The Bush administration unveiled a proposal Jan. 7 that would gut a prohibition against the dumping of mining waste within 100 feet of streams, easing the way for new mountaintop mining, which generates large amounts of dirt and rock waste.

Public interest and media organizations this week appealed to the Supreme Court to stop the near-total secrecy surrounding the five-month detention of a Florida waiter as part of what the federal government claims to be a terrorism-related investigation. They did this through a friend of the court or an amicus brief. The case has been handled with unusual secrecy (see Watcher, Nov. 17). The existence of the case is known outside the court system only because documents identifying the case were inadvertently and temporarily filed in the public docket and a reporter discovered the case.

A recent ruling by a United States District Court Judge will contribute to the scarcity of places to collect signatures for ballot measures and candidates. The ruling upheld the U.S. Postal Service’s (USPS) 1998 policy change prohibiting solicitation of signatures on petitions, polls, or surveys on any USPS property.

Two days before Christmas, the Bush administration finalized plans to open 300,000 acres in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest for logging and development, removing protection provided by the Clinton-era “roadless rule,” which banned road construction in 58.5 million acres of national forests.