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Louisiana Hospitals Learning Lessons From Hurricane Gustav
As Hurricane Gustav approached the southern Louisiana coastline last weekend, an estimated 10,000 hospital, nursing home and home-based special needs patients were moved by plane, helicopter, bus, car, ambulance and train to areas farther north. Local, state and federal officials coordinated with each other and with private groups to accomplish the evacuation. It was the largest pre-storm medical evacuation in American history.
But when anticipated safe harbors such as Baton Rouge were hit harder than New Orleans, all that planning hit a snag. Dozens of hospitals and nursing homes lost power and are still being partially or fully evacuated. Some patients found themselves being transferred twice.
Breaking on the Web: September 5, P.M. Edition
- FAA Finds 17 Critical Safety Violations at Violations - Alan Levin, USA Today
- Mexico’s Supreme Court Slams Walmart’s Labor Practices - AFP
- FEMA Fields Complaints as Evacuees Return to New Orleans - Marisol Bello, USA Today
- Detroit Reporter Ordered to Reveal Confidential DoJ Sources - Reporter's Committee for Freedom if the Press
- Ex-White House Aide’s Re-Trial Set for December - Derek Kravitz, Washington Post
- Alaska Legislature to Subpoena Troopergate Witnesses - Steve Quinn, AP
- Arsenic in Calif. Water May Cause Diabetes - Tim Sheehan, Fresno Bee
- Iraq Reacts Sharply to U.S. Spying Allegations - AP
- House Committee Widens Probe of Viotorin Safety - AP
- LAX Tightens Security Measures After Alleged Smuggling - Dan Weikel, Los Angeles Times
- BofA Seeks to Make Auction-Rate Settlement - David Mildenberg and Karen Freifeld, Bloomberg News
- JP Morgan Stops Selling Swaps Under Investigation by DoJ - William Selway and Martin Z. Braun, Bloomberg News
- Home Loan Troubles Break Records Again - Alan Zibel, AP
This Week in Scandals
Every week, we take stock of how the week unfolded for the stories we're tracking in Scandal Watch (see the right sidebar). Click here for more information on how we do this and to suggest additions.
1. Troopergate
After Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin shot into the spotlight as John McCain's VP pick last week, "Troopergate" - the controversy surrounding the ouster of Alaska Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan - made it onto our Scandal Watch. According to Monegan, both Palin and her husband pressured him to fire a state trooper who went through an ugly divorce with Palin's sister in 2005.
In July, Monegan was unexpectedly fired. And an Alaskan legislative panel ordered an investigation soon after. Its findings are now expected to be released in early October.
‘Troopergate’: Palin’s Lawyers Continue to Undermine Investigation
Yesterday, we detailed how Gov. Sarah Palin's lawyers have been trying to slow-roll the Alaska legislature's probe of "Troopergate." Well, the effort appears to be in high gear.
Palin has of course been accused of firing Alaska's top cop for refusing to do the governor's personal bidding and fire a trooper who was involved in a nasty divorce with Palin's sister. (Here's our backgrounder on the scandal.)
As we wrote yesterday, a Palin aide stood up investigators and didn't show up to give scheduled testimony. A lawyer for the aide, who had been recorded on a call pressing for the trooper to be fired, explained that his client didn't have to show up since the "governor's office was contesting the jurisdiction of the Legislature to handle this matter."
Palin’s Pork History, Part 2
When Gov. Sarah Palin was introduced as John McCain's running mate, she was touted as an adherent to McCain's anti-pork orthodoxy. She was a committed foe of "the abuses of earmark spending," and had rebuffed the notorious "bridge to nowhere."
But as a barrage of stories showed, the reality was far more complicated, particularly the bridge. It seemed hard to reconcile Palin's supposed anti-earmark bona fides with the mayor's glee in 1999 at landing a $1 million earmark for her town of 7000.
Today, McClatchy -- despite the unkind headline ("Palin was for earmarks before she was against them") -- suggests a more favorable narrative. (The Anchorage Daily News, a McClatchy paper, runs the story under "Palin's Take on Earmarks Evolving.")
