Publication Items

FACA Database Offers Major Tool for Gumshoes [1]

Journalists: if you haven't been paying attention to federal advisory committees, maybe it's time to start. These panels are a major back door through which industry exerts quiet influence on government regulators — but they are kept available to scrutiny by the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) and the Sunshine Act.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Government [3]
Laws & Regulations [4]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about FACA Database Offers Major Tool for Gumshoes [1]
Lobbyists Can Now Join Federal Advisory Committees [6]

The Obama White House released a new rule reversing its ban on lobbyists in government. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) rule allows registered lobbyists to participate as members on panels covered by the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). The rule change was forced by a court decision.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Activism [7]
Laws & Regulations [4]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Lobbyists Can Now Join Federal Advisory Committees [6]
EPA Muzzles Advisory Board Scientists [8]

Journalism and science groups, including SEJ, protested an August 12, 2014, "don't talk" memo from EPA's chief of staff. The memo makes it clear: members of the agency's many science advisory panels are not to talk to the news media or Congress without permission. Attached to the memo was an "EPA Policy" restricting communications between Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) committee members and parties outside EPA.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Environmental Politics [9]
Government [3]
Policy [10]
Science [11]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about EPA Muzzles Advisory Board Scientists [8]
Good Audio Gives Life to Environmental Storytelling [12]

SEJ Publication Types:
Reporters Toolbox [13]
Topics on the Beat:
Journalism & Media [14]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Good Audio Gives Life to Environmental Storytelling [12]
A Crack is a Crack: Making the Complex Simple [15]

"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 [16]
Topics on the Beat:
Journalism & Media [14]
Laws & Regulations [4]
Nuclear Power & Radiation [17]
Region:
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [18]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about A Crack is a Crack: Making the Complex Simple [15]
SEJournal Summer 2014, Vol. 24 No. 2 [19]

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 [20]
Topics on the Beat:
Disasters [21]
Journalism & Media [14]
Nuclear Power & Radiation [17]
People & Population [22]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about SEJournal Summer 2014, Vol. 24 No. 2 [19]
Company Subpoenas Journalists in "Pink Slime" Suit [23]

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 [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Consumer [24]
Food [25]
Laws & Regulations [4]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Company Subpoenas Journalists in "Pink Slime" Suit [23]
Fresh Secret Reports from the Congressional Research Service [26]

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 [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Agriculture [27]
Chemicals [28]
Climate Change [29]
Economy & Business [30]
Energy & Fuel [31]
Laws & Regulations [4]
Natural Resources [32]
People & Population [22]
Policy [10]
Pollution [33]
Transportation [34]
Water & Oceans [35]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Fresh Secret Reports from the Congressional Research Service [26]
Support Mounts for FOIA Upgrade Bill in Senate [36]

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 [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Government [3]
Laws & Regulations [4]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Support Mounts for FOIA Upgrade Bill in Senate [36]
EPA Press Office Obfuscation Keeps Complaints Boiling [37]

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 [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Energy & Fuel [31]
Environmental Politics [9]
Government [3]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about EPA Press Office Obfuscation Keeps Complaints Boiling [37]

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