Weekend update: The weekly reference collection/research gleanings:
Still thousands of people without power more than a week after Hurricane Isabel. I saw a figure of 400,000 a couple days ago; I think by this time there were only about half that without power a week after Hurricane Andrew (it took us 11 days to get power back then, many people longer). Some good information sources:
Hurricane Isabel Information Center from Virginia Dept of Emergency Management. Also from: State of Maryland; NC congressman Richard Burr; Washington DC resident resource center.

Nice story in The Herald today about a very unusual librarian, Madame Esme.

The useful links....

Reference

High Holy Days on the Net

Red List of threatened species, searchable.

Earthquake data search: search earthquakes going back to 2100 b.c.

Heavens Above put in ZIP code, get current sky map.

World Weather Information Service from World Meteological Assn.

Terrorist and suicide attacks: Congressional Research Service study, released August 2003.

Information Resource: About herbs, botanicals, and other products useful information including links to studies, from Sloan-Kettering.

MedicineNet.com health portal with lots of news/info. Includes a Webster's New World Medical Dictionary. Has RSS feeds so you can get news easily, by topic.

The science behind drug abuse from NIDA for teens. (That's Natl Inst. on Drug Abuse).
News:

Parade magazine archives searchable back to Jan. 2000.
Tools:

Google location search lets you confine a search to a geographic area (address, city/state, or ZIP code). From Google Labs.
Journalism:

Research you can use links to research studies on newspapers from Assn for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Also has a great journalism links page.

We Media How audiences are shaping the future of news and information. The PDF report converted to HTML on Hypergene Web site.
Public Records:

Mississippi parolees; Mississippi inmates
Governments, Politics:

Rough and Tumble: California Web site posts links to coverage of recall election.

Political Influence: how political non-profits work the system from Center for Public Integrity.

UK Central Government Web Archive
Business:

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) directory
People:

Forbes 400 2003 listing of richest in America just released.
Statistics:

County Population Estimates from Census, latest estimates have demographic breakdowns.

Most expensive ZIP codes from Forbes. Six in Florida: Miami, Palm Beach and Captiva.

Facts about Hispanics in the U.S. from Census, for Hispanic Heritage Month.

International Education Indicators stats from DoEd.

Create customized maps of unemployment data from BLS.

Namestatistics.com database pulled from Census shows most popular first and last names. Not same as the annual Social Security Administration list of most popular given names. You can search for a name's ranking, too.
Florida:

Florida brokers search on Miami Herald site. Get background, complaints.

Polk County Clerk: civil, deeds, public records.

Does Larry Klayman live in Miami or not? important question, since he's running for Senate from Florida....in Tampa Trib. good use of public records in this story. (via Joe Adams).
Some Interesting stories/Weblogs:

Stumbling into war Foreign Affairs analysis of how the Bush admin. got into it.

Kate Blanchett plays Veronica Guerin in a new movie, based on the life of the murdered investigative reporter for the Sunday Independent in Ireland.

How a regular guy gets homeless: by one-time WSJ reporter living in his pickup truck. In USA Today.
Fun/Entertaining:

Movie Target find official websites.

Forgotton Detroit homage to a city's architecture. Fantastic photos, information on lost buildings.