"Palin has increasingly distanced herself from earmarking since she made her first trip to Washington to lobby Congress for money in 2000. And over the past year, her stance has been the leading source of tension between Palin and the state's three-member congressional delegation."
Breaking on the Web: Special Palin Edition
- Trooper’s Union Files Ethics Complaint Against Palin - Wesley Loy, Anchorage Daily News
- Palin’s Lawyer Has Already Questioned 2 Witnesses - Steve Quinn, AP
- Palin Was For Earmarks Before She Was Against Them - Erika Bolstad, McClatchy
- Palin’s Health Plan Aids Her Donors - Matthew Mosk, Washington Post
Breaking on the Web: September 5, A.M. Edition
- Chicago Boycott Underscores Disparity in Schools - Kari Lydersen, Washington Post
- U.N. Report: Donors’ Aid to Poor Nation Declines - Neil MacFarquhar, New York Times
- Wall Street Firms Pony Up After Duping Customers - Steven Pearlstein, Washington Post
- Mutual Funds Blast SEC Rule - Aaron Lucchetti, Wall Street Journal ($)
- Corruption Probe Involving Ex-KBR Exec Widens - Russell Gold, Wall Street Journal ($)
- Court Finds Violation in Bankruptcy Law - Brent Kendall, Wall Street Journal ($)
- Feds: Climate Change Could Harm Giant Sequoias - AP
- Pakistani’s Lawyer Alleges Torture - Carol D. Leonnig, Washington Post
- Embattled Union Places Senior Manager on Leave - Paul Pringle, Los Angeles Times
- Congressman: Funds to Fix Nation’s Infrastructure Drying Up - Cynthia Newell, Idaho Statesman
- GOP Convention Spotlight Shines on Big Donor - Michael Luo, New York Times
- Rep. Rangel Failed to Report $75,000 in Income - David Kocieniewski, New York Times
- Agriprocessors Accused of Inhumane Slaughter - Julia Preston, New York Times
- Pentagon Adviser Banned Again from Gitmo Case - Carol Rosenberg, Miami Herald
- Officials: New Orleans Levees Held Up Well to Gustav - Ralph Vartabedian, Los Angeles Times
- Gov’t Report: Iraqi Visa Law at Risk for Fraud, Abuse - Walter Pincus, Washington Post
- Book: U.S. Spied on Iraqi Leaders - Steve Luxenberg, Washington Post
- Army: Soldier Suicide Rate May Set Record Again - Pauline Jelinek, AP
- Arthritis Drug Linked to Infections - AP
- Lawmakers Chop Up Major Contracting Reform Legislation - Elizabeth Newell, Government Executive
- Death Row Inmate: Judge, Prosecutor Had Affair - James C. McKinley, Jr., New York Times
- Judge Upholds Nuclear Whisteblowers’ Verdict - AP
- The Facts Behind Nominees’ Speeches - Richard Wolf, USA Today
The N.Y. Reporter Who Exposed Abuses at Kosher Plant
On May 26, 2006, the venerable New York-based Jewish weekly The Forward published a hard-hitting story by reporter Nathaniel Popper that detailed appalling labor practices at the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant, Agriprocessors. Since then, the Forward's sustained coverage of the kosher food industry has roiled the religious Jewish community. Almost two years after his initial report, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided Agriprocessors, catapulting Popper’s story onto the front pages of newspapers everywhere.
What follows is an edited transcript of our conversation with Popper.
What were some of the challenges in covering undocumented workers in a tough labor situation?
Obviously the biggest thing which any writer in this sort of context will tell you is that these workers are scared out of their minds in so many ways. And so they are not going to want to talk to somebody who says they are going to put their name in a newspaper. Even when you say that you are going to be anonymous.
For me -- and I think this is something probably that a lot of reporters in this field deal with -- there was the moral difficulty of contending with the fact that by writing about somebody or some group of people you may alert the government to their presence and get them deported, if not worse. In this case, it was in fact worse than just getting deported.
U.S. Agrees to Buy Student Loans to Ease Borrowing NY Times, 11/21
Treasury to Support a Frozen Money Fund New York Times, 11/21
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