The downloadable, Zipped Excel spreadsheet, produced by Taxpayers for Common Sense, WashingtonWatch.com, and Taxpayers Against Earmarks, contains 39,294 requested earmarks, worth $130 billion.
"Negotiators from about 190 countries reached a modest set of agreements early Saturday in Cancun on how to tackle global warming but punted some of the most controversial questions for a later date." Here's a roundup of the news, analysis, and reaction from some major international news organizations.
The timing of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision to propose listing of the greater sage-grouse as a threatened or endangered species is coinciding with the presidential election and the rapid expansion of the influential oil and gas industry.
This invasive grass that already has a grip on about 2 million acres in the West makes the rangeland it invades virtually worthless for grazing, harms many animals that contact it or try to eat it, increases wildfire risk, and creates monocultures that have very low biodiversity and crowd out numerous native plant and animal species.
The map and report on known greater sage grouse high-density breeding populations is a starting point that can be refined with the input of state fish and wildlife agencies. But you can use it right away as you cover various land use and environmental issues.
A US Geological Survey report offers a perspective on the global situation and an assessment of known US deposits. There may be about 13 million metric tons available in 14 states — with the sites generally posing the usual environmental challenges associated with mining and refining.
NASA researchers have found the 104 selected lakes are warming by an average of 0.81 degrees Fahrenheit each decade (with some lakes increasing by up to 1.8 degrees F), and the temperature increase tends to be larger as you work toward the North Pole.
Despite promises of transparency, the US Environmental Protection Agency has denied a Freedom-of-Information request by Charleston Gazette reporter Ken Ward Jr. for the contractor study, which apparently outlines less harmful options for this West Virginia mountaintop-removal project.
The open-government agenda made only a little progress in the session of Congress now waddling to a lame-duck close. Hope still remains for a few measures that would increase public access to government information — but it dwindles with every day that passes.
The Senate's Nov. 30 vote not to impose a moratorium on "earmarks" practically ensures that pork-barrel spending will live on as a subject for journalists — at least in fiscal 2011.
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