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BP had no plan for Deepwater Horizon disaster
By Ryan Sibley May 28, 2010 3:36 p.m.British Petroleum did not have an emergency response plan for its Deepwater Horizon drill rig; such plans direct personnel to the proper procedures for responding to incidents like the current spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
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Oil spill: BP pipelines trigger safety violations
By Sarah Dorsey May 28, 2010 3:01 p.m.This week, we've been gathering resources for reporters looking to put the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill into context. While the Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) doesn't have jurisdiction over the safety of the offshore wells themselves, they do enforce safety regulations for oil pipelines and can tell us if BP has violated any of these regulations of late.
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Oil Spill: Wildlife data shows several species may be affected
By Anupama Narayanswamy May 27, 2010 3:14 p.m.As the millions of gallons of oil continues to spill into the Gulf of Mexico, the Department of Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Services has started an uphill battle with their rescue efforts. The agency has deployed a 200-person workforce in the area who are reviewing the natural habitats affected by the oil spill.
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Search new Subsidyscope database on federal aid to nonprofits
By Lisa Chiu May 27, 2010 2:22 p.m.Subsidyscope nonprofit funding map.
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BP blamed in 8,000 spill reports, federal data shows
By Bill Allison May 27, 2010 1:49 p.m.British Petroleum and its subsidiaries have been the subject of roughly 8,000 reported incidents of spills, emissions and leaks of oil, chemicals and gases into the environment, according to a government database. (download them here).
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DOE site up to date: President Bush's goals for 2005
By Bill Allison May 25, 2010 10:42 p.m.The Reporting Group spent the day digging through government websites looking for resources for reporters covering the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. Tonight I started looking for useful data sets on the Department of Energy's website. Put the word "oil" in the site's search interface, and the first result (as of this writing) explains...
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Oil spill resources: Local reporting
By Bill Allison May 25, 2010 2:37 p.m.We're pulling together resources for covering and following the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Here's some coverage from local papers in the Gulf region--there's some fantastic local reporting going on. A sampling:
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USDA pulls plug on some farm subsidy data
By Claritza Jiménez May 24, 2010 3:20 p.m.Identifying some individuals who receive generous federal crop subsidies without going anywhere near a farm has gotten trickier. The Department of Agriculture, which paid $15.4 billion in 2009 subsidies, is no longer centralizing the data that made it easier to pinpoint individuals who receive farm payments through their affiliation in farming corporations, co-ops and other types of business partnerships.
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Hedge fund players pump millions into party committees
By Bill Allison May 24, 2010 1:52 p.m.In the 2010 election cycle so far, Hedge Fund executives, managers and investors contributed more than $12.8 million to national and state party committees--the Democratic National Committee, the Republican National Committee, the Democratic Senatorial Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee and so on--in chunks ranging from $10,000 to $30,400, a search of TransparencyData.com reveals.
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Senate approves financial reform in a late night vote
By Ryan Sibley May 21, 2010 1:10 p.m.The Senate passed sweeping financial reform legislation last night, aimed at keeping the financial sector from collapsing as it did in 2008. The final vote was 59-39, with four Republicans joining the majority party to get the bill through. Two Democrats remained opposed to the bill, saying the Senate measure didn't include tough enough regulations.
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Financial reform moves to Senate vote
By Ryan Sibley May 20, 2010 4:49 p.m.After a second procedural vote this afternoon, the Senate was able to shut down debate on S. 3217, Restoring American Financial Stability. Exactly three-fifths of the senate, including 3 Republicans, voted in favor of the motion, which passed 60-40. Two Democrats voted no.
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Data on assaults on federal officers, found in the National Data Catalog
By Bill Allison May 20, 2010 1:51 p.m.The Drug Enforcement Agency, which has an international network of agents that's been involved in high profile arrests of arms smugglers and domestically carries out a number of drug raids, including shutting down meth houses, had just one officer assaulted or killed in the line of duty in all of 2006 and 2007, according to statistics maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and accessed through Sunlight's new National Data Catalog.
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"Heart of the Matter" wins honorable mention
By Nancy Watzman May 20, 2010 10:51 a.m.We are honored to announce that our investigation, "Heart of the Matter: How Congress and Special Interests Kept Crucial Clinical Trial Data Secret," has won an honorable mention in the sixteenth annual health care journalism awards sponsored by the National Institute for Health Care Management (NICHM) Foundation.
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Financial reform regulation held up by its own creators
By Ryan Sibley May 20, 2010 10:42 a.m.Last night’s vote by the Senate to end the debate on S. 3217, Restoring American Financial Stability, failed 57-42 with two majority party senators voting no; we'll be following the proceedings as events warrant on Sunlight Live.
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