Tools: Credibility-Weighted Search Tool

Interesting new tool being developed: a search engine with results weighted to sites that librarians at major institutions most often refer to. It's called Reference Extract. Kind of a credibility-weighted search. Just added it to my blogroll on the right. See "Resources: Search" for more search tools.

TAGS: tools, search

Investigations: Gas Drilling Sparks Debate About Water Contamination

"In July, a hydrologist dropped a plastic sampling pipe 300 feet down a water well in rural Sublette County, Wyo., and pulled up a load of brown oily water with a foul smell. Tests showed it contained benzene, a chemical believed to cause aplastic anemia and leukemia, in a concentration 1,500 times the level safe for people.

"The results sent shockwaves through the energy industry and state and federal regulatory agencies."

So starts a ProPublica investigation into how natural-gas drilling has sparked a debate about whether it is poisoning watersheds in the U.S. The drilling is usually done by a process called hydraulic fracturing. Pioneered by Halliburton, it shoots water and chemicals underground to break apart rock and release the gas. The process is used in Canada, too. Deemed safe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2004, ProPublica has found the chemicals may contaminate underground water aquefers, including in areas around New York City.

The piece says Canadian gas company Encana was fined in connection with gas drilling in Colorado done by a small company it now owns. Encana also agreed to a large settlement with one local woman who developed an adrenal tumour. Encana says chemicals used in the drilling are well contained. Nonetheless, Colorado and other states are looking at reforms to drilling practices.

TAGS: environment, investigations, energy

Interesting: Obama Intel Policies Likely to Preserve Bush Legacy?

Has the backtracking begun already? Barack Obama's advisors are reportedly signaling the new president may leave intact some of the most controversial policies of the Bush era: the CIA's "enhanced interrogation" methods (what you and I call torture) and warrantless surveillance. This interesting Wall Street Journal report suggests intelligence matters could prove to be the first to alienate Obama's supporters. While Obama was sharply critical of Bush administration intelligence policies, his transition intelligence team is composed of centrist figures who don't advocate major changes, including in such areas of controversy as interrogation and surveillance on Americans.

TAGS: interesting, intelligence

Investigations: U.S. Spent $195 Keeping Secrets For Each $1 For Declassification

Just added a new link to my blogroll: OpenTheGovernment.org. (See my "FOI Resources" section in the column on the right.) This broad-based D.C. coalition advocates for government transparency and provides resources for same. The site has a good resource page if you happen to be researching the secrets and mysteries of the financial bailout here.

The site also recently released its fifth annual report on government secrecy. Did you know that:

- The U.S. government spent $195 maintaining secrets for every $1 for declassification documents in 2007, a five-percent increase over 2006. This, even though fewer documents were declassified last year.

- Eighteen percent of the Department of Defense budget was spent on "black" - highly classified - programs in 2007, or $31.9 billion.

- Government departments spent $7 million less on Freedom of Information implementation last year and has 209 fewer people devoted to this work. This, despite a two-percent increase in the FOI request volume.

- The U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which oversees government requests for surveillance of foreign intel suspects in the U.S., okayed 2,371 orders in 2007. It rejected only three.

- Only one-third of U.S. federal contracts were subject to full and open competition.

TAGS: investigations, secrecy

Documents: U.S. Army Unconventional Warfare Manual Posted

Secrecy News, a project of the Federation of American Scientists, has obtained a copy of the U.S. Army's new field manual on unconventional warfare. This major new document outlines special operations doctrine of the kind seen during the Nicaraguan contra operations, anti-Soviet operations in Afghanistan and the present-day Mideast. The manual hasn't been cleared for public release, but Secrecy News has posted a copy here. Included are a historical survey and an extensive bibliography.

TAGS: military, special forces

Awards: Latin American Prizes for Investigative Journalism on Corruption

Transparency International and the Peruvian-based Instituto Prensa y Libertad announce the seventh edition of their Latin American awards for investigative journalism on corruption, worth $35,000. Learn more here.

TAGS: awards, corruption