SEJ joined with several dozen other journalism groups to support the right to film police activity in a public place, and bills to block information of importance to environmental reporters failed in Louisiana, California and Iowa, but a Colorado paper was blocked from covering a wild horse roundup. All that in this month’s WatchDog Tipsheet.
"Senate Republicans advanced President Trump's nominee to be the Interior Department's top lawyer on Tuesday over objections from Democrats who called him partisan and unresponsive to ethics questions swirling around the department's secretary and his predecessor." Daniel Jorjani was architect of Interior's proposed policy for rejecting Freedom of Information Act requests.
Toxic chemicals and disease-causing microorganisms can be found in some fresh-caught fish. And that means local stories for environmental journalists, who can pick up on problems through federal and state fish advisories. The latest TipSheet explains the health impacts and how they’re regulated, plus questions to ask and story ideas, including an environmental justice angle.
"The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Native American rights in a 5-4 decision in a case out of Wyoming. Justice Neil Gorsuch, the only Westerner on the court, provided the decisive vote in this case, showing himself again to be sensitive to Native American rights."
"The Environmental Protection Agency plans to change the way it calculates the health risks of air pollution, a shift that would make it easier to roll back a key climate change rule because it would result in far fewer predicted deaths from pollution, according to five people with knowledge of the agency’s plans."
"Despite repeatedly expressing public support for children's health, EPA is ending funding for a network of research centers focused on environmental threats to kids, imperiling several long-running studies of pollutants' effects on child development."
"New York’s Suffolk County had a trash problem. Facing brimming landfills and public pressure, legislators took a first-in-the-nation step: They banned plastic bags. But what the county saw as part of the solution, the plastics industry took as a threat."
"In 40 years of behind-the-scenes advocacy for electric companies, the Utility Air Regulatory Group became ubiquitous in legal dockets and courtroom fights over the future of federal regulation. The group, which last week announced plans to disband, led the charge against dozens of EPA policies deemed too costly or unworkable by industry."
"The International Maritime Organization (IMO) on Friday agreed stricter energy efficiency targets for certain types of ships in an effort to speed up action to cut the sector’s emissions."
"More than a dozen states are moving to strengthen environmental protections to combat a range of issues from climate change to water pollution, opening a widening rift between stringent state policies and the Trump administration’s deregulatory agenda."
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