Publication Items

Despite High Court, Navy Keeps WA Town in Dark on Explosion Threat [1]

A landmark Supreme Court decision awarded Port Townsend residents the right to know about the potential location of explosives on the Indian Island Naval Magazine near their town. After losing the case, the Defense Department bolstered its legal grounds for secrecy by asking Congress to slip into the 2012 Defense Authorization an amendment creating a new statutory exemption to FOIA for the DOD.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Military [3]
Laws & Regulations [4]
Disasters [5]
Region:
Northwest (OR WA) [6]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Despite High Court, Navy Keeps WA Town in Dark on Explosion Threat [1]
Miami According to Helvarg [8]

SEJ Publication Types:
SEJ News [9]
Region:
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [10]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Miami According to Helvarg [8]
Documerica, Lost and Found [11]

Read about EPA's long dormant photojournalism project containing thousands of color photographs depicting a nation and its environmental problems in the early 1970s — and the new State of the Environment Photo Project this rediscovery has spawned, inviting participants worldwide to submit their work. By SEJournal photo editor Roger Archibald.

SEJ Publication Types:
Features [13]
Topics on the Beat:
Journalism & Media [14]
Natural Resources [15]
People & Population [16]
Region:
National (U.S.) [17]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Documerica, Lost and Found [11]
SacBee Wins Access to Forest-Fire Documents [18]

A federal judge ruled that once the documents — depositions of US Forest Service employees about a 2007 forest fire in California that burned tens of thousands of acres — had been entered into court records as part of the evidence discovery process, they were presumptively public records and had to remain that way.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Forests [19]
Disasters [5]
Region:
California [20]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about SacBee Wins Access to Forest-Fire Documents [18]
Obama Vows Disclosure of Toxic Fracking Secrets on Federal Land [21]

Most current fracking operations happen on non-federal lands. But on federal lands, things are different — Obama intends to require disclosure of fluids as a condition of new leases for fracking on federal lands. If it takes place, this could push the ingredient lists further into the open.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Water & Oceans [22]
Pollution [23]
Health [24]
Environmental Politics [25]
Energy & Fuel [26]
Chemicals [27]
Region:
Southwest (AZ NM OK TX) [28]
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [10]
Mountain West (CO ID MT NV UT WY) [29]
Mid-Atlantic (DC DE MD PA VA WV) [30]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Obama Vows Disclosure of Toxic Fracking Secrets on Federal Land [21]
Lejeune Secrecy May Have Caused Dead Marines [31]

CDC's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has been investigating a Navy cover-up of cancer-causing drinking water at its Lejeune, NC, base. Now, Project on Government Oversight has released a January 5, 2012, letter from Marine Major General J.A. Kessler asking ATSDR to redact its report in the name of "force protection."
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Pollution [23]
People & Population [16]
Military [3]
Environmental Politics [25]
Disasters [5]
Chemicals [27]
Region:
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [10]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Lejeune Secrecy May Have Caused Dead Marines [31]
Judge Allows Pool Video, Audio Coverage of WV Monsanto Trial [32]

In response to a request for live-streaming of the trial, the judge has expanded the gag order for the case, a class-action lawsuit seeking medical monitoring for people who may have been exposed to hazardous chemicals produced at Monsanto's former plant in Nitro, W.V.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Laws & Regulations [4]
Health [24]
Environmental Health [33]
Chemicals [27]
Agriculture [34]
Region:
Mid-Atlantic (DC DE MD PA VA WV) [30]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Judge Allows Pool Video, Audio Coverage of WV Monsanto Trial [32]
"Early Warming: Crisis and Response in the Climate-Changed North" [35]

SEJ Publication Types:
BookShelf [36]
Topics on the Beat:
Climate Change [37]
Region:
Alaska and Hawaii [38]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about "Early Warming: Crisis and Response in the Climate-Changed North" [35]
States Partly Fill Federal Vacuum on Fracking Fluid Disclosure Law [39]

Colorado, which adopted its disclosure rules December 13, 2011, joins Texas, Pennsylvania, and several other states in requiring some disclosure by drillers of the chemicals they pump into shale formations under high pressures to release natural gas. Scores of chemicals, some very toxic, may be involved.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Water & Oceans [22]
Pollution [23]
Laws & Regulations [4]
Energy & Fuel [26]
Chemicals [27]
Region:
Southwest (AZ NM OK TX) [28]
Mountain West (CO ID MT NV UT WY) [29]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about States Partly Fill Federal Vacuum on Fracking Fluid Disclosure Law [39]
Oregon Court Rules That Not All Bloggers Are Journalists [40]

The Portland judge ruled that blogger Crystal Cox, who published allegations against businessman Kevin Padrick and was subsequently sued by Padrick for defamation, was not a journalist as she lacked any conventional journalistic credentials or affiliations, and therefore was not entitled to the protections of the state's shield law.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Laws & Regulations [4]
Journalism & Media [14]
Region:
Northwest (OR WA) [6]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Oregon Court Rules That Not All Bloggers Are Journalists [40]

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