National (U.S.)

The Interior Department has proposed codifying its rules on photography, filming, and sound-recording on public lands it administers. Some newsgatherers are worried that the rules would hurt their ability to do their jobs.

It was news when the White House censored testimony prepared in October 2007 by Centers for Disease Control Director Julie Gerberding - testimony detailing the health hazards likely to result from climate change.

EPA on March 26, 2008, delivered a report Congress had demanded on its plan to reopen the agency's shuttered libraries.

A rule issued April 16, 2008, ostensibly to keep the public safe from shipments of highly hazardous materials by rail, has been little-understood by the public.

President Barack Obama signalled that open access to information will be a top priority for his administration, issuing two memos to all executive agencies and one executive order at a January 21, 2009, session open to reporters and cabinet members.

EPA has begun a "National Dialogue" about what information the public needs from the agency and how the agency can better provide that information.

In every Congressional district - including yours - there are dozens of "pork barrel" politics stories.

"'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.

"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..."