WASHINGTON, D.C. (February 24, 2004)
For news hounds, TGIF
The Bush administration's proclivity for Friday-afternoon announcements of important policy is furthered when on the afternoon of Friday, February 20, 2004, President Bush announced that he was circumventing the Senate confirmation process and appointing controversial judicial nominee William H. Pryor Jr. to the federal bench. It was the second such recess appointment to be made late on a Friday, following last month's appointment of Charles W. Pickering Sr. (The Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A491-2004Feb23.html

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M./WASHINGTON, D.C. (Dec. 16, 2002)
Los Alamos environment/safety whistleblower wins appeal
An employee of the Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory who told news media about environmental, health and safety concerns will get back pay and attorney fees, the U.S. Department of Labor ruled. The worker, assisted by Citizens Concerned for Nuclear Safety and the Government Accountability Project, got a lower pay raise after raising concerns publicly. (RCFP)
http://www.rcfp.org/news/2002/1216gutier.html

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Oct. 18, 2002)
EPA responds to 49% of FOIA's within 20 days — 100X faster than Dept. of Energy
The Department of Energy takes longer than any other federal agency to process FOIA requests — a median of 2,009 days, or five and a half years, according to a fiscal year 2001 report by the Department of Justice Office of Information and Privacy. EPA, in comparison, responded to 49% of its requests within the statutory 20 days. EPA received 14,252 FOIA's last year and granted about two-thirds of them in full. The entire federal government received 2.2 million FOIA requests, spent $12.2 million responding, and ended the fiscal year with a backlog of 177,969, a 5% increase over the previous year.
(FAS Project on Government Secrecy, 2001 FOIA report, EPA 2001 FOIA report)

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Sept. 20, 2002)
OMB stalls EPA release of children's environmental-health report
EPA has been ready to release a report, "America's Children and the Environment: Measures of Children and the Environment," since March 2002. However, the Office of Management and Budget's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) has been "reviewing" the report since then — the first time that office has involved itself in shaping a scientific study. Critics say it's a harbinger of things to come in the Bush Administration. (SEJ Tipsheet and OMB Watch)
http://www.sej.org/pub/index1.htm and http://www.ombwatch.org/article/articleview/1061/1/150

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Sept. 6, 2002)
FERC moves to limit FOI, require third party nondisclosure
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Thursday moved aggressively to stem the flow of information about proposed energy projects. FERC wants to make records on pipelines, electric transmission networks and power plants exempt from FOIA and in some cases require nondisclosure agreements by landowners, environmentalists and other people who receive the information. (Greenwire; subsc. required)
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire.htm and http://www.ferc.gov/news/pressreleases/sept5critical.pdf

SOUTH CAROLINA (Sept. 2, 2002)
Judges: ban secret settlements
South Carolina's 10 active federal trial judges have unanimously voted to ban secret legal settlements, saying such agreements have made the courts complicit in hiding the truth about hazardous products, inept doctors and sexually abusive priests. Lawyers say the action is likely to influence other state and federal courts. (The New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/02/national/02JUDG.html?pagew

WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 26, 2002)
Compromise FOI amendment goes forward
Senators agreed to compromise language in a recent markup of homeland security legislation that would give some protection to critical infrastructure information. (RCFP)
http://www.rcfp.org/news/2002/0619hodges.html

SOUTH CAROLINA (June 19, 2002)
Media, energy officials reach agreement on nuclear documents
Government attorneys permit media access to documents about long-term plutonium storage at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. (RCFP)
http://www.rcfp.org/news/2002/0619hodges.html

NEW JERSEY/NORTH CAROLINA (April 2, 2002)
Two governors restrict media's access to state officials
Governors in New Jersey and North Carolina issued orders disallowing government officials from freely speaking on the record to journalists about the states' budgets. (RCFP)
http://www.rcfp.org/news/2002/0402govern.html

MONTANA (April 2002)
Agency says environmental groups' suit changes public records status
The Montana Department of Livestock denied records pertaining to the hazing of Yellowstone Park bison. The department said the fact that the two environmental groups had filed a federal lawsuit against the agency created a different public records environment. As a result, the agency is requiring the groups to seek records through the legal "discovery" process. (FF)
http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=15912

WASHINGTON, D.C (March 19, 2002)
Panelists disagree on effect of Bush policies on openness
Open-government advocates and a Justice official debated during FOI Act conference whether heightened scrutiny over access is prudent policy or an unnecessary "information lockdown." (RCFP)
http://www.rcfp.org/news/2002/0319opengo.html

WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 19, 2002)
Leaks spark debate among journalists, legislative staff
Panelists discussing media disclosure of government information agree that potentially sensitive information leaked to the press should be carefully considered before it is published. (RCFP)
http://www.rcfp.org/news/2002/0319leaks.html

WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 13, 2002)
National Archives releases huge cache of Reagan papers
The White House allowed archivists to make more pages from the Reagan presidency available to the public, but a lawsuit seeks end of an order exerting rules for the release of presidential records. (RCFP)
http://www.rcfp.org/news/2002/0313americ.html

WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 7, 2002)
Court grants request for release of Energy Task Force papers
A federal judge gave seven agencies until March 25 to start handing over documents from Vice President Dick Cheney's task force on energy policy to a public-interest group. (RCFP)
http://www.rcfp.org/news/2002/0307judici.html

WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 3, 2002)
Judge chastises Energy Department, orders task force records release
A federal judge asked "what in the world" the Energy Department's Freedom of Information Office had been doing to respond to an important request for information on the Energy Task Force filed a year ago and ordered that records be released. (RCFP)
http://www.rcfp.org/news/2002/0303nrdcvd.html

WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 7, 2002)
Leahy seeks probe of federal FOI activity after Ashcroft memo
A senator with longstanding interest in the federal Freedom of Information Act has asked for an investigation of agency FOI responses following a memorandum from the attorney general that appears to support denials of FOI requests. (RCFP)
http://www.rcfp.org/news/2002/0307asenat.html

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Feb 7, 2002)
GAO plans lawsuit for records from Cheney's energy task force
The U.S. comptroller general said the General Accounting Office will resort to filing a lawsuit — its first ever against a federal official — because the White House refused to disclose the names of industry executives advising the task force. (RCFP)
http://www.rcfp.org/news/2002/0207comgen.html

SOUTH CAROLINA (Feb. 7, 2002)
Journalists covering Greenpeace face April sentencing date
A photographer and videographer arrested on conspiracy charges at an air force base in Southern California last July avoided trial by pleading guilty to a misdemeanor trespassing charge. (RCFP)
http://www.rcfp.org/news/2002/0207morgan.html

ILLINOIS (Apr 25, 2001)
Open records law exemption does not cover health statistics
A state appeals court ruling allows a newspaper to continue its investigation of cancer rates because the public benefit of knowing the information outweighs the personal privacy concerns. An Illinois appellate court determined a newspaper is entitled to statistical data from the state's cancer registry because releasing the information does not invade the patient's privacy. (RCFP)
http://www.rcfp.org/news/2001/0425southe.html

WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 28, 2000)
Rule would block environmental hazard information
The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed rules that would sharply limit release of details of chemical accident risks in communities. (RCFP)
http://www.rcfp.org/news/2000/0428propos.html

NEW YORK (April 21, 1997)
Company can't keep EPA clean-water records secret
A lead smelting plant which ultimately discharges its waste water into the Wallkill River cannot force the Environmental Protection Agency to keep secret the company's records filed with the EPA on its efforts to comply with the Clean Water Act, a U.S. Court of Appeals in New York (2nd Cir.) ruled in late March. (RCFP)
http://www.rcfp.org/news/1997/0421g.html

PENNSYLVANIA (Dec. 18, 1995)
Disclosure of EPA cleanup records does not violate personal privacy
Names and addresses of persons in Palmerton and Aquashicola who allowed the EPA to take measures to reduce lead, zinc and cadmium in the soil are public under the federal Freedom of Information Act, and their release does not cause an unwarranted intrusion on personal privacy, a federal District Court in Philadelphia ruled in mid-November. (RCFP)
http://www.rcfp.org/news/1995/1218m.html

WASHINGTON, D.C (Nov. 20, 1995)
Energy Department paid private firm to study, rank reporters
The United States Department of Energy paid nearly $50,000 for a study of the media that included "favorability" ratings for reporters and their sources, the department admitted after the study was publicized in a Wall Street Journal article in early November. (RCFP)
http://www.rcfp.org/news/1995/1120a.html

WASHINGTON, D.C (Dec. 14, 1993)
Energy Dept. releases formerly secret records
In early December, Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary revealed secrets from the cold war that the government had held for up to 50 years and she vowed to reverse agency policies that kept the public in the dark on wide-reaching government experiments with nuclear power. (RCFP)
http://www.rcfp.org/news/1993/1214c.html

SOURCES:
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
Federation of American Scientists (FAS)
Freedom Forum (FF)
Greenwire
OMB Watch
Reporter's Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP)
SEJ's biweekly publication, TipSheet
The New York Times
U.S. Department of Justice
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

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