Publication Items

TVA IG Says Agency Let Lawyers Stifle $3 Million Study on Coal-Ash Spill Causes [1]

An investigation by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee indicates the Tennessee Valley Authority opted not to make changes that could have prevented the massive December 2008 spill.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Disasters [3]
Energy & Fuel [4]
Region:
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [5]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about TVA IG Says Agency Let Lawyers Stifle $3 Million Study on Coal-Ash Spill Causes [1]
Toolbox: Homeland Security Daily Infrastructure Report [7]

Reporters interested in following the hazards of dams, refineries, chemical plants, pipelines, and other infrastructure may find story leads in DHS reports.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Agriculture [8]
Chemicals [9]
Disasters [3]
Energy & Fuel [4]
Health [10]
Natural Resources [11]
Nuclear Power & Radiation [12]
Region:
National (U.S.) [13]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Toolbox: Homeland Security Daily Infrastructure Report [7]
The Devastation Ran Clear Down to Plaquemines [14]

By Amy Wold

Two days after Hurricane Katrina, my editor called me over to his desk and pointed to a place on the map below New Orleans. He said, "Try to get somewhere in this area."

At the time there were four adults, two dogs and two children (some of whom were New Orleans evacuees) staying in my onebedroom home so getting "somewhere in this area" sounded like a really good idea.
Topics on the Beat:
Disasters [3]
Region:
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [5]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about The Devastation Ran Clear Down to Plaquemines [14]
Lake Charles Newspaper Staff Persists Against Rita's Fury [15]

By JEREMY HARPER
When I went to sleep Wednesday, Sept. 21, Hurricane Rita was threatening the Texas coast, promising to pester Louisiana with no more than a quick bout of tropical storm conditions. I was prepared to ride out the fringe of the storm in either my apartment on the second floor of a sturdy historic building in downtown Lake Charles, La., a city of 75,000 about 40 miles inland of the Gulf of Mexico, or in the newsroom of the American Press, the city's daily newspaper where I have worked for four years as a reporter.
Topics on the Beat:
Disasters [3]
Region:
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [5]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Lake Charles Newspaper Staff Persists Against Rita's Fury [15]
Rockefeller Introduces Bill To Outlaw Bayer Chem-Secrecy Ruse [16]

Rockefeller's bill keeps FOIA exemptions for real security information, but forbids using the "sensitive security information" stamp.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Chemicals [9]
Disasters [3]
Laws & Regulations [17]
Region:
National (U.S.) [13]
Mid-Atlantic (DC DE MD PA VA WV) [18]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Rockefeller Introduces Bill To Outlaw Bayer Chem-Secrecy Ruse [16]
EPA Relents, Releases List of 44 High-Hazard Coal-Ash Ponds [19]

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.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Chemicals [9]
Disasters [3]
Energy & Fuel [4]
Region:
National (U.S.) [13]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about EPA Relents, Releases List of 44 High-Hazard Coal-Ash Ponds [19]
Two Agencies Hide Neglect of Coal-Dam Safety with Secrecy [20]

US EPA and Army Corps of Engineers say they "cannot make the list of 'high hazard' coal ash impoundment sites public," even though risk to communities exists -- like the December 2008 pond failure at the Kingston Fossil Plant in Tennessee.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Chemicals [9]
Disasters [3]
Energy & Fuel [4]
Government [21]
Region:
National (U.S.) [13]
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [5]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Two Agencies Hide Neglect of Coal-Dam Safety with Secrecy [20]
Troubling Predictions Come True For Reporter And Friends [22]

By KATINA GAUDET
"We have a different fear of hurricanes."

My friend Yasmin was trying to rationalize her fearlessness in the face of an imposing Hurricane Katrina, expected to make landfall near New Orleans the next day, from her first-floor Uptown apartment.

But I was having difficulty, although safe in a hotel room near Memphis. I was frantic, yelling into the phone at Yasmin, "You cannot stay there."
Topics on the Beat:
Disasters [3]
Region:
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [5]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Troubling Predictions Come True For Reporter And Friends [22]
Projects in 12 States Share Wildfire Funding [23]

$15 million of Stimulus funding for 55 projects, designed to help reduce wildfire hazards and reclaim burned lands, could be of substantial interest in the receiving communities.
SEJ Publication Types:
TipSheet [24]
Topics on the Beat:
Disasters [3]
Forests [25]
Government [21]
Region:
Northwest (OR WA) [26]
Mountain West (CO ID MT NV UT WY) [27]
Great Lakes (IL IN MI MN OH WI) [28]
Southwest (AZ NM OK TX) [29]
California [30]
Alaska and Hawaii [31]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Projects in 12 States Share Wildfire Funding [23]
Book Shelf, Book 2- The Winds Of Change: Climate, Weather, And The Destruction Of Civilization [32]

Climate change scientist paints a stark and vivid picture

THE WINDS OF CHANGE: CLIMATE, WEATHER AND THE DESTRUCTION OF CIVILIZATIONS By Eugene Linden
Simon & Schuster, $26
Topics on the Beat:
Climate Change [33]
Fish & Fisheries [34]
Economy & Business [35]
Consumer [36]
Disasters [3]
Energy & Fuel [4]
Environmental Studies [37]
Food [38]
Forests [25]
Health [10]
Government [21]
Environmental Politics [39]
Journalism & Media [40]
Region:
National (U.S.) [13]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Book Shelf, Book 2- The Winds Of Change: Climate, Weather, And The Destruction Of Civilization [32]

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