President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order on April 27 establishing, within 45 days, an Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection, to be led by a Special Assistant to the Secretary. The office will “work closely with relevant VA components to…
Category: whistleblower
Child health whistleblower Vikki Mata appeals for donations
Oregon whistleblower Vikki Mata is requesting donations to cover the cost ($6,000) of court transcripts. She must order the transcripts by February 6 in order to appeal a ruling in her case that barred favorable expert testimony.
President Obama reduces Chelsea Manning’s prison sentence
The White House announced Tuesday that President Obama has commuted whistleblower Chelsea Manning’s 35-year prison sentence, allowing her to be released from Fort Leavenworth on May 17, 2017. Manning’s sentence, wrote the New York Times, was “the longest ever handed down in…
Our Hero in Flint
Story by Tom Nugent and Laura Silverman Published in the September 2016 issue of At Buffalo (SUNY at Buffalo). Re-published with permission When civil engineer Marc Edwards (BS ’86) warned Michigan state officials and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that lead-contaminated drinking water…
Congress awaits TSA explanation for whistleblower’s treatment
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform wants an explanation from the Transportation Security Agency for its treatment of Robert MacLean, whose disclosure foiled TSA plans to pull air marshals off long distance commercial flights after the 9/11…
Gaps confirmed in protections for national security whistleblowers
Washington, D.C. — According to a new report, workers in national security positions remain vulnerable to reprisal under current federal laws. The PEN America report, Secret Sources: Whistleblowers, National Security, and Free Expression, refutes allegations by current and former government…
NYPD whistleblower settles claim against hospital
A New York City police officer has settled his complaint against a hospital that held him against his will in a psychiatric ward. The officer, Adrian Schoolcraft, claimed bosses ordered him arrested on and hospitalized in retaliation for his whistleblowing…
North Carolinians welcome truth-tellers
North Carolinians gave truth-tellers a good reception last week in Asheville, Raleigh, Fayetteville, Chapel Hill, Greensboro and Durham. John Kiriakou, the former CIA operative who exposed torture of terrorism suspects at Guantanamo prison, spoke to a standing-room-only crowd at North Carolina…
“Ag-gag” law violates free speech rights of whistle-blowers, rules federal judge
A federal judge declared unconstitutional Monday an anti-whistleblower law in Idaho that criminalized audiovisual recordings of agricultural production facilities. In the decision, Chief District Judge B. Lynn Winmill wrote that Idaho Code § 18-7042 “not only restricts more speech than necessary, it…
Whistleblowers testify that VA whitewashed healthcare scandals, retaliation persists
[Cross-posted from Whistleblower Support Fund] At a hearing of the Senate Appropriations committee Thursday, whistleblowers testified on Veterans Affair’s investigation of the concerns about healthcare deficiencies at Veterans Affairs hospitals–investigations they characterized as a collective whitewash.