"GOP Not Listening to Its Own Scientists on Climate Change"
"GOP scientists say their attempts to talk about climate dangers with their party's politicians and their aides have largely fallen on deaf ears."
Source: Inside Climate News, 02/23/2012
Public
"Heartland Docs Indicate It Paid Gov't Scientist for Work"
"According to one of the documents that came out in last week's scandal, the Heartland Institute plans to pay a federal scientist for his contributions to an annual climate-denial report. The proposed 2012 budget for the institute is one of the more interesting things to come out of the Heartland documents that were passed around the internet, as it includes a $1,000-per-month payment to a Department of Interior employee."
Source: Mother Jones, 02/23/2012
"40 Years After Buffalo Creek, Coal-Dam Questions Remain"
Hundreds of coal-waste dams, scattered across Appalachia and often poorly regulated, could bring a new disaster like the one at Buffalo Creek in 1972 that killed 125 people and left 4,000 homeless.
"CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Forty years ago Sunday morning, a trio of coal-waste dams at a Pittston Coal operation on Buffalo Creek in Logan County collapsed. A wall of sludge, water, and debris stormed down the hollow from Saunders to Man.
Source: Charleston Gazette, 02/23/2012
"Staph Turns into Drug-Resistant Superbug on Farms"
"Scary antibiotic-resistant infections aren’t just lurking in the hospital anymore. They’re in gyms, at the beach, and increasingly, on the farm."
Source: Scientific American, 02/23/2012
"Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Liability Rulings Filed"
"In a major ruling in the oil spill litigation, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier ruled Wednesday that BP and Anadarko are responsible parties under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 and are liable for civil penalties under the Clean Water Act for the undersea discharge of oil from the ill-fated Macondo well.
Source: New Orleans Times-Picayune, 02/23/2012
Should Taxpayers Be Able To Read the Research They Pay For? Congress Not Sure
A bill that would mandate open public access, free of charge, to papers resulting from federally funded research is currently languishing in the GOP-controlled House. Private for-profit publishing companies aim to stop it, preserving their control over the science publishing market. One of these is Elsevier, the largest single academic publisher in the world, currently being boycotted by almost 7,000 researchers worldwide.
SEJ Publication Types:
Topics on the Beat:
Visibility:
Mining Industry Threatens Journals To Keep Diesel Exposure Data Secret
The Patton Boggs lobbying firm, which represents the mining industry, has sent letters threatening unspecified legal action against four scientific journals if they publish results of a study about the exposure of miners to diesel emissions, according to Science magazine.
SEJ Publication Types:
Topics on the Beat:
Visibility:
Read the Secret Backgrounder on the Secret 2012 Farm Bill
This year's Farm Bill deliberations have been less transparent than ever before. In that spirit, SEJ's WatchDog shares a backgrounder, published by the Federation of American Scientists, on the 2012 Farm Bill done by the Congressional Research Service — which keeps their taxpayer-funded reports secret from the public.
SEJ Publication Types:
Topics on the Beat:
Visibility:
Reporters, Researchers at AAAS Say Canada Muzzles Climate Scientists
The complaints came out at the Vancouver meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) this month — the main multidisciplinary science conference held yearly on the continent. Also during the meeting, a letter from six journalism and science groups called on Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to end the muzzling-scientists policy was released.
SEJ Publication Types:
Topics on the Beat:
Region:
Visibility:
Pages
Advertisement 
