Tuesday, July 20, 2004

Chemical Stockpile Information in Utah Tables and pavillions are laid out in the new Capitol plaza for this week's NCSL gathering.  Thousands of state legislators from around the country will descend on Salt Lake City Last month the Indiana State Library started a weblog, something the Utah State Library has been doing for years - including RSS news services such as Utah and National Library News. Christopher Westley launches this tirade against government workers.  Did I miss something?  Westley teaches economics at Jacksonville State University.  I imagine that JSU like all state universities does everything it can to get government funds, whether through grants from the federal government or from state government appropriations.  The fact is that many government workers do provide services that are at least as valuable as his philosophizing. In many cases, government employees are doing more to cut waste and restore confidence in government.  I don't think the world is not as cynical as Westley seems to believe.  And government employees can take some pride when they perform in a way that helps change the perceptions that drive Westley's argument. An article in this morning's Deseret News discusses the streamlined sales tax issue which will be a key topic at this week's NCSL meetings in Salt Lake City. Bigblog provides a summary of recent security incidents with government websites. I find it interesting that a small town like Payson (Utah) provides car allowances to 11 city employees while the State of Utah does not provide any car allowances and only provides personal use vehicles to about half a dozen key officials who must be available 24 hours a day (such as the Commissioner of Public Safety and the Director of Corrections).  At least they're debating the issue.  I think the rationale at the State in providing a vehicle is normally associated with productivity and job related.   Normally you do not expect an employee to mount radios and other equipment in their personal vehicle. Every so often, I run into a Utah.gov website that I have never seen before.  The CSEPP program (Chemical Stockpile Preparedness Program) manages the nation's chemical stockpile which is stored at eight locations around the country, one of them in Utah.  In addition to its public website, the program also maintains this portal.  The Utah Chemical Demilitarization Section ensures public safety associated with the destruction of chemical weapons at the Tooele site.  The US Army Chemical Material Agency provides oversight of this activity.  They maintain this Utah-specific page which provides updates on a regular basis of activity at the depot. NASA celebrates the 35th anniversary of the lunar landing today. BlogCatalog just came up with its new blog directory service. The nation’s first strategic framework report on a 10-year initiative to develop electronic health records and other uses of health information technology will be released Wednesday, July 21, at the Secretarial Summit on Health Information Technology.  HHS secretary Tommy Thompson who is giving the opening address tomorrow morning is on the Navajo reservation today.  We're working with the Navajos to get more bandwidth into the four corners area. 9:24:32 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2004 David Fletcher.