Fifteen rules that were scheduled to go into effect at the beginning of the Bush administration but were delayed by a White House memo have still not gone into effect, according to a recent report by the General Accounting Office (GAO) -- the investigative arm of Congress.

On March 25, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) stopped accepting comments on its ideas for limiting public access to "critical energy infrastructure information" (CEII). FERC first released an initial policy statement addressing this issue in October 2000, and followed it up with a January 16 Notice of Inquiry (NOI) in the Federal Register. The Notice of Inquiry sought public input on possible regulatory changes that would allow the agency to restrict unfettered general public access to CEII, but still permit those with a "need-to-know access to such information.

An often overlooked realm of nonprofit use of technology for advocacy involves access to information, not only with respect to government, but also financial information from corporations and nonprofits themselves. One way such information is used is to demonstrate the influence of special interests on public policy formulation, discourse, and decision-making, under the veneer of nonprofit public interest work and/or grassroots activity. Are there special interests hidden behind the online philanthropic policy watchdogs? The following was originally posted to the NPTalk online forum.

A review of recent activity on faith-based charity and charitable giving legislation. Effectiveness Report Released A report released by the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society has found no proof that religious social service programs are more effective than secular ones. The report, which was based on 25 other studies on the subject, did not find fault with faith-based programs, but found no evidence of their much-touted increased effectiveness, and called for more research on the subject.