Publication Items

Wyoming "Data Trespass" Legal Conflict Settled by Ranchers, Enviros [1]

A lawsuit over Wyoming's controversial "data trespass" law, which made it illegal to document pollution violations on "private open land", was settled in August without really resolving any of the important Constitutional issues behind it — and with both sides claiming victory.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Laws & Regulations [3]
Pollution [4]
Region:
Mountain West (CO ID MT NV UT WY) [5]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Wyoming "Data Trespass" Legal Conflict Settled by Ranchers, Enviros [1]
Farm News Fires Cartoonist for Lampooning Ag Firm CEOs' Pay [7]

The Iowa-based publication Farm News has fired an editorial cartoonist who had contributed to the publication for 21 years. His crime: pointing out that the CEOs of Monsanto, Dupont Pioneer and John Deere made far more than average farmers.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Agriculture [8]
Economy & Business [9]
Food [10]
Journalism & Media [11]
Region:
Great Plains (IA KS ND NE MO SD) [12]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Farm News Fires Cartoonist for Lampooning Ag Firm CEOs' Pay [7]
Citizens Group Says Libel Suit from Landfill Company Meant To Silence [13]

Black Belt Citizens Fighting for Health and Justice says the landfill, which has accepted millions of pounds of coal ash from the 2008 Tennessee spill, violates their civil rights. The community surrounding the landfill is predominantly poor and African-American.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Activism [14]
Laws & Regulations [3]
People & Population [15]
Waste [16]
Region:
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [17]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Citizens Group Says Libel Suit from Landfill Company Meant To Silence [13]
Do Arizona Journalists Have To Show Their Papers? [18]

Access to legislatures is critical to journalistic coverage of government — at least if government is to be accountable and democratic. So it caused a stir when Arizona House Speaker David Gowan (R) banned reporters from the floor unless they passed extensive background checks.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Government [19]
Region:
Southwest (AZ NM OK TX) [20]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Do Arizona Journalists Have To Show Their Papers? [18]
Pavillion, Wyo., Fracking Study Unplugged with FOIA [21]

In 2011, EPA produced — and subsequently buried — a draft report on fracking contamination at Pavillion, Wyoming. Now one of the authors of the original draft has co-published a review of the research in the independent journal Environmental Science & Technology. The new study, based on FOIA'd documents, links fracking and polluted wells.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Energy & Fuel [22]
Environmental Politics [23]
Pollution [4]
Water & Oceans [24]
Region:
Mountain West (CO ID MT NV UT WY) [5]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Pavillion, Wyo., Fracking Study Unplugged with FOIA [21]
Nine Years After Request for FEMA Katrina Records: Nothing [25]

The Project on Government Oversight FOIA'd FEMA/DHS in 2006 for documents that might reveal hanky-panky with billions of dollars in Hurricane Katrina recovery contracts. In December 2015, DHS finally wrote POGO to say that disclosing the records would constitute an "unwarranted invasion of privacy."

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Disasters [26]
Economy & Business [9]
Environmental Politics [23]
Region:
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [17]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Nine Years After Request for FEMA Katrina Records: Nothing [25]
Did Big Food Just Lose the GMO Disclosure War? [27]

Tens of millions have been spent on lobbying and advertising by the mainstream food industry to defeat a series of state-by-state measures requiring food labels to disclose GMO content. Now, Vermont is poised to implement a GMO-labelling law.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Food [10]
Laws & Regulations [3]
Region:
Northeast (CT MA ME NH NJ NY RI VT) [28]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Did Big Food Just Lose the GMO Disclosure War? [27]
The Path to Better Investigative Science Reporting [29]

In the latest Reporter's Toolbox, Climate Central senior science writer John Upton defines investigative science reporting’s major role, and shares his personal nine ways to do the job better.

SEJ Publication Types:
Reporters Toolbox [30]
Topics on the Beat:
Climate Change [31]
Forests [32]
Journalism & Media [11]
Region:
National (U.S.) [33]
Europe [34]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about The Path to Better Investigative Science Reporting [29]
Will Journalists Heed the Lessons of Flint? [35]

SEJ’s WatchDog Project director Joseph A. Davis analyzes local and regional media's role in reporting — or not — the Flint water debacle.

SEJ Publication Types:
Inside Story [36]
Topics on the Beat:
Chemicals [37]
Environmental Politics [23]
Health [38]
Water & Oceans [24]
Region:
Great Lakes (IL IN MI MN OH WI) [39]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Will Journalists Heed the Lessons of Flint? [35]
Maine Law Hid Threats to Public from Oil Trains [40]

Maine passed a law in 2015 that allowed railroads to keep oil-train routing information from the public — over the governor's veto. In the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting's Pine Tree Watchdog, Dave Sherwood reports how the provision was a bait-and-switch.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Disasters [26]
Energy & Fuel [22]
Government [19]
Laws & Regulations [3]
People & Population [15]
Transportation [41]
Region:
Great Lakes (IL IN MI MN OH WI) [39]
Great Plains (IA KS ND NE MO SD) [12]
Mid-Atlantic (DC DE MD PA VA WV) [42]
Mountain West (CO ID MT NV UT WY) [5]
Northwest (OR WA) [43]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Maine Law Hid Threats to Public from Oil Trains [40]

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