This. Is. Happening. My first food blog post! After nearly five years of flooding my friends and family with cooking adventures and #BettyCrockpot posts on Instagram and Facebook, I've finally taken what I would consider the "big step" into the blogosphere. For whatever reason, I have mulled over starting this for the longest time. With some encouragement and support, I've finally mustered up the courage to get started. So without further ado, here's my Dad's delicious Blackened Catfish recipe. This recipe rocks my socks! My family is from the south so we love everything highly seasoned and this Blackened Catfish hits the spot!
Many blackened catfish recipes call for butter to be used to cook the fish. That sounds great and delicious so I tried it. As I embarked on my first attempt at this recipe, I put the butter in my hot pan to melt. Everything was going great until the butter started to burn when I placed the first fillet in the pan. Not long after, a pepper spray-like smoke filled the kitchen.
Suddenly, I began coughing up a storm. I dashed to the back door to get this suffocating, eye-watering smoke out of my apartment. Just as I reached the door- BEEP BEEP BEEP- my smoke detectors began to sound. OF COURSE. You can probably picture me, coughing, tears running down my face, fanning the smoke away with a broom, feeling slightly (terribly) embarrassed about the commotion my neighbors were hearing. Once the alarms finally stopped, I decided that I would use a small bit of olive oil in the pan because the fillets are slathered in butter before seasoning. Future calamities averted. One last thing- the overhead vents are there for a reason. Use them!
Since that first blackened catfish adventure, I have refined the recipe and now it's one of my summer go-to's. I always pair it with a bed of brown or white rice and some salad variation. My father and I bond over recipes and this one is one of the first ones he shared with me when I began my cooking adventures. I hope you all enjoy and continue to follow along on this ride of cooking and food blogging with me!
Rinse catfish fillets under running cold water and pat dry with paper towels.
In a small bowl, combine thyme, cayenne pepper, white ground pepper, black pepper, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and paprika.
Lightly brush catfish fillets with melted butter on both sides.
Sprinkle blackened seasoning on both sides of the catfish fillets. Coat fillets completely. You will use all of the seasoning with none left to spare for ultimate flavor. If you do not like spice or seasoning, you can half the above ingredients for the seasoning mix.
Heat pan (cast iron, or non-stick) until hot. Pour about a tablespoon of olive oil into the pan.
Carefully place 2-3 catfish fillets into the skillet and cook for 5-7 minutes on both sides. Remember, the seasoning will cause some smoke so turn on your vents!
Once cooked fully, serve blackened fillets on a bed of rice with the additional side of your choosing. (Avocado, Tomato, Cucumber Salad or Red Beans and Rice, perhaps. 😉 ) Add a little bit of lemon juice on top of each fillet and enjoy!
Rinse catfish fillets under running cold water and pat dry with paper towels. If the catfish fillets are too large for your pan, cut them in half.
In a small bowl, combine thyme, cayenne pepper, white ground pepper, black pepper, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and paprika and melt butter in a bowl.
Lightly brush catfish fillets with melted butter on both sides with a basting brush. If you do not have a basting brush, a spoon will do the trick too!
Sprinkle blackened seasoning on both sides of the catfish fillets. Coat fillets completely. For the ultimate flavor, use all the seasoning mix on your fillets. If you do not like spice or seasoning, you can half the above ingredients for the seasoning mix. I rub the seasoning into the fish to make sure the fillets are completely covered.
Heat pan (cast iron, or non-stick) until hot. Pour about a tablespoon of olive oil into the pan. The oil should be hot prior to placing the catfish fillets into the pan.
Carefully place 2-3 catfish fillets into the skillet and cook for 5-7 minutes on both sides. Remember, the seasoning will cause some smoke so turn on your vents.
Once the catfish fillets are fully cooked with a blackened crust on top, serve blackened fillets on a bed of rice with the additional side of your choosing (Avocado, Tomato, Cucumber Salad or Red Beans and Rice, perhaps. 😉 ) Add a little bit of lemon juice on top of each fillet and enjoy!
Give it a try! I want to hear about your adventures! Leave a comment and let me know what you think!
Next PostO, Basil Where Art Thou?
I like the looks , I like the appearance of it and I just know I will like the taste of it. I didn't know you were such a connoisseur of dishes. I look forward to getting more great ideas from you to try.
Thank you Auntie! I'm excited for you to more dishes I post!
This sounds and looks delicious! Love your step by step instructions with photos!


