White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) Administrator Cass Sunstein issued a memo Friday that could expand public access to rulemaking documents. The memo encourages agencies to align their paper rulemaking dockets, housed in agency offices and difficult for most citizens to access, with their online dockets on Regulations.gov.

Massey Energy is back to work, endangering the lives of miners with its reckless attitude toward safety. Inspectors from the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) have continued to find safety violations at the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia where 29 miners were killed in an April explosion, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today began a public comment period for 21 transparency proposals the agency is considering. The proposals are part of a larger report the FDA issued on Wednesday. From the FDA:

Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) took steps to increase the transparency of the response to BP's catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil company's actions have been criticized for failing to disclose or monitor important information about the spill, including the quantity of oil erupting into the Gulf, the potential health impacts of the oil and the chemicals used to disperse it, and water and air quality information. The actions by EPA and DHS, although belated, are needed, welcome, and hopefully portend a higher standard for transparency that is enduring and comprehensive, not limited to responses to colossal disasters.