April 9, 2014 — One of the officials who oversees the U.S. Capitol Police responded April 9 to SEJ's letter complaining about the brief detention of a reporter trying to ask a question of EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy in a hallway. Terry Gainer, Senate Sergeant-at-Arms, wrote the following:
The Society of Environmental Journalists has written Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, condemning "in the strongest terms" the treatment of two Toledo Blade journalists March 28 by military police outside a Lima, Ohio, tank plant. The journalists were on public property when they were detained by military police. Photographer Jetta Fraser's camera was confiscated, even though she was taking pictures of what was in plain public view.
"SAN DIEGO – Nearly 80 U.S. sailors are seeking $1 billion from Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, alleging the company lied about the high level of radiation in the area where they were carrying out a humanitarian mission following a tsunami that touched off a nuclear crisis three years ago."
"The World Bank is still failing to take climate change into account as it makes decisions about the projects it finances, according to a new report from the nonprofit World Resources Institute. The impacts of climate change were only taken into consideration in a quarter of all projects the bank approved between January 2012 and June 2013."
"The chairman of the Senate committee that oversees transportation issues said Monday that oil companies are dragging their feet on providing data to regulators about the safety of freight trains that are used to carry crude oil."
"The helicopter pilot at the center of an aerial herbicide-spraying controversy in Southern Oregon applied a far wider variety of toxic chemicals than what he originally reported, according to newly released documents."
"Millions of gallons of water used to flow every day from the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of California. Now, the Colorado River ends at Morelos Dam on the U.S.-Mexico border. Below it, one of North America's largest wetlands is dry."
"A new study covering 17 EU countries says that far more honeybees are dying in the UK and other parts of northern Europe than in Mediterranean countries."
"PORT-DE-PAIX, Haiti -- Only cactus grows along the dirt road fringing arid fields on the way to the isolated village of Bas des Moustiques, on the outskirts of the northwestern city of Port-de-Paix in Haiti."
"It began early this year in the forested villages of southeast Guinea. For months, the infected went undiagnosed. It wasn’t until March 23 that the news finally hit the World Health Organization. And by then, Ebola had already claimed 29 lives, the organization reported in a one-paragraph press release."
