Marian Wang was a reporter for ProPublica, covering education and college debt. She joined ProPublica in 2010, first blogging about a variety of accountability issues. Her later stories focused on how rising college costs and the complexity of the student loan system affect students and their families. Prior to coming to ProPublica, she worked at Mother Jones magazine in San Francisco and freelanced for a number of Chicago-based publications, including The Chicago Reporter, an investigative magazine focused on issues of race and poverty.
Marian Wang
Reporter
States' Tally of Spill Worker Illnesses Exceeds BP's Total
Louisiana and Alabama are reporting more illnesses related to the oil disaster in the Gulf than the Deepwater Horizon response team has recorded. Total health complaints in Louisiana alone have risen 35 percent since a previous report was issued last week.
Read: BP E-mails Show Decisions Pre-Blast to Save 'Lots of Time' and Money
The House Energy and Commerce Committee releases documents suggesting that BP took dangerous shortcuts on its disastrous well in the Gulf of Mexico. The committee says BP "repeatedly chose risky procedures in order to reduce costs and save time,"
Read: BP's Document on Workers' Illnesses and Injuries, Little Mention of Chemical Exposure
BP has posted an accounting of 485 injuries and illnesses reported by cleanup workers in the Gulf of Mexico. But there's no breakdown of illnesses possibly connected to exposure to oil or dispersants.
Experts: Gulf Workers' Levels of Chemical Exposure May Be 'Perfectly Legal, but Not Safe'
Federal standards on what a safe exposure to toxic chemicals constitutes vary by agency. And the legal standard, applied to workers in the Gulf oil spill, may not necessarily be safe, some experts say.
Gov't and BP Unresponsive on Requests for Data on Sick Cleanup Workers
If you ask the CDC how many workers have been sickened while cleaning up the Gulf oil spill, CDC says to ask OSHA. OSHA says to ask BP. BP says to ask Unified Command, which hasn't yet responded to our requests.
Scientists Criticize BP's Claims About How Much Oil It's Siphoning
More scientists are expressing skepticism about BP's claim on how much oil it's recapturing. One said that the estimate that BP is capturing most of the oil "is going to be proven wrong in short order."
BP's Spill Plans Had Few Ways to Stop a Blowout
None of BP's documents and plans we've been able to find have details on how to deal with stopping a spill, and are limited to phrases like "Stop further pollution at the source," or "Identify and shut off the source as soon as possible, taking safety into account."
BP Refuses to Provide Oil Samples to Scientists Investigating Underwater Plumes
BP has refused to supply samples that would prove -- or disprove -- that underwater oil plumes are from the Deepwater Horizon site. The scientist who requested the sample called the refusal "a little unsettling."
As Oil Plumes Are Confirmed, Scientist Calculating Flow Rate Blasts BP
The U.S. has confirmed the existence of giant underwater oil plumes emanating from the BP spill, though at low concentrations, even as scientists remained frustrated at not being able to measure how much oil is still flowing.
Read Documents Showing BP's Pattern of Neglecting Its Own Safety Policies
Documents detailing BP's internal reports on safety problems show how pervasive the problems were in its operations in Alaska, California and Texas.
Gulf Judges' Oil Ties May Present Conflicts of Interest
Finding a judge to hear federal cases against BP could be daunting because of conflicts of interest. More than half of the senior judges in the Gulf districts have ties to the oil industry, AP reports.
Four Reasons Why Measuring Flow in BP's Spill Matters
Having a lower estimate for the amount of oil that has flowed into the Gulf could mean BP would be subject to fewer financial penalties, from royalties on the lost oil to fines for spilling it, as well as helping its public image.
Former Valdez Cleanup Worker Warns of Toxic Dangers in the Gulf
Workers cleaning up the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 reported the same health problems the workers in the Gulf are now reporting, and oil company officials are making the same excuses about why those problems aren’t important.
BP, Prior to Gulf Accident, Said Measuring Oil Flow Was 'Critical' to Effective Response
BP has resisted efforts to reassess the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, saying more accurate measurements would be irrelevant to fixing the problem. That contradicts a spill response plan prepared by the company before the disaster.
Inspectors Fault Beryllium Safety at Hanford Nuclear Reservation
A program to protect workers from beryllium while cleaning up the Hanford nuclear site in Washington may have exposed them to avoidable risk, according to a new report by the Department of Energy.The report cites "management weaknesses."
Under Cheney’s Influence, Wyoming’s Oil Ties Flooded MMS
A report details the cozy connection between the energy industry and political figures in Wyoming -- especially during the Bush years, when Vice President Dick Cheney placed several allies in important jobs at the Interior Department.
Air Sampling Finds a Compound in Toxic Dispersant Is Also in the Air
Air samples taken near workers in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill have indicated the presence of butoxyethanol, a component in the dispersant used by BP, known as Corexit. Though no causal relationship has been made, some workers have reported symptoms similar to those caused by 2-butoxyethanol.
A Mystery: When Did Gov’t Exempt Gulf Drilling from Detailed Enviro Reviews?
The Minerals Management Service waives environmental studies for oil drilling in much of the Gulf of Mexico. But even the government seems unsure how that decision came about.
