Extra! Extra! » Broadcast

U.S changes rules for holding Afgan detainees

Beth — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:00:50 +0000

A month after an investigation by CNN’s Abbie Boudreau and Scott Zamost, the U.S. military has changed a controversial policy in Afghanistan that soldiers claimed put them at risk . The policy, known as the 96-hour rule, required that detainees be released or turned to Afghan authorities within four days. The new rule, announced by Gen. David Petraeus, extends the amount of time to 14 days or longer in some cases. Sen. Lindsey Graham credited CNN’s story with revealing the problems with the 96-hour rule.

Materials, construction increase risk of fire in modular homes

Beth — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:05:15 +0000

The investigative team at WFXT-Boston found material and construction methods used in the construction of modular homes may increase the risk for fire, according to some fire safety experts. After the story aired, the board that sets Massachusetts’ building codes voted to consider significant changes in the state’s building codes for modular homes.

Unintended acceleration problems not just limited to Toyota

Beth — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:14:59 +0000

The dangerous problem of cars accelerating without a driver’s input has put Toyota in the headlines – and brought the car maker’s executives to congressional hearings. But an NPR News Investigation by Robert Benincasa found that unintended acceleration is not limited to Toyota. It is actually a problem found throughout the auto industry. The NPR Vehicle Acceleration Database can be viewed online.

Fish oil industry stresses Chesapeake Bay

Beth — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:10:42 +0000

Tisha Thompson, of WTTG-Washington, D.C., reports on the overfishing of menhaden, small silvery fish critical to the ecology of the Chesapeake Bay. The Virginia-based company Omega Protein uses these fish for their production of Omega-3 fish oil supplements as menhaden have a high concentration of this valuable oil. The fishing practices used by Omega Protein have been outlawed in every state along the East Coast except Virginia. The company has made about $140,000 in campaign donations to six dozen Virginia lawmakers over the past five years. Omega Protein was just named in a lawsuit claiming many fish oil supplements contain toxins, and that the companies who made the tainted pills “failed to alert consumers of potential contamination as required under the state’s right-to-know law.“

Thousands of rape kits went untested in Memphis

Beth — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:31:59 +0000

An investigation by Keli Rabon and Jim O’Donnell of WREG-TV in Memphis uncovered the failure of the Memphis Police Department to send thousands of rape kits off for testing leaving cases unsolved and potentially criminals on the street. In the last three years, the team uncovered as few as 6% of the rape kits the Memphis Police Department had on hand were actually sent off for testing. Within three days of the story airing, the City of Memphis announced sweeping changes — 600 rape kits would immediately be sent for testing, and promised all future rape kits would be properly tested.

Flying Cheap

Beth — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:14:06 +0000

“One year after the deadly airline crash of Continental 3407 in Buffalo, NY, FRONTLINE investigates the accident and discovers a dramatically changed airline industry, where regional carriers now account for half of the nation’s daily departures.” The program was co-produced by the Investigative Reporting Workshop. Since 2002, the last six fatal commercial airline accidents have involved regional carriers, and in four of those accidents the NTSB cited the cause of the accidents as pilot error. “The investigation has also put the spotlight on operations of regional airlines like Colgan Air, where the first officer on 3407 had made less than $16,000 the previous year and the captain had failed five flight tests and received inadequate training on a critical safety system involved in the crash.” You can find an interactive look at airline data, including safety, online.

Breach of trust prompts legislation in Congress

Beth — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:58:55 +0000

A year-long investigation by Wendy Halloran from WHNT-Huntsville, Ala. is capped off with the introduction of U.S. House Resolution 4535, known as “The Diploma and Accreditation Integrity Protection Act.” The investigation exposed the use of fake credentials in all levels of the U.S. Army. Soldiers and high ranking civilians at the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command (Redstone Arsenal) were caught buying fake degrees from diploma mills and turning them over for pay raises and promotions at taxpayer expense. The reports were the catalyst for New York Congressman Tim Bishop’s (D-NY) legislation. U.S. Rep. Bishop cited Halloran’s work for being courageous and exposing the threat to national security. The bi-partisan legislation is co-sponsored by Reps. Michael Castle (R-DE) and Betty McCollum (D-MN).

Redstone Arsenal uses honor system to combat fake degrees

Beth — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 19:48:54 +0000

Redstone Arsenal’s Army Aviation and Missile Command is the nerve center of the Army’s missile and rocket programs. A Commander’s Inquiry was convened after an investigation by Wendy Halloran of WHNT-TV in Huntsville, AL. She exposed how the Army Aviation and Missile Command’s Director of Readiness used a fake diploma to secure a promotion and catapulted up the chain of command. A FOI request that was almost completely blacked out corroborated Halloran’s findings. That information revealed how the areas largest federal employer (25,373 employees) allows civil servants to enter data on to their resume without having to provide official transcripts. The documents also revealed AMCOM employees and supervisors are not aware of the Office of Personnel Management policy forbidding fake diplomas.

Federal subsidies paid to dead farmers

Meganm — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:22:20 +0000

Stephen Stock of WFOR reported that as many as 1,399 Florida farmers who have been dead at least three years nonetheless received $55,051,857 in aid. “Working with help from the Environmental Working Group’s database experts, the CBS4 I-Team matched Federal Farm Bill recipients with people, birth dates, addresses and social security numbers found on the Social Security Administration’s death index.” A searchable database accompanies the story.

Tapes reveal motive in soldiers’ killing of four Iraqi detainees

Beth — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:49:37 +0000

An investigation by CNN’s Abbie Boudreau and Scott Zamost found that U.S. soldiers interrogated by the Army in the 2007 murders of four Iraqi detainees blamed a military policy they said made it too hard to detain suspected insurgents. CNN obtained 23½ hours of Army interrogation videotapes that detail the March 2007 executions of the prisoners by three decorated sergeants. The Army had denied CNN’s request for the tapes of a confession by one of the sergeants, the network obtained those tapes and others on its own. The investigation is airing as a series on AC 360 as well as a primetime documentary.