Conservative lawmakers are using peer review and data quality language to obscure what amounts to an attack on the Endangered Species Act. Two new bills would require the Fish and Wildlife Service to establish minimum criteria for scientific studies used as the basis for listing species, and to conduct restrictive independent peer reviews on all data used.

The Right-To-Know Resource Center provides critical resources on news of the day. Geared for reporters and other advocates who need background information on a timely issue, the Resource Center provides the context for understanding current events. For example, a recent Washington Post story focused on the long reach of a short law, the Data Quality Act, which allows the public (including corporations) to challenge the data underlying government rules. The Resource Center has background on the law and how the private sector uses it, along with recent reports by OMB Watch.

The U.S. attorney's office invoked the rarely used Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA) to limit the amount of information disclosed in a case against two men arrested in Albany, N.Y. This comes on the same day media sources revealed that the document the FBI used to link one of the men to terrorists was incorrectly translated.