Disasters
Small Business Administration failed hurricane victims in Gulf
The Associated Press investigated how the Small Business Administration responded to the hurricanes of 2005, and the impact on the Gulf Coast five year later. The yearlong investigation by Mitch Weiss, Michael Kunzelman, Holbrook Mohr and Cain Burdeau found that loan officers rejected loans they should have approved, deleted loan applications for no valid reason,…
Read MoreAnalysis finds mine safety violations focus on ventilation, fire, electricity
Citations for safety and health violations by operators of underground coal mines have increased by nearly a third since 2006, with federal mine inspectors focusing about equally on three main types of mining hazards. An NPR analysis of nearly 80,000 citations written last year found that an accumulation of combustible coal dust was the most…
Read MoreBlast at BP Texas Refinery in ’05 foreshadowed Gulf disaster
An on-going investigation by ProPublica and FRONTLINE traces the story of a deadly but much lesser-known BP refinery explosion in 2005. The report explains how the company’s record of cutting corners on safety to maximize profits may have led to the blast. The explosion at a refinery in Texas City, Texas killed 15 people. “The…
Read MoreFEMA trailers reappearing in Gulf to house oil spill workers
FEMA trailers are appearing in the Gulf region to serve as temporary housing for workers involved in cleanup of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, according to an investigation by Ian Urbina of The New York Times. “The trailers were discovered to have such high levels of formaldehyde that the government banned them from ever being…
Read MoreRegulators failed to address problems with blowout preventers
A New York Times investigation shows that regulators knew there were problems with the blind shear ram, a “fail-safe” device intended to prevent disasters like the Deepwater Horizon blowout, yet failed to address them. “An examination by The New York Times highlights the chasm between the oil industry’s assertions about the reliability of its blowout…
Read MoreRig lacked effective oversight
“New government and BP documents, interviews with experts and testimony by witnesses provide the clearest indication to date that a hodgepodge of oversight agencies granted exceptions to rules, allowed risks to accumulate and made a disaster more likely on the rig, particularly with a mix of different companies operating on the Deepwater whose interests were…
Read MoreSafety of rig had been a concern for months
Ian Urbina, of The New York Times, reports that internal documents from BP showed that “there were serious problems and safety concerns with the Deepwater Horizon rig far earlier than those the company described to Congress last week. The problems involved the well casing and the blowout preventer, which are considered critical pieces in the…
Read MoreBP chose riskier option to seal Deepwater Horizon well
Ian Urbina, of The New York Times, reports that a BP document provide to the paper by a Congressional investigator reveals that BP officials chose “to use a type of casing for the well that the company knew was the riskier of two options.” The selected casing only had a single seal, and if cement…
Read MoreSafety practices at coal mines vary throughout U.S.
An investigation by Dan Barry, Ian Urbina and Clifford Krauss, of The New York Times, shows wide discrepancies in safety practices at coal mines throughout the United States. Mine disasters, such as the methane explosion that caused 29 fatalities at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine, have colored the national perception of the industry. “A…
Read MoreDetails revealed about deaths at Memorial Medical Center after Katrina
An investigation by Sheri Fink of ProPublica reveals “what really happened to some of the patients who died at New Orleans’ Memorial Medical Center in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.” Among her findings, Fink reports that more patients than had been previously reported were given lethal injections, and some of those patients were near death…
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