"Decades ago, when a U.S. EPA administrator was on the brink of retirement, employees wheeled a giant cardboard box into his office. Inside: an employee known for his tendency to disparage the agency's decisions in the press."

"'He popped out of the box as the going-away gift for the administrator, and it was a big laugh because he was well-known by all of us as sometimes giving us a hot foot,' remembered Chuck Elkins, a former EPA senior official.

Elkins would not name the administrator or the employee. But today he recalled the episode as an example of how EPA handled the press in the 1980s and early '90s. Managers may not have liked what their employees told reporters, but it was allowed -- and sometimes joked about."

Emily Yehle reports for Greenwire April 11, 2013. [2]