22 May 2000. Discover the individuals and companies, who donate to candidates in the 2000 presidential election, as well as the amount of their contributions. Search by company or individual name as well as by zip code. 24 January 2006. The National Archives and Records Administration makes available almost 500 databases containing mostly older information about people or businesses. Find, for example, databases for conducting genealogy research or for finding records pertaining to labor unions. Technical note: The site requires session cookies and Javascript. It does not function as well in Firefox as it does in Internet Explorer. 11 December 2007. The European Railway Agency (ERA) offers a database of reports on accidents and incidents involving the railway. According to site documentation, "[m]ember States are required to notify ERA of accident investigations and to submit copies of the accident investigation report when complete."
The public may conduct a "quick search" by country or more advanced searching by a variety of criteria, including the legal basis for the decision to investigate, details of the occurrence (e.g., railway, metro, tramway; location; casualties) or cause. Results consist of the accident or incident report. 30 July 2002. The Securities and Exchange Commission publishes a list of the 947 companies whose top officials must file sworn statements attesting to the accuracy of the companies' most recent annual and quarterly financial reports. 7 September 2004. The commercial vendor On-Line Information Services, Inc. provides fee-based access to the trial court records for all counties in Alabama. According to information available at the Web site, subscribers have access to active cases and select disposed cases since 1970. Coverage includes civil and criminal cases, domestic relations and child support, traffic cases, outstanding alias warrants, trial court dockets and attorney case information. You can also access the state's "real-time" database and set up tracking and notification. 25 February 2002. Look up information about civil and criminal cases on appeal in Alaska courts. Search by party name, appellate case number, or trial court number. The system provides basic case information, including parties names, attorneys, documents filed, transcript availability, and more. 25 February 2002. Search the trial court name index, which contains case information for lawsuits filed in 30 Alaska counties. It covers civil and criminal matters, but not appellate, confidential or traffic cases. Generally, the database covers 1990 to present, but searchers will find some older data. Some of the records include dates of birth along with the usual case information. 28 June 2002. Revised 18 November 2005. The Analysis Division of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration offers a single point of entry for several databases that provide transportation-related statistics, profiles and reports. The databases include SafeStat Online, Crash Profiles Online and Program Measures. Compare state and national statistical data. Recently, some data was removed temporarily from SafeStat Online because of concerns about accuracy. 25 April 2002. Revised 17 April 2008. The Arizona Judicial Branch offers a database of case information from 137 out of 180 courts in Arizona. The database covers criminal and civil cases, but does not offer information about sealed, non-served domestic violence, mental health, juvenile, or probate cases. It provides name, date of birth, city/state/zip (but not street address), criminal offense (if applicable), docket entries, and more.
When testing the database, I received many browser error messages. It appears the state limits the number of simultaneous users. If you receive an error message, it's best to try again later.
12 March 2008. The Internet Archive maintains this collection of archival content from the Web sites of Arizona state government agencies, boards and commissions. Search it by keyword or URL, or follow the advanced search link for more options. When using the advanced search feature, be sure to limit the institution to the Arizona State Library and the collection to either Arizona Politics or Arizona State Agencies, depending on your interest. A keyword RSS feed for monitoring search results is available. 13 March 2003. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) offers a database containing information about civil aviation accidents and selected incidents that happen within the United States, its territories and possessions, and in international waters. Covering 1962 to present, data includes a brief description of the incident, the name of the airline involved, the date and location of the incident, the aircraft make, model and registration number, and the number of injuries. Descriptive records provide links to a more detailed account of the accident. Search by aircraft make, model or airline, as well as a variety of other criteria. 13 September 2005. Search for information about research projects that the National Science Foundation has funded since 1989. Covering both completed and in-process research, the database contains abstracts that describe the research and provide the names of principal investigators and their institutions. 20 March 2001. Revised 17 April 2008. The National Futures Association (NFA) offers a database of regulatory actions, NFA arbitration awards, and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) reparations cases against individuals and firms. Search by NFA ID number, individual or firm name, or pool name. Data under regulatory actions includes the contributor (e.g., CBOT, NYFE), case number, action type, effective date, violation(s) and penalty/fine. 8 February 2002. Revised 5 November 2004. The American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI) and the National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees (NABT) offer a database of information about asset sales from bankruptcy estates by bankruptcy trustees, debtors in possession, or others having the authority to sell such assets by the appropriate U.S. Bankruptcy Court. You can search by category (e.g., equipment, residential real estate, boats, etc.), location, keyword or expiration period. You cannot, however, combine these criteria. Information provided includes a description of the asset, sale date, terms and conditions, location, trustee contact information, bankruptcy case name and number, and date asset listing expires. 23 March 2004. BankruptcyData.com offers a database of information about major bankruptcies, which covers 1986 to present. Browse the database by company name, or search it by company name, assets, industry or date. The information provided for free includes company name, industry, coverage start date. For a fee, you can purchase related news stories, a company synopsis report, a report containing the largest claims and the bankruptcy petition. 8 February 2002. Revised 5 November 2004. Find a free bankruptcy search utility for finding select bankruptcies since 1986 that involve companies. Free information provided includes the name of the company, a brief description of its business type and the date coverage of the bankruptcy started. Paid subscribers can obtain news stories about the bankruptcy, a company profile, plan summary report, creditor's committees report, largest claims report and the bankruptcy filing.
Other information at the site includes a bankruptcy court directory, a glossary of bankruptcy terms, a U.S. trustee directory, news headlines pertaining to bankruptcy issues, a weekly newsletter and more.
9 August 2002. Revised 17 August 2006. Crime Time Publishing provides information about public records sources available on the Web. It covers state corporate records databases, databases for finding information about businesses, sources of addresses and phone numbers, databases containing incarceration data, sex offenders, and more. 13 February 2002. The Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) offers the text of current Business Review Letters as well as a digest of Letters dating back to 1968. The DOJ writes Business Review Letters in response to requests for information exchanges among competitors. 5 November 2002. Find gateway access to case information on civil and criminal matters in California appellate courts. Features include docket entries, trial court information (including case number), future scheduled actions, and if applicable, a link to the case on appeal in the Supreme Court. 15 March 2002. Revised 31 January 2003. Now available only to members of Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. (IRE), the database contains information about campaign contributions. Sources include the Federal Election Commission and several state campaign finance agencies. Find the name and geographic location (not street address) of donors, the amount of the donation, the name of the recipient, and date of the transaction. Useful investigative research features include a list of other individuals or organizations with similar names, the ability to hand pick sources, and the ability to search by a variety of criteria, including zip code, recipient, and more. 17 July 2002. Select one of two options for finding registered Canadian aircraft. The Current Register provides information about current registrations. The Historical Register covers registrations back to 1982. Search by owner (company, trademark, individual) or aircraft information to find current and historical information about the trademark, aircraft, and owner. Historical data includes previous owners. 31 May 2002. The Canadian Intellectual Property Office offers a database of copyrights "[r]egistered or [e]xpunged since October 1, 1991. In some cases registrations prior to 1991 were entered into the database due to requests for certified copies." Search by title, author, or other criteria to obtain the copyright record. 6 January 2003. Search for Canadian business corporations by company name or number. Data returned includes the business status, address on file, effective date of registration, directors names and addresses, and other information, if relevant. 26 March 2003. Revised 18 April 2008. Canadian governmental agency, Industry Canada, offers the Canadian Importers Database. Search by product, city or country of origin to find 2001 statistical data as well as major importers and their company addresses. The product search feature enables queries using the harmonized schedule codes. Industry Canada obtains the 2001 data from the Canada Customs Revenue Agency (Revenue Canada). 20 December 1999. Revised 17 October 2000. The Canadian Intellectual Property Office offers this database of applications and patents. 20 December 1999. Revised 17 October 2000. The Canadian Intellectual Property Office offers this database of trademark data. 20 February 2002. Revised 15 April 2005. This nonprofit organization conducts investigative research and reports on public policy issues in the United States and around the world. It offers a number of useful resources, including a guide to filing Freedom of Information requests (see Tools of the Trade, U.S. Public Records Law), a database of political committees registered under section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code, a database of information about prosecutor misconduct (Harmful Error), a database of outside interests reported by state legislators (State Lawmaker Assets), and more. You will also find news and commentary on a variety of issues. The Center publishes a newsletter and an RSS feed. 18 August 2004. The Defense Logistics Information Service, a division of the U.S. Department of Defense, provides a database of contractors registered to do business with the federal government. To find the database, click CCR Search in the left-side navigational menu on the home page. Search by a variety of criteria, including DUNS number, company name, SIC/NAICS code, and more. Database records contain DUNS number, CAGE/NCAGE code, legal name of business, DBA (doing business as), address, business start date, type of business entity, business grants, business products and services, and business contacts. 7 March 2002. Several law schools and the Electronic Frontier Foundation join to provide this database of cease & desist letters and information about intellectual property and free speech law. Browse by topic, or search the database, to find out who's sending and receiving cease & desist letters. The site uses the power of multimedia to link portions of the letters to relevant commentary. For example, it links any language that implies parody (e.g., "We have reviewed your website and have concluded that it incorporates the use and threat of violence towards the children’s character Barney without permission....") to the site's commentary about the legal definition of parody within the context of intellectual property. It also provides images of the original letter(s). While the database currently contains a small number of documents, it offers tremendous potential for investigative or legal research.