text:
South Dakota health system joins Mayo network, changes name
HealthPartners begins 300 job cuts amid closure of pharmacies
Walgreens, CVS demands led Ohio Medicaid to drop 272 pharmacies, state says
American College of Physicians backs 'Medicare for All,' public option
Trump administration to issue guidance on Medicaid block grants: 5 things to know
Adventist Health notifies patients of phishing attack
WHO calls emergency panel after outbreak in China spreads to 14 healthcare workers, South Korea
New Uber Health partnership expands medical transportation offerings
8 ER physicians quit Chicago hospital
CEO Ralph Muller: Delivering the Promise of Advanced Care at University of Pennsylvania Health System
- Thursday, April 26th, 2012 Print	| Email
Ralph Muller has served as CEO of the University of Pennsylvania Health System in Philadelphia since July 2003. As CEO, Mr. Muller is responsible for managing the operational effectiveness and financial health of the $1.7 billion health system. He works closely with Penn Medicine, the umbrella organization for the University of Pennsylvania Health System, to help implement its overarching strategic plan. Mr. Muller oversees three hospitals, a primary care provider network and home care, hospice care and long-term care.
Mr. Muller has served in academic healthcare administration for 37 years. His extensive familiarity with the complex challenges facing urban-based academic health centers guides his successful leadership of the University of Pennsylvania Health System. U.S. News & World Report and Thomson Reuters consistently rank the health system's hospitals among the best in the nation.
Mr. Muller attributes the success of the health system to its focus and employees. On the system's website Ralph Muller is quoted as saying, "Penn Medicine is leading healthcare beyond [the limits of conventional medicine] because its employees deliver on the promise of advanced care every day. The commitment of Penn Medicine employees to this advance of medicine is the reason we can say to our communities and to the world, 'your life is worth Penn Medicine.'"
Mr. Muller is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academics and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Mr. Muller began his career in academic medicine in 1985 when he was named vice president of the University of Chicago's Hospitals and deputy dean of biological sciences. In 1986, he was named president and CEO of the University of Chicago Hospitals & Health System. He served in that role for 15 years.
More Articles on CEO Profiles:

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


All and All, South Padre Island has something for everyone. If you are looking for a new vacation spot or have not been back for a number of years, it is a great to book your next trip to South Padre Island. We think you will find that after one trip, you will be coming back again and again.


text:
What are the 3 words of the Constitution?
What are the first 3 words of the US Constitution?
What are the 3 parts of the constitution in order?
When was the 9th amendment violated?
Which is a main idea in the right of privacy?
Why was the 9th amendment created?
Which amendment extended the vote to 18 year olds which amendment outlaws cruel and unusual punishments?
What amendment said states couldn't prevent people from voting based on their race?
What amendment says that states Cannot prevent a person from voting based on race?
What does Section 1 of the 15th Amendment mean?
Are there 33 amendments?
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of …
Its first three words – "We The People" – affirm that the government of the United States exists to serve its citizens.
The Constitution itself is divided into three major parts, the Preamble, seven articles, and amendments.
What is a main idea in the right to privacy? People can make their own lawful decisions. to be secure in one's home.
The ninth amendment was added to the Bill of Rights to ensure that the maxim expression unique est exclusion alterius would not be used at a later time to deny fundamental rights merely because they were not specifically enumerated in the Constitution.
The Eighth Amendment (Amendment VIII) of the United States Constitution prohibits the federal government from imposing excessive bail, excessive fines, or cruel and unusual punishments.
To combat this problem, Congress passed the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870. It says: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
The Fifteenth Amendment (Amendment XV) to the United States Constitution prohibits the federal government and each state from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT SECTION 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of ser- vitude.
In total, in the past 227 years, Congress has sent only 33 amendments to the states for ratification – just about one out of every 500 suggested amendments. Of these 33, the states have ratified 27.
What does a travel psychologist do?
How does the First Amendment protect free speech and freedom of the press?
What is an intramural sport in college?
What is the main cause of high infant mortality rate?
How does the dictator game differ from the ultimatum game?
Which are the 7 major classes of psychoactive drugs?
Can felons receive fafsa?
What is unconscious learning?
Which best summarizes the purpose of a W 4 form?
What are the theories of color vision?
What are the limiting factors of population?
What is the main causes of individual differences?
Why was the New Netherlands important?
Where did the blues music originate?
What is the major indoor air pollution in many developing countries?
What are the three aesthetic qualities?
How does cultural environment affect personality development?
How does the government help ensure fair prices for all citizens of a particular area served by one utility company quizlet?
What is one way the patricians had more power than plebeians?
How have the Rocky Mountains changed over time?
« What does a travel psychologist do?
How did art change during the Renaissance answers com? »


text:
Občanská válka v Libyi může být:

 První občanská válka v Libyi (2011) – válka proti Kaddáfího režimu
 Druhá občanská válka v Libyi (2014–2020) – válka mezi slabou centrální vládou a milicemi

