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Technology Daily will not publish from Friday, Aug. 24, through Labor Day on Sept. 3. The next PM Edition will go online Tuesday, Sept. 4.
Security
Department To Broaden Access To Security Database
by Chris Strohm
The Homeland Security Department on Wednesday announced broad changes for using a database that collects and stores information on foreign travelers to the United States.
In one of the biggest changes, the department plans to regularly share information with U.S. intelligence agencies, department officials said in an interview Thursday. "This is a first step to make it clear that we do have the authority to conduct this type of sharing and to make the public know that we do plan to do so in the future," one official said on condition of anonymity.
The database, called the arrival-and-departure information system, contains information collected at U.S. ports of entry and departure on all foreigners who enter, travel within or leave the United States. It was created in 2003 as part of the US-VISIT foreigner-tracking program and does not contain information on U.S. citizens.
Until now, department officials said, information in the database has been primarily shared only within Homeland Security. But that is expected to change in the future. "We're expanding our portfolio of agencies we are working with," a department spokeswoman said.
The U.S. intelligence community increasingly is viewed as a key player within the nation's border security and immigration programs, the Homeland Security official said.
The official said the department expects intelligence agencies to contact it more often for information on foreigners that are under investigation. The database could provide critical information to investigations, especially concerning whether a foreign subject is inside the United States, the official said.
The official added, however, that new protocols for information-sharing and privacy protection still must be resolved in order for Homeland Security to regularly share contents of the database with intelligence agencies.
The department announced the changes in a Federal Register notice . In a related notice, the department also said it is exempting portions of the database from the Privacy Act to protect information on investigatory and enforcement activities from disclosure to subjects or others related to the activities. Public comments on the proposed changes are due by Sept. 21.
According to the notice, information in the database may be shared with "federal, state, local, tribal, foreign or international government intelligence or counterterrorism agencies; or components where DHS becomes aware of an indication of a threat or potential threat to national or international security; or where such use is to assist in anti-terrorism efforts and disclosure is appropriate to the proper performance of the official duties of the person making the disclosures."
The department also stated that information in the database can come from foreign governments. Such information could confirm, for example, that a foreigner has left the United States, the Homeland Security official said. According to the notice, information "may be derived from records related to entry or exit data of foreign countries collected by foreign governments."
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Education
Educators Want To Make Science A Summer Ritual
by Aliya Sternstein
When children gripe about math homework on the first day of school this year, parents and policymakers might want to think about how to engage them in the sciences next summer, some education researchers say.
"There's a good body of research that shows how much ground kids are losing over the summer months" in mathematics, said Ron Fairchild, executive director of the Center for Summer Learning at The Johns Hopkins University. He called math a skill that is foundational to progress in science, technology and engineering.
But summer is a time where many families struggle to find access to educational enrichment activities, Fairchild added. To make breakthroughs in science, technology, engineering and math, the STEM fields, he said children are "going to need opportunities during the summer months to use their creativity."
Fairchild noted that Sens. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., have introduced legislation that would establish a grant program to support summer learning opportunities in math, technology and problem-solving for low-income students.
There are existing, well-regarded summer programs. For middle-school girls, IBM funds a camp called EX.I.T.E., short for EXploring Interests in Technology and Engineering. And Project Exploration runs a series of summer programs, particularly for inner-city youth from Chicago. The organization also publishes a guide that lists summer science programs across the country.
The University of California at Berkeley's Lawrence Hall of Science offers residential summer camps and day camps for youths in pre-school through high school.
Elizabeth Stage, the science center's director, said families can contribute to summer science learning, too. A family trip to a national park to explore nature can have a lasting impact on a child's career path, she said.
"Obviously having skills is important, but having interest is at least as important," Stage said. "Summer should be a time to plant that interest."
Unfortunately, Stage noted, not enough research has been done to prove the effectiveness of summer science activities in retaining information learned during the prior school year.
"We are sure that what we're doing is providing a safe, healthy environment for kids. ... It sure would be nice if we could provide information to our corporate sponsors saying, 'If you give us money for scholarships for disadvantaged students, these are the kinds of outcomes they'll have.'" But she said "it takes money to find out."
Policymakers should realize that spending money on summer programs pays off tremendously by keeping kids in school and out of police trouble, Stage said.
