NOAA Science Integrity Policy Still Cloudy on News Media Access

April 6, 2011–The draft policy, released recently by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), barely addresses media access. It leaves this to the purview of the Commerce Department Public Communications Policy — which has not changed since the last year of the Bush administration.

Interior Integrity Policy: Is Science Door Half-Open or Half-Closed?

February 23, 2011–The good news, perhaps, is that Interior felt a need to take some policy action in response to the White House's Dec. 17, 2010, memo on science integrity. The bad news? The Interior policy seems to rehash a 2010 decree that scientists criticized, to punish the innocent, and to reward the uninvolved.

Jackson Memo Leaves EPA Response on Openness in Doubt

January 26, 2011–Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility says the Dec. 21 memo implies that existing EPA openness policy meets White House criteria. Meanwhile, the Office of Management and Budget may again be tampering with agency science for political purposes — accused by Arizona congressman Raúl Grijalva (pictured) of censoring FOIA'd documents relating to the mid-summer estimate of Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

AAAS Meeting: Source for Cutting-Edge Enviro News

January 19, 2011–Topics at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Feb. 17-21, 2011 in Washington, D.C., include climate change, energy, health, oceans, national security, nanotechnology, GMOs, religion, space weather and many more.

Chasing Molecules: Poisonous Products, Human Health, and the Promise of Green Chemistry

January 15, 2011–

Tiny Bits of Silver, Used As Bacteria-Eaters, Emerge As New Health Concern

January 15, 2011–Science Survey: In the Winter issue of SEJournal, Rae Tyson reports there may well be a connection between odor-resistant socks and an emerging health and environmental concern.

A Smear Campaign Against Jane Mayer After Koch Exposé?

January 12, 2011–The media blog Gawker thinks it has uncovered a campaign to discredit the New Yorker writer after her August 2010 story on billionaires Charles and David H. Koch, who have secretly funded attacks on government regulations and bankrolled efforts to discredit settled climate science.

Ex-CIA Spook Stalks Climate Scientist Mann

January 12, 2011–A man claiming to be an ex-CIA agent is telling people they may stand to get rich if only they could come up with some dirt on scientist Michael Mann, author of the famous hockey-stick graph that shows the earth getting warm suddenly in recent years. No luck so far.

Obama Science Policy Legitimizes "Minders," PIO Interview Permissions

January 12, 2011–Anonymous White House lawyers have blacked out all information about how the administration's science openness policy was arrived at, and are fighting in court against efforts to shed light on it.

Feds Document Core Areas for Decimated Sage-Grouse

December 8, 2010–The map and report on known greater sage grouse high-density breeding populations is a starting point that can be refined with the input of state fish and wildlife agencies. But you can use it right away as you cover various land use and environmental issues.