The weekly update:
This time of year we're thinking about those end-of-year roundups. And on the NewsLib listserv, someone was looking for new sources of upcoming news event listings since OCLC's has gone away. Gary Price listed several of them on his Resourceshelf site: 2002: The year in Review; and upcoming news events. This has everything from Information Please's year in review to the BBC's, as well as BBC Monitoring's Week Ahead. Of course Google 2002 Zeitgeist is also a useful monitor of what's been important in the news and culture in the past year, especially the fascinating timeline. Lycos 50 is also focusing on the year's searches.
On the upcoming events front, someone also recommended ABC News' The Note, which has daily rumors and links about the news, as well as a list of upcoming news events through the next year.

Reference

Smallpox.gov all the information you'll need?

Toy recall database from safechild.net (Consumer Federation of America).

Junglewalk.com resources on animals, including photos or drawings, videos and links.

Elephant resources: news, links, books, research. Also: Eleblog, an elephant Weblog. More news (more current).

News from Oxford English Dictionary: Lots of new words added to the dictionary this quarter, List of new entries here.

Boeing Photostore has a great gallery of aviation images.

Grocerteria: Supermarket history and architecture.

Firstworldwar.com everything on the War to End all Wars.
Statistics

Demographic trends in the 20th century long (240-pp.) PDF book from Census.

State alcohol related fatality rates: new report from Highway Transportation Safety Admin.

Capital Punishment 2001 new report from Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Vera Project: Police crime stats online. This page has links to big city police departments' regularly posted crime stats.
Governments/Politics

Governing: Today's News a nice place to find interesting news reports about city and local government.

Governmentexecutive.com this site focuses on news for government employees with a recent concentration on homeland security issues. A correspondent called "DesertDweller" has been recommending articles here...
Tools

HotBot the search engine has been redesigned. It now lets you do searches in 4 of the best search engines from one page; start with one and then click the others to toggle to their results. Searches are in Google, Teoma, FAST (AlltheWeb) and Inktomi. Doesn't allow you to limit search to news, images, etc. but has a nice Advanced Search to filter your results.
News

Remembering Jim Crow; a useful reminder of what Lott's comments mean.

"Disarming" Iraq under international law Australian government brief.

ProMed outbreak news this newsletter page, from International Society for Infectious Diseases, was a good source during Anthrax news. Could be useful for cruise ship infections, West Nile, etc.

Iraq: Related Readings from Council of Foreign Relations.

Brookings Institution brief on preemptive war policy

Buddy Cianci an 8-part series on the recently convicted former mayor in the Providence Journal. (need to register to read, though).
Florida

The Calvin Shedd Papers new UM library exhibit of Civil War letters from Florida.

On the new Miami police chief John F. Timoney: A good profile, "The last cop in Camelot" ran in Esquire, June 2000; Commissioner's Biography
from Philadelphia PD; John Timoney biography from American Immigration Reform; Quotations from John Timoney and Timoney archives from PoliticsPA. A great photograph from Esquire article (click on 'back' on this photographer's page for another); Timoney has made a career of cleaning up police messes in LA Times, 9/02; 1998 interview with CityPaper. Government/Technology interview with William Bratton on NY force 1999 and Compstat system he and Timoney brought to NY/Philly.
Journalism

Richard Prince's Journal-isms this column from the Maynard Institute focuses on journalism and diversity.
Public Records, Business, People: no links this week.


Some Interesting stories/Weblogs:

Gawker.com a new Weblog/magazine celebrating New York.

Atlanta Journal Constitution investigation on illegal alien criminals.

Segway diaries what it's like, from one of the first owners.

Fun/Entertaining:

The Talking G.W.Bush Doll (when I saw this last week I thought it was a joke...guess not, since there've been news stories since about how it's selling out); and the John Ashcroft snow globe (a Pure Product).

A Day in Radio all the U.S. radio programming from September 21, 1939.

Underground London history. I've always been fascinated with these kinds of histories, and love the old tube lines. This one explores old unused tunnels and stations.

Life Magazine covers major entertainment in the '50s and '60s. See today's covers for several years.

Snoop Dogg's Shizzolator put in a URL and Snoop will shizzolate the text. (not working very well when I tried it.)

A history of Christmas lighting.

Menu image collection database from LA Public Library.