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Yesterday the DOJ posted a press release announcing the creation of the new National Security Division. Also posted were the prepared remarks of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales for the launch of the new division. The A.G. stated that the NSD "will bring the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review and the Criminal Division's Counterterrorism and Counterespionage Sections under one authority, allowing the Department to fight threats to our national security more effectively."

Last week, the Congressional Research Service released its report, "Presidential Signing Statements: Constitutional and Institutional Implications." The thirty (30) page pdf is dated September 20, 2006.

For assistance in searching for these signing statements, you are invited to my modest page, Sources of Presidential Signing Statements.

Over the weekend, major news sources published articles quoting confidential sources describing portions of a National Intelligence Council's April classified report, known as a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE).

Yesterday, September 26, 2006, President Bush declassified 4 pages of the April 2006 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE). The NIE is alleged to total 511 pages.

The Bush Administration announced the declassification with a news release from the web site whitehouse.gov.

You just tried out Westlaw's new Graphical Statutes feature after reading a description in one of their flyers. Your topic was the much in the news original Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978; more specifically 50 USC 1802. After you check out all the bells and whistles, you quickly realize that most of the congressional reports related to the Public Law are not linked. You realize that your Law Librarian was right when s/he repeated those words to live by, "Everything is NOT on the internet!"

So, what to do? Where to go? Surely the Law Library can hook me up with these desperately desired reports. Yes, we can - and we really wish you wouldn't call us Shirley.

The reports are found on microfiche and the Congressional Information Source (CIS) Index is the first step on the treasure map (once you find the Index shelves on the Base Level of the Law Library just to the east of the microform drawers). Since we know the Act was passed in 1978, open the CIS Four Year Cumulative Index 1975-1978, Subject Index R-Z, Supplemental Indexes volume and look in the back for the heading Index of Report #'s. The first report listed from the page you printed reads, "SENATE REPORTS (JUDICIARY COMMITTEE) NO. 95-604 (I AND II) NOV. 15, 1977." That means you are searching for the 604th report of the 95th Congress. Find the listings for the Senate Reports from the 95th Congress and let your finger do the sliding. You find yourself stopping on page 3334 and the fiche number for Part I is 77 S523-44 and for Part II is 77 S523-45. Walking over to the microform drawers and look at the content postings. You find you'll want to open Drawer J2, locate S523 on the index card and pull the 1 fiche for -44, Part I and the 13 fiche for -45, Part II. Walk over to the reader printers with the warm and fuzzy feeling that the information in this format is projected to last at least 1000 years.

On behalf of the C-M Law Library staff welcome to our new communications tool the C-M Law Library Blog. The purpose of this Blog is to help keep you informed concerning the many items of interest we think you will benefit from seeing. Within our Blog you can expect to see Law Library news and tips, information about breaking legal developments, suggestions as to web sites that you will find interesting and helpful, and much more. We are moving to the Blog format to take advantage of its unique communication features including the ability to quickly bring you information in an organized, easy to find manner. You will be able to take advantage of archives of past items and will find that it is much easier to catch up with news or reread something that you want to see again. We expect our Blog to be a lively and up-to-date tool for all of us to use. It will cut down on the need for the Law Library staff to send email messages, so please look forward to further announcements about items of interest on the Blog because it will become our primary method of providing you with current awareness information. We hope you will check out the Blog frequently.

If you have questions or suggestions please feel free to send them to me at

michael.slinger@law.csuohio.edu or to our blog leaders laura.ray@law.csuohio.edu or leslie.pardo@law.csuohio.edu

Thank You.

Michael J. Slinger, Associate Dean, Law Library Director & Professor of Law

The CSU Community now has access via OhioLINK to Gongwer News Service, whose Ohio Report is an excellent current awareness resource for Ohio legislative information. For over 100 years this company has provided independent comprehensive coverage of developments at the State House.

You can check for legislative developments, but the value goes beyond just the listing of dates and actions -- the descriptive, detailed Ohio Report gives you a better sense of what is going on. And there are links to full text, or to reports that are mentioned, or to sponsors (and from sponsors), etc. Additional features include: an Agency Calendar, Political Planner, Links to Agency Press Releases, and Ohio News Links.

Get there either via a title search on Scholar, or via the alphabetical list of OhioLINK research databases.
http://www.gongwer-oh.com/ohiolink.html

Take a look at it - I think you'll find it useful!

In late May, the Cleveland Bar Association announced free access to the Fastcase legal research system as a membership benefit. This fall, the Ohio State Bar Association will debut extensive enhancements to its Casemaker legal research service, which is available free to all OSBA members. Fastcase and Casemaker contain some overlapping and some unique content, with concentration on primary state and federal cases and codes, Boolean and natural language search functions, as well as citatory utilities. Well, you might say to yourself, why should I care about these other services if I have full access to LexisNexis and Westlaw as a student? And further, you might ask yourself, what is the likelihood that I would use a less comprehensive service than LexisNexis or Westlaw when I get out into practice?

You should care, of course because, as a member of one of these associations, the difference is between free and for a fee. LexisNexis and Westlaw are powerful, gigantic, incredibly comprehensive, and no matter how you slice it, expensive. The Fastcase and Casemaker services as part of your professional membership benefit package give you an electronic research alternative at no cost, and at no sacrifice to efficiency. Say your research assignment starts with a list of cases to review. If your choices are between retrieving and copying them from the books or quickly pulling them from Lexis or Westlaw, you might need to make a cost benefit analysis and decide whether the time you spend retrieving the paper is worth more than the cost to download. Adding Fastcase or Casemaker to the mix, however, gives you the ability to avoid both the fee and the tax on your time.

Fastcase and Casemaker will not replace the two big guns in legal research systems: they lack the depth, editorial annotations, and sophisticated search and linking features that characterize both Lexis and Westlaw. However, employers are likely to require use of these alternatives, especially for non billable research projects. Students who take the time to learn the features and potential uses of each will find themselves better prepared for practice realities. Free student membership in the OSBA includes access to Casemaker. Fastcase provides a trial at its website: get acquainted!

The American Association of Law Libraries recently held their annual conference in St. Louis. Over two thousand law librarians and legal professional attend the annual conference. This year the Cleveland-Marshall Law Library was asked to present their new C-M Faculty Publications database at the conference's Public Relations Showcase. Leslie A. Pardo and Jan Novak were able to attend the conference and spoke with their colleagues about the publications database.

Over one thousand C-M faculty publications are listed in the database. The database is designed to capture the scholarly output of the C-M faculty in a form that features excellent organization, permits subject and key word searching capability, offers full text access to the articles, and allows one to quickly conduct citation studies of individual articles to survey scholarly impact.

The Faculty Publications database may be viewed at the following link: http://www.law.csuohio.edu/faculty/publications/search.php

If you have any questions about the database, please contact Leslie A. Pardo or Jan Novak.

S.3929

To authorize military commissions to bring terrorists to justice, to strengthen and modernize terrorist surveillance capabilities, and forother purposes. (Introduced in Senate, Friday, Sept. 22, 2006)

The above bill contains changes to present practice, procedure and rules. It was sponsored by Kentucky Republican Senator Mitch McConnell and cosponsored by Tennessee Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. (More)

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