Those researching various intellectual property topics will like the links to related resources, news, and relevant cease & desist letters. 13 February 2002. Use the navigational menu on the left to find this section of the EPA Office of Pesticide Program's Web site. It contains indexes of cleared science reviews. Cleared science reviews contain information about pesticide studies, including toxicology, environmental fate and groundwater, ecological effects, and product chemistry. They are "cleared" of confidential business information. Select a chemical name to find an index of documents available under the Freedom of Information Act. 25 February 2002. Search for case information about open or closed (but not sealed) matters from Colorado district and county courts. Types of cases covered by the database include civil, domestic relations, water, traffic, small claims, as well as, felonies and misdemeanors. Searchers will not find cases pertaining to probate, mental health and juvenile matters. Nor will they find social security numbers or street addresses.
Other public records available at the site include business information records, divorces, marriages, UCC liens, and the Social Security Death Index. The Congressional Record records debate on the floor of Congress. Many times, Congressmen read a company's written remarks into the record. Find debate, select committee reports and bills, and commentary. GPO Access offers this information from 1994. 15 April 2002. Search for civil and family court matters by personal or business name. The database covers courts in several Connecticut counties, but does not specify years included. It provides the names of the parties, docket number, docket summary, case type, disposition date, date filed, attorneys, and more.
Update: 29 June 2005. The June 2005 issue of Public Records Update, a free monthly newsletter of BRB Publications, warns researchers about incomplete data at the Connecticut Judicial Civil Records Web site. The site states that it makes records available for up to 10 years. However, it periodically purges the database, and many "cases closed by settlement, dismissal, withdrawal, and even stipulated judgments may be removed from the website within a year after disposition." Recently, over half of the records in the database were purged, reducing the number from 309,000 to 145,000.
The caution should serve as another example of the importance of manual verification when you need a complete picture of a person's or business's litigation history. 8 January 2001. The Washington State Library, supported by various state organizations, offers this database of sources of consumer information. Search by keyword to find consumer protection information.
Tired of spam? Search "spam" without quotations to find numerous federal, Washington state, and private firm recommendations for dealing with junk e-mail. Trouble with a specific company? Search the company name to discover recalls and other consumer warnings and issues.
14 June 2004. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission offers a feed for current recalls. The feed displays the name of the relevant company and product and the description of the hazard. Link to the full text press release for more information about specific recalls. 5 June 2001. The Library of Congress offers an experimental Web-based database of copyright information. It does not yet replace the LOCIS System for advanced users available via Telnet.
The experimental project provides access to three types of copyright office records: registered works, serials (magazines, journals, newspapers, etc.) and documents (ownership transfers, name changes, etc.).
25 August 2003. A subscription-based weekly legal newsletter, Corporate Crime Reporter reports on lawsuits, agency actions and other events pertaining to corporate crime. Find a list of the top 100 corporations charged with crimes, hot documents (e.g., Martha Stewart indictment), interviews with white collar crime defense lawyers and others, news and more. Much of the information appearing on the Web site is free. 10 April 2007. The County of Sacramento, California, offers a food safety inspections database. Search by facility name or location to find the inspection reports. The database supports partial name searching. Information provided includes the name and address of the food facility, identification of any major violations, date of the last inspection or re-inspection and the period of closure (if applicable.) In addition, the food inspection report itself is available (in Adobe Acrobat format) for most inspections since July 1, 2002. 28 September 2000. LLRX.com offers search access to source information for federal and state court rules, forms and dockets. The database includes links to over 700 sources. Search by keyword (e.g., pennsylvania forms to find links to federal and state court forms), or browse by one or more of the following criteria: jurisdiction, document type, or state. The database returns links to credible sources that match your query.
A tremendous improvement over the former court rules guide, this resource is easy to use, uncluttered, and fast.
20 February 2003. Investigative Reporters & Editors, Inc. offers various government public records databases on CD-ROM to journalists or journalism organizations. Qualifying groups or individuals order the collection by phone or mail. Databases cover information like airplane service difficulty reports, storm events, FBI crime data, fatal highway accidents, problems with medical devices and federal contracts awarded to private companies. A 100-record free sample is available for each database. 29 October 2007. The Roanoke Times makes available databases containing public records or public information. Find information about public schools, civil and criminal cases, sex offenders, Roanoke city permits, lobbyists, restaurant inspections, disciplinary actions concerning doctors, historical weather data, and more.
The site offers an accompanying blog, called Datablog, and an RSS feed. The RSS feed contains updates from the blog. 26 March 2007. Asbury Park [NJ] Press offers a collection of databases compiled from public records and public information. All pertain to New Jersey residents, businesses, public employees or employees of businesses in the state. Find conviction records, death records, public sector contracts, property sales, teachers and school administrators, police and paid firefighters, Rutgers University employees, and more. 15 January 2008. Revised 16 January 2008. The News Journal of Wilmington, Delaware makes available this gateway page to both internal and external databases containing public records or public information of potential interest to residents. Databases available from the newspaper cover property records, crime locations, Delaware Psychiatric Center salary information, non-profit organizations, tax spending, obituaries, births, divorces, and more. There are also many links to external databases maintained by Delaware government agencies. 15 January 2008. The News Journal of Wilmington, Delaware makes available a database of data derived from the Delaware Division of Revenue (Department of Finance). You may search by name, city or zip code for information about business licenses. While you may limit queries by type of business, this feature did not work well for us.
The information provided includes the name of the business, it's street address, business category and trade name. Hyperlinked entries provide the license number and effective dates as well as a pinpoint location via Google Maps.
10 October 2001. Revised 23 April 2004. Companies House, an executive agency of the UK Department of Trade and Industry, makes available information extracted from the Register of Companies and Register of Disqualified Directors. It contains information about people disqualified from serving as company directors. Search by surname to find full name, aliases, address, date of birth, nationality, number of disqualified orders, dates covered by the orders and the reason for the disqualification. 21 October 2003. Revised 18 April 2008. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) offers a database of information about contract facilities. You may conduct a keyword search of the database or browse entries by facility name or location. Information provided includes the owner, location, type of facility (R&D, fabrication, nuclear, weapons manufacturing) and dates under contract. Two special features let you display 1) all the records in the database or 2) all records deleted from the database. VPOP Technologies, Inc. offers a great tool for common law trademark searching. Domain Surfer searches for word strings within a domain name. Unlike Whois, which limits domain name searching to exact matches, this tool finds matches buried within a domain. Domain Surfer provides results for registered domains in the .com, .net, and .org categories. It does not return results for domain with "on-hold" status. 3 November 2000. Revised 18 October 2001. The Center for Immigration Studies offers a database of information about businesses who the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has fined "for the knowing hire or continuing employment of illegal aliens. Employers fined exclusively for paperwork violations (improper record keeping) are not included." Database coverage ends in May 2000.
Search by business name, city, state, zip code, or date to find company name, address, amount fined, a brief description of the violation, and amount of the fine collected.