James Brown, co-chairman of the STEM Education Coalition, stressed that more work must be done to integrate summer programs with regular semester coursework -- which he said is key to bolstering the STEM pipeline.
Fairchild agreed that the nation needs to better coordinate informal and formal learning.
Stage said: "What we don't want our programs to be is more school. We're trying to support what's going on in school learning and actually motivate it."
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Education
After-School Programs Help Low-Income Students
by Aliya Sternstein
The increasing number of after-school technology clubs now available to low-income students is having a positive influence on their attitudes toward academic achievement, according to experts and recent research.
For instance, the Intel Computer Clubhouse Network -- a program that began at the Boston Museum of Science in 1993 -- has grown to 100 hubs for creativity worldwide in underserved communities. Youths ages 10-18 are given the freedom to use computers for producing art, composing music or designing the next online social network, if they wish.
A May survey of members conducted by SRI International found that 74 percent of girls and 67 percent of boys "definitely" believe they will graduate from high school. Overall, 95 percent of members either "probably" or "definitely" believe they will graduate. Ninety-two percent "definitely" or "probably" plan to continue their education after high school.
The survey found no strong gender differences in the frequency or length of clubhouse visits.
The after-school education sector has grown faster than probably any other education sector in history, with the exception of pre-schools, said Dennis Bartels, the executive director of San Francisco's Exploratorium science museum.
The explosion is mostly attributed to an influx of federal funding that began during the Clinton administration. With the 2002 education law known as the No Child Left Behind Act, about $1 billion in state grants have been appropriated for after-school programs in high-poverty communities each of the last seven years.
As far as science after-school activities for elementary students, much of what is popular now was popular before, said Bartels. Examples include model rocket clubs, dissection -- both biological and mechanical -- and natural observation. "Taking apart an electrical engine is kinda cool," he said. "It's still looking at technology as a physical thing."
Not until middle school, when kids become less interested in the natural world and more interested in the social world, does computer functionality become interesting, Bartels said.
Jason Freeman, director of the Coalition for Science After School, said the challenge in the after-school arena now is that "quality has to keep up with quantity." Most of the federal money goes to paying staffers, keeping the lights on and giving the kids a snack, he said. There is little funding left for staff training and new tech equipment.
Still, Freeman said, "the primary goal is to give kids a safe place."
Intel's clubhouse kids, on the other hand, are given more cutting-edge software provided by the commercial sector and MIT's Media Lab. Clubhouse centers are located in schools, Boys and Girls Clubs, YWCA facilities for young women, and other community gathering places.
"There's quite an emphasis placed on mentoring," said Brenda Abanavas, the network's program manager. Each mentor is expected to commit at least two hours a week, and the relationships can lead to internships and jobs.
"The goal of this program is more about getting kids to develop a love of learning," she said. "We use technology as a means to that end."
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Budget
Millions In NOAA Funds Would Cover Tech Projects
by Andrew Noyes
The federal agency charged with studying the earth's environment and leading scientific research in ecosystems, global climate change, weather and related fields would get $3.9 billion in fiscal 2008 under an appropriations bill the House passed last month.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's allocation in the measure, H.R. 3093, is $140 million more than the Bush administration's request and $56 million more than the 2007 budget. The Senate measure, which awaits a floor vote, would provide about $4 billion to NOAA.
An American Association for the Advancement of Science analysis earlier this year said NOAA's research and development funding under the White House's plan would fall 9.5 percent, to $544 million. Appropriators then added billions of dollars back into the budget, a more recent AAAS examination showed. NOAA R&D would get a 9.9 percent increase from the House and an 18 percent surge from the Senate, AAAS reported.
The largest increases in the House bill would go to oceans and climate research under the oceanic and atmospheric research budget line. That R&D aid would jump 23 percent, to $346 million. The Senate would provide even more for those programs, said AAAS researcher Kei Koizumi.
The House bill would reserve $6 million for a climate-change study under which the National Academies would make recommendations about actions and strategies for the issue. Congressionally requested studies are typical, but it is rare for such a study to be funded explicitly in a bill's text, Koizumi said.
The House Appropriations Committee report on the measure seeks an additional $3 million for NOAA supercomputing to support the assessment of abrupt climate change; $20 million for competitive research grants; $1.3 million for NOAA's national climate data center; and $157 million for the National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service.
