National (U.S.)

Senate sponsors of a bipartisan Senate bill to strengthen agency compliance with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) have crafted a compromise version and reintroduced it in hopes of speeding Congressional action.

An EPA database that has not been made public shows alarming levels of the pesticide atrazine are showing up in water bodies around the U.S.

At a time when public understanding of complex science and environmental issues grows critical, CNN laid off its entire science/enviro team and NBC's The Weather Channel fired the staff of the "Forecast Earth" environmental program.

The Energy Department in December 2008 published an 11th-hour proposed amendment to the Bush administration's secrecy rules that shroud the policies that brought Americans Enron, California blackouts, and $4 gasoline.

The Labor Department's Mine Safety and Health Administration finally released its Freedom of Information Act annual reports — after fighting veteran FOIA requester Mike Ravnitsky for some 18 months.

A series of drinking-water contamination incidents have raised doubts about EPA's safety claims regarding hydraulic fracturing in domestic gas wells. And it's hard for people to get to the bottom of those claims when the identity of the chemicals injected during the process is protected as a "trade secret."

The Freedom of Information Act is still one of the most powerful tools in a reporter's toolbelt. Here's our short list of useful FOIA helpers.

Twelve states sued EPA Oct. 28, 2007, over the agency's cutbacks in data available to communities about the toxic threats presented to them by nearby industrial plants.

SEJ President Timothy B. Wheeler testified before a full committee oversight hearing of the House Natural Resources Committee, that a proposed rule governing photography in National Park System units and Wildlife Refuges could restrict media access to these public lands and limit their coverage of natural resource issues.

Environmental policy, legislation, and regulation are likely to be different under the Obama administration than the Bush administration. It's difficult to know yet what the priorities will be, or what shifts will occur. This is the first half of potential topics for journalists to keep an eye on.