Publication Items

From Classroom to Bookshelf: Publishing a DIY Guide to Local Environmental Issues [1]

In this excerpt from the latest issue of SEJournal (Fall), Webster University journalism professor Don Corrigan shares how he used his classroom as a focal point for generating material with student inquiry and invitations to local experts, resulting in publication of a guide to St. Louis' environmental issues — and how the book can serve as a template for other professors to write a book for other states or regions.

SEJ Publication Types:
EJ Academy [2]
Region:
National (U.S.) [3]
Great Plains (IA KS ND NE MO SD) [4]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about From Classroom to Bookshelf: Publishing a DIY Guide to Local Environmental Issues [1]
Read the Congressional Reports You're Not Supposed To Read [6]

Journalists hurrying to get up to speed on environmental or energy issues can get objective background from reports by the Congressional Research Service (an arm of the Library of Congress), which does not release them to the taxpaying public that funded them. We thank the Federation of American Scientists' Government Secrecy Project for publishing them.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [7]
Topics on the Beat:
Climate Change [8]
Disasters [9]
Energy & Fuel [10]
Health [11]
Laws & Regulations [12]
Military [13]
Nuclear Power & Radiation [14]
Science [15]
Transportation [16]
Wildlife [17]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Read the Congressional Reports You're Not Supposed To Read [6]
Monsanto Brings Agriculture Geodata to the Public [18]

If you report on agriculture-related environmental issues, you may find useful a new geodata tool available free to the public online. Monsanto has bought The Climate Corporation (for $930 million), which compiles weather, soil, and crop data down to the field level.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [7]
Topics on the Beat:
Agriculture [19]
Technology [20]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Monsanto Brings Agriculture Geodata to the Public [18]
House Bills Would Stifle Science at EPA [21]

Three GOP-backed House bills attacking science at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are unlikely to become law in the current Congress — or the next. The Obama administration has threatened to veto all three, which the House passed in November along party lines. None is likely to muster enough support to override a veto.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [7]
Topics on the Beat:
Environmental Politics [22]
Laws & Regulations [12]
Science [15]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about House Bills Would Stifle Science at EPA [21]
Congress Could Still Pass FOIA Reform [23]

There is still a chance that Congress could pass legislation strengthening the Freedom of Information Act before it adjourns. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a fix-FOIA bill (S 2520) November 20, 2014, setting up the possibility of full-Senate floor action. The Society of Environmental Journalists has urged Congress and the President to support such legislation.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [7]
Topics on the Beat:
Government [24]
Journalism & Media [25]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Congress Could Still Pass FOIA Reform [23]
Free Speech for Science Advisors? EPA Loosens the Leash [26]

EPA has issued a "clarification" of its SAB scientist-muzzling policy, which acknowledges that SAB members are free to talk to reporters — mostly — as long as they are speaking for themselves. Still, the Society of Professional Journalists wrote EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy December 1 declaring their dissatisfaction with the clarification.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [7]
Topics on the Beat:
Environmental Politics [22]
Policy [27]
Science [15]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Free Speech for Science Advisors? EPA Loosens the Leash [26]
J-Groups Call on Forest Service To Drop Permit Requirements [28]

A coalition of journalism groups, including SEJ, is calling on the U.S. Forest Service to make clear in its directives that journalists, documentarians, and media photographers do not need permits to take pictures in National Forest Wilderness or other public lands.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [7]
Topics on the Beat:
Environmental Politics [22]
Forests [29]
Journalism & Media [25]
Policy [27]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about J-Groups Call on Forest Service To Drop Permit Requirements [28]
Between the Lines: Rain of Steel — Covering the Environment, Health Fallout of Unexploded Ordnance [30]

SEJ Publication Types:
BookShelf [31]
Topics on the Beat:
Disasters [9]
Environmental Health [32]
Health [11]
Military [13]
People & Population [33]
Region:
Asia [34]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Between the Lines: Rain of Steel — Covering the Environment, Health Fallout of Unexploded Ordnance [30]
Got Methyl Mercaptan? Group Maps Chemical Risks Data [35]

It was news when a leak of methyl mercaptan killed four workers at a DuPont chemical plant in La Porte, Texas, November 15, 2014. Maps and data are available to any environmental journalists who want to know about similar hazards near them, thanks to Amanda Frank at the Center for Effective Government.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [7]
Topics on the Beat:
Chemicals [36]
Disasters [9]
People & Population [33]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Got Methyl Mercaptan? Group Maps Chemical Risks Data [35]
FOIA Bill Could Still Pass Lame Duck [37]

There is still hope (and perhaps time) for this Congress to pass a bill strengthening the Freedom of Information Act. The Senate Judiciary seems likely to mark up a revised FOIA reform bill Thursday, November 20, 2014. After that will come a push to bring it to the Senate floor and eventually reconcile with a FOIA bill already passed by the House.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [7]
Topics on the Beat:
Government [24]
Laws & Regulations [12]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about FOIA Bill Could Still Pass Lame Duck [37]

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