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Who wouldn't want to be hair-free in just 7 weeks? After years of shaving and waxing to achieve smooth, hair-free results, I contemplated laser treatments (for my underarms and bikini area) but it's just too darn expensive!
Well, about 4 weeks ago I received a great gift to test out: the revolutionary Mē Smooth System! ($395.00 at www.mepower.com Sephora and QVC). This is the FIRST FDA-cleared, dermatologist-approved and clinically proven hair removal system that is safe for ALL SKINTONES.
Even those with the darkest skintone can use this system. The Mē Smooth Hair Removal System is the first and only at-home hair removal device to use patented elōs Technology.
Elōs Technology is the combination of the power of Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) and Radio Frequency (RF) energies that target and deliver heat to the hair follicle, which damages the hair shaft and follicle to inhibit hair re-growth.
Read BeautyStat's review of the Silk'n Flash & Go Permanent Hair Removal Device —> HERE!
Developed by the scientists that invented IPL (Intense Pulsed Light), this unique combination of IPL and RF addresses the limitations of traditional hair removal technologies. The addition of "color-blind" RF Technology allows for the use of a lower level of IPL energy, while delivering a clinically proven removal of unwanted hair — virtually PAINLESS with no adverse effects.
I know what some are going to say: "$395.00 for a hair remover…That's expensive!" Well, not exactly when you tally up the amount you spend on shavers, waxing treatments (and let's not forget the PAIN FACTOR). It is extremely cost-effective!
The only thing I'd recommend is to wear those little tanning bed goggles when you're doing your underarms, as the IPL is very strong. You do tend to look at your underarms (I know I do) as you use the treatment.
I'm going on week #4 of using the Mē Smooth and I have noticed that hair growth is VERY slow — 5 days after shaving and still no stubble!
How Do You Use Mē Smooth?
Underarms only takes 1-minute for women. To do so, power the Mē Smooth System on, select your elōs level (I use it on HIGH, no pain) and press the elōs Activation Button on the applicator.
Check out BeautyStat's picks for the Best Hair Removers Of Summer 2013 —> Review Of The Best Hair Removers 2013!
Be sure that both silver RF Delivery Bars are on the skin. Do not press, just gently touch the skin. The hand piece will start emitting elōs pulses. Glide the applicator slowly and continuously on the treated area without stopping in one place. Do not return to the same spot for at least 10-seconds. It's that simple. No pain, just a warm sensation from the pulsating light.
After your 7 week treatment, you may use Mē Smooth once a month. The system comes with one cartridge, which lasts about 6,000 pulse/flashes. Replacement cartridges are $50.00 (at www.mepower.com or Sephora/www.Sephora.com) and WELL WORTH the investment.
I am 3 weeks away from completing my treatment session, and my underarms are already smoother, hair-free and the area which tends to darken from shaving is even lighter.
I am ordering a second cartridge so my daughter can use it, too. In closing, when I think about how much money I spend and the pain I endure during a bikini waxing session, this device is certainly a great investment!
What do you lovely ladies think of this hair removal device? Is a hair removal device's effectiveness an issue for you depending on your skintone?
how long do you have to use it before your hair is completely gone?


text:
Q: jQuery & miniColors - set color When you clik on add new button, jQuery inserts new dragrable DIVs with miniColor plugin to the CONTAINER. But in this DIVs you can not see miniColor element until you first time click on the DIV.
jsfiddle Example - http://jsfiddle.net/ynternet/m7c7e/4/

*

*Why is miniColor element showing after first click on the DIV ?

*How to change background color ?

*How to change font color ?

HTML

 add new

jQuery
function handler() {
    if ($(this).find("#menu").length) {
        return;
    }
    $('input').miniColors({
       opacity: true
    });
    var currentIndex = parseInt($(this).css('z-index'), 10);
    var newIndex = currentIndex + 1;
    $(this).css('z-index', newIndex);
}
$("#add").on({
    click: function(e) {
        var timestamp = Date.now();
        var posx = Math.floor(Math.random() * 400);
        var posy = Math.floor(Math.random() * 400);
        $('#container').append(function() {
            return $('
Click me, drag, change z-index & color <input type="hidden" name="color" value="#FFCC00" data-opacity=".5" />
').click(handler).draggable({
                containment: "#container",
                scroll: false,
                cursor: 'lock'
        });
    });
    }
});

CSS
#container {
    width:500px;
    height:500px;
    background: palegoldenrod;
    position: relative;
    top:20px;
    left: 100px;
    padding: 0px;
    z-index:2;
}
.add_to_this {
    padding:5px;
    position: absolute;
    display:inline-block;
    background: yellowgreen;
    width:200px;
    height:70px;
    -moz-user-select: none;
    -khtml-user-select: none;
    -webkit-user-select: none;
    user-select: none;
    -o-user-select: none;
    z-index:100;
}

A: That is because you seem to append the minicolor to the Div in the click(handler) function..
.click(handler);

You are setting up the minicolor box in the handle function which is fired when you click the div..

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The Office Bearers Team were blessed with the opportunity to travel to Iraq to meet some of the most senior Marajas in the Shia community, witness the World Federation projects in action and also, Alhamdulillah, visit the shrines of our Imams (as).
The trip began in Holy Karbala, where the full team spent the evening in the haram of Imam Hussain (as), performing Ziyarat and praying for the community.
The next day, whilst travelling to Samarra & Kadhmain, the team met with our partners on-the-ground who, on our behalf, have been facilitating the support of widows, orphans and displaced families. The team visited a housing project on the outskirts of Karbala, which will be completed in the coming months and will house 100 families who have lost their homes as a result of on-going conflict.
As the trip continued, the team arrived in Najaf Al-Ashraf, they visited Ayatollah Bashir Najafi where they passed salaams from our community to him and we gained a lot of insight into leading communities during testing times. He prayed for the communities' enhancement in line with the teachings of the Ahlul Bayt.
They finished the meeting with Sayed Ala Musawi and thanked him for his support and assistance during the Yemen crisis. They ended the meeting with an excellent discussion around philanthropic work in Iraq.
As the trip continued, the team had the honour to pray in the Haram of Imam Ali (as). Following this , the entire team had a detailed and highly positive meeting with Ayatollah Sistani who gave great advice to the team. Ayollah Sistani spoke about the values and foundation laid out by Marhum Mulla Asghar MM Jaffer.
The team also met with Ayatollah Ishaq Fayyadh who spoke about the contribution that The World Federation are collectively making as a community to humanity at large and the importance of maintaining our values for generations to come.
Next, the team were humbled to meet Ayatollah Sayyid Saeed Al Hakim. Discussions were centred around the importance of humility and unity and spent a great deal of time discussing work the World Federation are doing together for Humanity as well as importance of maintaining our values.
Special prayers were made for the whole of the Khoja community throughout the trip and we ask for your continued dua's and support as we look to do even more work in the year ahead.
We are working on a number of projects and we are all very excited about what the future holds! We will be bringing you weekly updates to keep you informed.
"Going to Karbala is a bitter-sweet journey. On the one hand, Momineen are able to fulfil their heart's desire of visiting Imam Hussain (AS) and the Shohadah of Karbala. On the other, it is a place of immense and unparalleled grief, poignantly evident, although we spent only one day in the city."
Experience the journey through the eyes of Shan E Abbas who shares his personal reflections of the trip in the first part of his blog.


text:
The Dream of Gerontius, Edward Elgar's 1900 work for singers and orchestra, had to wait forty-five years for its first complete recording. Sir Henry Wood made acoustic recordings  of four extracts from The Dream of Gerontius as early as 1916, with Clara Butt as the angel, and Henry Coward's Sheffield Choir recorded a portion of the Part I "Kyrie" in the same period. Edison Bell recorded the work under Joseph Batten in abridged form in 1924 (the recording, with orchestral and choral forces considerably affected by the limitations of recording methods of the day, was swiftly rendered obsolete with the introduction of electronic recording the following year). HMV issued excerpts from two live performances conducted by Elgar in 1927, with the soloists Margaret Balfour, Steuart Wilson, Tudor Davies, Herbert Heyner and Horace Stevens; further portions of the first of those two performances, deemed unfit for publication at the time, have since been published by EMI and other companies.

There also exist fragments privately recorded by amateurs "off-air" (i.e. from live radio broadcasts), some of which have received commercial issue in recent years although none are known to exist in complete form.
They give alternative accounts of artists such as Heddle Nash, Malcolm Sargent, Adrian Boult (who all later recorded the work commercially) and Horace Stevens (who recorded the Angel of the Agony's solo under Elgar), and accounts of artists such as Astra Desmond, Muriel Brunskill, Parry Jones, and Keith Falkner, all noted for their performances of the work, and never commercially recorded singing it.

The first complete recording was made in 1945 conducted by Sargent. Since then it has received further commercial recordings as shown below.

Additionally, there exist two further accounts by Barbirolli, both live: a 1957 performance in Italy with Jon Vickers, Constance Shacklock, Marian Nowakowski, and the Coro and Orchestra Sinfonica della RAI di Roma; and a January 1959 performance in New York with Richard Lewis, Maureen Forrester, Morley Meredith, the Westminster Choir, and the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra. Both were recorded off-air from broadcasts, and the RAI performance was circulated widely, though unofficially; both performances have in recent years seen legitimate commercial issue of off-air transcriptions.

The work was recorded for television in 1968 at Canterbury Cathedral. This performance featured Peter Pears, Janet Baker and John Shirley-Quirk, conducted by Sir Adrian Boult. The performance was broadcast in that same year, and received a repeat showing several years later. Long unavailable, it was released on DVD by ICA Classics in 2016 (noted above).

The work received a further television broadcast by the BBC in 1997, in celebration of St Paul's Cathedral's tercentenary, and the BBC's 75th anniversary. The performance (commercially released by NVC in 1999, noted above), under Sir Andrew Davis, featured Philip Langridge, Catherine Wyn Rogers, Alastair Miles, and the BBC Chorus and Symphony Orchestra. It was released on DVD in 2006 by Warner Music.

Critical opinion
The BBC Radio 3 feature "Building a Library" has presented comparative reviews of all available versions of The Dream of Gerontius on three occasions, and recommended as follows:

5 March 1988, reviewer, William Mann:
Sir Alexander Gibson
29 November 1997, reviewer, Michael Kennedy:
Malcolm Sargent (1945)
Sir John Barbirolli (1965)
7 October 2006, reviewer, Andrew Green:
Sir John Barbirolli (1965)
Malcolm Sargent (1945)
9 December 2017, reviewer, Mark Lowther:
Vernon Handley (Top Recommendation)
Malcolm Sargent (1945)
Sir John Barbirolli (1965)
Sir Mark Elder (2008)

The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music, 2008, gave its maximum four star rating to the DVD  recording of The Dream of Gerontius conducted by Sir Andrew Davis. No audio recording received more than three stars (representing "an outstanding performance and recording"). The recordings with three stars were those conducted by Barbirolli (1965), Boult, Hickox, and Sargent (1945 and 1955).

A comparative review in Gramophone in 2003 by Andrew Farach Colton recommended the recordings by Sargent (1945), Barbirolli (1965), and Britten. In a comparative review for the Elgar Society, Walter Essex preferred the EMI Barbirolli set.

Notes and references
Notes

References

Bibliography
March, Ivan (ed). The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music 2008, Penguin Books, London, 2007.

Discographies of classical compositions
Recordings of Edward Elgar


text:
Test Your Screenwriting IQ
Screenwriting Myths & Facts: Part 10
By Steve Kaire
"Pay or play" is a term that means a writer has to be paid whether the buyer likes the material that's been written or not
That's true.
For a television series to be sold, a show runner has to be found first
That is true.
A deal memo is an agreement between an agent and a writer for representation
That's false. A deal memo is an abbreviated copy of a contract listing the major points of the deal.
The biggest set pieces are found in horror movies
That's false. They're found in action movies.
When you pitch your logline, the potential should be obvious if it's a comedy, adventure, thriller or action movie
That's true.
You should mention your story falls into multiple genres when you pitch
That's false. Pick one predominant genre and stick to it.
The expression "turn it upside down and inside out" is a brainstorming technique that means take an existing story and change it substantially to make it fresh
When you pitch an action movie, you must mention who the hero and who the villain is
The expression "half baked idea" is a negative term
False. It means that there is something of value in the story but it needs to be developed further to become "fully baked".
Acquiring rights to a story can be done by the writer
While that's technically true, it's best to go through an entertainment attorney.
About Steve Kaire
Steve Kaire is a screenwriter and "Pitchman" who has sold 8 projects to the major studios without representation. The last project he sold, he's Co-Producing for Walden Media. A screenwriter for over 30 years, he holds a Masters in Dramatic Writing and has taught writing classes at the American Film Institute. Steve was featured on the Tonight Show's, "Pitching to America" and was voted a Star Speaker at Screenwriters Expo three years in a row. His unique CD & Ebook, "High Concept - How to Create, Pitch & Sell to Hollywood" is a best seller. His website is: HighConceptScreenwriting.com.


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text:
Transparency Watch: A Closed Door
From the EPA to NASA, the FDA to OSHA, President Obama has failed to make science accessible
By Curtis Brainard
September /
October 2011 3555 words
In July 2009, just months after President Obama took office promising to revolutionize government transparency, leaders of the Society of Environmental Journalists participated in an hour-long conference call with public-affairs staffers working for Lisa Jackson, the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Jackson's office wanted to hear what the reporters' gripes were when it came to access, and Christy George, then the society's president, and her colleagues obliged, outlining their most persistent problems: the requirement to seek permission for interviews with agency scientists and experts, and difficulty arranging those interviews; the requirement to have press officers, or "minders," on the phone during interviews; and the glacial pace of processing Freedom of Information Act requests. Jackson's assistants asked for the benefit of the doubt. "We're not the Bush administration," George recalled them saying. "Those days are left behind."
For a while it seemed that might be true. The agency finally released a ruling, suppressed by the administration of George W. Bush, which states that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public welfare by contributing to climate change, and therefore can be regulated under the Clean Air Act. And it took smaller but appreciated measures, like opening more lines on press calls to accommodate reporters from smaller outlets and conducting those calls later in the day to accommodate reporters on the West Coast.
Unfortunately, the honeymoon was short-lived. One of the first signs of distress came during a January 2010 press call to discuss the EPA's new budget. The agency surprised reporters by declaring that everyone on the line except Jackson was speaking on background. When members of the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ) later complained, two press officers conceded that the on-background rule was foolish, as George reported in an issue of group's quarterly newsletter. Yet the agency pulled the same stunt three months later. Then things got even worse.
Responding to President Obama's Open Government Directive, which ordered executive departments and agencies to "take specific actions to implement the principles of transparency, participation, and collaboration," the EPA launched two websites to solicit public comments about how to fulfill that obligation. In March 2010, SEJ weighed in with a list of nine recommendations. Days later, during the group's next conference call with the agency, Adora Andy, the EPA press secretary at the time, "scolded us for daring to comment publicly on their transparency policies," says Ken Ward Jr., chairman of the group's Freedom of Information Task Force, who participated in the call. Moreover, Andy threatened to break off the discussions between the EPA and the society (she never did, and the talks are ongoing). "I was shocked," says Ward, a reporter at The Charleston Gazette in West Virginia. "Here we were talking about concerns that journalists have about the lack of transparency. Then we dutifully submit public comments about the way we thought they should interact with the press, and EPA hammers us for it. To me, it showed that EPA just doesn't get transparency."
Ward isn't the only one feeling let down. After Obama issued a number of directives designed to improve general transparency and access on his first day in office, he homed in on science, the environment, and public health as areas needing particular improvement. The focus was a no-brainer. The Bush administration had earned a reputation for quashing the free flow of scientific information. In what became the most infamous example of its meddling, top NASA climate scientist James Hansen told The New York Times in 2006 that the administration had tried to stop him from speaking out about the threat of global warming by ordering the space agency's public affairs staff to review his upcoming lectures, papers, and online postings. Today, a slew of reporters complain that such gag orders are still a problem and that transparency and access to information is often just as bad, if not worse in some cases, than it was under the Bush administration.
A survey of science, health, and environmental journalists, conducted by CJR and ProPublica, suggests that while his record so far is more mixed than the anecdotal evidence from journalists indicates, President Obama has clearly not lived up to his promise on transparency and access. As has been the case on many fronts with Obama, the expectations among journalists that things were going to improve were so high, a failure to live up those expectations was almost inevitable.
We surveyed a random sample of members of SEJ, the Association of Health Care Journalists, the National Association of Science Writers, and Investigative Reporters and Editors on several issues, including the processing of Freedom of Information Act requests, access to experts, and overall transparency. Responses were anonymous and nearly four hundred journalists responded out of the roughly 2,100 selected to participate. (Survey results reflect the opinions of those who responded, and may not reflect the opinions of the entire sample.) Those who responded were seasoned, with nineteen years in journalism on average, including an average of fourteen years covering science, environment, or health beats. Most respondents were either full-time staffers or freelancers for print or online publications.
To some extent, the survey contradicts the impressions of journalists who complain that the situation is worse under Obama than it was under Bush. Neither administration was rated "strong" or "very strong" in any category by a majority of respondents. But overall, Obama received higher marks in nearly every category. Thirty percent gave Obama a "poor" or "very poor" grade on overall transparency and access to information, compared to 44 percent for the Bush administration. Most—42 percent—gave Obama a "fair" grade overall.
Likewise, Obama got better marks than Bush in four specific categories of transparency and access: interview permissions, interview minders, online databases, and processing foia requests. Unsurprisingly, given his directive to make more government information available online, Obama showed the greatest amount of improvement over Bush in the databases category, with 31 percent giving the administration a "strong" or "very strong" grade. Progress in the other categories was small to insignificant, however, and in each one most respondents gave both Obama and Bush of "poor" or "very poor." Respondents with more experience tended to have harsher opinions, giving the Obama administration generally lower marks.
Marginal progress, however, does not an open government make, and the fact that a third of survey participants said Obama is basically doing a poor job overall does not bode well for the free flow of information. His administration is clearly trying, just not quite as hard as he suggested it would.
Felice Freyer, for instance, who chairs the Association of Health Care Journalists' Right to Know Committee, says the committee's effort to fight secrecy has followed a course nearly identical to the one described by leaders of SEJ. In April 2010, the association began a series of meetings and phone calls with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about improving access to federal experts. But progress has been difficult to elusive.
Responding to Obama's calls for openness, the FDA created a Transparency Task Force a few months after his inauguration. The health-care association joined ten other journalism organizations and more than two dozen individual journalists to send a letter to the task force demanding that it end the requirements that journalists obtain permission to conduct an interview, and that public information officers listen to interviews. Six months later, representatives of the association met with Jenny Backus, who became the top press secretary at HHS, to voice some of the same concerns. Backus defended the department's policies requiring interview permissions and minders, but expressed a desire to work with the press. "She gave us her line about, 'We really want to help reporters, and we believe in transparency,' " Freyer says. "She even told me that HHS believed the regional media were important, and that it wasn't just talking to The Washington Post and The New York Times. But she also promised us a list of all the media contacts in HHS, and then never delivered. She talked about having us come to meet with the department's pubic information officer at this convention in September. She said she'd look into it, and then never did. So she never really followed up on most of what she promised."
Such neglect has real-world consequences. Around the same time, Freyer was working on a story for The Providence Journal, where she's been the medical reporter since 1989. Ten percent of the obstetrician-gynecologists in Rhode Island had admitted to inserting a type of intrauterine device (iud), a form of birth control, into hundreds of women, which had not been approved by the FDA for use in the United States and which they'd obtained illegally at discount prices from foreign sources. The FDA launched an investigation, about which Freyer had questions. Unsure which press officer to approach, she filled out the "Timely Response E-mail Form" on the agency's website. Several hours passed with no response, so she called and spoke with a press officer. He suggested that Freyer e-mail her questions to him, which she did. Nothing. When she called again two days later, the press officer said he was waiting for a response from his superiors. He suggested that she resubmit her questions for a third time. She did, to no effect. Several more days passed and she sent yet another e-mail asking if she could expect answers, and if not, why. "At this point, all we can say is that the FDA is continuing to look into these cases," the press officer replied.
Freyer recounted the saga in an online article for the AHCJ:
I published my story, stating that the FDA had declined to answer any questions. Four days later, the FDA posted a 'consumer update' on its website referring to the Rhode Island controversy and warning consumers against iuds. . . . It turned out the fda's position was not the 'No comment' I received. The agency had quite a lot to say on the matter, but had declined to say it in the newspaper serving the hundreds of women throughout Rhode Island who were distressed and frightened by the IUD incident. They deserved better from the agency that was supposed to be protecting them.
Freyer e-mailed the press officer with whom she'd corresponded as well as the fda's chief press officer to ask what had happened. When neither replied, she e-mailed Backus at HHS, who finally got the FDA to apologize for its unresponsiveness and promise to do better. Backus was replaced shortly thereafter, however. As Freyer put it, the association had to "start all over again," and transparency problems have continued under Backus's successor, Richard Sorian.
