For weather warnings, check the interactive, near-real-time national weather map put out by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Weather Service. It's updated every few minutes with color-coded warnings by type. You can also search for a forecast by state, city/state or zip code.
"An un-redacted version of a recently released Nuclear Regulatory Commission report highlights the threat that flooding poses to nuclear power plants located near large dams -- and suggests that the NRC has misled the public for years about the severity of the threat, according to engineers and nuclear safety advocates."
Danielle Ivory reports for Bloomberg: "At least 25 federal agencies are outsourcing parts of the FOIA process. The contractors, sometimes using workers with security clearances, are building FOIA software, corresponding with requesters, redacting documents and recommending what information should be withheld."
RCFP's new online guide to appealing federal FOIA decisions, written by smart, experienced media lawyers, "will be particularly useful to independent journalists and those at news organizations who don’t have ready access to legal counsel to help file appeals."
The list, recently published by the Society of Professional Journalists, includes items ranging from the FOIA letter generator from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to Charles Davis' "The Art of Access" blog.
Some utilities want to get rid of the requirement — substituting online notification, even for water customers who lack Internet connections. A legislative effort to ease the notification requirement failed in the Senate in summer 2012. Now EPA is starting procedures which might lead to doing the same thing by rulemaking. Deadline for comments is October 11, 2012.
Five years after wildlife biologist Charles Monnett's 2006 observations of dead polar bears, believed to have drowned because of disappearing Arctic ice, Interior started an investigation of Monnett's science. The findings — partially published September 28, 2012 — were confused and contained no findings of scientific misconduct.
While it still has a long way to go to reach its potential, the new "FOIAonline" web portal benefits environmental reporters now. Submit and track FOIA requests online to the US Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and more.
The petition presses the Cambodian government for a full investigation into the murder of journalist Hang Serei Oudom, who was killed in Cambodia in September 2012. He had reportedly been covering illegal logging activities currently causing massive deforestation of the Cambodian forest.
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