15 August 2002. Debtors, with the authorization of the Bankruptcy Court, make PDF images of their court filings available for free via this e-Law, LLC Web site. Revised 20 October 2006. Envirofacts permits searching of multiple EPA databases, many of which, offer information about companies. Databases include superfund and hazardous waste data, information about brownfields and water discharge, air releases, and more. 5 October 2000. Revised 16 August 2007. The Excluded Parties List Systems (EPLS) is the electronic version of the Lists of Parties Excluded from Federal Procurement and Nonprocurement Programs, which identifies those parties excluded throughout the U.S. Government (unless otherwise noted) from receiving federal contracts or certain types of federal financial or other assistance and benefits.
Maintained by the General Services Administration (GSA), EPLS "is the official government-wide system of records of debarments, suspensions and other exclusionary actions." You may search both active and archived actions. Search by name or a variety of other criteria. Results provide the name, type of exclusion, DUNS, if relevant, city and state, and action date/s. If you have a street address, you may verify that the resulting record matches that address. (However, the results do not show a street address.)
EPLS also lets you run a number of different reports; for instance, all exclusions involving companies in a particular state. 16 March 2004. Revised 18 April 2008. The European Commission offers this database of information about the biggest industrial polluters. The database covers the 15 member states as well as Norway and Hungary, and includes information current through 2001. You can search by a variety of criteria, but unless you use wildcards (*), searching is exact. Site documentation recommends right- and left-side truncation (e.g., *bayer*). Record details include company name, location, pollutants, emissions and satellite images (select records at this time). 25 May 2004. The Environmental Working Group's (EWG) Farm Subsidy Database contains information about U.S. Department of Agriculture direct payments to farmers under the farm subsidy program. It compiles and analyzes the data revealing a list of Fortune 500 companies that receive farm subsidies and recipients of $1 million or more. The latter list provides name, location and the amount of subsidies received since 1995 or 1996. You cannot search the database. You can only review the lists provided. 13 March 2003. Revised 18 April 2008. The National Aviation Safety Data Analysis Center of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) offers a database containing information about general aviation and commercial air carrier incidents since 1978. Data comes from several sources including incident reports on FAA Form 8020-5. Search by operator (includes airline names), or aircraft make or model, to find brief incident reports that include the date and location of the accident, the airline involved, the aircraft make and model, flight conditions and more. 10 October 2002. The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety offers this database containing reports about fatal accidents in workplaces. The reports come from "Coroners, Medical Examiners, Government Ministries, or any other body responsible for inquiry into occupational fatalities." To search for an individual or company by name, use the Subject field. Records contain the name and occupation of the deceased, the date, place, and cause of death, description of the accident, and other information. 8 April 2002. Revised 18 April 2008. Find a single interface to many of the Federal Communication Commission's licensing databases. Available databases include Universal Licensing System (ULS), Experimental, Cable Operations, Mass Media Bureau databases and the International Bureau licensing database. Searchers may query the databases by licensee name, callsign, state and county, latitude and longitude, or frequency range. 5 April 2006. The Federal Communication Commission provides a search interface for finding information filed by telecommunications companies on Form 499-A, the Telecommunications Reporting Worksheet. Search by any of the following criteria: FCC 499 filer identification number, company name, type of communications provider, state or FCC registration number. The information provided includes the company's name and business address, the jurisdictions where it provides telecommunications services, the names and business addresses of its officers, the company's designated agent for service of process and former business names. 11 October 2001. Revised 5 December 2003. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) offers a database of comments filed with the agency. Search by company name, law firm, attorney, location or other criteria to find public comments, including letters, notices, complaints, memorandum opinions and more, filed since 1992. 3 September 2003. Revised 18 April 2008. According to information available at the Web site of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), all businesses, "engaged in the manufacture, preparation, propagation, compounding, assembly, or processing of medical devices intended for human use and commercial distribution in the United States" must register with the FDA. Search by company name, registration number or owner/operator number to find contact information, registration number, type of operations, status, owner and official contact. 29 October 2001. The Food and Drug Administration offers several options for discovering recalls of food and drug products. To search product recalls by keyword, follow the Enforcement Report link from the left-hand menu. Enter a query as you would when using Google. The archive extends back to the early 1990s. 16 December 1999. Revised 8 August 2003. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) offers databases containing information about individual banks and the banking industry. Find the status of insured depository institutions, their financial condition and their condition relative to other institutions. Specific databases include the Institution Directory, Call and Thrift Financial Reports, FDIC/OTS Summary of Deposits, Deposit Market Share Report, Trust Institutions Information, Bank and Thrift Rating Services for Consumers, Uniform Bank Performance Reports (UBPR), FDIC Enforcement Decisions and Orders, Final Orders from the Board of Directors, Merger Decisions, FDIC Failed Financial Institution Information and Reports of Changes to Financial Institutions and Offices. Also find applications for profiling the banking industry and analyzing national and regional trends, summaries of financial data and historical studies. 4 January 2006. The FDIC Institution Directory provides the latest comprehensive financial and demographic data for every FDIC-insured institution, including the most recent quarterly financial statements, with performance and condition ratios. You will find the date the institution was established, the date it was insured, its headquarters location, number of branches and Web site. There are separate search interfaces for easy bank look-up (Bank Find), finding holding companies, finding FDIC insured banks and thrifts and finding branch offices. 19 July 2007. Watchdog organization, Project On Government Oversight (POGO), makes available this database of reports on misconduct involving the top 50 federal contractors. It covers the years 1995 to the present and provides the source documents for each instance of misconduct.
Reports contain the contractor's name and address, a brief statement about the company, the amount of federal contract money award, the number of instances of misconduct, the total amount of money involved in the misconduct, links to various relevant documents (e.g., the company's 10-k and Web site), a description of each instance of misconduct along with the cited reference, copies of POGO's correspondence with the contractor, and links to descriptions of pending cases that are not counted as instances of misconduct.
Researchers should note that the database is limited to information on 50 companies. 15 March 2002. The Campaign Finance Information Center offers this database of federal contract awards. Search by company name or country to find businesses awarded federal contracts as well as information about the company, the contract award, and the company's campaign contributions. Follow this link to find the government's official site for federal regulations. Coverage includes 1994 to present. 27 March 2002. Revised 28 February 2005. The Federal Reserve makes available this utility for obtaining information about Fedwire participants. Fedwire is the Federal Reserve Banks' electronic funds transfer network. It "is usually used to transfer large amounts of funds and U.S. government securities from one institution's account at the Federal Reserve to another institution's account." (Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco)
You may search for Fedwire participants by name, location or routing number. Results provide the name of the authorized institution, its location, routing number, telegraphic name and eligibility for specific types of transfers. 4 January 2006. The Federal Reserve enables searching for information about financial institutions. Search by name or location to find basic information, such as the institution's legal name, address and type as well as the regulating agency and parent company. A pull-down menu beneath the institution's basic information lets you display public filings, such as balance sheets, assets and liabilities, income statements and more. 26 July 2006. Researcher Tamara Thompson outlines what is available at the Web site of the National Archives for finding information about people in the military. She links to select resources. 24 June 2003. Florida's Clerks of Court provide subscriber and non-subscriber search access to civil case information, and other official records, in several, but not all, Florida counties. Search individual county courts or all available courts. Data provided includes the parties, filing date, county, type of document and more. Because the research system covers more than civil litigation, you can use it to find deeds, incorporations, death certificates, liens and more. You can also order certified or non-certified copies online. 25 June 2002. FOI Services, Inc., a document retrieval company specializing in the retrieval of Food & Drug Administration (FDA) documents under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), offers a searchable library of over 150,000 documents it has collected since its inception during 1975. Search the library for free. Purchase individual documents, many of which are available online. To find FOIA documents pertinent to specific companies, query the company name omitting inc, co, ltd, etc. Database coverage includes documents pertaining to drugs, devices, food, veterinary medicine, and biologics, guidelines, inspection reports, and Espicom Market Research Reports. 4 October 2007. The National Institute on Money in State Politics makes available information on campaign finance at the state level. It develops searchable databases and analyzes the information to determine the role campaign money plays in public policy debates in the states. It also publishes studies and provides technical assistance and training to reporters, academic researchers and public interest groups that work on state policy issues.
