan Executive Branch and
Michigan
Statistics
- March 27, 2007
- March 26, 2007
- U.S.
Attorneys Who Have Served Less Than Full Four-Year Terms
(Congressional Research Service)
- Reviews the law regarding appointments of U.S. attorneys
- Some 54 left office other than during changes in administration; 45
for a better job or return to the private sector
- Three were dismissed; three resigned after news reports; the cause
for three is unknown
- Provides the names of the attorneys
- Primary location: Documents in the
News
- March 23, 2007
- Internet
Crossroads in Social Science Data (University of
Wisconsin)
- Over 825 extensively annotated links to databases, data sets, data
archives and statistical reports on the web
- Arranged by subject and searchable by keyword
- Covers population, elections, labor, philantrophy, migration, public
opinion, health, agriculture
- Especially good at identifying foreign data sets and less-known
institutional products
- Primary location: Comprehensive Statistics
- March 6, 2007
- March 9, 2007
- March 6, 2007
- Congress Votes
Database (Washington Post)
- Complete list of floor roll call votes in the House and Senate since
the 102nd Congress, 1991
- Sections for each Congress list House and Senate votes and votes by
bill number
- Links from the main listing for each Congress provide analyses of
individual roll call outcomes by party,
state, region, gender, boomer status and astrological sign
- Overall for each Congress there are analyses of those votes with the
widest and narrowest margins, late night votes, and members who missed
the most votes
- There is also a full list of members for each Congress with brief
biographies, a list of their individual roll call votes and how they
compared with GOP and Democratic opinion
- Spanning all Congresses is an analysis of roll call votes for
building designations, impeachments, nominations, speaker elections,
treaties, and vice-presidential tiebreakers
- Primary locations: Federal
Legislative Branch and Legislative Histories
- User's Guide to
the RAND Interviews in Vietnam
- Describes and interprets project to conduct 2400 interviews with
Viet Cong and those familiar with North Vietnam, 1964-68
- Lists individual RAND reports with published interviews
- Primary location: Federal
History
- March 1, 2007
- CityTownInfo
- Detailed entries for 20,000 U.S. cities provide everything from area
codes, time zones, latitude and longitude to ancestry of the population
- Compares population, income, housing and crime to the state
- Includes political contributions, lists of high schools, travel
highlights, mortgage rates
- Separate section for many of the cities with their most popular
professions and corresponding annual salary ranges
- Numerous locations including: Political Science Reference Tools,
Comprehensive
Statistics, and Michigan Local Governments
- February 7, 2007
- Michigan Financial Emergency
- Michigan
21st Century Jobs Fund
- Encourages loans to startup businesses
- Provides research funding in the areas of homeland security,
alternative energy, the life sciences, and advanced automotive
engineering to create 21st Century jobs
- Lists of awardees
- Primary location: Michigan Small
Business
- February 6, 2007
- February 5, 2007
- Diplomacy Monitor
(St. Thomas University School of Law
- Federal
Budget FY 2008
- Full text of budget and appendices in pdf format downloadable by
chapter/agency
- Also Historical Tables and Analytical Tables
- Includes numerous spreadsheets in XLS format, among them
Historical Tables and a state-by-state analysis
- Primary location: Federal
Budget
- February 2, 2007
- Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change
- Established by the World Meteorological Organization and UNEP, this
working group assesses the physical science behind climate change,
likely impacts, and recommended policy initiatives
- Climate Change
2007: Summary of Policy Makers
- Released on February 2, 2007, report says continued global warming
inevitable
- Major cause are greenhouse gases
- Expects world temperatures to rise 2-11 degrees Fahrenheit in next
100 years
- Full report to be released in May or June of 2007
- Primary location: Environmental
Statistics
- National
Intelligence Estimate: February 2007
- Public portion of a classified document released on February 2, 2007
- Sees the Sunni-Shia crisis only worsening in the next 18 months;
includes Shia-Shia violence, al-Quaida, and crime
- Future outcomes include a partition of Iraq, a Shia strong man, or
anarachy
- Rapid withdrawal of U.S. troops to worsen situation since Iraqis
will be unable to handle it for next 18 months
- Another copy
- Primary location: Iraq War Debate
Grace York, Coordinator, Documents Center
University of Michigan Library
Graphics by Sherry Piontek, Barbara Perles, and Grace York
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