Government

The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) has a new tool for investigative journalists. Reporters can now snoop around the Federal Contractor Misconduct Database to find misdeeds by federal contractors.

US Supreme Court to hear six cases with important environmental implications. Issues involved are: use of sonar in Naval training; logging in California; power plant operation; disposal of mining wastes; royalties paid to the Navajo Nation on coal leases; and liability under Superfund law.

A split-party government is likely to bring more controversy, more conflict, and more news.

EPA reopened five libraries September 30, 2008, after fighting its own scientists, enforcement lawyers, open-information groups, and eventually Congress for two years in an unsuccessful effort to keep them closed.

Neither EPA nor the American public know very much about the possible health effects of tens of thousands of chemicals used in commerce and consumer products every day.

Three reports being released by the National Academies' National Research Council have strong environmental links. Reports concern water, biofuels and ongoing conflicts between national security and the open flow of scientific information.

For the past decade, federal and state officials have put an immense amount of environmental information behind a veil of secrecy, justifying it on the grounds that the information could help terrorists. A look at the most comprehensive open-source terrorism database offers strong evidence that such fears are ill-founded.

The PACER system puts many — but not all — federal court records on line. It's an easy-to-use information access tool for journalists.

Federal employee unions want lists of political appointees whose status has been transferred to career civil service positions at the end of the Bush administration.

Whistleblowers can be a reporter's best friend — although friends that must often be handled with care. If you know a federal agency employee who tells you "Call me on January 21" — be sure to do it.