With the floodgates for corporate spending in U.S. politics wide open, the job of investigative journalism has never been more crucial. The National Institute on Money in State Politics' searchable database can help you find and build stories.
OpenTheGovernment.org's report notes a steady decrease in secrecy but finds poor marks in other areas, such as declassification backlogs, continued invocation of the "state secrets" privilege, and a high percentage of federal advisory committee meetings closed to the public.
The FBI's effort to inspire confidence by trying to hide the 300-ton, five-story-high, object of national interest might have backfired.
Missoula-based author and environmental writer Richard Manning welcomes you to his town with suggestions of what you can do on foot while you are attending SEJ's 20th Annual Conference. It's a college town nestled in a Rocky Mountain valley that you won't want to miss.
BP plans to release today its internal investigation of its own role, and any possible wrongdoing or errors by its own officials, in the Deepwater Horizon blowout disaster. Even though some key BP decisionmakers are not talking to federal investigators -- claiming ill health or the Fifth Amendment -- documents describing what they are alleged to have told BP are coming to light. BP would be legally and financially liable for whatever it finds in its self-investigation.
"What does it take to trade in a commodity that cannot be seen or touched - and isn't even a commodity in the United States? First of three parts."
Thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate as a wildfire near Boulder, Colorado, rages on.
"The Interior Department released its new scientific integrity policy last week, but scientists and advocacy groups are miffed at what they view as an incomplete and disingenuous set of rules."
An Arizona Republican operative is recruiting drifters, street people, and the homeless to run as Green Party candidates to dilute the Democrat vote. The Green Party is trying to get them removed from the ballot.
"Bedbugs used to be solely a residential problem, but they are showing up in commercial settings, and not just in places with beds like hotels, nursing homes and apartment complexes. Increasingly, pest control companies report finding bedbugs in office buildings, movie theaters, clothing stores, food plants, factories and even airplanes. For the affected businesses, the expense can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. For the companies that deal with the scourge, it is a bonanza, with business doubling and tripling."
