Dirt Diggers Digest No. 29
February 14, 2003
Editor: Philip Mattera
1. New calls for public access to CRS material
2. New database provides comprehensive info on insider trading
3. Enron tax evasion report now online
4. UNCTC reports being resurrected on the web
5. CorpTech is back
6. KnowX adds feature on executive affiliations
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. New calls for public access to CRS material
The Project on Government Oversight <www.pogo.org> issued
a report this week renewing the call to make Congressional
Research Service reports fully available to the public. POGO
also argued that the public should be able to access CRS's
Legislative Information Service, which contains detailed and
up-to-the-minute data on Congressional activity.
CRS, which produces highly regarded reports on a wide variety of
public policy issues, exists mainly to serve Congress. The
public has no direct access to the CRS website, though a
limited number of CRS reports are available on the websites
of two members of Congress (Reps. Christopher Shays of CT
and Mark Green of WI) and the National Council for Science and
the Environment <http://www.ncseonline.org/NLE/CRS/>.
The Legislative Information Service, which is protected by an
elaborate firewall, is not available at all to the public.
POGO's position was endorsed by Senators John McCain of
Arizona and Patrick Leahy of Vermont, who said they will
reintroduce legislation to give the public access to the full
range of CRS reports (except those deemed confidential).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. New database provides access to insider trading info
Insider Scoop <www.insiderscoop.com> is a new pay service that
says it provides "the fastest access to the most comprehensive
insider trading information." The site updates its information daily
and plans to move toward real-time data when new SEC rules on
electronic filing of Forms 3 and 4 take effect. Searches can be done
by company or by individual, and it is possible to link to the original
disclosure documents. One drawback is that, for the time being,
content will not extend back earlier than the beginning of 2002.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Enron tax evasion report now online
A massive report by the Joint Committee on Taxation about the
shady tax practices of Enron Corp. is now available on the web
at http://www.house.gov/jct/. The report, prepared at the request of
the Senate Finance Committee, which held hearings on the subject
this week, was the basis for a remarkable headline in the New York
Times: "Tax Moves by Enron Said to Mystify the I.R.S."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. UNCTC reports being resurrected on the web
Dirt Diggers who have been involved in research for a while will
recall that there used to be a United Nations entity called the
Centre on Transnational Corporations (UNCTC) that did valuable
work on multinationals. Now a group of former UNCTC staffers
have launched an effort to put the Centre's reports--which were
published in the pre-internet era--on the web. The creators of the site,
www.benchpost.com/unctc, have begun by uploading a bibliography
of reports issued during UNCTC's 17-year existence (1977-1993);
they plan to post some 55,000 pages of full text.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. CorpTech is back
CorpTech, a website that provided profiles of tens of thousands
of high-tech companies that were often overlooked by other databases,
has returned after several years of absence from the open web with a new
site <www.corptech.com>. The site, which offers a variety of free,
pay-per-view and subscription content, says it contains info on more
than 50,000 firms which can be searched by industry, location, or size
as well as name. Free trial memberships are being offered.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. KnowX adds feature on executive affiliations
KnowX <www.knowx.com>, the web service that provides access
to corporate filings and other public records on a pay-as-you-go
basis, has added a new feature on executive affiliations. The data
are drawn from state Secretary of State filings and business
directories.
- Philip Mattera