Government

The Smithsonian Institution, a federal agency with many environment-related research and public education activities, opposes a Congressional move that would subject it to the same open-records law that applies to other executive branch agencies.

The fifth annual report card produced by OpenTheGovernment.org offers hard numbers from a range of indicators that Bush Administration secrecy continues.

A Congressional Research Service report on terrorism and security issues facing sewage treatment and drinking water plants, dams and reservoirs, and other water infrastructure is full of ideas that reporters could turn into local stories — if only they were allowed to see it.

This database is useful for environmental and energy reporters looking for mischief perpetrated by government officials and the industries who influence them with money.

Concerns over emissions from formaldehyde in pressed-wood products have been building for many years. California's new rules addressing the problem went into effect Jan. 1, 2009. Now EPA is looking at following suit.

If you need information on land use changes over time, or on current land uses and character, you may want to check out decades-worth of globe-spanning satellite images that USGS has made freely available to the public.

Senate sponsors of a bipartisan Senate bill to strengthen agency compliance with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) have crafted a compromise version and reintroduced it in hopes of speeding Congressional action.

The Energy Department in December 2008 published an 11th-hour proposed amendment to the Bush administration's secrecy rules that shroud the policies that brought Americans Enron, California blackouts, and $4 gasoline.

The Labor Department's Mine Safety and Health Administration finally released its Freedom of Information Act annual reports — after fighting veteran FOIA requester Mike Ravnitsky for some 18 months.