Environmental journalists working for local news media outlets may want to check out the EPA ZIP code lookup tool for discovering potential stories in their areas.

From now on, Congress must specifically declare every new FOIA exemption it creates by law.

The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) and OMB Watch want the federal government to tighten the accountability of federal contractors by fixing problems with the database — a potentially valuable tool for environmental reporters.

As USA TODAY exposes a culture of secrecy at FDA that caused schoolkids in several states to get sick because the FDA hid information about tainted tortillas, SEJ and other journalism groups insist FDA ends restrictions on staff interviews with press.

Dogging the resulting developments of a new EPA policy could lead to many stories that focus on both the specific cases and the underlying principle of cumulative assessments of pollutants.

The Office of Government Information Services, created by Congress in 2008 to serve as an overseer of federal FOIA activities and help mediate disputes between information requesters and federal agencies, offers a resource page with useful government and NGO links.

Prior to November 1, 2009, EPA had 13 different lists for Federal Register notices. The information is still available to reporters and the public via other channels.

The U.S. Department of Energy scrambles to delay a report by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board about a significant threat of radiation release from Los Alamos National Laboratory, a citizen watchdog group discovered.

The Project on Government Oversight used FOIA to get reports and documents from an NRC Inspector General's investigation of Jeffrey Merrifield.

Federal legislation to protect reporters from having to reveal confidential sources may be back on track. A markup in the Senate Judiciary Committee, possibly November 5, 2009, could tell.