The Senate Appropriations Committee approved a bill, S. 1745, that includes $636 million for the National Ocean Service, $927 million for the National Weather Service, $765 million for the National Marine Fisheries Service, $1 billion for satellite efforts, and $439 million for research.
Despite the funding hike, the Senate panel's report criticizes NOAA for failing to fund recent recommendations of the Pew Ocean Commission and the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, Koizumi said. The House bill is mostly silent on ocean-related research.
Given the growing fiscal demands on the Commerce Department, which houses NOAA, and increasing satellite costs incurred by the agency, Senate appropriators said it was "doubtful this administration will ever show the leadership and bold thinking required to address the true needs of our planet's oceans and atmosphere."
AAAS said senators proposed $53 million in NOAA earmarks. A sampling of tech-intensive project proposals include:
-- A geospatial data analysis center for soil moisture data at Alabama A&M University.
-- A program for technological costal restoration at Louisiana State University.
-- Research to address abrupt climate change at the University of Maine at Orono.
-- A feasibility study on the applicability of advanced radar technologies in Wyoming.
-- A coastal and inland hurricane-monitoring effort at the University of South Alabama.
-- Advanced undersea mapping technology at the Mystic, Conn., aquarium.
-- An international arctic research center at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks.
-- And a New England weather technology initiative in Plymouth, N.H.
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Budget
Lawmakers Want Tech Updates At State Department
by Winter Casey
The roughly $243 million in expedited passport fees expected to become available in fiscal 2008 should be used to support investments in information technologies and infrastructure at the State Department, according to the House Appropriations Committee.
The committee report on the foreign aid spending bill, H.R. 2764, cited that figure as the Bush administration's budget request for the fees. Added to the $59 million the panel approved for the department's capital investments, the total money for IT modernization in fiscal 2008 would be about $304 million.
According to the report, the committee has appropriated close to $2 billion for the department's global IT infrastructure since 2001 "to enable rapid and reliable communication between Washington and the more than 300 locations worldwide." The House report said the committee expects State "to maintain and protect this investment."
Appropriators also encouraged the office in charge of the U.S. government's worldwide overseas buildings program to pursue the development of integrated building management systems.
"Such technology upgrades to integrate disparate legacy systems will protect the large and continuing investment of taxpayer resources in overseas properties and those who occupy them," the report said. "The committee has provided sufficient resources to support this effort."
The House committee hailed the secretary of State's science and technology adviser "for continuing to promote the essential role of science and technology in diplomacy." The report calls for more "science and technology capacity and literacy within the department and the role of science and technology in our nation's foreign policy."
The committee said the secretary of State should be prepared to report to Congress on the progress during fiscal 2008 to increase departmental tech capabilities. The committee further encouraged the department to consider support for a project to create and test an iris-scanning system "to identify, track and log visitors at select U.S. missions."
Finally, the House committee endorsed attempts to defeat the jamming of Radio Free Asia and Voice of America signals for broadcasts to China, Tibet, Vietnam and North Korea. And the panel touted efforts to counter Internet censorship in China and Iran.
The report for the draft companion bill approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee said State should assess threats to the department's computer networks and "consider the need to improve the capacity to monitor inside threats to networks of U.S. missions."
The panel wants at least $22 million spent on American schools and hospitals abroad in fiscal 2008. The Agency for International Development administers the program, known as ASHA, and some of its work involves computer technology.
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Today's Feature:
State Roundup
The Homeland Security Department announced this week that Vermont has agreed to test driver's licenses that are equipped with radio-frequency identification chips.
Every Thursday, read the State Roundup by Michael Martinez.
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E-briefs
Security: The Homeland Security Department on Thursday announced several regulations related to screening airline and ship passengers, including one for the controversial Secure Flight program. Amid a slew of Federal Register notices during the congressional recess, Homeland Security published a final rule to let the Transportation Security Administration take over the screening of airline passengers against government watch lists. "Under the program, TSA would receive passenger and certain non-traveler information from aircraft operators, conduct watch-list matching, and transmit watch-list matching results back to aircraft operators," the department said. The department also moved to create a system of records for Secure Flight and exempt it from parts of the Privacy Act. Separate notices announced a series of changes to other traveler-screening programs. The department published a system of records for the advanced passenger-information system and a final rule concerning when airplane and ship operators must transmit electronic information on passengers to the government.
