Disasters
CA fires won’t deter 150-home development, despite high-risk area
“Following the deadly Esperanza wildfire in Southern California in October 2006, in which five U.S. Forest Service firefighters were killed, a task force recommended tougher zoning and code enforcement to limit development in the mountain forests considered high fire hazard zones. Yet within a year of those recommendations, Riverside County supervisors gave the go-ahead to…
Read MoreFungal infections post Joplin tornadoes spur disagreement between state and local health officials
In the aftermath of the devastating Joplin tornadoes, cases of a rare fungus that cause potentially deadly infections in humans began showing up in Southwestern Missouri.Local health officials in Green County contacted state health officials with the evidence and suggested sounding a statewide alert. However, Missouri officials declined citing the concern of causing public panic.…
Read MoreResidents near Lake Taneycomo, MO urge victims to rethink taking small business disaster loans.
A KY3 investigation reveals that fewer than half of the people who applied for U.S. Small Business Administration disaster loans after severe storms and flooding in southwest Missouri in 2008 got loan approvals and took the money. We started looking into the effectiveness of the program after our latest round of severe weather. We found…
Read MoreHaitian earthquake relief reaches impasse
This report by the Haiti Grassroots Watch and two students from the “Laboratoire de Journalisme at the State University of Haiti,” seeks to identify why reconstruction has not started in downtown Port-au-Prince, the location hit hardest by the earthquake in 2010. Numerous meetings and discussions have been held, but no plan of actions seems to…
Read MoreBP oil spill relief funds buys millions in gear
An AP investigation reveals that the millions of dollars given to coastal towns affected by the massive oil spill last year is not being used for cleanup purposes. While the crisis was still unfolding, BP “poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Gulf Coast communities with few strings attached.” AP reporters found that a small…
Read MoreHaiti’s reconstruction efforts reported on by Haiti Grassroots Watch
Haiti Grassroots Watch – a collaborative journalism watchdog organization – is reporting on the recovery in Haiti following the devastating 2010 earthquake. “The effort focuses on ‘watchdogging’ the aid and reconstruction from the point of view of Haiti’s majority, at the same time as it also provides historical and political context, examines structural causes and…
Read MoreOn Shaky Ground series
A three-part investigation by California Watch uncovered “systematic failures by the state’s chief regulator of construction standards for public schools.” The series exposed lax oversight of earthquake safety certification for schools; project inspectors with poor performance records; and government rules that made it nearly impossible for schools to get the repair money they needed.
Read MoreDeepwater Horizon’s final hours
An investigation by The New York Times details the final hours of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. Based on interviews with crew members and sworn testimonies, the Times was able to piece together what happened during the final hours of this disaster. “What emerges is a stark and singular fact: crew members died and suffered…
Read MoreTrafficking, sexual exploitation of Haitian children on the rise
A report by The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald shows that human trafficking and sexual exploitation of Haitian children are on the rise in the Dominican Republic following January’s devastating earthquake in Haiti. “Since the earthquake more than 7,300 boys and girls have been smuggled out of their homeland to the Dominican Republic by…
Read MoreSurprise inspections at oil rigs have dwindled in last decade
According to federal data analyzed by The Wall Street Journal, federal authorities had made no surprise inspections of deepwater oil rigs in the Gulf since 2004. Without surprise inspections, the chances of finding individual safety violations is greatly reduced. “In 2000, about one in nine inspections of deepwater facilities were unannounced, according to the Journal’s…
Read More