Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility says the Dec. 21 memo implies that existing EPA openness policy meets White House criteria. Meanwhile, the Office of Management and Budget may again be tampering with agency science for political purposes — accused by Arizona congressman Raúl Grijalva (pictured) of censoring FOIA'd documents relating to the mid-summer estimate of Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Some light bulbs require special handling to reduce toxic exposures. EPA's latest guidance for old fluorescent bulbs that contain PCBs and current generation CFLs that contain mercury both provide important fodder for consumer-awareness stories.

Many publications and groups schedule special stories, reports, panels, or events during this week to promote freedom of information and to exercise their First Amendment rights. Find suggestions at the American Society of News Editors' official Sunshine Week website.

Now that you have long since published your story about the disappearance of BP's oil from the Gulf, you may want to check the math that story was based on using newly released technical information.

Is it a security risk for the American public to find out the risks presented by climate change? A recent story on the Central Intelligence Agency's Center on Climate Change and National Security by the Medill National Security Reporting Project was noteworthy in that all of its sources were unnamed.

Teresa Chambers, who was fired by the Bush administration in 2004 for talking to the news media, has been reinstated by the Merit Systems Protection Board as chief of police for the National Park Service.

Join open-government advocates (including journalists) in blowing the whistle on the anonymous senator who stopped the people's business in the final hours of the last Congress. Call senators, ask if they killed the bill, record your findings or track progress.