"The chemical industry may be finding success influencing federal and state governments but must do more to win the hearts of the American public, a leader for a new nonprofit group linked to a controversial political consultant said last week."

"Facing a storm of criticism over its plan to show a documentary about the widely debunked link between vaccines and autism, the Tribeca Film Festival on Saturday pulled the film from its schedule next month."

"A controversial public relations contract between the global firm Mercury and the state of Michigan has ended, The Hill has learned. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) came under fire for hiring the high-powered firm to help deal with the fallout from the water contamination crisis in Flint, Mich."

"A federal judge has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to give the court documents related to its consideration of a controversial mining project in Alaska, ruling he has “no confidence” in the agency’s ability to decide which documents should become public following an open records request."

"The Senate on Tuesday unanimously passed a bill to expand the public's access to government records, after a year of delay."

"The Senate backers of legislation to strengthen the government's open records laws are hoping to pass their bill on the floor in the coming week."

As the Flint water crisis was being discovered, Michigan environmental officials tried to manipulate exemptions in the state's freedom of information law to keep secret emails that should have been subject to disclosure.