Gas Drilling Industry Paying Penn State To Train Drilling Regulators
"What happens when the fox builds the hen house?"
Source: Harrisburg Patriot-News, 03/09/2012
Government
Secret CRS Reports of Interest to Environmental Journalists
Congress still refuses to publish unclassified reports on subjects of general public interest done by the Congressional Research Service, even though they are funded by taxpayer dollars. Here are several, courtesy of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy.
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Iowa Outlaws Some Undercover Investigations As Other States Mull Bills
Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (pictured) signed the so-called "Ag Gag" bill into law March 2, 2012, making it a crime to obtain access to an agricultural facility "under false pretenses" — without defining "false pretenses." Does this apply to hidden cameras? Animal rights activists have often resorted to hidden cameras — and shared with news media photos and videos of shocking cruelty to animals.
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Biosecurity: "US Disease Agency in Fiscal Peril"
"When US President Barack Obama proposed a US$664-million cut in congressional funding for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in his 2013 budget request, he tried to ease the pain by replacing much of it with money from other sources. But only days after the 13 February request, a vote on Capitol Hill made clear just how vulnerable those substitutions are, suggesting that the US public-health agency is on increasingly shaky financial ground."
Source: Nature, 03/01/2012
"Agencies Face Downsizing, Significant Personnel Shift in Obama Budget"
"Earlier this week, National Weather Service Director Jack Hayes delivered some difficult news to his small agency: The White House budget would remove one employee from each of the 122 weather forecasting offices."
Source: Greenwire, 02/16/2012
SEJ Urges EPA Press Office To Open up Agency Info to News Media
On January 27, 2012, SEJ wrote to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, after unreturned phone calls and ignored emails, in an attempt to get the agency to resume quarterly conference calls to discuss access issues and the run-around SEJ members endure when trying to do their jobs.
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Some Secret CRS Reports You May Want To Read
Here, courtesy of the Federation of American Scientists, are some recent Congressional Research Service backgrounders that may be useful to environment/energy reporters, on chemical facility security, nuclear power plant design and seismic safety considerations, and proposed Keystone XL pipeline legal issues.
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