Publication Items

Terrified CIA Urged To Shed Secrecy About Climate Threats [1]

The Central Intelligence Agency is spending untold millions to study the national security threats presented by climate change. Now the Pentagon's Defense Science Board (DSB) is urging that another, new office be created to do the same job, for more untold millions.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Government [3]
Climate Change [4]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Terrified CIA Urged To Shed Secrecy About Climate Threats [1]
White House Gives House Inquisitors Only Some of Subpoenaed Documents [6]

The White House rejected the House Energy Committee's subpoena for "all internal communications" related to federal loan guarantees for the now-bankrupt Solyndra solar panel company.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Government [3]
Energy & Fuel [7]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about White House Gives House Inquisitors Only Some of Subpoenaed Documents [6]
Justice Dept. Ditches Its Proposal To Lie About Existence of FOIA Records [8]

The regulatory proposal was part of a large package of revised FOIA regulations, which will go forward without it. The Justice Department did not rescind the 1987 Meese memo the proposal was based on; instead it identified ways in which agencies could be unresponsive and uninformative without actually lying.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Policy [9]
Laws & Regulations [10]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Justice Dept. Ditches Its Proposal To Lie About Existence of FOIA Records [8]
Secret EPA Watchlist Yields Megastories for NPR, iWatch News, ... and You? [11]

There are 464 facilities on the list of Clean Air Act violators. The Center for Public Integrity's iWatch News and National Public Radio got the list using the FOIA and published a powerful feature package: "Poisoned Places: Toxic Air, Neglected Communities." But they did not tell all the stories. They left some for you.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Pollution [12]
Air [13]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Secret EPA Watchlist Yields Megastories for NPR, iWatch News, ... and You? [11]
Other Information Access News in Brief [14]

Climate scientist Michael Mann wins bid to join emails lawsuit; BP and other Gulf oil spill CEOs won't testify before House committee; Republican House freshmen disappointed by Supercommittee's secrecy; Obama admin to issue disclosure rules for fracking on federal lands; WRI/Transparency Int'l panel on climate policy corruption, Nov. 3, 2011, in DC; proposed FOIA rule would let gov't deny existence of records; and bill to improve pipeline safety and increase access to info passes Senate.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Policy [9]
Government [3]
Energy & Fuel [7]
Disasters [15]
Climate Change [4]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Other Information Access News in Brief [14]
DocumentCloud: New Tool for Gumshoe Reporting [16]

If you do investigative reporting, you probably rely often on large numbers of documents to make your case. This new, free tool can help you manage the evidence in a way that supports your story and helps you move seamlessly from research to publication.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Technology [17]
Journalism & Media [18]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about DocumentCloud: New Tool for Gumshoe Reporting [16]
Corps Puts Searchable National Levee Database Online [19]

Levees have huge environmental and human impacts, but are often neglected by news media until disaster strikes. The NLD should make reporting both routine and crisis stories a lot easier. The bad news is that after several years of work by the Corps, only a small fraction of all the levees in the US have been entered into the database.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Water & Oceans [20]
Disasters [15]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Corps Puts Searchable National Levee Database Online [19]
Texas Censors Climate Science; Sparks Scientists' Revolt [21]

After officials appointed by presidential candidate Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) deleted references to climate change from a report on Galveston Bay, other scientists asked that their names be disassociated from the report.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Science [22]
Climate Change [4]
Region:
Southwest (AZ NM OK TX) [23]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Texas Censors Climate Science; Sparks Scientists' Revolt [21]
Another Interior Science Probe: This Time on Delta Smelt [24]

The latest episode is an internal Interior Dept. probe into the work of two scientists who study the tiny but endangered smelt which live in the Sacramento River delta that feeds into San Francisco Bay.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Fish & Fisheries [25]
Region:
California [26]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Another Interior Science Probe: This Time on Delta Smelt [24]
Reporters Committee Offers Digital Journos' Legal Guide [27]

RCFP's free online guide covers many topics: credentials for bloggers; state and federal FOIA rights; libel and SLAPP laws; privacy concerns online; Internet regulation; and more.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Laws & Regulations [10]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Reporters Committee Offers Digital Journos' Legal Guide [27]

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