WatchDog TipSheet

"'If you're going to start taking pictures of me, you're liable to get shot,' the chairman of one of the country's biggest coal mining companies, Don Blankenship of Massey Energy, told an ABC News reporter before grabbing the reporter's camera,"

Under industry pressure, the U.S. Agriculture Department is considering hiding from consumers information about which retailers might be selling the tainted meat recalled because of health and safety risks.

A federal district judge ruled that agencies can't use delay to create secrecy when the Freedom of Information Act requires them to disclose records.

"Attorney General Michael Mukasey and three other top Bush administration officials are weighing in against legislation that would allow reporters to protect the identities of confidential sources..."

Environmental reporters who want to keep track of accidents on their beats may want to know about these useful tools and resources.

California is trying to eradicate the brown apple moth along the state's central coast by aerial spraying of a pheromone-based pesticide intended to interfere with the insect's natural reproductive cycle. Some residents want to know what's being sprayed on them.

White House edits of testimony delivered Oct. 24 to the Senate Environment Committee by Centers for Disease Control director Julie Gerberding have brought consternation from Democrats and environmentalists and a circling of wagons at the White House.

The group Governmentattic.org has published on its Website the FOIA request logs for the Interior Department's Office of Surface Mining, U.S. Geological Survey, Bureau of Land Management, and Minerals Management Service through Oct. 2007.

The AP reports that the conservation group Wildlands CPR has won a 2-year battle to get U.S. Forest Service records on damage caused by off-road vehicles and unmaintained roads in the West.

The Senate Agriculture Committee has written an exemption from the Freedom of Information Act for records in the National Animal Identification System (NAIS). The language, which is in the draft version of the Farm Bill and would prevent American meat eaters from knowing about any problems with their meat was introduced by farmers and members of the food industry.