It's not too late to register for SEJ's October 2-6, 2013, Annual Conference in Chattanooga [2] —- and some key freedom-of-information sessions there. Register online here. [3]

• At 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, October 5, SEJ FOI Task Force Chair Tim Wheeler of the Baltimore Sun will moderate a session on "Obstacles to Access: Strategies for the Stonewalled." [4] The session will focus on overcoming obstacles put up by agency press offices to reporters who want to interview government officials. Speakers include: Elizabeth Grossman, Freelance Journalist; John Messeder, Freelance Journalist; Camilla Mortensen, Associate Editor and Reporter, Eugene (Ore.) Weekly; Karen Schaefer, Freelance Journalist and Independent Radio Producer; and Rae Tyson, Staff, Environmental Health News.
• At 10:45 a.m. on Saturday, October 5, WatchDog Editor Joe Davis will present tips for sleuthing dam and levee stories [5] using federal databases like the National Inventory of Dams and the National Levee Database. It will be a hands-on session, so bring your laptop. Special attention will be given to getting data which the Corps of Engineers has made hard to access.