CA fires won’t deter 150-home development, despite high-risk area

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. Sarah Okeson of the Springfield News-Leaderreports that, “frustrated, county officials issued a limited alert themselves.”

“County officials ended up putting out the word to 43 health care contacts. Joplin health officials also alerted providers. The state did eventually issue a health advisory on June 10, a week after the county’s request and two days after the News-Leader wrote about the fungal infections.”

Of the 13 documented cases of the fungal infections, “known as mucormycosis,” five people died.

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 many don't want the loans, and others who took them have regrets.

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 have been enforced. The journalists found a "lack of transparency, lack of coordination, rivalry and sometimes even outright disagreement," which has resulted in thousands of families still living under tarps and in terrible conditions.

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 Mississippi town used the funds to purchase Tasers for reserve police officers. Biloxi, Miss., officials "bought a dozen SUVS," and a "county in Florida spent $560,000 on rock concerts" meant to promote "oil-free beaches." Each community explained that the purchases were necessary "to deal at least indirectly with the spill."

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 challenges, and seeks out Haitian academics, technicians and specialists who will add their voices to the voices of the Haitian people and their associations and organizations."

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.

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 terrible injuries because every one of the Horizon’s defenses failed on April 20. Some were deployed but did not work. Some were activated too late, after they had almost certainly been damaged by fire or explosions. Some were never deployed at all."

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 traffickers profiting on the hunger and desperation of Haitian children, and their families. In 2009, the figure was 950, according to one human rights group that monitors child trafficking at 10 border points."

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 analysis; by 2009, that rate had dropped to about one in 80. Meanwhile, the number of deepwater wells pumping oil and gas more than doubled over the decade to 602 from 256, according to federal data."