At the beginning of 2011, for instance, the FDA stunned reporters while announcing changes to its medical-device approval process. The announcement was under embargo and the agency's press officers barred journalists seeking outside comment from sharing information about the changes with experts until the embargo lifted. The association wrote a letter of protest, pointing out that the prohibition "rewrote a long-standing compact between reporters and various public and scientific organizations," which typically allows reporters to share embargoed material with sources while working on their stories. Members of the Right to Know Committee pressed the matter, and in June the FDA reversed course. Around the same time, HHS also finally released the list of senior media officials in each of its divisions, which the association had been requesting for about a year.
Despite these victories, and the launch of what will be ongoing quarterly conversations with hhs's public affairs staff, Freyer is unsure how much progress has been made. "The big issue is that reporters who've been at this for a while remember being able to call up and talk to the people who actually knew what was going on, not just spokespeople, and that's become increasingly difficult," she says. "So I don't see milestones here. It's been an ongoing problem that we're chipping away at."
The Obama administration's transparency problem not only affects access to federal scientists and highly politicized environmental and medical science. It's also about access to government documents and databases, and basic research. In 2006, allegations emerged that an electron microscopy research group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, which receives millions of dollars a year from the Department of Energy, had fabricated data. Suspecting lax oversight, freelance reporter Eugenie Samuel Reich, now a contributing correspondent for the journal Nature, filed a FOIA request for files related to the ensuing investigation, which had been initiated and organized by the lab itself. The Department of Energy rejected the request, so Reich bided her time until the 2008 presidential election ushered in a new administration. When Obama made his pledge about openness and then appointed Steven Chu and a number of other "scientists with excellent reputations" to the department, she believed there would be a "change of heart." There wasn't. Reich filed a lawsuit under the FOIA in 2009, which a federal district judge in Boston finally dismissed in April of this year, to her amazement.
"This record had nothing to do with national security—not even the government claims it does—so it is a very good test case of how other, non-security-related records are being handled," Reich says. "The government's court filings have been relentless and extraordinary, with numerous deliberate references to the need for privacy, confidentiality, and respecting the proprietary rights of government contractors."
Some of President Obama's most vociferous critics on the transparency front will grudgingly concede, as our survey seemed to suggest, that his administration has made marginal progress. "A lot of colleagues would stone me for saying this, but it actually has gotten better," says Joe Davis, the director of the SEJ's Freedom of Information Project. "And I think one of the most illustrative cases in point is the one about coal ash." In December 2008, a coal-ash containment pond at a power plant in Tennessee burst, spreading toxic waste across hundreds of acres and dozens of homes. The spill was the last skirmish in the society's long battle over transparency and access with the Bush EPA, which took eleven days to release the results of its first tests of the sludge. An agency official under the new Obama administration promised to do better, but in June 2009, SEJ accused the EPA of "hiding" a list of high-hazard, coal-ash impoundments across the country, some of which posed potential threats to residential communities. At first, the agency echoed the post-September 11 Bush line about guarding the information for national security reasons. "Terrorists were less of a threat than a good rainstorm, which might sweep away any of those impoundments," Davis says. "But eventually they released the list, so we have that information and the communities [near the impoundments] know about them, and maybe safety measures will be put in place. That information would not have come out under the Bush administration. That's the difference. However, I will also say in my next breath that the Obama administration hasn't lived up to its promises. They raised our expectations so high and the distance we've come is disappointingly short."
One thing that helped raise those expectations was the memo that President Obama sent to John Holdren, then awaiting confirmation as director of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), in March 2009. It directed him to draft a plan to improve scientific integrity throughout the executive branch. A key provision was the development of a public communications plan. Obama gave Holdren 120 days to complete the assignment. Now, more than two years later, the plan is still not in place. In August 2010, more than a year after they were due, the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility—a nonprofit alliance of local, state, and federal natural resource professionals—submitted a FOIA request to Holdren's office for a copy of the recommendations and related policy documents. After two months passed with nothing from OSTP, the group sued.
Finally, last December, Holdren released a memo providing guidance to departments and agencies about how to improve scientific integrity and openness. The document immediately drew criticism from transparency watchdogs for "legitimizing," as the SEJ put it, interview permissions and minders. A few days later, OSTP released the related policy documents—meeting notes, progress reports, congressional testimony—that the public employees group had requested. They were heavily redacted, but in the snippets that weren't SEJ's Joe Davis saw the fingerprints of a suspect he believes has played a key role in thwarting progress toward openness and access over multiple administrations: the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which has the power to review and approve programs, policies, and procedures throughout the executive branch.
The documents that OSTP released revealed that, in fact, Holdren and company had sent their transparency recommendations to OMB by June 2009, on schedule to meet Obama's original deadline, and that the effort foundered there. More than a year later, the two offices were still trying to settle on a final draft of the recommendations, which weren't released until December 2010, more than seventeen months behind schedule. Last May, Holdren once again extended the deadline for departments and agencies to submit draft policies, which were due around the time this article went to press.
"omb, an agency with very little in-house scientific expertise, has been monkeying with science for a very long time, and asserting authority over the science process in the federal government," Davis says. "It provides an ideal mechanism for interference."
There are other mechanisms. Even in departments and agencies with special expertise in the sciences, there is often an entrenched corps of civil servants that resists transparency and access—often as a result of turf battles and a sense that bosses, and their edicts, come and go—and survives from one administration in the other. New appointments often do nothing to help matters. Numerous reporters pointed out that the top press officers at departments and agencies often are recruited from a president's campaign staff, with disastrous results. "They want to run government agencies like they're political campaigns and they don't seem to understand that there ought to be a difference," says SEJ's Ken Ward Jr. "All the information that EPA has about its inspections, its enforcement, its science—that belongs to the public."
Changing the culture of secrecy is a lot harder than redecorating the Oval Office. Some watchdogs believe that transparency and access have steadily diminished since the 1970s, as successive administrations clamped down more tightly, and with a greater sophistication, on the free flow of information to the public. Indeed, many veteran reporters I spoke to think that the very establishment of press policies and guidelines, not unlike those that Obama called for, are what led to problems in the first place. These edicts were supposed to open and streamline communication between government and the press, but by codifying practices such as the dreaded interview permissions and minders, they actually gave government a mechanism to block journalists when it was politically pragmatic to do so. In early August, for example, the EPA finally released its scientific integrity proposal, as per John Holdren's instruction. But it did exactly what transparency watchdogs feared: it encouraged scientists to interact with the press, but required that they inform their superiors about those interactions and instructed public affairs staff to "attend interviews," thereby formalizing the permissions and minders policy that journalists complain about.
Contrary to the notion that Obama would, as he promised, usher in a sea change in terms of transparency, there is a case to be made that, when it comes to controlling information via press policies, Obama is the savviest practitioner ever. Consider his adroit use of digital media as a defining example. His Open Government Directive made an unprecedented amount of federal scientific data available online. His administration touts that accomplishment as proof of transparency, but critics say that is disingenuous. In practice, the databases demonstrate how the Obama administration treats communication as a one-way street. Data, after all, rarely speak for themselves and reporters want, more than anything, to talk to the officials who collected and analyzed them. As Felice Freyer found out when she attempted to speak with the FDA about its investigation of unapproved intrauterine devices, however, the administration often prefers to publish statements online, or via social media, than make them directly available to journalists. It's a duplicitous game that allows Obama to claim that his administration is living up to its promises. Yet almost any science reporter in the country will tell you that nothing could be further from the truth, and that even if the Office of Science and Technology Policy produces a plan for scientific integrity and transparency, it could make matters worse, not better.
Reporters on the science beat may have to accept that the days of easy access are gone—and plenty of them already do. Groups like the Society of Environmental Journalists and the Association of Health Care Journalists are still pushing for an end to interview permissions and minders, as well they should. But even their most optimistic members merely cross their fingers, knowing that if they held their breath, they'd surely expire.
This article was produced in partnership with ProPublica, whose director of computer-assisted reporting, Jennifer LaFleur, analyzed the survey data.
Curtis Brainard writes on science and environment reporting. Follow him on Twitter @cbrainard.


