The courts recently addressed government secrecy in a set of actions that yield mixed results for government efforts to carve out a bigger zone of secrecy in open society in the name of national security.

The House Appropriations Committee recently voted to block implementation of a law that requires meat and meat products to bear a label indicating their country of origin. The meat industry strongly opposes such country of origin labeling (COOL), which was mandated by the 2002 Farm bill, claiming it would be costly and disruptive. The requirements were instituted to help consumers identify American-made products and have been seen as increasingly important due to the recent discovery of mad cow disease in Canada.

The U.S. Department of Education Office of Vocational and Adult Education is currently accepting applications for the FY2003 federal Community Technology Centers (CTC) program. The purpose of the program is to help create and expand information technology access and training points for disadvantaged residents of economically distressed urban and rural communities.

A recent survey conducted by the Center for Public Service at the Brookings Institution offers some telling lessons for organizations interested in attracting the oft-cited but difficult to attract "next generation of public service leadership."