A search box on the home page lets you display political giving at a glance by choosing a state and election year. You may narrow the query by candidate, contributor or special interest group. 12 February 2002. After registering with freeERISA.com, search this database to find information pertaining to requests to terminate qualified retirement plans. 1 October 2001. The Federal Trade Commission offers a database of registration numbers issued by the Commission, "upon request, to a business residing in the U.S. that is engaged in the manufacture, importing, distribution, or sale of textile, wool, or fur products." Query the database by registration number, company name, state of incorporation, and various other criteria. This is the authoritative site for federal congressional and regulatory information. Search for pending legislation, recently enacted public laws, and more. Also find the Congressional Record, Federal Register, and United States Code. 27 October 2000. The General Services Administration offers a database of contract awards information. Find "basic ordering guidelines, complete schedule listings, and a[n] ... engine which allows you to search by keyword text, schedule number, special item number (SIN), contractor name and contract number. The Schedules E-LIBRARY is updated daily to provide you with the latest award information." Contractor information includes business name and description, address, phone, email, Web address, schedule number, contract number, expiration date, and Special Item Number(s). 14 February 2002. Revised 18 April 2008. Find current, proposed, and Federal Reserve Board (FRB) holding companies. Search by holding company name, location, or other criteria to find holding company name, parent company, address, supervisory region, holding company type, public trade type, and other information. The database is updated daily. 28 February 2005. The U.S. Fire Administration maintains a database of fire-safe hotels and motels. Intended for government workers traveling on official business, it lists public accommodations that adhere to the life safety requirements in accordance with the Hotel and Motel Fire Safety Act of 1990. You may search by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) identification number, type of property, property name or location. Results provide the business name, street address, number of floors, FEMA ID, property type, phone, fax, e-mail contact and Web site address. It sometimes notes additional fire safety features, such as the availability of a sprinkler system. ( 6 August 2003. The National Library of Medicine offers this database of information about household products. Based on the 2001 Consumer Product Information Database by DeLima Associates, it provides the chemical ingredients and health effects of common household brands. Search or browse by brand name, manufacturer, CAS Registry Number, chemical ingredient, health effect (e.g., headache) or type of product to find detailed information about the product and its manufacturer, health effects, handling and disposal and chemical ingredients. 18 May 2004. Case information aggregator Judici offers free and commercial search services for Illinois courts. For free, searchers can access and search one court at a time (see Participating Courts) to find criminal and civil case files. Currently, the site provides access to about 15 county courts in Illinois. Coverage varies from court to court, but averages from the late 1980s to present. Search by case number or party name. You can also limit the number of results by keyword in the description of the charge. Information provided includes case number, party name, date of birth, disposition, case type, judge, last known address, fines and fees and more. Paid subscribers can search all courts simultaneously and receive case updates and other services. 17 November 2005. This search engine enables searching for jobs by company name, location, job title or keyword. To search by company name, use the company qualifier (company:). Like this: company:ballard spahr. 14 February 2002. Find institutions regulated by the Office of Thrift Supervision. These include state and federal stock and mutual associations. Search by name, location, assets, or other criteria to find name, address, docket number, officer name, title, and address, charter type, assets, fax number, and other data. The database is updated daily. 29 June 2004. U.S. Customs and Border Protection makes available a database of intellectual property rights recordations. Search by keyword, owner, product, lawyer or law firm or other criteria to find trademarks, copyrights or patents recorded by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The search results display in a table, which reveals effective dates, service product name, service or product description, owner, filing contact and firm, recordation number and type of recordation. You can limit search results to trademarks, copyrights, patents or exclusion orders. You can also exclude expired recordations. 12 September 2002. Globe Business Publishing Ltd, a publishing company that specializes in information for the global legal community, offers a deals database. Search for deals announced since 1 January 2001. Search by law firm, lawyer, deal type, company, industry, type of work (e.g., banking, commercial property, etc.), value, date, or keywords to find a brief description of the deal, companies involved, the legal advisors, the value of the deal, and the date announced. 15 January 2008. The University of Maryland and the Maryland Technology Development Corp. offer a database on technologies available for commercialization from academic institutions, federal research facilities and private companies in Maryland, D.C., and Virginia. Search by keyword or institution to find descriptive summaries of the available technologies. Summaries are available as Web pages or in PDF. 15 February 2002. Revised 17 April 2008. The Iowa judiciary offers case information from civil, criminal, probate, and traffic courts in all of its counties and from appellate courts. System documentation indicates coverage runs from 1997 to present, but the sample queries I ran found many cases dating farther back. 3 September 2003. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) enables searching and downloading political organization disclosure forms 8871, 8872 and 990. Search by organization name or employer identification number (EIN) to find organization name, employer identification number, address, email contact, custodian name, name change history and a listing of forms filed. Advanced search features include left and right truncation (e.g., *democrat*), phrase searching and Boolean. 25 June 2007. Writing for the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism at Arizona State University, Bill Smith explains how to use form 990s to find key information about non-profit organizations. His advice includes useful tips, such as the following: "Usually high fundraising expenses can signal that a nonprofit relies too heavily on outside telemarketers or direct mail fundraisers to raise money for their operations, leaving little for their actual programs." 16 January 2003. The Institute of Industrial Relations at the University of California, Berkeley, offers this Web site containing the full-text of select labor union contracts. Review available contracts by state, union, or represented occupation. All contracts appear in PDF. 28 August 2000. Revised 25 June 2004. This subscription-based site provides a portal to case information and court docket systems for federal, state and local courts in the United States. It covers civil and criminal courts. Find online access to court docket sheets, basic case information, court calendars, opinions, orders, decisions, inmate information and document images. It also offers a Weblog on electronic filing and public records retrieval. 8 November 2007. The Citizen Media Law Project, jointly affiliated with Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society and the Center for Citizen Media, makes available a database of information about legal threats. Threats include intellectual property infringement lawsuits, cease and desist letters, defamation actions, civil rights actions, and more. You may search by a variety of criteria including the type of threat, the parties involved, lawyers' names, verdict or settlement amounts, jurisdiction (not limited to the U.S.), Web sites involved, keyword and more. The information provided includes all the above that is relevant as well as the current status and a summary of the threat. 10 January 2008. Advocating for transparency in government, LegiStorm makes available several potentially useful databases. The Salary Database contains salaries from 2003 to 2007 on congressional staffers. You can't query the database, but you may browse it by the name of the staff person, representative, senator, congressional committee, leadership office, administrative office or state. The site obtains the data "from the official record books: the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House reports."
The Travel Database "provides a unique window into how private organizations are trying to gain influence in Washington." You may browse or query this database. Search fields include the name of the staff person, trip dates, approving party, sponsor, destination, and more. Search results provide this information as well as a PDF copy of the original trip form (registration required for access).
A third feature, labeled, The Score, "allows you to track the latest happenings on the House and Senate floors, as well as upcoming floor debates and committee hearings."
Note: Use of the site is currently free. Some access requires registration. A note in the field by registering the user's email address indicates future fee-based access is planned. Find analyst reports, company profiles, information about mergers and acquisitions, and more. Try the Company Library. 6 September 2000. Revised 18 April 2008. Exclusively available via LexisNexis (fee-based), CourtLink eAccess provides electronic access to court records in over 4,000 federal, state and local courts. CourtLink eFile - now available in 90 courts - provides online filing services. 18 June 2007. Revised 19 June 2007. LOUIS, which stands for Library Of Unified Information Sources, is a new search engine for finding documents generated by the federal government. Currently, you may query the full-text of 7 categories of documents simultaneously - congressional reports, the Congressional Record, congressional hearings, the Federal Register, presidential documents, GAO Reports, and bills and resolutions. LOUIS updates its database daily from the Government Printing Office (GPO). Date covered is not specified at the site, but it appears to be from 2001 to present. 28 February 2006. Revised 10 March 2008. The Maryland Judiciary makes available information on traffic, criminal and civil cases from state District and Circuit courts. Date coverage varies by jurisdiction. While Circuit court update frequency is almost immediate, there is a delay for Baltimore City, Montgomery and Prince George's counties. Search by name or case number to find full name, date of birth (when available), court, case type and filing date. Click the case number for more information. 12 February 2004. The Supreme Judicial Court and Appeals Court of Massachusetts offers this single search interface to publicly available cases. Search by docket number, party, attorney, originating court or originating court judge to find appellate case information and court docket sheets. 18 April 2002. The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) offers a database containing summary reports of adverse events involving medical devices. Search by brand, manufacturer, keyword, or other criteria to find summaries of incidents involving medical devices. Updated quarterly, the database includes voluntary reports received since June 1993, user facility reports from 1991, distributor reports from 1993, and manufacturer reports from August 1996. 18 April 2002. Subtitled The FDA Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program, MedWatch provides clinical information about safety issues involving medical products, including prescription and over-the-counter drugs, biologics, medical and radiation-emitting devices, and, special nutritional products (e.g., medical foods, dietary supplements and infant formulas). Browse or search the safety alerts. For research pertaining to companies, try searching the company name. The site also offers an email alert service that summarizes new safety issues. 12 March 2008. The Internet Archive maintains this collection of archival content from the Web sites of Michigan government agencies as well as from the Web sites of the legislative and judicial branches. Archival coverage begins with January 2007. Search it by keyword or URL, or follow the advanced search link for more options. When using the advanced search feature, be sure to limit the institution to the Michigan Department of History, Arts and Libraries and the collection to Michigan Government Web Collection. A keyword RSS feed for monitoring search results is available.
