The SEJ WatchDog Alert

The WatchDog Alert (formerly WatchDog TipSheet from 2008-2019) was a regular source of story ideas, articles, updates, events and other information with a focus on freedom-of-information issues of concern to environmental journalists in both the United States and Canada.

WatchDog was compiled, edited and written by Joseph A. Davis, who directs the WatchDog Project, an activity of SEJ's Freedom of Information Task Force that reports on secrecy trends and supports reporters' efforts to make better use of FOIA.

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Latest WatchDog Alert Items

November 30, 2011

Toolbox: New CPR Database Helps You Track Secret Industry-OMB Meetings

Although details of what is said between lobbyists and the White House officials who rewrite agency rules remain largely secret, the Center for Progressive Reform's searchable database allows you to track whether OMB is meeting its deadlines, whether a meeting is linked to an OIRA regulatory review, and whether OIRA changed the rule.

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Calif. Law Keeps Public from Knowing About Dangerous Pipelines

The San Francisco Chronicle revealed almost all records of the state's Public Utilities Commission, which regulates pipelines, are secret — and the PUC typically asks permission from the utility companies before releasing any information. In most other states, such information is freely available to the public.

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Industry Lobby Opposes Disclosure of Fragrance Ingredients

If you are worried that ingredients in cleaning products may aggravate your allergies, mess up your sex hormones, or cause cancer, you may not find out what they are. The International Fragrance Association North America and the American Cleaning Institute are opposing a bill introduced in the House that would require cleaning products to carry ingredients lists on the package label.

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EPA Releases 100s of Chemical Health Studies Claimed As Trade Secrets

The studies are submitted by companies who use the chemicals in commerce, under the Toxic Substances Control Act. EPA's online searchable database can help you find information about such health studies, which were previously withheld because of industry trade-secret claims.

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November 16, 2011

Secret EPA Watchlist Yields Megastories for NPR, iWatch News, ... and You?

There are 464 facilities on the list of Clean Air Act violators. The Center for Public Integrity's iWatch News and National Public Radio got the list using the FOIA and published a powerful feature package: "Poisoned Places: Toxic Air, Neglected Communities." But they did not tell all the stories. They left some for you.

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Justice Dept. Ditches Its Proposal To Lie About Existence of FOIA Records

The regulatory proposal was part of a large package of revised FOIA regulations, which will go forward without it. The Justice Department did not rescind the 1987 Meese memo the proposal was based on; instead it identified ways in which agencies could be unresponsive and uninformative without actually lying.

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White House Gives House Inquisitors Only Some of Subpoenaed Documents

The White House rejected the House Energy Committee's subpoena for "all internal communications" related to federal loan guarantees for the now-bankrupt Solyndra solar panel company.

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Terrified CIA Urged To Shed Secrecy About Climate Threats

The Central Intelligence Agency is spending untold millions to study the national security threats presented by climate change. Now the Pentagon's Defense Science Board (DSB) is urging that another, new office be created to do the same job, for more untold millions.

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At Last: Study Confirms EPA 'Friday Surprise' Press Release Trend

Researchers at the nonprofit and nonpartisan think tank Resources for the Future fed into their computers some 21,493 press releases issued by EPA between 1994 and 2009, confirming reporters' long-time suspicions.

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Syngenta Claims Secrecy in Atrazine Trial

Attorneys for some 30 utilities suing Syngenta over atrazine pollution of their drinking water supplies charged the company directed employees to send copies of all correspondence on atrazine to corporate attorneys so that attorney-client privilege could be claimed.

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The SEJ WatchDog Alert

Latest WatchDog Alert Items

November 30, 2011

Toolbox: New CPR Database Helps You Track Secret Industry-OMB Meetings

Calif. Law Keeps Public from Knowing About Dangerous Pipelines

Industry Lobby Opposes Disclosure of Fragrance Ingredients

EPA Releases 100s of Chemical Health Studies Claimed As Trade Secrets

November 16, 2011

Secret EPA Watchlist Yields Megastories for NPR, iWatch News, ... and You?

Justice Dept. Ditches Its Proposal To Lie About Existence of FOIA Records

White House Gives House Inquisitors Only Some of Subpoenaed Documents

Terrified CIA Urged To Shed Secrecy About Climate Threats

At Last: Study Confirms EPA 'Friday Surprise' Press Release Trend

Syngenta Claims Secrecy in Atrazine Trial

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