Public Accountability Requires Citizen Action (disasteraccountability.org)
By law, every nuclear power plant in the United States is required to conduct an emergency exercise every two years where federal officials evaluate the preparedness of local governments to respond to a radiological emergency. Following each exercise, FEMA presents the test results at a public meeting, which any interested citizen can attend. […]
Sighs of relief are likely continuing through today as City and State officials assess damage and realize what could have happened. With no known fatalities and 30 people injured (though one is listed as life-threatening), Atlanta’s leaders are probably feeling a little lucky.
Questions remain, however, about why a college basketball game continued (through overtime) […]
The Department of Homeland Security’s disgraceful response to Hurricane Katrina may have been a reflection of the racial and gender makeup of its senior staff. A new GAO report shows that women and minorities are greatly under-represented in the senior ranks of DHS.
In March 2007, the department’s headquarters staff was one of the […]
Reports of dysfunction by Red Cross volunteers dispatched to Southern California for last year’s wildfires underscore the need for a close examination of what changes, if any, the Red Cross has made since Hurricane Katrina.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported excessive and uncoordinated car rentals and hotel bookings, volunteer mismanagement, and overall waste of volunteer time/energy […]
On February 17, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced a recall of 143 million pounds of beef produced by California’s Hallmark/Westland plant - a major supplier of beef for USDA’s School Lunch Program. The massive scope of the recall argued for emergency measures to ensure that no more of the potentially dangerous beef […]