Please note the cautions about technical issues with this collection as posted on the collection home page. These include "due to technical issues certain links in the Michigan Courts collection may take the user to active web pages. A yellow banner at the top of the page will identify archived pages." Additionally, "[t]he search feature in the Michigan Legislature collection does not function. Links to other pages and documents in the collection do work. Copies of bills are not included in this collection." And, "[t]he keyword search capability for this collection is minimal. Users are encouraged to access information via URL." 16 January 2002. The National Abandoned Property Processing Corporation (NAPPCO) offers a database of unclaimed property records from participating states. It claims to be the official site of the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA). Search by individual or company name, or SSN, to find listings of unclaimed property. As the site notes, not all states provide such information. 15 February 2002. Revised 17 April 2008. Find case information from civil, criminal, probate, and traffic courts in many Missouri counties as well as from the State's appellate courts.
12 March 2008. The Internet Archive maintains this collection of archival content from the Web sites of Montana state agencies as well as the Web sites of the legislative and judicial branches. Search it by keyword or URL, or follow the advanced search link for more options. When using the advanced search feature, be sure to limit the institution to the Montana State Library and the collection to Archive Montana. A keyword RSS feed for monitoring search results is available. 25 February 2000. This site provides one of the few domain name search engines that retrieves .edu registrations in addition to the usual, .com, .org, and .net. It also found possible matches when I entered a phrase rather than a string of characters (e.g., enter virtual chase instead of virtualchase). n@medroppers.com also searches for matching strings within a domain name, something Whois alone cannot achieve (e.g., finds domains like businessresearcher.com upon a search for researcher).
As if these features aren't sufficient, the site offers an advanced query page whereby researchers may exclude terms (e.g., search for law within a domain name, but not lawyer or lawyers).
Upon finding a match, researchers may then click on the Whois link to read the domain registration record.
10 March 2005. The consumer Web site of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) provides a feature for finding basic information about insurance companies, the complaints filed against them, and their finances. Search by company name and state to find basic company information (name, business type, home office and NAIC number), as well as three reports. The reports provide the number of closed complaints against the company, where it is licensed to do business, and information about finances. Basic financial information includes the total amount of premiums written, assets and liabilities. You may also obtain a more detailed profile, which includes the business's state of domicile, federal employer identification number (FEIN), telephone and three-year income/loss trend. Also available are PDF images of financial pages from a company's annual statement. 13 September 2004. Revised 18 April 2008. The National Association of Securities Dealers provides this resource for obtaining information about the professional background, registration/license statuses and conduct of NASD registered firms and their registered brokers. The information comes from the Central Registration Depository (CRD) as reported on the industry registration/licensing forms--Form U-4 and Form BD. Review items 10-12 in the site's Terms of Use for details about what will be disclosed. Note the limitation, which states information is provided on individuals "for two years after the termination of the individual's NASD registration." Information on firms is provided indefinitely. According to criticism of the upgraded system published in the San Francisco Chronicle, information about "old complaints ... are limited to the ones that were archived starting Monday [19 March 2007], the implementation date of the BrokerCheck upgrade." 26 March 2002. Revised 18 April 2008. Described as a "draft database," the NDC Vaccine Database provides manufacturer and bar coding information about vaccines. Discover manufacturers, brand names, bar codes, dosage units, FDA approval date, discontinuation date, and more. Note that the database was last updated over one year ago. 25 March 2002. Revised 17 April 2008. Search for information about civil, criminal, and traffic court cases in district and magistrate courts in New Mexico. The system also provides docket sheets and covers cases initiated from 1997 to present. Some older cases also appear in the database. Some records contain dates of birth. The database permits searching by SSN and driver's license number. 10 December 2007. The New York State Office of the Attorney General provides a one-search interface for finding state campaign finance information, lobbyists, corporations and other registered businesses, state-funded projects, charities and state contracts. Search by keyword, which may include the name of a person or company or a descriptive word. Tabbed results provide information in each category, when relevant. The keyword search feature is a partial matching search, meaning that the word you enter may be found in its entirety or as part of another word. 16 April 2008. The State of New York offers a database of licensing and public disciplinary actions on physicians. Search by full or partial name, medical practice type, hospital or office location. The database initially returns the full name of the doctor, the practice location, and field of medicine. Click the doctor's name to his/her NYS license number, date of licensing, education, board certifications, hospital privileges, Medicaid/Medicare availability, legal actions, professional activities (such as teaching), and more. 16 April 2008. Find an index to New York State-sponsored databases and Web sites with professional licensing or public disciplinary information. Currently, the list includes access to information on physicians, insurance agents and brokers, teachers, emergency medical personnel, horse racing professionals, and more. 24 June 2003. New York's Future Court Appearance System lets you search for pending civil matters in several New York county courts. Search by plaintiff, defendant, court number, lawyer or law firm name to find case information and references to documents filed. Some detail is also provided. Full text opinions are available for select counties. Revised 18 April 2008. Search for National Labor Relations Board decisions involving companies from 1996 to present. 25 March 2002. Search by name or zip code to find drunk driving cases. The database provides the name of the defendant, defendant's address, date of birth, court date, case number, citation number, and offense code and description.
I found no information about database coverage. The database appears to include only active cases. 12 March 2008. The Internet Archive with collaboration from The State Library of North Carolina and the North Carolina State Archives maintains archival content from the Web sites of North Carolina State Government Agencies, Occupational Licensing Boards, and Commissions. This collection includes many different types of records, in a variety of file formats (such as text-based information, images, and video and audio files) including meeting minutes, policies, and agency publications.
Search it by keyword or URL, or follow the advanced search link for more options. When using the advanced search feature, be sure to limit the institution to the North Carolina State Archives and the collection to either North Carolina Boards and Commissions, North Carolina Council of State Web, or the North Carolina State Government Web Site, depending on your interest. A keyword RSS feed for monitoring search results is available. 21 January 2004. The National Response Center (NRC) enables searching for information about oil and chemical spills nationwide. Coverage appears to be from the mid-1980s to present, although site documentation indicates that you can download annual data beginning in 1982 for off line viewing. Search by a variety of criteria, including the incident date, location or responsible company, to find matching reports. Reports include a description of the incident, the party suspected as responsible for the incident, the location, the materials released and more. Two separate report options exist--standard and drill--with no clear distinction between the two. Sample searches generated different results. 8 December 2005. The National Transportation Safety Board makes available a database of safety recommendations concerning incidents since 1967 that involve aviation, highway, marine, railroad or other modes of transportation. Search by a variety of criteria to find information about specific incidents, including the status of the investigation, mode of transportation, incident date, investigation close date, location, a brief description of the incident and the Board's safety recommendation. 3 October 2005. The New York State Attorney General provides search access to a registry of approximately 50,000 non-profit entities that are required to register with the state. Search by organization name, New York registration number or employer identification number (EIN) to find a firm's name, address, county, EIN, state registration number, annual filing date, registration type and status. 6 August 2003. The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene offers a database in city restaurant inspection information for establishments in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island. Search by neighborhood or restaurant name to find information about cited violations. Database records also include a phone number for ordering copies of the full inspection report. 25 January 2002. The Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services makes available this database containing information about individuals and entities that are excluded from participation in Medicare, Medicaid, and other Federal health care programs. Search by a variety of criteria including name, specialty, and location. A new database feature lets researchers verify an individual's identity by entering a social security number. 15 February 2002. Find case information and dockets for appellate and district courts served by the Oklahoma Court Information System. The system provides information for civil, criminal, probate, traffic and other types of cases. Also use this system to find information about marriage and drivers licenses, tax liens, workers compensation claims, and more. 5 June 2002. The Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) offers this database of union annual financial reports. It contains PDF images of reports filed during 2000 and later. The site also offers an online order form for requesting copies of earlier (or current) reports.
