High Court Mulls Public's Right To Know of Threats to Its Safety

December 15, 2010–In the case of Milner v. Navy, a Puget Sound resident and activist sought information that would identify the locations and potential blast ranges of explosive ordnance stored at Washington’s Naval Magazine Indian Island.

Senate Passes Whistleblower Protection Bill; House Pending

December 15, 2010–The bill (S 372) would beef up the weakened protections for federal whistleblowers against retaliation for revealing fraud, waste, and abuse.

111th Congress Ending with Unfinished FOI To-Do List

December 1, 2010–The open-government agenda made only a little progress in the session of Congress now waddling to a lame-duck close. Hope still remains for a few measures that would increase public access to government information — but it dwindles with every day that passes.

Enviropork: Reporting on the Secret Santas

December 1, 2010–The Senate's Nov. 30 vote not to impose a moratorium on "earmarks" practically ensures that pork-barrel spending will live on as a subject for journalists — at least in fiscal 2011.

EPA Won't Disclose Alternative Study on Spruce Mine MTR Permit

December 1, 2010–Despite promises of transparency, the US Environmental Protection Agency has denied a Freedom-of-Information request by Charleston Gazette reporter Ken Ward Jr. for the contractor study, which apparently outlines less harmful options for this West Virginia mountaintop-removal project.

Feds Funding Clean Energy Employment Efforts

November 24, 2010–As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the federal government is shoveling more than $32 billion to the states to develop what it considers less-polluting energy and to train, certify, recruit, and retain workers.

More Cool Data Tools from EPA

November 17, 2010–TRI-CHIP assembles a great deal of toxicity and hazard information from many sources and makes it easy to search. TRI.NET allows you to construct complex queries into the Toxics Release Inventory database, and to map the results in ways that can be used for publishable graphics or layered on maps with other environmental and demographic information.

Obama Announces Revamp of 'Controlled Unclassified' Info Stamp

November 17, 2010–The order gives agencies 120 days to review their existing secrecy designations and to come up with standardized ones "in a timely manner." When there is doubt, Obama's order states, agencies are to err on the side of disclosure.

White House Under the Gun on Science Integrity, Openness

November 17, 2010–The Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility is suing the administration under the Freedom of Information Act for documents that would explain the delay in issuing a long overdue, government-wide integrity policy.

EPA Proposes Fuel Efficiency Standards for Heavy Trucks, Buses

November 10, 2010–The standards, now in a 60-day comment period, cover three types of heavy trucks but would not apply to vehicles built before the 2014 model year.