Searchable archives of the biweekly WatchDog TipSheet's story ideas, articles, updates, events and other information with a focus on freedom-of-information issues of concern to environmental journalists in both the U.S. and Canada are posted here on the day of publication. Journalists are eligible for a free email subscription; send name and full contact information to the SEJ office. WatchDog TipSheet is also available via RSS feed. 
Latest WatchDog TipSheet Items
November 30, 2011
EPA Releases 100s of Chemical Health Studies Claimed As Trade Secrets
November 30, 2011–The studies are submitted by companies who use the chemicals in commerce, under the Toxic Substances Control Act. EPA's online searchable database can help you find information about such health studies, which were previously withheld because of industry trade-secret claims.Industry Lobby Opposes Disclosure of Fragrance Ingredients
November 30, 2011–If you are worried that ingredients in cleaning products may aggravate your allergies, mess up your sex hormones, or cause cancer, you may not find out what they are. The International Fragrance Association North America and the American Cleaning Institute are opposing a bill introduced in the House that would require cleaning products to carry ingredients lists on the package label.Toolbox: New CPR Database Helps You Track Secret Industry-OMB Meetings
November 30, 2011–Although details of what is said between lobbyists and the White House officials who rewrite agency rules remain largely secret, the Center for Progressive Reform's searchable database allows you to track whether OMB is meeting its deadlines, whether a meeting is linked to an OIRA regulatory review, and whether OIRA changed the rule.November 16, 2011
At Last: Study Confirms EPA 'Friday Surprise' Press Release Trend
November 16, 2011–Researchers at the nonprofit and nonpartisan think tank Resources for the Future fed into their computers some 21,493 press releases issued by EPA between 1994 and 2009, confirming reporters' long-time suspicions.Justice Dept. Ditches Its Proposal To Lie About Existence of FOIA Records
November 16, 2011–The regulatory proposal was part of a large package of revised FOIA regulations, which will go forward without it. The Justice Department did not rescind the 1987 Meese memo the proposal was based on; instead it identified ways in which agencies could be unresponsive and uninformative without actually lying.
Secret EPA Watchlist Yields Megastories for NPR, iWatch News, ... and You?
November 16, 2011–There are 464 facilities on the list of Clean Air Act violators. The Center for Public Integrity's iWatch News and National Public Radio got the list using the FOIA and published a powerful feature package: "Poisoned Places: Toxic Air, Neglected Communities." But they did not tell all the stories. They left some for you.Syngenta Claims Secrecy in Atrazine Trial
November 16, 2011–Attorneys for some 30 utilities suing Syngenta over atrazine pollution of their drinking water supplies charged the company directed employees to send copies of all correspondence on atrazine to corporate attorneys so that attorney-client privilege could be claimed.Terrified CIA Urged To Shed Secrecy About Climate Threats
November 16, 2011–The Central Intelligence Agency is spending untold millions to study the national security threats presented by climate change. Now the Pentagon's Defense Science Board (DSB) is urging that another, new office be created to do the same job, for more untold millions.White House Gives House Inquisitors Only Some of Subpoenaed Documents
November 16, 2011–The White House rejected the House Energy Committee's subpoena for "all internal communications" related to federal loan guarantees for the now-bankrupt Solyndra solar panel company.November 2, 2011
Corps Puts Searchable National Levee Database Online
November 2, 2011–Levees have huge environmental and human impacts, but are often neglected by news media until disaster strikes. The NLD should make reporting both routine and crisis stories a lot easier. The bad news is that after several years of work by the Corps, only a small fraction of all the levees in the US have been entered into the database.
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