The layout of the site is a bit confusing. Find the search criteria at the bottom of the page that loads after following this link: "View/Print Reports Online for the Year 2000 and After." Those wanting older reports should also follow this link. To order an older report, you must have the union's file number. Find it by performing a search using criteria you know. Following the "order" link will produce an error until you have the file number.
Once you locate the union, follow the date link to display the annual report. Annual reports may provide such information as the name of the union representative, mailing address, telephone, number of members, date of last annual election, dues, assets, liabilities, cash receipts, loans, officers and their compensation, charitable contributions and gifts, office expenses, and more. 21 August 2006. The Society of Professional Journalists offers this freedom of information resource, which attempts to address common questions such as how FOI laws work or how they apply to specific situations. To that end, you will find a series of Q&A's on FOI concepts and laws, a report on the role of FOI in daily news coverage, a list of specific subjects applicable to FOI laws and where to find the corresponding records, and FOI resources. While designed especially for journalists, anyone searching for public information will find the resource useful. 24 October 1996. Revised 4 October 2007. The Center for Responsive Politics offers a Web site for discovering lobbyists, campaign financial data, soft money contributions, contribution profiles for presidential candidates, and more. Click the Databases tab to find personal financial disclosures, lobbyists, trips taken by congressmen and their staff, advocacy groups (527 committees) and PACs (political action committees). 22 March 2001. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration offers a database of accident investigation summaries. Search by company name, or other criteria (e.g., all fatalities in the Philadelphia region), to find information about OSHA inspections from July 1972 to present. Data includes all data from the Establishment Search database plus details about the accident including the date of the accident, date the file opened, description of the accident, as well as the age, sex and degree of injury sustained by the employee. 22 March 2001. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration offers a database of enforcement inspection information. Search by company name to find information about OSHA inspections from July 1972 to present. Data includes company name, address, and SIC, union status, date file opened, date file closed, inspection type, issue, violation summary, violation details, and penalty. Revised 5 September 2003. Listen to digital recordings of U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments or review the biographies of the 100+ justices that have served on the Supreme Court. The site also provides news concerning the U.S. Supreme Court and a listing of cases argued but not decided. Search or browse the site's collection of U.S. Supreme Court cases to find an abstract of a case, its participants (justices, attorneys), audio files (if available) of the oral argument and oral opinion, a transcript of the oral argument (if available) and a link to the written opinion at FindLaw. Recently, the site announced that it was converting many of the audio tapes to MP3 files. 3 October 2005. The Pennsylvania Department of States provides search access to its database of more than 8,000 registered charities and professional solicitors and counsels. Search by organization name, employer identification number (EIN), zip code or city to find a firm's name, address, phone, state registration number, EIN and select financial data. The financial data comes from official forms filed with the IRS or the state agency. 15 February 2007. The Pennsylvania Department of Revenue publishes a list of companies and individuals who are delinquent in paying sales or employer withholding tax. The list is compiled from liens filed in the respective county of the individual or company listed. You may browse the list by lien amount or county. It includes the name of the company or individual, city or town, county in which the lien is filed and the lien amount. 2 November 2007. The Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs of the Pennsylvania Department of State provides an index to disciplinary or corrective measures taken by 27 state professional licensing boards and commissions. The listing includes actions taken against charitable organizations and notaries public. It covers 1999 to present.
Unfortunately, there is no database to search. However, a site search will return documents from this list. 12 February 2004. The Pennsylvania Unified Judicial System provides a single search interface to the case information and docket sheets of select courts in the state. First, choose whether you want to search select Courts of Common Pleas or appellate courts (Supreme, Superior, Commonwealth). Search by docket number or court and at least one of a variety of other criteria. Results appear in a small table at the bottom of the page. You click the "select" link next to the docket number in the results table to display the docket sheet. It loads in a separate window. Make sure you turn off any pop-up blockers. 12 February 2002. After registering with freeERISA.com, generate a list of companies with defined benefit pension plans that they have elected to terminate. The data is available from July 1999. 30 April 2002. The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) offers this database containing summaries of premarket approvals. Regulated Class III devices, under section 515 of the Medical Device Amendments Act of 1976, require premarket approval by the FDA. Search by applicant, trade name, or other criteria to find summaries of premarket approvals. Some summaries contain links to PDF copies of the approval order, summary of safety and effectiveness, labeling, and other consumer information. 30 April 2002. The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) offers this database containing summaries of premarket notifications (PMNs). PMNs notify the FDA about a manufacturer's intent to introduce a device into commercial distribution for the first time, or to reintroduce a device that will be changed or modified to the extent that its safety or effectiveness could be affected. Many records contains links to a PDF copy of the 501k notification. Search by applicant, device, or other criteria. This treatise-like Web site from by the Federal Trade Commission offers forms, instructions, regulations, the Hart-Scott-Rodino statute, interpretations, early termination notices, and more.
17 November 2005. The Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism at the American Press Institute makes available an outline of a workshop on finding information about private companies. It goes over the basics and then goes into detail about public record sources. It also covers a handful of media, activist and consumer sources. 19 April 2004. The Trumbull Group enables finding case information, documents, claims and related debtors for bankruptcies for which it serves as claims agent. Select from a pull-down menu of available bankruptcies. You can narrow the search for information by creditor name, claim number or other features. Case information includes the name of the debtor, name and phone number of the analyst, assigned judge, filing date, debtor's attorneys, U.S. trustee, court and claims agent. 2 June 2003. BRB Publications, a publisher specializing in public records research, offers several free public records research services. Find a list of Web sites providing free public record data, a database of people across the nation who retrieve public records, a database of firms with automated information sources that compile, or conduct research in, public records, and more. 7 August 2006. Developed by RAND, in cooperation with the National Science Foundation, RaDiUS is a database of federally-funded research and development activities in the U.S. Search by keyword and year to find descriptions of research grant awards. Details include a description of the award or task, the type of funding, estimated start and end dates, the performing institution and its type and location, contact information and the amount of the award. You may download the information to a spreadsheet or as a Word document. 14 December 2001. The EPA Office of Solid Waste (OSW) offers this database of letters, memoranda, publications, and other commentary. The documents represent EPA "interpretations of the RCRA regulations governing the management of solid, hazardous, and medical waste." Document sources include OSW correspondence letters and memoranda, RCRA Permit Policy Compendium guidance documents, and Monthly Call Center Report Q&As. Search by pre-established topic or a variety of other criteria. Bibliographic records link to full-text documents. 21 January 2004. The Office of Defects Investigation of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration offers several search options for finding recalls concerning motor vehicles, child safety devices, tires and related equipment. For automobiles, coverage of select vehicles extends back to 1949. School bus recalls go back to 1997 and child safety seat recalls go back to 1990. You can also find information about current and past investigations of vehicles, tires and equipment. Coverage of these investigations extends back to 1972. 21 October 2003. Self-help legal publisher Nolo and Justia, provider of legal information for consumers, sponsor this site, which provides information on product recalls and consumer alerts. You can search for recalls or browse the site's index of 400 categories and subcategories. Sources include the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, the Food Safety and Inspection Service and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The site also offers an email alerting service. ( 22 May 2000. Revised 25 October 2001. The Center for Responsive Politics offers a database containing information about registered lobbyists. Find out who lobbies by company name or individual name. Discover how much companies pay lobbyists over a six month period.
Discover newer registrations at the FECInfo site. FECInfo obtains new registrations from the U.S. Secretary of Senate's Public Records Office. Although not searchable, researchers may obtain listings by industry or posting date of registration.
