Flood maps for riparian areas and coastal zones are in need of significant improvement, according to a new National Academies report. The benefits of implementing the improvements would substantially outweigh the costs.

At least eight climate change reports have been or will be released, or are open for public comment, from the National Academies' National Research Council and the US Climate Change Science Program.

President Bush is still drafting the team that will shape the country's policy over the next 3+ years.

The US Army Corps of Engineers has been exaggerating its cleanup claims for formerly used defense sites.

Incoming EPA administrator Lisa Jackson faces an immediate test on perchlorate secrecy, as the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia rejects EPA's argument for FOIA exemption. Will EPA and the Justice Department appeal, even though Obama urges agency openness?

News media across the country will again be undertaking open-government projects in 2009. The Sunshine Week website offers you ideas on stories you could dig out of hard-to-see public records.

A Jan/Feb 2009 Columbia Journalism Review article enumerates many kinds of information the Bush administration veiled with secrecy; argues that disclosure is essential for democracy, yet the harm will not be easily undone.

In spite of one of its own scientists co-authoring a 2005 study finding toxic mercury in high fructose corn syrup, the Food and Drug Administration gave a green light to the corn industry's campaign advertising corn syrup as "natural."

An amendment adding whistleblower protection to the economic stimulus bill before the House will be voted on soon.

Cropduster flights resumed Sept. 25, 2001. The FBI had ordered cropdusters grounded nationwide temporarily in late Sept. 2001.