Elena Kagan, President Obama's nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, is currently undergoing her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. During the hearing, she will be questioned about a wide range of legal and political issues, which may include government transparency. Kagan's arguments in several transparency-related cases as Obama's Solicitor General may offer some insight into her approach to open government. However, because she has argued those cases from the administration's perspective, her personal legal views on transparency are difficult to assess. It is, therefore, hard to predict how she may rule in transparency-related cases if confirmed as a justice.
Despite statements from the Coast Guard and BP supporting media access to sites related to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, journalists continue to be threatened, intimidated, and denied access as they attempt to cover what many consider to be the worst environmental disaster in the history of the United States. Considering the unprecedented and unknown impacts of the spill, the public is relying heavily on unimpeded journalists to uncover the causes, responses, and consequences of the disaster.
In the wake of high-profile regulatory failures, including the worst mine disaster in recent history, the companies responsible continue to run afoul of laws and regulations meant to protect public health and worker safety.
If there's one thing Republicans and Democrats can agree on, it's that the economy has seen better days. Indeed, looking at various employment statistics, it's hard for anyone to express optimism about the nation's economic condition. The national unemployment rate is 
The Department of the Interior's management of oil and natural gas resources suffers from a lack of public access to information, according to government investigators and numerous public interest groups. This lack of openness takes a significant toll on the public's ability to challenge Interior's decisions and impedes accountability. Reforms to the Interior Department's oil and gas management policies announced in recent months have not made transparency a key element, casting doubt on their potential to bring about stronger oversight.
Officials at the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) purposefully prevented a number of mines with serious safety violations from being placed on the list of mines with patterns of violations. Budget constraints, not safety concerns, led to some dangerous mines not being listed, according to the Department of Labor's Office of Inspector General (OIG).