Publication Items

FOIA'd E-Mails Open Window on GMO Lobbying by Academics [1]

Investigative reporting in the environmental area depends on the Freedom of Information Act. The latest exposé on GMO lobbying in the New York Times by double-Pulitzer-winner Eric Lipton is a good example.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Agriculture [3]
Economy & Business [4]
Food [5]
Technology [6]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about FOIA'd E-Mails Open Window on GMO Lobbying by Academics [1]
Settlement Sets Disclosure on Decade-old Gulf Oil Leak [8]

You'd think there shouldn't be such a thing as a secret oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Earlier this year, the Associated Press uncovered an offshore well in the Gulf that had been leaking for a decade. Now — thanks to a lawsuit from environmentalists — the details will be revealed.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Disasters [9]
Energy & Fuel [10]
Environmental Politics [11]
Fish & Fisheries [12]
Pollution [13]
Water & Oceans [14]
Region:
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [15]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Settlement Sets Disclosure on Decade-old Gulf Oil Leak [8]
Food Industry Heavyweights Spend Big To Lobby Against Transparency [16]

The battleground over transparency on food origins and ingredients is much wider than labeling of foods that contain genetically modified ingredients, as journalist Elizabeth Grossman points out in a recent piece in Civil Eats.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Consumer [17]
Food [5]
Laws & Regulations [18]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Food Industry Heavyweights Spend Big To Lobby Against Transparency [16]
Food Safety Group Sues Ag Department for FOIA'd Records on GMO Crops [19]

The Center for Food Safety has sued the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service under the Freedom of Information Act for withholding information on genetically modified crops (GMOs), after unsuccessfully seeking information over a period of 13 years.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Agriculture [3]
Environmental Health [20]
Food [5]
Health [21]
Laws & Regulations [18]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Food Safety Group Sues Ag Department for FOIA'd Records on GMO Crops [19]
CAMEO Still Making Appearance as First Responders Face Hazmats [22]

CAMEO is a free and publicly available suite of applications useful to reporters. Developed by the U.S. EPA and NOAA, it includes information about the hazards of various chemicals, as well as map overlays that may show how close a spill site is to the nearest facility of interest, such as a nursery school or retirement home.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Disasters [9]
Technology [6]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about CAMEO Still Making Appearance as First Responders Face Hazmats [22]
State Judge Orders Disclosure of Maryland Oil Train Data [23]

A Maryland state judge this month ordered a state agency to give news media routing information about oil trains within Maryland — adding momentum to efforts to warn firefighters and communities about dangers they face. Photo: 2013 Lac Megantic, Quebec, disaster, by Elias Schewel/Flickr. [24]

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Disasters [9]
Energy & Fuel [10]
People & Population [25]
Transportation [26]
Region:
National (U.S.) [27]
Mid-Atlantic (DC DE MD PA VA WV) [28]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about State Judge Orders Disclosure of Maryland Oil Train Data [23]
"Greening Health Care: How Hospitals Can Heal the Planet" [29]

SEJ Publication Types:
BookShelf [30]
Topics on the Beat:
Economy & Business [4]
Environmental Health [20]
Health [21]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about "Greening Health Care: How Hospitals Can Heal the Planet" [29]
Lustgarten Says Data on Who Gets Ag Subsidies Is Rare as Hens' Teeth [31]

Abrahm Lustgarten (left) wrote a nine-part series delving into farm subsidies and water policy. But his efforts to get the actual names of farm subsidy recipients or individual water users were largely thwarted. Read how info flows less quickly to the public than money and water flow to farmers in SPJ's FOI blog. Photo credit: Lars Klove.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Agriculture [3]
Policy [32]
Water & Oceans [14]
Region:
California [33]
Mountain West (CO ID MT NV UT WY) [34]
Southwest (AZ NM OK TX) [35]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Lustgarten Says Data on Who Gets Ag Subsidies Is Rare as Hens' Teeth [31]
Still Interested? Some Feds Hope You Will Give Up on FOIA Requests [36]

Federal agencies sometimes wait years to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests, then ask if they are still interested in receiving the requested information. Now the Justice Department's Office of Information Policy has issued an official "guidance" that frowns slightly on overuse of the "still interested?" practice.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Government [37]
Laws & Regulations [18]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Still Interested? Some Feds Hope You Will Give Up on FOIA Requests [36]
Federal Judge Strikes Down Idaho "Ag-Gag" Law as Unconstitutional [38]

"The facts show the state's purpose in enacting the statute was to protect industrial animal agriculture by silencing its critics," district Judge B. Lynn Winmill wrote. Sometimes investigative journalists need to go undercover. And sometimes muckraking journalists need undercover whistleblowers to tip them to abuses.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Activism [39]
Agriculture [3]
Laws & Regulations [18]
Region:
Mountain West (CO ID MT NV UT WY) [34]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Federal Judge Strikes Down Idaho "Ag-Gag" Law as Unconstitutional [38]

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