OpenTheGovernment.org - Press Room

Spotlight Stories

Read stories that highlight the human impact of open government and government secrecy. Or submit your own story.

On the eve of the 2000 millennium celebration, a Seattle border guard captured a man driving across from Canada with enough explosives to carry out a serious terror attack.

Citizens in Aberdeen, Maryland, had been working with U.S. Army officials to deal with unsettling levels of the rocket fuel perchlorate found in the community's drinking water supplies.

If you don't think public access makes us safer, just ask a few dozen nuclear plant security guards who because of disclosure about work conditions now have a safer plant.

For years, the Blue Plains Wastewater Treatment Plant, just outside of Washington, DC, stored deadly chlorine gas in 90-ton rail cars. A rupture of just one of these rail cars would have put 1.7 million people at risk, covering the White House, Congress, and Bolling Air Force Base.

Woburn, MA, a town that experienced severe drinking water contamination in the 1980s, recently faced another environmental hazard. A couple from the town noticed a dormant landfill had been reopened. City officials were not offering answers, so the couple used state Freedom of Information (FOI) laws to uncover information about the plans for the landfill.

To hold government accountable, the public must stay informed of the activities of their government. The Electronic Privacy Information Center effectively uses the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to inform the public of excessive government secrecy in using the USA PATRIOT Act, government surveillance of individuals, and more. EPIC has compiled a handy list of the most interesting revelations.