WatchDog TipSheet

The USDA is interpreting a provision in the 2008 Farm Bill so broadly that it may amount to a FOIA exemption for most information about individual agricultural operations.

A significant number of Bush administration political appointees have converted to career civil service jobs in recent months — many in areas covered by environment, energy, resource, science, and health journalists.

Results of EPA's 2008 "National Dialogue" to develop an "Information Access Strategy" are now online.

Now journalists can explore the ocean deeps with Google Earth's newest tool.

A coalition of 262 citizen groups from many walks of life urge the new Congress to pass legislation ending the widespread practice of government retaliation against federal employees who reveal government waste, fraud, and abuse.

Incoming EPA administrator Lisa Jackson faces an immediate test on perchlorate secrecy, as the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia rejects EPA's argument for FOIA exemption. Will EPA and the Justice Department appeal, even though Obama urges agency openness?

News media across the country will again be undertaking open-government projects in 2009. The Sunshine Week website offers you ideas on stories you could dig out of hard-to-see public records.

A Jan/Feb 2009 Columbia Journalism Review article enumerates many kinds of information the Bush administration veiled with secrecy; argues that disclosure is essential for democracy, yet the harm will not be easily undone.

In spite of one of its own scientists co-authoring a 2005 study finding toxic mercury in high fructose corn syrup, the Food and Drug Administration gave a green light to the corn industry's campaign advertising corn syrup as "natural."

An amendment adding whistleblower protection to the economic stimulus bill before the House will be voted on soon.