2008 Hurricane Season

The 2008 hurricane season began on June 1st, and as I write this Hurricane Dolly, the 4th named storm of the season, is headed for Texas.

So far, none of the storms have posed a threat to Alabama, but it’s still early. To prepare for the event of a hurricane, the state of Alabama has its own Hurricane Center. The portal brings together information from both federal and state government web sites. For instance, satellite images on the site come from the National Hurricane Center, while the information on I-65 Reverse-Laning and Emergency Road Closures comes from ALDOT. The site also includes general tips for what to do during a hurricane and lists of weather radio transmitters by county, high frequency emergency network frequencies, and public alert devices.

Another site that you may want to visit is the Alabama Emergency Management Agency, which includes preparedness tips for hurricanes as well as other weather situations.  The site’s download section includes a Hurricane Preparedness in Alabama 2007 guide as well as a list of 2007 Hurricane Evacuation Zones.

RSS feeds on gov’t web sites

I am a huge fan of RSS feeds on web sites – these days I receive so much information that I can hardly remember to visit a site to see how often it’s updated!

Government agencies haven’t consistently incorporated RSS feeds into their web site design, but the number of feeds continues to grow. USA.gov maintains a list of RSS feeds from U.S. Government agencies, but I can’t seem to find a similar list for Alabama agencies.

I have noticed that the following Alabama government web sites do have RSS feeds:

- media.alabama.gov has a feed that covers all State Agencies who use RSS. They also have a list of state agencies who are taking advantage of their press release system (which incorporates RSS) – including the Secretary of State, Department of Finance, and the Department of Homeland Security.

- The Department of Public Safety has RSS feeds for Amber Alerts, Missing Persons, and Felony Fugitives.

- State of Alabama podcasts

If I’m missing any, please let me know!  It seems like most state agencies, if they choose to incorporate RSS into their site design, will be using the media.alabama.gov portal.

Veterans Who Vote

This weekend Secretary of State Beth Chapman announced the Veterans Who Vote program – an initiative, partnering with the Veterans of Foreign Wars, “to recruit veterans to register voters, work at the polls, and be poll watchers for the November General Election.” The initiative has a web site, veteranswhovote.com, which right now consists of the press release announcing the initiative, and a volunteer form.  (It’s unclear at this time if there will be additional information available between now and the November 4th election.)

Tracking Lawmaker Earmark Requests

About a month ago, the Sunlight Foundation asked citizens to call their “members of Congress and ask them to fully disclose all their earmark requests for next year’s budget on their official Web sites.” Last week they posted an update, and there’s information on less than half the number of Members of Congress.

The list of lawmakers and their earmarks is here – so far Rep. Jo Bonner (AL-1) is the only Alabama member who has posted his requests. I’m not sure if any of the others were contacted – no information is given. Looks like there’s still time to contact Rep. Davis, et al, to see how transparent they really are!

Pilot Project helps DHR track social workers

Today’s Government Computer News has an article about a pilot project that the Alabama Department of Human Resources (DHR) is conducting.  DHR has equipped social workers in Jefferson County with cell phones that can “track their location and send alerts if they stay longer than expected.” This is an effort to better protect those workers who go out on field visits.

The project is very definitely a pilot – according to the article, they’re still working out the bugs, and due to budgetary constraints there are no plans to expand this to other counties in the state.  I couldn’t find any information about the pilot on the DHR web site.