It's the fifth time in a row and the ninth this season the 30-year-old Briton has out-performed Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg in qualifying.
Hamilton's pole succes was his fifth at the Hungaroring circuit where he is the only driver to have won from the front of the grid in the past 10 years.
Hamilton leads Rosberg by 17 points in the championship standings with Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel a distant third, 42 points adrift, after nine races.
It was the 47th pole position of Hamilton's career and lifted him clear of fellow-Briton Damon Hill with his 18th successive front row start, leaving only legendary Brazilian Ayrton Senna to catch on 24.
Four-time world champion Vettel was third fastest ahead of Australian Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull and Finn Kimi Raikkonen, fifth in the second Ferrari.
The intense heat - the air temperature was 32C and the track was 54 as qualifying began - meant tyre degradation became a factor and accentuated the difference between the super-soft compound and the harder 'medium' rubber.
Rosberg was the qualifying king last year -- winning the inaugural pole position trophy with 11 poles to Hamilton's seven.
The table has been overturned in spectacular fashion this season with Hamilton set to clinch that prize at the next race in Belgium given that he has nine poles to Rosberg's one with only nine races left.
"Part of it is that I worked on my racing to improve that and that's been...it's definitely been better, so I'm pleased with that," Rosberg, who won only five races in 2014 to Hamilton's 11, told reporters.
"Of course, that's slightly compromised qualifying, some of it, but most of it is not explicable for me. I don't understand why it's such a big difference to last year at the moment," added the German.
Rosberg was more than half a second slower than Hamilton's fastest lap and said that he did not know why.