Siobhan Gorman of the Wall Street Journal has put together a powerful overview of the National Security Agency’s information-gathering activities, and those of domestic security agencies, including the FBI.  Gorman notes that the NSA’s efforts "have evolved to reach more broadly into data about people’s communications, travel and finances in the U.S." than the public is aware.  The data gathering, which has come to be known as a "driftnet," is structured to "bring together and analyze as much and as many varied kinds of data as possible."  It often pulls in information about U.S. citizens with no relation to terrorist activities.  Many of the defenses offered by lawmakers and intelligence officials are vague enough to give citizens everywhere cause for concern.  Read Gorman here.

Department of the Interior Inspector General Earl Delvaney has won praise for agency inspections and audits that have uncovered reports of unsafe national monuments and park police sleeping on the job. His next inquiry could be on protecting the polar bear. (more…)

Staying on the Interior Dept./bear beat, The Washington Post’s Joel Achenbach has a wonderful profile of Kathleen Kendall, a geologist who coordinates the Northern Divide Grizzly Project for the U.S. Geological Survey, a division of the Interior Department. (more…)

USA Today’s Alan Levin reports that agency officials at the Federal Aviation Administration intimidated and prevented two FAA inspectors from doing their jobs. C. Bobby Boutris and Douglas Peters said that starting in 2003 they weren’t allowed to perform basic safety inspections on Southwest Airlines planes. (more…)