Publication Items

Toolbox: Database Helps Track Broken Promises on Parkland Conservation [1]

Seattle-based InvestigateWest published a feature package last summer documenting illegal parkland conversions in Michigan, New York City, and Oklahoma. They could not cover all the other states — that was left for you to do, with the assistance of their database of some 40,000 federal grants under the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Planning & Growth [3]
Natural Resources [4]
Laws & Regulations [5]
Government [6]
Economy & Business [7]
Region:
Great Lakes (IL IN MI MN OH WI) [8]
Northeast (CT MA ME NH NJ NY RI VT) [9]
Southwest (AZ NM OK TX) [10]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about Toolbox: Database Helps Track Broken Promises on Parkland Conservation [1]
White House Met in Secret with Industry Before Frack Rule [12]

Government rulemaking takes place with everything on the record in a public docket, right? Well ... actually not. EnergyWire reporter Mike Soraghan revealed in an April 12, 2013 story that presidential aide Heather Zichal met more than 20 times with industry groups lobbying on the proposed rule for fracking on federal lands.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Laws & Regulations [5]
Government [6]
Environmental Politics [13]
Energy & Fuel [14]
Economy & Business [7]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about White House Met in Secret with Industry Before Frack Rule [12]
Voluntary Fracking Disclosure Database Gets 'F' from Harvard Study [15]

We told you so. But now a Harvard study also says it: the FracFocus registry designed and operated by the drilling industry (and its close friends) fails to meet the public's right to accountability and complete disclosure of chemicals pumped into underground formations that may impact people's drinking-water wells.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Water & Oceans [16]
Health [17]
Environmental Health [18]
Energy & Fuel [14]
Chemicals [19]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about Voluntary Fracking Disclosure Database Gets 'F' from Harvard Study [15]
Texas Fertilizer Explosion Re-Raises Buried Hazmat Disclosure Issues [20]

News stories about the April 17, 2013, explosion of a fertilizer storage plant in the town of West, Texas that killed 15 people have so far focused on the plant operator's risk-disclosure failure, instead of the likely fact that government agencies knew the nature and magnitude of the hazard — or should have known. The bigger story is the regulatory failure — and industry's decades-long campaign to keep the public ignorant of the threats they face. Photo: AP/LM Otero/Available through Creative Commons.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Planning & Growth [3]
Laws & Regulations [5]
Environmental Politics [13]
Disasters [21]
Chemicals [19]
Agriculture [22]
Region:
Southwest (AZ NM OK TX) [10]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about Texas Fertilizer Explosion Re-Raises Buried Hazmat Disclosure Issues [20]
Goal-Setting 101: You Must Lose a Fly to Catch a Trout [23]

Freelancer Christine Woodside shares her hard-earned wisdom about myriad aspects of weaving a life and business out of independent status in the inaugural column, "The Freelance Files."

SEJ Publication Types:
Freelance Files [25]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about Goal-Setting 101: You Must Lose a Fly to Catch a Trout [23]
Members Weigh in As Board Considers ‘SEJ 3.0’ [26]

SEJ President Don Hopey passes along some results from SEJ’s fall 2012 member survey, and also an update on the board’s just-launched review of our organization’s programs and services, an effort we are calling, not without some hope (or is it hype?) — “SEJ 3.0.”

SEJ Publication Types:
SEJ Presidents Report [27]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about Members Weigh in As Board Considers ‘SEJ 3.0’ [26]
Broken Promise: Database Helps Track Illegal Parkland Conversions [28]

InvestigateWest's Robert McClure and Jason Alcorn explain how to spin the local angle about how parks built or improved with money from the Land and Water Conservation Fund are increasingly being illegally privatized or converted to something other than parks — including sharing their searchable database of almost 40,000 park grants.

SEJ Publication Types:
Reporters Toolbox [29]
Topics on the Beat:
Laws & Regulations [5]
Natural Resources [4]
Technology [30]
Region:
National (U.S.) [31]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about Broken Promise: Database Helps Track Illegal Parkland Conversions [28]
SEJournal Spring 2013, Vol. 23 No. 1 [24]

In this issue: Special report on energy and climate change; first installment of new column 'Freelance Files' on goal setting; database helps track illegal parkland conversions; members cover sprawl, science and chickens; annual Sundance Film Festival report; and six book reviews.

SEJ Publication Types:
SEJournal Online [32]
Topics on the Beat:
Agriculture [22]
Climate Change [33]
Energy & Fuel [14]
Journalism & Media [34]
Natural Resources [4]
Planning & Growth [3]
Science [35]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about SEJournal Spring 2013, Vol. 23 No. 1 [24]
"River Notes: A Natural and Human History of the Colorado" [36]

SEJ Publication Types:
BookShelf [37]
Topics on the Beat:
Water & Oceans [16]
Region:
Mountain West (CO ID MT NV UT WY) [38]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about "River Notes: A Natural and Human History of the Colorado" [36]
"The Ocean of Life: The Fate of Man and the Sea" [39]

SEJ Publication Types:
BookShelf [37]
Topics on the Beat:
Biodiversity [40]
Fish & Fisheries [41]
Water & Oceans [16]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about "The Ocean of Life: The Fate of Man and the Sea" [39]

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