E-Commerce: The FTC announced Thursday that it has stopped a Web-based business that allegedly was selling bogus weight-loss and anti-aging products by sending consumers unwanted and illegal mass e-mail messages. At the agency's request, a federal court in Illinois ordered a halt to the spam and to product claims that the FTC charges are false and unsubstantiated. The unsolicited messages from a firm known as Sili Neutraceuticals drove traffic to several Web sites, which sold the pills under various names, officials said. The FTC's spam database received more than 85,000 messages sent on behalf of the operation. A hearing is scheduled for next week to determine whether the court's temporary restraining order and asset freeze should remain in place until the commission's case is resolved. The FTC wants to permanently bar the defendants from further violations and force them to forfeit all ill-gotten gains.
Antitrust: European Union regulators have charged Rambus with antitrust abuse, alleging that the designer of memory chips demanded "unreasonable" royalties for its patents that were fraudulently set as industry standards. AP reports that the European Union's preliminary charges, announced Thursday, come weeks after the U.S. FTC ruled that the company deceived a standards-setting committee by failing to disclose that its patented technology would be needed to comply with the standard. As a result, every manufacturer that wanted to make synchronous dynamic-access memory chips had to negotiate a license with Rambus. Both EU and U.S. antitrust officials allege that the move gave Rambus an illegal monopoly in the 1990s for DRAM chips used in personal computers, servers, printers, personal digital assistants and other electronics. "We are studying the statement of objections and plan to respond in due course," Rambus general counsel Thomas Lavelle said of the EU charges.
Television: FCC Chairman Kevin Martin on Thursday responded to criticism from Hispanic and black groups that said they were insulted by recent comments he made concerning minority and civil rights groups' position on per-channel cable television pricing. The a la carte plan he envisions, which has been supported by several key consumer watchdogs, would "provide all consumers the ability to lower their cable bills and to have greater control over the programming that comes into their homes," Martin said in his letter to the Black Leadership Forum, Hispanic Federation, National Black Chamber of Commerce and others. He also said he had "the utmost respect and appreciation" for those organizations and apologized if his remarks at an Aspen Institute summit last week led some to believe otherwise.
Net Governance: A group charged with balancing privacy interests with government and industry efforts to stop Web-based counterfeiters and cyber squatters published its final report this week, but critics wonder whether the document will impact the system administered by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. At issue is the future of "Whois" databases that let the public retrieve information about Web-site owners. Steve DelBianco, executive director of the e-commerce trade group NetChoice, said the report "began with a simple vision but eroded into an incoherent jumble of conflicting priorities." Leaders of ICANN's Generic Names Supporting Organization will review the report later this month. Privacy advocate Milton Mueller wrote on the Internet Governance Project blog that "despite flirting with the kind of compromises and reforms that might actually reconcile privacy rights with identification needs ... agreement among the parties broke down completely." He believes the report as-is has "zero chance" of being approved.
Lobbying: A coalition of 30 companies and organizations, including the Information Technology Association of America, on Thursday wrote to governors to warn them about a provision in pending federal agriculture legislation that they believe would restrict the modernization of welfare programs. The Accountability, Innovation and Modernization Coalition said in a letter to all 50 governors that the bill, H.R. 2419, would hurt the states' capacity to modernize human-services programs because it would prohibit non-government workers from providing support services for various initiatives, including Medicaid and food-stamp programs. "The consequences of the proposed new restrictions for states, welfare program beneficiaries and taxpayers would be substantial," the coalition wrote. The House passed the measure in July.
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Editor in Chief -- Louis Peck, 202-739-8481
Editor -- K. Daniel Glover (bio)
Assistant Editor -- Theresa Poulson
Senior Writers -- David Hatch (bio), Heather Greenfield (bio), Andrew Noyes (bio) and Aliya Sternstein (bio)
Special Correspondent -- Chris Strohm (bio)
Staff Writer -- Michael Martinez
Senior Business Affairs Manager -- Chris Hamby
Business Affairs Associate -- Anne TeBeest
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