Small Business Administration failed hurricane victims in Gulf

The Associated Press investigated how the Small Business Administration responded to the hurricanes of 2005, and the impact on the Gulf Coast five year later.  The yearlong investigation by Mitch Weiss, Michael Kunzelman, Holbrook Mohr and Cain Burdeau found that loan officers rejected loans they should have approved, deleted loan applications for no valid reason, manufactured impossible to meet deadlines to clear a backlog of cases and made the loan process so difficult and chaotic that thousands just gave up. As a result, many people along the Gulf Coast are still struggling five years after the storms.

Citations for safety and health violations by operators of underground coal mines have increased by nearly a third since 2006, with federal mine inspectors focusing about equally on three main types of mining hazards. An NPR analysis of nearly 80,000 citations written last year found that an accumulation of combustible coal dust was the most frequently cited violation overall, accounting for more than one in 10 citations. The analysis found that three categories of problems — fire and coal dust issues; ventilation problems; and electrical issues — each made up about a quarter of the violations found by inspectors nationwide. At Upper Big Branch Mine in Montcoal, W.Va., federal inspectors spent 180 days last year enforcing safety and health standards. Still, they could not prevent the April 5 explosion that killed 29 miners.

An on-going investigation by ProPublica and FRONTLINE traces the story of a deadly but much lesser-known BP refinery explosion in 2005.  The report explains how the company's record of cutting corners on safety to maximize profits may have led to the blast. The explosion at a refinery in Texas City, Texas killed 15 people. "The Texas City disaster has taken on new relevance today...Government probes, court filings and BP's own confidential investigations paint a picture of a company that ignored repeated warnings about the plant's deteriorating condition and instead remained focused on minimizing costs and maximizing profits."

FEMA trailers are appearing in the Gulf region to serve as temporary housing for workers involved in cleanup of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, according to an investigation by Ian Urbina of The New York Times. "The trailers were discovered to have such high levels of formaldehyde that the government banned them from ever being used for long-term housing again." After the government banned their use as housing following Katrina, they sold more than 100,000 of the units. "The trailers are 'not intended to be used as housing,' said David Garratt, FEMA’s associate administrator for mission support. 'Subsequent owners must continue to similarly inform subsequent buyers for the life of the unit.'" In many cases, buyers are not being warned about the formaldehyde levels.

A New York Times investigation shows that regulators knew there were problems with the blind shear ram, a "fail-safe" device intended to prevent disasters like the Deepwater Horizon blowout, yet failed to address them.  "An examination by The New York Times highlights the chasm between the oil industry’s assertions about the reliability of its blowout preventers and a more complex reality. It reveals that the federal agency charged with regulating offshore drilling, the Minerals Management Service, repeatedly declined to act on advice from its own experts on how it could minimize the risk of a blind shear ram failure."

"New government and BP documents, interviews with experts and testimony by witnesses provide the clearest indication to date that a hodgepodge of oversight agencies granted exceptions to rules, allowed risks to accumulate and made a disaster more likely on the rig, particularly with a mix of different companies operating on the Deepwater whose interests were not always in sync," reports Ian Urbina of The New York Times.

Ian Urbina, of The New York Times, reports that internal documents from BP showed that "there were serious problems and safety concerns with the Deepwater Horizon rig far earlier than those the company described to Congress last week. The problems involved the well casing and the blowout preventer, which are considered critical pieces in the chain of events that led to the disaster on the rig."  BP noted these concerns over 11 months ago.

Ian Urbina, of The New York Times, reports that a BP document provide to the paper by a Congressional investigator reveals that BP officials chose "to use a type of casing for the well that the company knew was the riskier of two options."  The selected casing only had a single seal, and if cement did not properly set it could create an leak from the wellhead. "The approach taken by the company was described as the 'best economic case' in the BP document. However, it also carried risks beyond the potential gas leaks, including the possibility that more work would be needed or that there would be delays, the document said. "

An investigation by Dan Barry, Ian Urbina and Clifford Krauss, of The New York Times, shows wide discrepancies in safety practices at coal mines throughout the United States. Mine disasters, such as the methane explosion that caused 29 fatalities at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch mine, have colored the national perception of the industry. "A comparison between Massey’s safety practices and those of other operators in the coal industry shows sharp differences, helping to explain why Massey mines led the list of those warned by federal regulators that they could face greater scrutiny because of their many violations. "

An investigation by Sheri Fink of ProPublica reveals "what really happened to some of the patients who died at New Orleans’ Memorial Medical Center in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina." Among her findings, Fink reports that more patients than had been previously reported were given lethal injections, and some of those patients were near death when they were euthanized. She also looks at who was involved in the decisions made at the hospital, and why those choices were made.