Publication Items

Despite High Court, Navy Keeps WA Town in Dark on Explosion Threat

A landmark Supreme Court decision awarded Port Townsend residents the right to know about the potential location of explosives on the Indian Island Naval Magazine near their town. After losing the case, the Defense Department bolstered its legal grounds for secrecy by asking Congress to slip into the 2012 Defense Authorization an amendment creating a new statutory exemption to FOIA for the DOD.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet
Topics on the Beat:
Military
Laws & Regulations
Disasters
Region:
Northwest (OR WA)
Visibility:
Public
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SacBee Wins Access to Forest-Fire Documents

A federal judge ruled that once the documents — depositions of US Forest Service employees about a 2007 forest fire in California that burned tens of thousands of acres — had been entered into court records as part of the evidence discovery process, they were presumptively public records and had to remain that way.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet
Topics on the Beat:
Forests
Disasters
Region:
California
Visibility:
Public
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Memos Confirm BP Hid Early Spill Estimates

Internal BP corporate memos dating back to the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout show that the company was concerned about a spill rate much higher than what it publicly estimated at the time. The memos were released as part of federal court proceedings.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet
Topics on the Beat:
Disasters
Visibility:
Public
- Read more about Memos Confirm BP Hid Early Spill Estimates
E-Mail: White House Ordered Scientists To Lowball BP Spill Rate Estimate

The e-mail pressuring agency scientists was written by USGS Director Marcia McNutt, and was never meant to be made public. Against strong agency resistance, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility forced disclosure of the e-mail with a Freedom-of-Information-Act lawsuit.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet
Topics on the Beat:
Water & Oceans
Government
Environmental Politics
Energy & Fuel
Disasters
Visibility:
Public
- Read more about E-Mail: White House Ordered Scientists To Lowball BP Spill Rate Estimate
Lejeune Secrecy May Have Caused Dead Marines

CDC's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has been investigating a Navy cover-up of cancer-causing drinking water at its Lejeune, NC, base. Now, Project on Government Oversight has released a January 5, 2012, letter from Marine Major General J.A. Kessler asking ATSDR to redact its report in the name of "force protection."
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet
Topics on the Beat:
Pollution
People & Population
Military
Environmental Politics
Disasters
Chemicals
Region:
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN)
Visibility:
Public
- Read more about Lejeune Secrecy May Have Caused Dead Marines
2012 Snow Cover Starting Out Very Low

Snow cover has many implications, from ski resorts short on snow and farmers who rely on snowmelt for irrigation to firefighters and residents battling major fires in unusual locations in the middle of winter and smothering blizzards in areas at the other end of the extreme snow spectrum this year.
SEJ Publication Types:
TipSheet
Topics on the Beat:
Natural Resources
Disasters
Climate Change
Visibility:
Public
- Read more about 2012 Snow Cover Starting Out Very Low
Other Information Access News in Brief

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
Topics on the Beat:
Policy
Government
Energy & Fuel
Disasters
Climate Change
Visibility:
Public
- Read more about Other Information Access News in Brief
Corps Puts Searchable National Levee Database Online

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
Topics on the Beat:
Water & Oceans
Disasters
Visibility:
Public
- Read more about Corps Puts Searchable National Levee Database Online
SkyTruth Launches Online Environmental Accident Mapper

Reporters can now get a better picture of breaking environmental pollution events via SkyTruth Alerts on air and water pollution incidents, toxic spills, and more.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet
Topics on the Beat:
Technology
Pollution
Disasters
Visibility:
Public
- Read more about SkyTruth Launches Online Environmental Accident Mapper
Enterprising Stories Stand Out in Recent Disaster Coverage — From Japan to Texas

Here's a sampling of coverage of recent extreme weather disasters, with particular focus on a few of the many enterprise stories that emanated from four clusters of events — the tsunami-caused crisis at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant, drought and wildfires in Texas, death-dealing tornadoes in the Southeast and massive flooding in the Mississippi River system.

SEJ Publication Types:
Backgrounders
Topics on the Beat:
Disasters
Journalism & Media
Visibility:
Public
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