"The Minerals Management Service has withheld information from regional staff in Alaska and has not had sufficient guidelines in place to analyze offshore drilling risks in the region, a government audit shows."
"The 2010 Atlantic hurricane season will produce an above-average eight hurricanes, four of them major, posing a heightened threat to the U.S. coastline, the Colorado State University hurricane forecasting team predicted on Wednesday."
"Maryland is failing to ride herd on water pollution in the state because of serious funding shortfalls and its own flawed enforcement practices, according to a Washington-based think tank."
"A federal study of hydraulic fracturing set to begin this spring is expected to provide the most expansive look yet at how the natural gas drilling process can affect drinking water supplies,... . The oil and gas industry strongly opposes this new approach."
Rescuers continue to search for four missing miners in West Virginia. "The company that owns the West Virginia coal mine where at least 25 workers died this week has pressed its employees for higher productivity rates, sometimes at the expense of safety, according to regulators, lawyers who have sued the company and documents."
"The United States will abstain today when the World Bank directors vote to loan South Africa $3.75 billion for a coal-fired power plant, sources told ClimateWire."
The good news: government for the first time is centralizing data about contractors at all federal agencies who were terminated, disbarred or suspended from a federal contract or grant. The bad news: taxpayers (and investigative reporters!) are not allowed to see it.
In the face of public outrage (and press coverage), the legislature partially backed down — but kept a requirement that the law clinic report to the legislature on whom it represented.
A bill to protect journalists and citizens against "Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation" suits has been introduced in Congress but is unlikely to go far unless more members get behind it.
A proposed bill would give the public better access to information about members' personal financial information, travel and gift reports, funding earmarks, committee work and reports, recorded floor votes, lobbyist registration and disclosure, and political contributions.
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