Controversies

Is VA Causing Veterans to Overdose on Opiates?

VA prescriptions for these four medications have skyrocketed since 2001 by 270%, contributing to fatal overdoses among VA patients, who have nearly double the national average. Dispensing of painkillers has become so prevalent, in fact, that the agency issued more than one opiate prescription per patient, on average, for the past two years, CIR found. read more

Feds Blame Delays in Suing Wells Fargo and Lance Armstrong on War

The bank countered that the case should be dismissed because the three-year statute of limitations in the False Claim Act began ticking when the HUD inspector general learned about the alleged fraud in 2004. Justice Department attorneys retorted that the clock started when the attorney general discovered the misconduct in 2011, and that the Wartime Suspension of Limitations Act (WSLA) extended the clock to 10 years anyway. read more

SEC Revolving Door Bumped 2 of 5 Commissioners and Third Exec Off of JPMorgan Case

SEC Chair Mary Jo White had to recuse herself from the case because she had previously worked for Debevoise & Plimpton LLC, which had performed services for JPMorgan. Likewise, Republican Commissioner Daniel Gallagher had to beg off from being involved in the settlement because his former employer, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, had done work for the bank. read more

Audit Reveals that FBI Has Been Flying Drones in U.S. since 2006

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) began using unmanned aerial systems (UAS) in 2006. the agency didn’t bother to develop privacy guidelines before utilizing the unmanned aircraft. The FBI told the IG’s office that it didn’t see the need to create drone-specific policies because officials felt UAS’s weren’t really different from manned aircraft, for which policies already exist. read more

Feinstein’s Senate Committee Defends NSA Phone Surveillance, Pushes Bill to Retain It

The Democratic lawmaker is willing to broaden the agency’s power to wiretap without court approval a foreigner’s cellphone for at least one week when that person travels to the United States. Critics of the NSA’s domestic surveillance have called for ending the phone-records program altogether. These advocates include two members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Democrats Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado, who have introduced a tougher reform bill. read more

Early NSA Spying Targets Included Martin Luther King, Muhammad Ali, U.S. Senators

“These revelations raise the obvious question: If the NSA was targeting people like Sen. Frank Church, who were in a position to oversee the NSA—is that happening now? That is, are people like intelligence committee chairs Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and other congressional leaders—who are supposed to be providing oversight themselves—compromised in some way by the NSA? read more

U.S. Energy Firm’s First Arctic Drone Mission Paves Way for Controversial Drilling

In April—several months after Shell’s oil rig difficulties in the Arctic—environmentalists hailed ConocoPhillips’ announcement that it had decided against drilling in the region next year, which cited uncertainties of federal regulations as the reason. But now, only five months later, the company’s drone mission into the region suggests that its decision may have been reversed. read more

Bipartisan Senate Bill Seeks to Rein in NSA Surveillance Powers

The bill would prohibit the NSA’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone records under Section 215 of the Patriot Act (pdf), and prevent the agency from restarting a program that ended in 2011 that gathered Internet communication records. It also seeks to reform the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to make its secretive process more transparent and accountable by creating a “constitutional advocate” position that could challenge court decisions on privacy grounds. read more

“Independent Experts” Reviewing NSA Spying Have Ties to Intelligence Community

The panel assembled to determine if the NSA has violated Americans’ civil liberties consists of five members—four of whom have previously worked for Democratic administrations. Nowhere in the White House memo is the panel instructed to investigate surveillance abuses. The panel’s report is due by December 15. On that date it is not to be made public, nor is it to be delivered to the press. Rather, it will be submitted to the White House for review. read more

Judge Orders CIA to Stop Abusing Freedom of Information Act Exemption

Steven Aftergood at Secrecy News said the ruling represented “a rare judicial setback for the CIA, and a reversal of the more familiar expansion of national security secrecy authority.” Harry Hammitt of Access Reports, which monitors FOIA policy, told Aftergood that the ruling “really is something pretty remarkable,” because “Judge Howell has narrowed the interpretation of the statute dramatically.” read more

Record Number of Americans Believe the Government is Too Powerful

Gallup says 60% of people in the United States now believe Washington has too much power, according to a survey taken September 5-8. This total is one percentage point above the previous high recorded in September 2010. When Gallup first asked the question in September 2002, only 39% of respondents thought the federal government had too much power. At least half of the U.S. population has said the government is too powerful for eight years in a row, going back to 2005. read more

Here’s Why the Navy’s Legal System is Incapable of Dealing with Sexual Assault Cases

Article 32 hearings are used to determine if there is sufficient evidence to to initiate a court-martial. Over the course of four days, the defense attorneys asked the woman whether she wore a bra, how wide she opened her mouth during oral sex, and whether she had apologized to another midshipman with whom she had intercourse “for being a ho.” read more

Judge Gives Class Action Status to Lawsuit against Shell for Contaminating Illinois Village

In a previous lawsuit brought by the town of Roxana against Shell, the refinery was said to have allowed 18 spills over a 25-year period. The new civil case claims more than 200,000 pounds of pure benzene have been released from Wood River since Shell owned the refinery. The company also stands accused of polluting the area around Roxana with other chemicals, including ethylbenzene, toluene and n-hexane. read more

New York to Crack Down on Fake Online Reviews

The investigation revealed that fake reviews were often written in other countries, including Bangladesh and the Philippines, where individuals sold them for as little as one dollar each. Businesses are often tempted to purchase fraudulent feedback for their websites because higher rankings can often mean more customers. For instance, a bump in just one star on Yelp can result in a 5%-9% increase in revenues, according to a 2011 Harvard Business School study. read more

Confused by Date Labels on Food? You’re Not Alone

A big problem with the system is a lack of required federal standards, which has resulted in states and local governments using different rules for food dating. This has caused consumers to lack confidence in the information they’re given. And when consumers are in doubt, they’re likely to throw out food, including items that are still edible. read more

SEC Cracks Down on “Bad Actors”…Except Proven Bad Actors are Exempted

By introducing the exemption for past bad acts, Coffee argues, “the SEC is here acting, not simply as a weak-kneed enforcer, but rather as a generous Board of Pardons, granting immunity to those few persons that it has enjoined or held otherwise accountable within the last decade. If one were seeking to further tarnish an already compromised agency’s reputation and image, this would be the way to do it.” read more