Publication Items

News Innovation an Essential Skill for New Journalists [1]

In this excerpt from the latest issue of SEJournal (Spring), we debut the new EJ Academy column (a place for educators and students to explore current research on environmental journalism) with University of Michigan's Emilia Askari sharing how she and SEJ member Julie Halpert teach news innovation à la Knight Challenge style.

SEJ Publication Types:
EJ Academy [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Environmental Health [3]
Health [4]
Journalism & Media [5]
Region:
Great Lakes (IL IN MI MN OH WI) [6]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about News Innovation an Essential Skill for New Journalists [1]
Judge Orders Exxon To Produce Records on Leaky Arkansas Pipeline [8]

ExxonMobil lost a bid to keep federal regulators and prosecutors from getting records which might show criminal negligence in its operation of the pipeline that spilled oil into the Arkansas community of Mayflower in March 2013. The judge also threw out Exxon's motion to dismiss a lawsuit against the company.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [9]
Topics on the Beat:
Disasters [10]
Energy & Fuel [11]
Laws & Regulations [12]
Region:
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [13]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Judge Orders Exxon To Produce Records on Leaky Arkansas Pipeline [8]
Special Edition TipSheet: Coastal Risk and Resilience in the Gulf Region [14]

From 1970 until 2010, 34.8 million more people decided to move towards the coast of the United States and that population is expected to grow just as sea-level rise and climate change continue to increase the risk of living there. Amy Wold, a reporter with The Advocate in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, covers change and adaptation; locks and floodgates; levees and marshes; communities at risk; insurance issues; and lessons learned. Photo (click to enlarge [15]): In 2012, Wold took this shot of the rapidly disappearing Cat Island in Barataria Basin in south Louisiana. She returned there in 2014 to find barely any land left above water. © Amy Wold, The (Baton Rouge) Advocate.

SEJ Publication Types:
TipSheet [16]
Topics on the Beat:
Climate Change [17]
Disasters [10]
People & Population [18]
Planning & Growth [19]
Water & Oceans [20]
Region:
National (U.S.) [21]
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [13]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Special Edition TipSheet: Coastal Risk and Resilience in the Gulf Region [14]
Special Edition TipSheet: Gulf Coast Restoration [22]

Amy Wold, a reporter with The Advocate in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, writes about coastal challenges facing the state, including coastal loss, restoration, economics, diversion, the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, BP settlements and the RESTORE Act, fisheries impacts — and why protecting and stabilizing Louisiana’s coastline is not just a local issue, but a national one. Image: Heavy machinery moves around sediment that has been piped in from the Mississippi River at a coastal restoration project in Plaquemines Parish in November 2013. © Amy Wold, The (Baton Rouge) Advocate.

SEJ Publication Types:
TipSheet [16]
Topics on the Beat:
Energy & Fuel [11]
Fish & Fisheries [23]
Planning & Growth [19]
Water & Oceans [20]
Region:
National (U.S.) [21]
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [13]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Special Edition TipSheet: Gulf Coast Restoration [22]
You Can Hide Oil Trains From the Public, But Not From Terrorists [24]

As 100-car trains of explosive crude oil snake through U.S. cities and river gorges, the railroad industry continues to tell the public they are being kept secret from terrorists. But now a series of articles by Rob Davis for the The (Portland) Oregonian seems to have caught the railroads and the feds in their own contradictions.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [9]
Topics on the Beat:
Disasters [10]
Energy & Fuel [11]
People & Population [18]
Transportation [25]
Region:
National (U.S.) [21]
Mid-Atlantic (DC DE MD PA VA WV) [26]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about You Can Hide Oil Trains From the Public, But Not From Terrorists [24]
Chevron Blocks Access by State Regulators to Gas Well Explosion Site [27]

One worker was killed February 11, 2014, when a Chevron gas well exploded near Bobtown, Pennsylvania, and burned for five days. But inspectors from the state's Department of Environmental Protection were stopped by Chevron from approaching the site — thus keeping them from seeing possible safety violations. The DEP acquiesced at the time, but later cited Chevron for nine violations at the site.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [9]
Topics on the Beat:
Disasters [10]
Energy & Fuel [11]
People & Population [18]
Region:
California [28]
Mid-Atlantic (DC DE MD PA VA WV) [26]
Southwest (AZ NM OK TX) [29]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Chevron Blocks Access by State Regulators to Gas Well Explosion Site [27]
Texas Punishes San Antonio COG for Disclosing Oil/Gas Pollution [30]

On April 4, 2014, the Alamo Area Council of Governments, the regional area which is supposed to control smog, released its study results — which suggested drilling in the Eagle Ford shale did indeed contribute a lot to smog. Days later, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which had funded the study, cut AACOG's budget by 25 percent.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [9]
Topics on the Beat:
Air [31]
Environmental Politics [32]
Pollution [33]
Region:
Southwest (AZ NM OK TX) [29]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Texas Punishes San Antonio COG for Disclosing Oil/Gas Pollution [30]
Peace Group Calls for NEPA Disclosure on Construction at Bangor Base [34]

Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action wants higher courts to hear its argument that the Navy is required by the National Environmental Policy Act to disclose more information about the impacts of a nuclear submarine facility upgrade at the Kitsap-Bangor Naval Base in Washington state, especially the risk of explosion.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [9]
Topics on the Beat:
Laws & Regulations [12]
Military [35]
Nuclear Power & Radiation [36]
Region:
Northwest (OR WA) [37]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Peace Group Calls for NEPA Disclosure on Construction at Bangor Base [34]
PHMSA Won't Disclose Restart Plan for Arkansas Pegasus Pipeline [38]

Exxon had said it was planning to restart the aging pipeline — which was given to seam ruptures — by the end of March. But the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has so far refused requests to make public the restart plan. Elizabeth Douglass wrote about PHMSA's secrecy in InsideClimate News. Photo: The Pegasus pipeline, exposed and suspended in Houston County, 7 miles NW of Crockett, TX, in May 2013. Credit: Safe Community Alliance.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [9]
Region:
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [13]
Southwest (AZ NM OK TX) [29]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about PHMSA Won't Disclose Restart Plan for Arkansas Pegasus Pipeline [38]
SEJ Objects to Illegal Military Police Treatment of Toledo Blade Journalists [39]

In a strongly worded April 9, 2014, letter by SEJ Executive Director Beth Parke and SEJ WatchDog Project Director Joseph A. Davis, SEJ urged Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to apologize to the Toledo Blade and direct military employees not to let such illegal actions happen again: Blade journalists Jetta Fraser and Tyrel Linkhorn were detained March 28, 2014 by military police in a public area outside the Joint Systems Manufacturing Center in Lima, Ohio. Fraser was held in handcuffs, and military police threatened sexual violence against her.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [9]
Topics on the Beat:
Journalism & Media [5]
Military [35]
Region:
Great Lakes (IL IN MI MN OH WI) [6]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about SEJ Objects to Illegal Military Police Treatment of Toledo Blade Journalists [39]

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