George Washington University's Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy (SKAPP) followed up with 37 scientists at 13 federal agencies to see if conditions had improved at their agencies post-Bush. Survey says: Not really, or not yet.
Do commercial products we have body contact with contain toxic chemicals? In too many cases, states and environmentalists are saying, the federal government forbids consumers from knowing.
In honor of Sunshine Week, which began March 14, the WatchDog serves up a meaty list of essential resources for journalists working to expose governmental secrets voters and taxpayers have a right to know about.
SEJ wrote White House Communication Director Dan Pfeiffer asking for an end to the practice of requiring permission from the press office at federal agencies before reporters can talk to federal employees — and requiring Saddam-style PIO "minders" to sit in on interviews.
Jim Morris of the Sunlight Foundation reports on the Project on Government Oversight's (POGO) so-far unsuccessful efforts to FOIA the data.
John Wonderlich of the Sunlight Foundation has been tracking the Federal Communications Commission plan.
Various trackers are sorting through and compiling ideas, comments, and agencies' progress towards meeting the deadline.
A former Occupational Safety and Health Administration official requested the data under the Freedom of Information Act in 2005, but was denied. He sued, won in 2007, and now has the data, but OSHA has still not released the data to the public.
Monongahela National Forest's public affairs officer recently directed employees there that, if contacted by national reporters on any issue or local reporters regarding national issues, they "cannot talk to the reporter"and suggested that the instructions came from "our Washington office."
EPA, Interior, DOE, USDA and others now provide "clearing points" intended to engage the public in their efforts for greater public transparency, participation, and collaboration, and in development of an "Open Government Plan."
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