If you are interested in tracking governmental responses to the current economic situation, you might want to check out these documents:

• The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report, The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2009 to 2019
• Economic Stimulus: Issues and Policies, a report by the Congressional Research Service
• The State of the Economy and Issues in Developing an Effective Policy Response (Testimony of CBO Director, Douglas W. Elmendorf before the House Budget Committee)
• Mortgage Foreclosure Resources (Federal Reserve System)
• Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (Treasury Department documents)
• Financial Regulation: A Framework for Crafting and Assessing Proposals to Modernize the Outdated U.S. Financial Regulatory System  (GAO Report)

Due to weather conditions, the Westlaw training for Banking and Tax LLM students, scheduled for 3 p.m. in Room 334, has been cancelled.

Our Westlaw representative, Mari Bergeron, asks that students in these programs who wanted this training either attend the Westlaw training in Room 312 tomorrow (Thursday, Jan. 29 at 1 p.m.); or contact Mari at mari.bergeron@thomsonreuters.com to arrange to meet individually.

The Office of the Federal Register (OFR), which is part of the National Archives, has created a new publication, to be called the Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents. The Daily Compilation will appear on the Government Printing Office’s (GPO) new Federal Digital System (FDsys) January 20, 2009, to coincide with the incoming President’s term of office. The web site will be accessible via www.presidentialdocuments.gov by January 20. The online Daily Compilation will replace the printed Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents.

In a ruling from August 2008, just released yesterday, a panel of judges on the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act Court of Review found that Congress could grant the government the power to order telecommunications companies to aid its warrantless wiretapping program.  The Protect America Act of 2007, Pub. L. 110-55, 121 Stat. 552, authorized the government to direct communications service providers to assist it in obtaining foreign intelligence.  Those amendments are now expired.  Read more about this decision.

The law library’s LiveChat service is back up and running this afternoon.

Check out the United Nations’ Audiovisual Library of International Law which is now available online for free. The Library provides international law training and research materials in multimedia formats. The Library includes:

1. Historical Archives: Audiovisual materials concerning the negotiation and adoption of U.N. related legal instruments since 1945.
2. Lecture Series: Lectures by leading international law scholars and practitioners from numerous countries and legal systems on almost every international law topic.
3. Research Library: An online law library providing links to other web-based international law resources including treaties, jurisprudence, documents, scholarly writings and research guides.

Hat Tip: IntLawGrrls

Don’t forget the Library Orientation Tour today at 1 p.m. in Room 334. Please join reference librarian, Karina Condra, for an introduction to the Library and its services.

Don’t forget LiveChat.  We’re now live from 1-5 on weekdays!

Welcome back!  This semester the library is offering two new services to make it easier for you to reach us.  We have LiveChat so that you can talk to a reference librarian on your computer.  This service will be available from 1-5 every weekday.  The other service is bringing reference to you.  Reference librarians will ”roam” around the law school.  If you see a reference librarian in a new location please ask us any questions you might have about your research or the library.  We are going to be in the Lobby, the Ring Lounge, and the cafe several hours each week.  Hope you had a good break and we look forward to chatting with you.