March 20, 2020 2:27 PM EDT
This sunshine week I would like to express my appreciation for all of the work that Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) officers at federal agencies have done and continue to do to ensure public access to government communications, records, and documents. Read more >
February 3, 2020 9:48 AM EDT
Late Friday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released a batch of emails between high-level agency officials around Sharpiegate; BuzzFeed broke the news. Most of the emails are further verification of what was previously understood about how things played out at the agency when its leaders betrayed their own scientists after the President doubled down on his inaccurate Dorian forecast and doctored a weather map. But an important take-away for me is a new window into just how unfit Acting Administrator Neil Jacobs is to lead the agency. Read more >
September 30, 2019 4:15 PM EDT
The health of our oceans is profoundly impacted by global warming. Yet you wouldn’t know it from current NOAA Fisheries Director Chris Oliver. At a Senate hearing last week, he “could not say whether climate change is endangering the nation’s fisheries and declined to ‘speculate’ on whether warming oceans will harm fish stocks or generate more hurricanes,” reports E&E news. Read more >
September 11, 2019 5:40 PM EDT
Three former high-ranking NOAA officials filed an official complaint yesterday asking for a comprehensive investigation into multiple violations of the NOAA Scientific Integrity Policy. “Recent actions to censor NWS scientists put public safety at risk, are inconsistent with NOAA’s scientific integrity principles, violate the public trust, and compromise the independence and reliability of the National Weather Service.” Read more >
September 9, 2019 6:14 PM EDT
Senior NOAA political staff objected to orders to “fix” weather forecasts to conform with the president’s claim that Hurricane Dorian would impact Alabama, the New York Times reports. Then Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross threatened to fire them.
