Librarian’s Muse is just over a year old
The first issue was called News, but a reader suggested Librarian’s Muse, and that’s what it has been since the second issue. A few months after the start, I noticed that a reader had a blog on blogspot, and then placed the muse on blogspot as well. The list is up to 73 readers in 8 states now. Remember, if you want to be removed—just reply with remove on the subject line.

Will the $789 Billion Stimulus Plan Bring Economic Recovery?
New York Times: Deal Reached in Congress on $789 Billion Stimulus Plan - "The package of spending increases and tax relief, intended to spur an economic recovery and create jobs by putting money back in the pockets of consumers and companies, ended up smaller than either the House or Senate had proposed."
Will the $800 Billion-Plus Stimulus Plan Bring Economic Recovery? National Center for Policy Analysis, February 10, 2009, by Gerald W. Scully: "Banker greed and Wall Street are blamed, but government policies over the last 25 years are the root cause of the current financial crisis."

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (aka ARRA or economic stimulus bill)
The House version of the ARRA would provide $14 billion for K-12 construction and $6 billion for higher education construction and specifically mention libraries as an allowable use of funds. The K-12 construction funds would create 300,000 jobs. The education construction funds are eliminated from the Senate version of the ARRA.
If you support libraries and would like the House version to prevail, please contact conferees on this legislation who control what stays in and what will be taken out. If you have other opinions, such as retaining funding for the arts and eliminating it for casinos and golf courses, this is the time to make your thoughts known. Find contact information for elected officials at http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml
Appropriations Chairman Obey (D-WI)
Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-NY)
Commerce Chairman Waxman (D-CA)
Appropriations Ranking Member Jerry Lewis (R-CA)
Ways and Means Ranking Member Dave Camp (R-MI)
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)
Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT)
Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-HI)
Finance Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
Appropriations Ranking Member Thad Cochran (R-MS)

Wikileaks Posts Database of 6,780 Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports
"Wikileaks has released nearly a billion dollars worth of quasi-secret reports commissioned by the United States Congress The 6,780 reports, current as of this month, comprise over 127,000 pages of material on some of the most contentious issues in the nation...Nearly 2,300 of the reports were updated in the last 12 months, while the oldest report goes back to 1990. The release represents the total output of the Congressional Research Service (CRS) electronically available to Congressional offices." [As noted by Michael Ravnitzky, "there are additional reports and briefings prepared for specific offices that are not included in that electronic output."]
Alphabetical list of reports
Chronological list of reports
These reports have also been merged into OpenCRS.
Torrent: WikiLeaks Document Release: CRS Reports, Feb 2009 (full pack, incl. metadata for indexing). Where applicable we have also categorized the reports according to country and attached them to our general country index.
Note: See also the FAS directory of links to topical CRS Reports

Oakland, Calif., attorney Dana Sack is glad he didn't deposit that $360,400 check he got in the mail Jan. 30. Since the start of the year, the real estate attorney has been contacted "out of nowhere" by eight companies, most from East Asia, asking for help collecting money they claimed to be owed by U.S. businesses. About a week after signing those fee agreements, "Tomen" and "Matila" separately let him know by e-mail that Eagle Power Equipment had agreed to pay each of them through his firm, and though he had done no work, Sack should expect a check in the mail, from which he could deduct his retainer. One $360,400 check arrived by UPS from Ontario, "looking absolutely genuine." But when a call to Citibank proved this check was invalid, Sack called Eagle Power Equipment. He said he got a laugh from that company's controller, who said he was not only not paying any debts to Tomen, but that he'd been getting calls from small firm lawyers across the country.
Maryland attorney Jerome Feldman, of four-lawyer Bernstein & Feldman, said his firm was also contacted and retained via e-mail and received a real-looking check from Eagle Power for more than $300,000 made payable to the attorneys. He presumes that his firm was meant to put the money into an escrow account, after which the client in Asia would give the go-ahead for Feldman's firm to subtract its fee and send the balance on. Feldman said he went only so far as to contact Eagle then sent the matter to the Internet fraud division of the FBI.
In Alabama, solo Steven Brom said he was solicited by an individual claiming to represent Japan's Nippon Industries. A week after he received his retainer agreement, he, too, got the great news that the debtor had decided to pay. "It's usually a long drawn-out process, not based on one phone call," Brom said. The client told him that he could expect a check from Eagle Power. When he received the package--delivered by UPS--from Canada, Brom said the check for $348,540 was "highly professional looking."
In Brom's case, the scammers went so far as to fake an "800" phone number claiming to be Citibank's. Out of curiosity, he dialed it and got an automated phone system that asked for the account number and check amount, then told him his check was confirmed. He's sent his fake check to Citibank to handle any potential investigation.
http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sfb/lawArticleSFB.jsp?id=1202428041836

Harlequin is a large check pattern that is turned 45 degrees to form a diamond in two or more contrasting colors, set of chairs that are similar but do not match, pattern with patches, movie, fictional character, and athletic team. See these and other meanings at http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:harlequin&ei=kLqSSZGGBJzgM6W3mfQL&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title
Etymology: ultimately from Italian arlecchino, from Middle French Helquin, a demon
Date: 1590 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/harlequin

Pied is two or more colors in blotches or wearing or having a parti-colored coat and dates from the 14th century. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pied
Etymology: 1382, as if it were the pp. of a verb form of M.E. noun pie "magpie" in ref. to the bird's black and white plumage. Earliest use is in reference to the pyed freres, an order of friars who wore black and white. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=pied+&searchmode=none