18 November 2002. Maryland attorney Terry Berger maintains this list of links to sites providing business status and registered agent information. The list also includes useful contact information for some states. 15 April 2002. Search by name (full, partial, or phonetic) to find felonies, misdemeanors, traffic and other violations. Results include defendant name, aliases, criminal identification number, charges, date of birth, arresting agency, plea, disposition date, sentencing, judge, and more. The site offers no information about database years of coverage. 13 March 2001. Find environmental civil docket information. Search by facility name or location (zip code) or defendant; or create a docket list by law violated, specific violation, or type of administrative action. 16 March 2004. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides this database containing information about public water systems and violations of EPA drinking water regulations. The violation history covers 1993 to present. Search by location or water system identification number. General information provided includes the name of the water system, county served, population served, water source, system status and identification number. Violation details include the type of violation (health or reporting violation), significance, occurrence dates, contaminant and violation code. 2 December 2004. The Department of Transportation (DOT) offers this Web site for consumers. It provides detailed safety information about passenger vehicles, including crash test data and rollover ratings, links to information on defects and recalls, and answers to frequently asked questions. Crash test date goes back to 1991 and rollover ratings start in 2001. This Web site contains summaries of the information, but also provide links to DOT databases for more detailed reports. 28 June 2002. Revised 18 November 2005. Developed and maintained by the Volpe Center for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, SafeStat Online provides a snapshot of a motor carrier's safety record. It covers motor carriers in the U.S. and its territories, Canada, Mexico, Central America and U.S. territories (American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands). Search by carrier name or other criteria. Obtain information about the carrier. Information about its safety rating, accidents, moving violations and vehicle inspections has been temporary removed because of concerns about the accuracy of the data. The Environmental Defense Fund offers this resource for discovering major pollutants by geographic location or company name. 13 December 2004. Major department store Sears provides access to archival materials, including news stories, product and brand histories, photographs and catalog images. The archive dates back to 1886, when co-founder Richard Sears sold some watches that had been rejected by a local jeweler. Visitors can search the archive by keyword. The Securities and Exchange Commission offers litigation releases, administrative proceedings, notices about trading suspensions, investor alerts, and more. 23 October 2007. The site comprises a collection of links to state corporation search pages. Click the relevant state name to jump directly to the page where you can search for information about business entities.
At the bottom of the page, you will also find direct links for select people search tools as well as a search box for querying Google. This EPA database offers environmental data on several industries including petroleum refining, iron and steel, primary smelting and refining of nonferrous metals, pulp manufacturing, and automobile assembly. Within the database are statistics and other data about specific companies. 5 September 2003. Created and maintained by the library staff at Stanford Law School, this site offers the full text of complaints, briefs, court decisions and other filings dealing with federal class action securities fraud litigation. It also provides related news headlines, reports (statistics), articles, information about settlements and more. You may browse by company name (other indexes available). Or search the database by litigant name, ticker symbol, court or date (month and year). Google powers a site search feature for finding filings by keyword. Revised 14 November 2003. Created by Congress during 1970, the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) works to restore funds to investors with assets in bankrupt or otherwise financially troubled brokerage firms. It provides information about filing claims and protecting yourself against fraud as well as new, open and closed SIPC cases. 4 June 2002. SEDAR is the Canadian Securities Administrators' System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval. Search for filings by public companies or mutual funds. Also obtain company and mutual fund profiles. Profiles link directly to all the business' filings available in the database.
Another feature lets researchers retrieve new filings of various types, including, takeover bids, press releases, and more. 17 June 2002. Discover a company's benefit plan service providers. Find ERISA counsel, medical providers, trustees, investment managers, accountants, and more. The database contains data from Schedule C, which employers must file "for plans with 100 or more participants, [provided] the plan paid $5,000 or more to any service provider." 23 June 2004. Activist groups Environmental Working Group and EWG Action Fund offer a database of information about the harmful effects of skin products. Search by product, including the brand name, product category (e.g., hair care) or ingredient to find information about safety concerns. Safety concerns include the use of ingredients that pose cancer risks, contain harmful impurities or penetration enhancers, are known allergens or present some other health or safety concern. 12 March 2008. The Internet Archive maintains 3 collections (This resource is one of them.) of archival content from the Web sites of the South Carolina state government. This collection provides archival access to the Web sites of cabinet agencies.
Search each by keyword or URL, or follow the advanced search link for more options. When using the advanced search feature, be sure to limit the institution to the South Carolina Department of Archives and History and the collection to South Carolina State Government Cabinet Agencies and Misc Sites, South Carolina State Government Web Archive (A-L) or South Carolina State Government Web Archive (M-Z), depending on your interest. A keyword RSS feed for monitoring search results is available. 12 March 2008. The Internet Archive maintains 3 collections (This resource is one of them.) of archival content from the Web sites of the South Carolina state government. This collection provides archival access to the Web sites of state agencies (A-L), but not including cabinet agencies. It appears to contain some legislative and judicial archives as well as some overlap with the M-Z archive.
Search each by keyword or URL, or follow the advanced search link for more options. When using the advanced search feature, be sure to limit the institution to the South Carolina Department of Archives and History and the collection to South Carolina State Government Cabinet Agencies and Misc Sites, South Carolina State Government Web Archive (A-L) or South Carolina State Government Web Archive (M-Z), depending on your interest. A keyword RSS feed for monitoring search results is available. 12 March 2008. The Internet Archive maintains 3 collections (This resource is one of them.) of archival content from the Web sites of the South Carolina state government. This collection provides archival access to the Web sites of state agencies (M-Z), but not including cabinet agencies. It appears to contain some legislative and judicial archives as well as some overlap with the A-L archive.
Search each by keyword or URL, or follow the advanced search link for more options. When using the advanced search feature, be sure to limit the institution to the South Carolina Department of Archives and History and the collection to South Carolina State Government Cabinet Agencies and Misc Sites, South Carolina State Government Web Archive (A-L) or South Carolina State Government Web Archive (M-Z), depending on your interest. A keyword RSS feed for monitoring search results is available. 12 March 2008. The Internet Archive maintains this collection of archival content from the Web sites of South Dakota state government agencies, boards and commissions. Search it by keyword or URL, or follow the advanced search link for more options. When using the advanced search feature, be sure to limit the institution to the South Dakota State Archives and the collection to Higher Education, Legislative Research Council, or State Agencies, depending on your interest. A keyword RSS feed for monitoring search results is available. Find out which companies appear on the National Priorities List (NPL). Locate current CERCLIS or RODS information. Obtain site reports and more. 29 April 2000. Revised 18 April 2008. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's trademark database provides access to pending, registered, and dead federal trademarks. Various search options exist, including keyword searching, Boolean, and field searching. The site offers good help documentation, which is well worth reading. It also documents known problems with the database. While TESS provides potential trademark owners with a free option for conducting preliminary trademark research, it is not an easy database to use. Nor does it always provide consistent results. Revised 18 April 2008. Created by the Library of Congress, Thomas offers an alternative legislative and regulatory information source to GPO Access. The site provides bill summaries and status as well as the complete text of legislation. It provides access to public laws, the Congressional Record, Congressional committee reports, and numerous historical documents including The Federalist Papers, the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and papers from the Continental Congress and Constitutional Convention. 12 November 2002. FreeErisa.com introduces a new database containing basic information about top hat plans. According to the site, "Top Hat plans are unfunded plans maintained by employers primarily for the purpose of providing deferred compensation for a select group of management or highly compensated employees." Search by partial company name and state or zip code to find companies offering such plans, their city and state, the number of plans, number of participants, employer identification number (EIN), and the date the company filed the plans. A "further research" button facilitates the submission of requests for obtaining copies of top hat letters. 5 February 2002. BotTechnology.com, in partnership with Intelliseek and Answerpal, offer this subscription tracking service for monitoring trademark use on the Web. Covering eight types of resources -- domain names, publications and catalogs, message boards, the publicly-accessible Web, newspapers, Usenet, Web feeds, and trademark databases -- TrademarkBots.com searches for potential infringements based upon your criteria. Some of its information sources include Network Solutions Whois database, Canadian, United Kingdom, and United States trademark databases, Google Groups, Board Reader, Motley Fool, and other message boards, many regional, national, and specialty news sources, various trade magazines, DayPop, Moreover, and other blog and news Web feeds, Google, AltaVista, and many other search engines. The bot reports back with matching results based upon the frequency you set. Some of the more interesting finds on bots I established for The Virtual Chase include use of the key phrase for generating advertising at major search engines. Currently, the site offers a 21-day free trial period. 22 April 2003. Ignus, a technology company, offers a WHOIS look-up utility. Enter a complete domain to find the WHOIS record. TRUEWHOIS queries .com, .net, .org, gov, .edu, .mil, .us and other top-level domains (TLDs), as well as select country TLDs. This utility does not query partial domain names. 23 May 2002. freeERISA.com offers this database for determining the employer identification number (EIN) of employer trusts. Search by company name or business EIN to find various forms outlining the company's plan. NOTE: Look for the trust EIN on Schedule P. It is not always the same as the business EIN. 18 August 2004. FreePint offers a database of basic information about U.K. registered companies and directors. The data is supplied by ICC Information Group Ltd., a business information vendor. Search by company number, company name or director name to find the business number, registered address and name. Additional free information is available for those, who register to access the site. You can also purchase a detailed profile and corporate documents. A nice feature of this interface is the ability to search for dissolved companies or companies that have undergone a name change. 11 December 2007. Helicopter Association International (HIA) provides a search interface to the National Transportation Safety Board's Aviation Accident Database. HIA's interface automatically limits the query to accidents involving helicopters.
