Government

US EPA and Army Corps of Engineers say they "cannot make the list of 'high hazard' coal ash impoundment sites public," even though risk to communities exists -- like the December 2008 pond failure at the Kingston Fossil Plant in Tennessee.

$15 million of Stimulus funding for 55 projects, designed to help reduce wildfire hazards and reclaim burned lands, could be of substantial interest in the receiving communities.

The Obama EPA partially reverses a Bush-era procedure for setting health-based standards under the Clean Air Act.

The Government Printing Office web site apparently took down the publication after discovery of the mistake -- but the entire report is still available on the site of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy.

NYT: "The goal is to open up a system in which the agency failed to inform the public that a widely prescribed heartburn drug was especially toxic to babies; that a diabetes medicine and a painkiller increased heart attack risks; and that antidepressants increased suicidal thoughts and behavior in children and teenagers."

The Mine Safety and Health Administration still denies FOIA requests, including one filed in Oct. 2008 by mine safety attorney Tony Oppegard for some witness statements.

The Newark Star-Ledger reports a move by a top New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection official to prevent public disclosure of scientific information that should be public until political appointees without science credentials and press officers have approved it.

 

 Climate change scientist paints a stark and vivid picture

THE WINDS OF CHANGE: CLIMATE, WEATHER AND THE DESTRUCTION OF CIVILIZATIONS By Eugene Linden 
Simon & Schuster, $26

About $100 million in funding is earmarked for 53 projects in 20 states and the District of Columbia by the US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development.