Publication Items

Judge Orders National Park Service To Release FOIA'd Documents [1]

A former employee of a restaurant in Acadia National Park won a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit over records the National Park Service had refused to release, about a 2008 incident when he was among those detained by Park Service police.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Natural Resources [3]
Government [4]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Judge Orders National Park Service To Release FOIA'd Documents [1]
Toolbox: Data Science Toolkit [6]

If you spend a lot of time researching things on the Internet as part of your reporting, the online Data Science Toolkit, which is especially handy with geographic data, and a book by Pete Warden could make parts of your job a lot easier.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Technology [7]
Science [8]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Toolbox: Data Science Toolkit [6]
BP Blowout Anniversary: "What's Under Elmer's Island?" [9]

Denial of news media access to Gulf beaches has been an issue since the Deepwater Horizon disaster. There's tussling over access to (and interpretation of) scientific information on possible impacts of the spill on the Gulf ecosystem. And The Guardian obtained >30,000 pages of BP in-house memos FOIA'd by Greenpeace, which suggest BP was working hard to influence the results of the research it was paying for.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Water & Oceans [10]
Science [8]
Pollution [11]
Disasters [12]
Region:
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [13]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about BP Blowout Anniversary: "What's Under Elmer's Island?" [9]
Wisconsin: Another Case Pits Freedom of Information Against Academic Freedom [14]

A top Wisconsin Republican party official on March 17 filed a request under the state's freedom-of-information law for emails written by University of Wisconsin's William J. Cronon, after the professor blogged about the American Legislative Exchange Council, an anti-regulatory group that lobbies state legislatures.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Region:
Great Lakes (IL IN MI MN OH WI) [15]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Wisconsin: Another Case Pits Freedom of Information Against Academic Freedom [14]
Fed Report Identifies 70 Hydro Expansion Candidates [16]

The Dept. of Interior's Bureau of Reclamation released a report March 31, 2011, that highlights 70 existing dam, diversion structure, and other waterway operations in 14 Western states that could be expanded to generate more electricity.
SEJ Publication Types:
TipSheet [17]
Topics on the Beat:
Energy & Fuel [18]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Fed Report Identifies 70 Hydro Expansion Candidates [16]
Three Public Fracking Forums on Tap [19]

Topics to be discussed April 20-25, 2011, in Bismarck, Denver, and Little Rock include "best management practices, disclosure of the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing fluids, well construction and integrity, production wastewater management, and other techniques for protecting drinking water resources."
SEJ Publication Types:
TipSheet [17]
Topics on the Beat:
Energy & Fuel [18]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Three Public Fracking Forums on Tap [19]
Fed Report: Most Oil and Gas Leases Unused [20]

According to a Dept. of Interior report requested by Obama and released March 29, 2011, 70% of existing federal oil and gas offshore lease acres and 57% of all federal onshore leased acres are inactive, with no production, exploration or development.
SEJ Publication Types:
TipSheet [17]
Topics on the Beat:
Natural Resources [3]
Energy & Fuel [18]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Fed Report: Most Oil and Gas Leases Unused [20]
Natl Air Toxics Report Gives Perspective, Despite Many Info Gaps [21]

Every U.S. resident is at elevated risk of cancer from certain toxic substances in outdoor air, and about one-quarter of all residents are possibly at risk for noncancer health effects, according to EPA's update of the National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment (NATA) released March 11, 2011.
SEJ Publication Types:
TipSheet [17]
Topics on the Beat:
Pollution [11]
Chemicals [22]
Air [23]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Natl Air Toxics Report Gives Perspective, Despite Many Info Gaps [21]
Move from Daily Newspaper Job Rewards Science Writer and Book Author [24]

Bill Dawson gets the "Inside Story" from Alanna Mitchell (pictured at left) about her Grantham Prize-winning book Seasick: Ocean Change and the Extinction of Life on Earth, her career and her next project.

SEJ Publication Types:
Inside Story [25]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Move from Daily Newspaper Job Rewards Science Writer and Book Author [24]
Preface: Robbing Nature's Bank [26]

By BILL FREUDENBURG

[Note: Published posthumously in the Spring 2011 SEJournal, this is Bill's preface to Atrophy of Vigilance as he wrote it.]

May 14, 2009. Yesterday, my doctors told me that I have a rare and usually fatal cancer, meaning that I don’t know how much time I have left on this earth. By about 2:00 this morning, I had decided that one of the things I want to do with that time is to finish this book about the earth, and about what we humans are doing to it.
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Preface: Robbing Nature's Bank [26]

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