CIA World Factbook
General Information on countries, courtesy of the CIA.

Deficit Watch
A tool for reporters dealing with economic issues, Deficit Watch is a bi-monthly report on mounting government and private sector deficits. U.S. DEFICIT WATCH is the Authoritative Monitor of Government and Other Deficits compiled from public records and budget documents. Fairly new site, but the limited number of reports they have are excellent and cut research time drastically.

Fed mailing lists
Subscribe to Federal Reserve Economic Data series and publications on national and international economic trends.

Federal Consumer Information Center
Visitors can read, print out or download the text of more than 200 federal publications on topics such as cars, money, children, education, home, travel, small business, food and health. The site features all of the publications listed in the current Consumer Information Catalog and others that are not inlcuded in the catalog, or that were featured in previous editions of the catalog. The site also features a consumer help section, listings of current scams and recalls, links to hundreds of government, corporate, nonprofit and other helpful web sites, and the latest news from federal agencies. The site also has a page where the media can sign up for regular FCIC alerts.

Gov-L mailing list for reporters
The GOV-L discussion list "allows reporters to find sources, share ideas, spot trends and generally discuss ways of covering government and politics." Moderated by Rachel Stassen-Berger of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, and Reid Magney of the La Crosse Tribune.

National Criminal Justice Reference Service
A deep resource of information on criminal justice: corrections, courts, crime prevention, statistics, drugs, juveniles, law enforcement, research, victims. Maintains several mailing lists about police work. Some lists are open, and others are restricted to law officers. Topics include bike cops, cop fleet, high tech crime fighting, criminal justice, emergency management, Department of Justice announcements, law enforcement analysts, firearms instructors, and public safety communications.

National Earthquake Information Center
Maybe you'd like a heads up whenever an earthquake hits? Well, OK, if it hits in your neighborhood, you won't need to check your E-mail to know. But for the rest of the world, try the National Earthquake Information Center. Its Bigquake service sends out a message whenever a large earthquake occurs. (Generally that's a quake of magnitude 5.5 or more.)

Supreme Court bulletins from Cornell
U.S. Supreme Court opinions are distributed, in syllabus form, by Cornell University's Legal Information Institute within hours of their release. Also has New York Court of Appeals. Willamette University College of Law runs a http://www.willamette.edu/law

U.S. Bureau of the Census
If you're on the Census mailing lists, you hear about upcoming data releases in population and economics, so you can localize a national story, or nationalize a local one. If you're not on the list, you're out of luck. Subscribe to one of four lists: the monthly product announcement, the biweekly bulletin, a monthly list of feature ideas, and the press releases (including info on new data).

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
You can automatically get product recall notices from the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

U.S. Department of Agriculture alerts
Everything from chickens to cranberries. The Ag Department has 70 E-mail information services, including information on imports, exports, prices, chemicals, milk, and walnuts.

U.S. Federal Communications Commission
The FCC Daily Digest provides a synopsis of Commission orders, news releases, speeches, and titles of public notices. The Digest is published every business afternoon. A searchable archive is on the Web site.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration
The FDA sends out safety alerts, public health advisories, and other FDA safety notices. To subscribe, send mail to fdalists@www.fda.gov with the text, "subscribe dev-alert."

U.S. Government Accountability Office
Previously known as the General Accounting Office. A lot of journalists use this one. The GAO Daybook is a daily update on reports, documents and testimony. It comes in two forms: an announcement by title and number of pages; and, a few days later, with a URL to the GAO site.

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
The NRC has several lists, generating a few messages each week, with press releases, standards, and Y2K as it affects the nuclear industry.

White House briefing room
White House press releases and briefings. To subscribe to White House press releases, call the White House press office, (202) 456-2580.