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"Coal-Backed Research Takes on Mining Health Studies"

"CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Scientists backed by a $15 million industry-funded research project are picking apart -- and trying to disprove -- a series of studies that found coalfield residents near mountaintop-removal mining operations face greater risks of serious illness and premature death."

Source: Charleston Gazette, 04/23/2013

"EPA Probes Flame Retardants But Lacks Power To Ban"

"As the Obama administration launches a broad investigation of flame retardants used in furniture and other household goods, the nation's top environmental regulators are running into the limitations of a federal law that makes it practically impossible to ban hazardous chemicals."

Source: Chicago Tribune, 04/23/2013

Comment on SEJ Statement Regarding More EPA Openness by ex-EPA Chief of Public Affairs

Reporters aren't the only ones frustrated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's clampdown on press coverage, which prompted SEJ recently to call it "one of the most closed, opaque agencies" in the federal government. Patrick Boyle, former chief of public affairs for EPA's Mid-Atlantic regional office, says politically motivated "message control" didn't begin with the Obama administration, but it's gotten much worse under a president who promised greater transparency in government.

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Broken Promise: Database Helps Track Illegal Parkland Conversions

InvestigateWest's Robert McClure and Jason Alcorn explain how to spin the local angle about how parks built or improved with money from the Land and Water Conservation Fund are increasingly being illegally privatized or converted to something other than parks — including sharing their searchable database of almost 40,000 park grants.

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