Rover Life on Mars...and Other Events This Week
A Government Information News Roundup
Good morning!
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In Civics this Week: Too much to choose from!
I had a hard time choosing just one resource to focus on this week, so I’m trying something different: a roundup of recent news concerning government information. Each news story is accompanied by a couple of government information resources to help you investigate the topic further. Let me know what you think about this format in the comments section or via email - if it works well, I’ll incorporate it again in the future.
With that, let’s move on to the roundup (in no particular order):
1. The Interagency Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flood Hazard and Tool Task Force released a landmark report that projects up to a foot of average sea level rise by 2050.
NOAA published a helpful overview of the report here, which includes key takeaways and a link to the full report.
You can easily obtain a report (online and printable) for your coastal county using the NOAA Digital Coast Tool. This is a fantastic way to educate yourself and/or disseminate information to your community.
2. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) issued a press release on February 14 that announced reforms to tribal jail practices and policies, following the 2021 NPR investigation revealing inmate deaths in BIA-operated jails. See related coverage on controversies regarding the BIA’s contract with The Cruzan Group, owned by Darren Cruzan, former Deputy Bureau Director of the BIA Office of Justice Services.
3. NASA celebrated the 1-year “landiversary” of the Perseverance rover on Mars.
Explore NASA’s Mars 2020 Mission page that provides updates on Perseverance. This is a seriously cool website that includes interactive experiences and animations providing insight into the rover’s missions. You can also follow updates on the landiversary celebrations.
My favorite element of the site is the raw images section, where you can browse fascinating snapshots of the Red Planet. Here’s one of my favorites:
4. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has continued to make the news in regard to the agency’s retrieval of 15 boxes of records from Mar-a-Lago, the preservation of which is protected under the Presidential Records Act (PRA). On Friday, NARA confirmed that there were classified documents included in the records retrieved from Mar-a-Lago.
You can read the official correspondence between Donald Trump and Archivist David S. Ferriero here. (Also see my January post on NARA and the January 6th Select Committee).
In 2020, NARA published a new Guidance on Presidential Records for the incoming administration. Its primary purpose is to serve as instructional material on Presidential records and the PRA for White House staff, but anyone looking for a comprehensible takedown on these protocols will find it highly informative.
If you’re interested in learning more about the government’s information classification and declassification systems, reading about the functions of the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) is a good place to start.
What interesting updates related to government information did you spot in the news this week? Let me know in the comments!
See you next week.
The Mars photos are fascinating. Thanks for including the link to them. I should look at them more often.