WatchDog TipSheet

"Crown copyright" may be emerging in British Columbia as a way for a government claiming openness to subvert freedom-of-information law.

Federal regulators may require corporations to assess and reveal how the effects of climate change may impact their financial health.

Showing of the film, depicting purported harm and claims of sterility by Nicaraguan plantation workers, went ahead at the Los Angeles Film Festival, even though an April 2009 Superior Court ruled that those claims were fraudulent.

Jackson ordered staff to make existing information more accessible and understandable to the public, including posting on the Web state performance reports under the Clean Water Act.

Rockefeller's bill keeps FOIA exemptions for real security information, but forbids using the "sensitive security information" stamp.

This case may make it illegal for journalists to cover animal cruelty cases like the Michael Vicks dogfighting prosecution — or even to shoot investigative video of out-of-season fishing.

Proposed legislation would repeal a provision allowing secrecy over chemicals injected underground during high-tech gas drilling — such as benzene and toluene, which are known to be toxic.

A cooperative effort of federal and state agencies, coal companies, and environmental groups, the database lists coal-waste impoundments in West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.

FOIA requests and Congressional pressure got the Obama administration to reverse its decision to withhold key information about dangers to communities from coal-ash ponds operated by electric utilities.