King 5 (WA): Feds Hit Hanford Contractor for Whistleblower Retaliation
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has ordered that a whistleblower from the Hanford Nuclear Site who raised concerns about “nuclear and environmental safety, permit and record keeping violations” be reinstated to her position after being fired in 2011. Whistleblower Shelley Doss’ employer, Washington River Protection Solutions – a subsidiary of URS Corporation, which has a problematic history of whistleblower treatment at Hanford – must also pay $200,000. Doss is represented by Hanford Challenge, a whistleblower protection group based in Washington state.
Key Quote: “Shelly Doss is an example of the talented, motivated and respected worker that the public expects to be working at Hanford,” said Tom Carpenter of the watchdog group Hanford Challenge, which represented Doss in her whistleblower claim. Doss “properly reported and documented numerous environmental violations in a professional manner, and suggested ways to resolve those issues. Instead of praising her, WRPS management vilified her, ruined her career, and illegally fired her from her position,” Carpenter said.
Related Articles: Tri-City Herald (WA), Los Angeles Times, Hanford Challenge press release
Deutsche Welle: Binney – ‘The NSA’s Main Motives: Power and Money’
In this interview, GAP client and NSA whistleblower Bill Binney discusses his recent testimony before the German parliament about the NSA’s surveillance practices. Binney answers questions about how the NSA’s data collection practices changed during his 30-year career.
Key Quote: DW: What’s changed in the NSA’s methodology since you were working there, until 2001?
Binney: We’re focusing now on everyone on the planet – that’s a change from focusing on organizations that were attempting to do nasty things. When you focus on everybody, you’re moving down that path towards population control.
DW: But is that the intention, or just a consequence of the new methods?
Binney: Well, otherwise you don’t have secret interpretations of Section 215 of the Patriot Act, or Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act, nor do you use Executive Order 12333 in a general way, which says you can collect and keep data on US citizens if you’re acquiring them in the process of investigations for terrorism or international dope-smuggling. And they’re collecting this data incidentally, but they’re allowed to keep it according to their interpretation of that executive order. Which means they copy everything in the pipe. That means everybody and all their content.
New York Times: The Man Who Blew the Whistle
The thirteenth whistleblower to receive a monetary reward for reporting financial fraud under provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act is the subject of this New York Times op-ed. Bill Lloyd – who worked at MassMutual Financial Group for 22 years – discovered a flaw in income guarantees for retirees. After trying “everything feasible to correct the issue internally,” he went to the SEC to file his whistleblower case.
While the Dodd-Frank whistleblower provisions have been helpful for whistleblowers to hold corrupt institutions accountable, this column points out a glaring problem with these settlements – that the companies themselves and the details of the wrongdoing are kept secret unless the whistleblower comes forward publicly.
Des Moines Register: Park Service Settles Whistleblower Appeal
A whistleblower within the National Park Service has received a settlement after being allegedly fired for raising concerns about the removal and storing of ancient Native American remains from the Effigy Mounds National Monument.
Washington Examiner: Treatment at a Veterans Affairs Hospital Nearly Killed an Agency Whistleblower
After witnessing a patient die because of inadequate medical care at a Department of Veterans Affairs facility, physician’s assistant Valerie Hoermann blew the whistle to the VA inspector general. Later on, “as an emergency patient in a VA hospital, she spent hours without medical treatment as her life burned away. She survived only after staggering out of the VA’s facility to a university teaching hospital next door.”
Michael Riley is a Communications Intern for the Government Accountability Project, the nation’s leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization.