Last year, legislation to put new teeth in federal whistleblower protections failed when a single senator put a secret hold on it late in the session. The good news is Sen. Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI) has introduced the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2011 to restart the legislative effort.
Last year's grant winners have efforts under way, so reporting can focus on progress that is being made, or not. Reporting on the new winners, announced in mid-April 2011, can inform the community about what is in the works, who is in charge, and what future benchmarks can be used to see if the money is being well spent.
EPA and Justice Department officials in the Obama administration are putting more emphasis on environmental justice -- an effort to reduce the greater hazards faced by poor and minority communities. But that job is not easy, especially in the face of industry resistance.
The US Environmental Protection Agency's Plan EJ 2014 is a strategy to help integrate environmental justice into EPA's day to day activities. The public can comment on the draft plans through April 29, 2011 on Regulations.gov.
"Japan's 'nuclear samurai' are risking their lives to avert catastrophe, but many are manual labourers unequal to the task."
The aging fleet of US nuclear power reactors have some technological similarities to the reactors failing in Japan. Could similar loss-of-cooling events happen at some US reactors — whether caused by earthquake, tsunami, terrorist attack, electrical outage, flooding, equipment failure, or some other problem?
Advertisement 
