GOP Hopefuls Reap $62m in Support From Donors With Fossil Fuel Ties
"Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush and Rick Perry among candidates poised to see biggest benefits from handful of wealthy individuals and corporations".
Source: Guardian, 08/13/2015
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Shell Spills Hundreds of Thousands of Pounds of Toxic Gas in Deer Park
"On Sunday morning, hundreds of thousands of pounds of toxic gas were accidentally released from the Shell Oil facility in Deer Park [Texas]."
Source: Houston Chronicle, 08/13/2015
"At Least 50 Dead as Huge Warehouse Blasts Hit Chinese Port"
"Huge, fiery blasts at a warehouse for hazardous chemicals killed at least 50 people and turned nearby buildings into skeletal shells in the Chinese port of Tianjin, raising questions Thursday about whether the materials had been properly stored."
Source: AP, 08/13/2015
US Waterways at Risk From 1000s of Defunct Mines Lacking Cleanup Funds
"While crews begin the arduous task of cleaning up Colorado’s Animas River — where contamination by heavy metals and toxins leaked from an abandoned hard rock mine turning the water orange — thousands of other natural sites across the American West remain at risk from similarly hazardous defunct quarries."
Source: Aljazeera America, 08/13/2015
Lustgarten Says Data on Who Gets Ag Subsidies Is Rare as Hens' Teeth
Abrahm Lustgarten (left) wrote a nine-part series delving into farm subsidies and water policy. But his efforts to get the actual names of farm subsidy recipients or individual water users were largely thwarted. Read how info flows less quickly to the public than money and water flow to farmers in SPJ's FOI blog. Photo credit: Lars Klove.
Still Interested? Some Feds Hope You Will Give Up on FOIA Requests
Federal agencies sometimes wait years to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests, then ask if they are still interested in receiving the requested information. Now the Justice Department's Office of Information Policy has issued an official "guidance" that frowns slightly on overuse of the "still interested?" practice.
Federal Judge Strikes Down Idaho "Ag-Gag" Law as Unconstitutional
"The facts show the state's purpose in enacting the statute was to protect industrial animal agriculture by silencing its critics," district Judge B. Lynn Winmill wrote. Sometimes investigative journalists need to go undercover. And sometimes muckraking journalists need undercover whistleblowers to tip them to abuses.
53 Journalism Groups Ask Obama To End Press Office Blockades
SEJ, which has complained about press-office restrictions for years, joined over 50 other journalism groups in signing an Aug 10, 2015 letter requesting government transparency — again. The groups had sent a letter to the White House in July 2014, a followup in Aug 2014, resulting in a non-response response from the WH later that month.
"The Teflon Toxin: DuPont and the Chemistry of Deception"
"Concerns about the safety of Teflon, C8, and other long-chain perfluorinated chemicals first came to wide public attention more than a decade ago, but the story of DuPont’s long involvement with C8 has never been fully told."
Source: The Intercept, 08/12/2015
"NOAA Proposes to Task Foreign Fisheries"
"A proposed regulation would prohibit imports from foreign fisheries that do not meet U.S. standards for protecting whales and dolphins under the Marine Mammal Protection Act."
Source: Courthouse News Service, 08/12/2015
