"What's in Your Soda? An Oil Dispersant That Might Make You Fat"
"A chemical used in sodas and some laxatives for years assumed safe by federal health officials might make people more prone to obesity."
Source: EHN, 07/02/2015
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"Polar Bears Face Steep Declines Because of Melting Sea Ice: US Study"
"Imperiled polar bears will see a population crash in most parts of the Arctic Ocean if global greenhouse gas emissions continue at current rates, causing accelerated melting of the sea ice the bruins depend on for survival, U.S. scientists said on Wednesday."
Source: Reuters, 07/02/2015
"Heat Dome Parked Over West Shatters Temperature Records, Sparks Fires"
"The West is baking under a heat dome that has sent temperatures soaring to historically high levels, further drying out soils and priming the region for fast-spreading wildfires. The heat wave is noteworthy for its severity, extent and duration."
Source: Mashable, 07/02/2015
5,000 Evacuated From Area Near Tennessee Train Derailment"
MARYVILLE, Tenn. -- "A CSX tanker car carrying acrylonitrile caught fire just after midnight Thursday morning forcing the evacuation of more than 5,000 people in an expanding evacuation zone last listed as a 2-mile radius around the site."
Source: Maryville Daily Times, 07/02/2015
New York Times Editorial Calls for Release of CRS Reports
The WatchDog has long whined about Congress' mystifying refusal to let taxpayers read Congressional Research Service reports the taxpayers have paid for. A June 17, 2015, editorial in the New York Times called the situation "absurd," expressing hope that a new director of the Library of Congress (home of the CRS) would manage to get the policy changed.
Oil Train Routing Information Still Disclosed, Key to Public Safety
The mandate for disclosure of oil train information set by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) in a May 2014 emergency order still exists. But getting that information will be harder — and a battle that must be fought by reporters and public safety advocates on a state-by-state basis.
Disclosure of Research Funding Key Issue for Academics, Journos
The issue re-ignited recently when astrophysicist and climate change denier Willie Soon, affiliated with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, was revealed to have taken funding — but not disclosed it — from fossil fuel interests. Now the Smithsonian Institution has said it will tighten its guidelines for disclosure of funding by its researchers.
SEJ Urges Agency Openness During National Spill Crises
At the Spills of National Significance (SONS) Draft Communications Strategy forum on June 8, and in a June 30 letter, SEJ urged SONS communicators to release data fully and promptly, to acknowledge uncertainties and gaps, and to give journalists good access to officials, experts and places.
"One-Third of World's People Still Have No Proper Toilets"
"Toilets are taken for granted in the industrialized West, but still are a luxury for a third of the world's people who have no access to them, according to a report by the World Health Organization and UNICEF."
Source: AP, 07/01/2015
"Judge: Maui Ban On GMO Crops Is Invalid"
"A federal judge ruled Tuesday that a Maui County ban on the cultivation of genetically engineered crops is pre-empted by federal and state law and invalid."
Source: AP, 07/01/2015
