Freedom of Information Sessions at SEJ's 2013 Annual Conference in Chattanooga

September 25, 2013–On Saturday, October 5: At 9:00 a.m. SEJ FOI Task Force Chair Tim Wheeler of the Baltimore Sun will moderate a session on overcoming obstacles put up by agency press offices to reporters who want to interview government officials. At 10:45 a.m. WatchDog Editor Joe Davis will present a hands-on session with tips for sleuthing dam and levee stories using federal databases like the National Inventory of Dams and the National Levee Database.

Chemical Safety: Right-To-Know? No — Not Exactly

August 14, 2013–The system for informing Americans about the threats to their health and safety posed by chemical plants is seriously broken, a Reuters investigation revealed August 10, 2013. Facilities often misidentify chemicals or their location, or fail to report the existence of the substances. But there are tools to help reporters.

Texas Fertilizer Explosion Re-Raises Buried Hazmat Disclosure Issues

April 24, 2013–News stories about the April 17, 2013, explosion of a fertilizer storage plant in the town of West, Texas that killed 15 people have so far focused on the plant operator's risk-disclosure failure, instead of the likely fact that government agencies knew the nature and magnitude of the hazard — or should have known. The bigger story is the regulatory failure — and industry's decades-long campaign to keep the public ignorant of the threats they face. Photo: AP/LM Otero/Available through Creative Commons.

Toolbox: Database Helps Track Broken Promises on Parkland Conservation

April 24, 2013–Seattle-based InvestigateWest published a feature package last summer documenting illegal parkland conversions in Michigan, New York City, and Oklahoma. They could not cover all the other states — that was left for you to do, with the assistance of their database of some 40,000 federal grants under the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

Continental Divide

April 15, 2013–

Covering Sprawl, Science, and Chickens

April 15, 2013–

Gold Rush in the Jungle

April 15, 2013–

SEJournal Spring 2013, Vol. 23 No. 1

April 15, 2013–In this issue: Special report on energy and climate change; first installment of new column 'Freelance Files' on goal setting; database helps track illegal parkland conversions; members cover sprawl, science and chickens; annual Sundance Film Festival report; and six book reviews.

Are We Ready for the Next Superstorm?

January 15, 2013–In this excerpt from the latest issue of SEJournal (Winter), Francesca Lyman asks "What does Hurricane Sandy tell us about coping with human health and consequences of climate change?"

In the Lap of the Gods

September 15, 2012–