Publication Items

A Crack is a Crack: Making the Complex Simple [1]

"Inside Story" editor Beth Daley interviews Tampa (FL) Bay Times' Ivan Penn about his reporting on nuclear power, including the closing of the Crystal River Nuclear Plant, problems with cooling tubes at another facility and the risk to ratepayers for new nuclear power generation in Florida. Photo: Cooling towers at Crystal River nuclear plant in Florida. © Maurice Rivenbark, Tampa Bay Times.

SEJ Publication Types:
Inside Story [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Journalism & Media [3]
Laws & Regulations [4]
Nuclear Power & Radiation [5]
Region:
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [6]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about A Crack is a Crack: Making the Complex Simple [1]
SEJournal Summer 2014, Vol. 24 No. 2 [8]

In this issue: Covering the environment, health fallout of unexploded ordnance; special report on risk and resilience/lessons from Louisiana on the realities of coastal iving; freelancers and fellowships, a path for growth; utilizing the National Weather Service to track storm intensity; tapping the environmental journalism 'power grid'; book reviews; and classroom research on long-term relevance of front-page stories.

SEJ Publication Types:
SEJournal Online [9]
Topics on the Beat:
Disasters [10]
Journalism & Media [3]
Nuclear Power & Radiation [5]
People & Population [11]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about SEJournal Summer 2014, Vol. 24 No. 2 [8]
Company Subpoenas Journalists in "Pink Slime" Suit [12]

Four journalists and a food writer have had their notes subpoenaed in a company's $1.2-billion defamation lawsuit against ABC News for calling its product, a common hamburger additive, "pink slime."

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [13]
Topics on the Beat:
Consumer [14]
Food [15]
Laws & Regulations [4]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Company Subpoenas Journalists in "Pink Slime" Suit [12]
Fresh Secret Reports from the Congressional Research Service [16]

Here are some recent explainers of interest to environmental journalists from the CRS, which Congress does not allow to be released to the taxpaying public who paid for them. The WatchDog thanks those who leaked them and the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy for publishing them.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [13]
Topics on the Beat:
Agriculture [17]
Chemicals [18]
Climate Change [19]
Economy & Business [20]
Energy & Fuel [21]
Laws & Regulations [4]
Natural Resources [22]
People & Population [11]
Policy [23]
Pollution [24]
Transportation [25]
Water & Oceans [26]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Fresh Secret Reports from the Congressional Research Service [16]
Support Mounts for FOIA Upgrade Bill in Senate [27]

Pressure to bring a bipartisan power-boost bill for the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to the Senate floor mounted June 26, 2014, when a coalition of some 50 groups urged action. The bill would narrow a broad exemption that has in some cases shielded from disclosure almost anything not published in official and final form.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [13]
Topics on the Beat:
Government [28]
Laws & Regulations [4]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Support Mounts for FOIA Upgrade Bill in Senate [27]
EPA Press Office Obfuscation Keeps Complaints Boiling [29]

If you want to interview an EPA official about a drinking water pollution catastrophe or a controversy about air pollution from fracking, the press office may do its best to stop you. Examples abound. But, there are ways for journalists to push back. Read about them here.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [13]
Topics on the Beat:
Energy & Fuel [21]
Environmental Politics [30]
Government [28]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about EPA Press Office Obfuscation Keeps Complaints Boiling [29]
What the Public Isn't Allowed To Know Could Kill You [31]

The federal government has not only done very little to protect the public from the mass-casualty threats chemical facilities present to neighboring communities, they've focused efforts on keeping the public from knowing about those threats or the government's own failures to keep them safe. Now the U.S. EPA has signaled that it is about to revise a key rule governing chemical facility safety and security.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [13]
Topics on the Beat:
Chemicals [18]
Disasters [10]
Environmental Politics [30]
Laws & Regulations [4]
People & Population [11]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about What the Public Isn't Allowed To Know Could Kill You [31]
Special Edition TipSheet: Gulf Region Energy Issues [32]

Randy Lee Loftis, environmental writer for The Dallas Morning News, covers background, environmental battles, offshore orientation, onshore infrastructure and natural gas exports in the Gulf. Photo: ConocoPhillips's Magnolia tension-leg platform, about 180 miles south of Cameron, La. Credit: NOAA.

SEJ Publication Types:
TipSheet [33]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Special Edition TipSheet: Gulf Region Energy Issues [32]
Special Edition TipSheet: Gulf Coastal Marine Issues [34]

Here are some starting points for covering the science of how we're changing the Gulf, our semi-enclosed sea, from Randy Lee Loftis, environmental writer for The Dallas Morning News: orientation, geography and population; commerce; oil, gas and chemicals; marine life and fisheries; and the dead zone. Photo: Creolefish at Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. Credit: IFE/URIIAO.

SEJ Publication Types:
TipSheet [33]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Special Edition TipSheet: Gulf Coastal Marine Issues [34]
National Bridge Inventory Rife with Environmental, Safety Stories [35]

The National Bridge Inventory is a data tool that environmental and energy reporters can use to make their beat relevant to a wider audience. Compiled by the Federal Highway Administration, it can provide leads on stories like the use of federal highway funds, poor bridge maintenance, and even the pollution of water bodies with lead paint.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [13]
Topics on the Beat:
Disasters [10]
People & Population [11]
Pollution [24]
Technology [36]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about National Bridge Inventory Rife with Environmental, Safety Stories [35]

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