USA

Financial industry employees reluctant to blow the whistle

Topics: 
USA, Reprisals, Corporate ethics, Financial industry
Rating: 
3

Alexander Eichler – April 13, 2012

How come there aren't more whistleblowers? It's a vexing question for anyone who'd like to see corporate crime reduced. Just this week, CNN noted that half of all misconduct at financial companies never gets reported, according to a study conducted by the Corporate Executive Board, a Virginia consulting firm.

But another recent story, this one in The New York Times, provides a painful illustration of why potential whistleblowers may not be that interested in speaking up. Not every whistleblower has an experience like Lynn Szymoniak, the mortgage-fraud tipster who got an $18 million settlement for her troubles. Often things can go a lot worse -- like they have for Jack Palmer.

Bum Steer: How Big Pharma Dominates Meat Science

Topics: 
Food safety, USA, Pharmaceutical industry, Food industry
Rating: 
3

Tom Philpott – April 19, 2012

It isn't just ourselves or our pets that have been getting bigger over the past couple of decades. Turns out, our beef cows have become gigantic too. How big? According to an excellent article by Melody Petersen in the Chronicle of Higher Education, "the average weight of a fattened steer sold to a packing plant is now roughly 1,300 pounds—up from 1,000 pounds in 1975."

That's a hefty 30 percent gain. What gives? According to Peterson, the main reason is pharmaceutical: heavy use of antibiotics, hormones, and other growth-enhancing drugs. Peterson untangles the web that connects pharmaceutical giants like Merck to professors at big public land-grant universities, who not only act as paid researchers to develop new products but also as shills who appeal directly to cattle feedlot operators.

Controversial food inspection changes in USA

Topics: 
Food safety, USA, Regulatory oversight, Food industry
Rating: 
2

Sarah Damian – April 19, 2012

Last night, ABC World News with Diane Sawyer interviewed a USDA inspector – whose voice was distorted and image revealed only in shadow – to discuss the agency's plan to deregulate poultry inspection by expanding a pilot program known as HIMP.

The inspector, a whistleblower who brought concerns regarding HIMP to FIC, told ABC why the proposal – which speeds up the rate birds move through processing plants and shifts oversight duties to industry – is a terrible idea.

Financial Advisers Flunk Undercover Sting

Topics: 
USA, Corporate ethics, Financial industry, Conflict of interest
Rating: 
0

A new study finds advisers often put client interests second to their own.

Ryan Sager – April 2, 2012

By now, you may have realized that you aren't always the most rational manager of your money. Chasing returns. Buying into bubbles. Selling into troughs. Keeping too much in cash or company stock. Heck, even if you keep a textbook, well-diversified portfolio of low-fee index funds, you've still probably felt tempted over the last month or so to buy Apple at $600. (You may turn out to be right in retrospect; that won't make it rational.)

To keep yourself in check, perhaps you've turned to a financial adviser. The majority of retail investors have. If so, a new study posted this month by the National Bureau of Economic Research has some bad news for you: Financial advisers not only fail to curb investors' worst habits, they actually tend to reinforce them -- especially when those habits generate fees for the advisers.

Obama targets journalists

Topics: 
USA, Freedom of the press, National security
Rating: 
0

Jesselyn Raddack – April 9, 2012

For two years I have been writing about the criminalization of whistleblowing, or as Glenn Greenwald has put it more aptly, the “war on whistleblowers.”  I’m an attorney with the Government Accountability Project, the nation’s leading whistleblower organization.

How did I get into this line of work?  Because I myself was a whistleblower when I worked as a Legal Advisor at the Justice Department and blew the whistle when my advice not to interrogate “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh without an attorney (and, parenthetically, not to torture him) was ignored and then “disappeared” from the file in contravention of a federal court discovery order.

Joining the Whistleblowers' Club

Topics: 
Whistleblowers, USA, National security
Rating: 
2

Peter Van Buren – April 9, 2012

People ask the question in various ways, sometimes hesitantly, often via a long digression, but my answer is always the same: no regrets.

In some 24 years of government service, I experienced my share of dissonance when it came to what was said in public and what the government did behind the public’s back. In most cases, the gap was filled with scared little men and women, and what was left unsaid just hid the mistakes and flaws of those anonymous functionaries.

Plan to Let Poultry Plants Inspect Birds Is Criticized

Topics: 
Food safety, USA, Regulatory oversight, Food industry
Rating: 
0

Ron Nixon – April 4, 2012

Federal food safety inspectors said a proposal by the Agriculture Department to expand a pilot program that allows private companies to take over the inspections at poultry plants could pose a health risk by allowing contaminated meat to reach customers.

Currently, the Agriculture Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service inspectors are stationed along the assembly lines in poultry plants and examine the birds for blemishes, feces or visible defects before they are processed.

FDA To Require Tobacco Companies Report Dangerous Chemicals

Topics: 
USA, Tobacco industry, Regulatory oversight, Public health & safety
Rating: 
2

Matthew Perrone – March 30, 2012

Tobacco companies in the USA will be required to report the levels of dangerous chemicals found in cigarettes, chew and other products under the latest rules designed to tighten regulation of the tobacco industry.

The preliminary guidance issued Friday by the Food and Drug Administration marks the first time tobacco makers would be required to report quantities of 20 chemicals associated with cancer, lung disease and other health problems. The FDA will release the information in a consumer-friendly format by next April.

US Supreme Court Limits Damage Payments To Whistle-Blowers

Topics: 
USA, Reprisals, Privacy
Rating: 
0

Carrie Johnson – March 28, 2012

The Supreme Court has dealt privacy advocates a huge setback. By a 5-3 majority, the court ruled that people who sue the government for invading their privacy can only recover out-of-pocket damages. And whistle-blower lawyers say that leaves victims who suffer emotional trouble and smeared reputations with few if any options.

Justice Samuel Alito and all four of his conservative colleagues turned back a challenge from a pilot named Stan Cooper. (Justice Elena Kagan did not participate in the case.)

Pennsylvania doctors gagged on fracking chemicals

Topics: 
USA, Oil & gas industry, Environment, Public health & safety
Rating: 
0

A new provision could forbid the state’s doctors from sharing information with patients exposed to toxic fracking solutions.

Kate Sheppard – March 23, 2012

Under a new law, doctors in Pennsylvania can access information about chemicals used in natural gas extraction—but they won't be able to share it with their patients.

A provision buried in a law passed last month is drawing scrutiny from the public health and environmental community, who argue that it will "gag" doctors who want to raise concerns related to oil and gas extraction with the people they treat and the general public.

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