You may search by a variety of criteria, including the date of the accident or date range, type of transporting activity, type of injury or location. Initial results provide the NTSB accident number, date of the accident, helicopter model, type of injuries, transport activity and more. Follow the link for the NTSB accident number to obtain the NTSB narrative report. Louisiana State University Libraries offers this directory of federal government agency Web sites. Its excellent arrangement helps researchers determine the organization of federal agencies. 5 June 2000. Revised 8 April 2005. PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) provides access to an index of court filings in federal district, bankruptcy and appellate courts. Conduct one search in available courts nationwide, or search individual courts. Review the site's Courts Not on Index to determine whether the court you want is available via the index. This is an easy inexpensive way to find federal civil or criminal litigation involving companies or individuals. Access requires a subscription. 26 May 2004. FASOnline, a Web site of the Foreign Agricultural Service, which is part of U.S. Department of Agriculture, provides a database of qualified U.S. suppliers of food, farm, seafood and forest products to foreign buyers. Search by product or company to find detailed contact information. Company name queries can be conducted only from the text search box, which appears at the bottom of the page. The information provided includes the name of the company, its address, phone, contact, fax, email, Web site, D&B number, annual sales, number of employees, type of firm, products exported, and more. 21 May 2002. Maintained by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), this portion of the larger FFIEC Web site offers Uniform Bank Performance Reports. These reports reveal "the impact of management decisions and economic conditions on a bank's performance and balance-sheet composition." They shed light on a bank's financial condition. Search by FDIC certificate number, institution name, or other criteria. 23 October 2007. The Employment Standards Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor makes available union annual financial reports as well as reports filed by unions, union officers and employees, employers, and labor relations consultants from 2000 to present. Older reports are available upon request.
The database provides a variety of search criteria, including union name, location, assets, liabilities, and other information. Partial name searching is supported.
You may download search results to a CSV spreadsheet. Actual reports may be displayed online or printed. 25 September 2007. The Salt Lake Tribune and its advertising management company, MediaOne, offer several public records databases containing information about Utah residents or companies. Find criminal court charges - felonies, some misdemeanor DUIs, and other misdemeanors and infractions - for approximately 1997 to 2007. The actual date of coverage depends on the jurisdiction where the case was filed. Search by name only. Note: A name match alone - without independent confirmation of other identifying data (date of birth, Social Security number) - does not constitute positive identification.
Other databases available include Utah public salaries (salaries of public officials at all levels of Utah government, including cities, counties, state government, school districts and other agencies), Utah sex offenders (replication of the Utah Department of Correction's official Utah Sex Offender Registry with a mapping feature added), political contributions (Federal Election Commission records on Utah candidates and contributors for the current election cycle), divorces (divorce decree records from Utah courts), and more. 5 November 2002. Revised 17 April 2008. Civil and criminal courts in Virginia provide access to case information via this gateway. You may search only one jurisdiction at a time, and date coverage may vary. You will find matters relating misdemeanors, felonies, civil litigation, divorce, traffic, etc. Those conducting due diligence or criminal investigations should note that these databases do not contain criminal histories nor substitute for a manual search of court indexes. The terms of use specifically state that information in these databases does not constitute the official record.
Please note: Javascript must be enabled at this site. 10 April 2007. Virginia Department of Health provides a link page for finding inspection reports pertaining to restaurants, fast food operations, delis, cafeterias, and other types of food service establishments inspected by local health departments. First, select the relevant county from the left-hand menu. Then drill down the alphabet to find the food service of interest. 12 March 2008. The Internet Archive maintains this collection of archival content from the Web sites of Virginia state agencies. Search it by keyword or URL, or follow the advanced search link for more options. When using the advanced search feature, be sure to limit the institution to the Library of Virginia and the collection to Virginia State Government Web Sites Collection or one of the executive branch Web sites, the independent agencies collection, the judicial branch collection or the legislative branch collection. A keyword RSS feed for monitoring search results is available. 25 May 2005. Revised 20 March 2008. This site provides several search options for finding litigation in Washington trial and appellate courts from 1975 to present. While you may search by person or business name or by case number, you must search each court, as well as each year, separately.
Types of cases available include traffic violations, misdemeanors, domestic disputes, civil, criminal, including juvenile offenders, and probate. You will not find disputes concerning adoption, paternity, juvenile dependency or mental illness.
Initial results for criminal searches provide the case number, filing date, defendant's name, and occasionally, a broadly described cause of action (misdemeanor, felony). Initial results for civil cases provide the case number, filing date, party's name and cause of action. If the case is active, you may retrieve the docket sheet.
Washington Courts has a fee-based service called JIS-Link which offers more search and reporting features.
28 February 2006. A commercial service by Northwest Location Services, Inc. of Wauna, Washington, this database provides fee-based access to civil and criminal court records. It covers Superior (appellate) courts in 39 counties and District (lower) and Municipal courts in many counties. The site documents the jurisdictions covered as well as the availability of historical data. There is no coverage of small claims or civil cases -- excepting domestic violence protection orders -- in the lower courts. Queries may find information on felonies, misdemeanors, upper-level civil cases, divorce proceedings, probate matters, traffic violations and juvenile matters. 10 April 2007. Revised 18 April 2008. Washington State Department of Health provides a page of links to county food safety/restaurant inspection databases. Restaurant health inspection reports are public record in Washington. The Web site explains that the public may review inspection reports on-site at the relevant local county office. But a handful of Washington counties also make the reports available online. 15 February 2005. Lynn M. LoPucki, a law professor at University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law, makes available a database of bankruptcies involving public companies. To find information about a specific company, select "company data" from the left-hand menu. It provides the name of the company, its SIC code, pre-filing assets, pre-filing sales, pre-filing number of employees, cause of bankruptcy, place of incorporation, court for headquarters location, type of filing, court where filed, year of filing, year of disposition, the outcome and more.
If you want statistical information, select "design study" from the left-hand menu. Select the options (a very long Web page of options) you want. For example, you can discover the number of bankruptcies filed by public companies headquartered in a specific city over a period of time. You can also obtain a list of public companies that emerged from bankruptcy, but then refiled.
Check the database's updating status to learn about the timeliness of the data. Coverage extends back to 1980. Sources include case information taken from PACER, EDGAR filings, news stories, company Web sites and telephone interviews.
5 August 2002. Revised 14 November 2003. Whois Source provides a WHOIS look-up utility for domains registered with the following gTLDs: .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz or .us. Search by partial or full domain name, or keyword, to find registration records. A legend in the search results indicates whether the domain is a registered and active Web site, parked, redirected, registered with no Web site, on hold status, deleted and available or never registered. Details include the Web site title, description and keywords (generated from meta tags), number of listings in the Open Directory Project, availability via Yahoo, reverse IP look-up, IP address and more. This is an excellent utility for investigating domains and Web site ownership. 22 April 2003. This utility queries over 1100 domain extensions to find the owner of a domain. While it claims to search partial, as well as complete, domain names, it did not process searches for partial names during our visit. The site provides a complete list of TLDs covered. 22 February 2005. The Translation Station, a translation and interpretation services firm, offers this search tool for finding patent, trademark or copyright cases pending in federal courts. You may search by case type and party name, court, state or date to find basic case information. There is a charge to retrieve full-text court dockets. However, the information provided is sufficient for retrieval via the less expensive U.S. Party/Case Index. |
