Big pharmaceutical companies say they only pick the saintliest docs to be “their boys,” getting paid into the six figures to “teach” fellow doctors about the companies’ latest wunder-pills. But a major investigation into disciplinary action against these docs on the take reveals that some of them have splotchy pasts, from having sex with patients, to criminal convictions, to research misconduct and revoked licenses. The history included: [More]
INVESTIGATIONS
Frontline Investigates BP's Internal Culture Of Wet Greed And Hot Fear
By 10.15.10
Frontline digs into the muck of BP’s corporate culture leading up to the biggest environmental disaster in American history in a new hard-hitting investigation. Through interviews with current and former employees and regulators and experts, Frontline probes the internal environment of wet greed and hot fear that spawned the oily monster ravaging the Gulf. Catch “The Spill” on Oct 26. Here’s a preview: [More]
Chrysler Workers Caught Drinking, Toking Up During Break
By 9.27.10
Last week, MyFoxDetroit showed footage it had secretly taped of at least 15 autoworkers at a Chrysler plant “drinking beer and smoking marijuana before heading to work.” Chrysler has told the television station that it has suspended the employees without pay pending an investigation, and that it will likely determine next actions today. Check out the video below. [More]
Small Carriers Running Domestic Flights Using Major Airline Names, But Minus The Name Brand Safety
By 9.16.10
In Feb 2009, Continental flight 3407 crashed shortly after takeoff before landing, killing 50 people. Investigators found that the pilot had had less than half the flying time required by the major carriers, and that he had failed five flight performance tests in his career. Though the tail, uniforms and ticket said “Continental,” the flight was actually run by a smaller regional carrier, “Colgan Air.” [More]
Massachusetts Regulators Rarely Acted Against Subprime Brokers And Lenders
By 9.15.10
An investigative report finds that Massachusetts regulators only acted against 3% of its licensees during the sub-prime peak, the lowest among fellow New England states, while publicly preening that it was being “aggressive.” In fact, as foreclosures rose during ’06-’08, enforcement actually dropped. Forget who watches the watchdogs, who watches? [More]
Corporations Stole Billions Of Dollars Of Gas From Landowners
By 9.14.10
Energy companies were supposed to compensate rural Virginians for the billions of dollars worth of gas they sucked from their land, but a local newspaper’s Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation found that the money has instead been diverted into escrow accounts for over 20 years. If the landowner even knows the money is there, it’s nigh impossible to get it out, and in any event, the companies have only been putting in a fraction of what they’re supposed to. A rubber-stamping regulatory board that hadn’t done an audit for a decade only compounded the problem. I drink your milkshake, indeed. [More]
CPSC Says No Link Found Between Dry Max Diapers And Diaper Rash
By 9.3.10
Back in May a lotta parents were venting online about newly formulated Pampers Dry Max Diapers giving their kids bad diaper rash. The CPSC got almost 4,700 incident reports and investigated, but so far has not found any specific link that says the diapers are causing adverse reactions any different from normal diaper rash. [More]
For-Profit Colleges Caught On Video Encouraging Financial Aid Fraud
By 8.4.10
According to the Dept. of Education, enrollment in for-profit colleges has exploded in recent years, growing nearly 500%. Last year alone, students at for-profit colleges received more than $4 billion in Pell Grants and more than $20 billion in federal loans. With all that money floating around, the Government Accountability Office was asked to investigate — and their findings will probably not please taxpayers. [More]
The Post Office Wants You To Know They Caught The Thief Who Stole Your Shirt
By 7.31.10
Someone at the post office poached the Villainous Victorian Velociraptor Matt had ordered from Shirt.Woot. Woot sent Matt a new Velociraptor shirt and he figured that was that. Not so! He recently received a remarkably detailed letter from the post office’s Inspector General, complete with an added surprise. [More]
You're Paying Oil Pipeline Owners' Income Taxes
By 7.7.10
Investigative reporter David Cay Johnston has discovered a dirty little tax secret pipeline owners would like to keep more hidden than a giant plume of oil under the ocean. Turns out that when you pump gas into your car, you’re actually paying oil pipeline owners’ income taxes. [More]
California Is A Hotbed Of Rogue Nurses
By 6.29.10
Where can nurses go after they’ve been sanctioned elsewhere for misconduct? To California, it seems. The state’s Board of Registered Nursing launched a review, spurred on by a Los Angeles Times/Pro-Publica investigation last year, and discovered 3,500 nurses who have licenses in California even though they’ve lost their licenses in other states; 1,700 of these nurses currently have active licenses. In more than half of all cases, the sanctions were for serious violations such as “sexual abuse, neglect, rampant drug use and criminality.” [More]
Tylenol Recall Factory Was Staffed With Undertrained Temps
By 5.31.10
The manufacturing plant that has been the cause of Johnson & Johnson’s latest in a string of recalls has already been described as dirty and poorly maintained. It turns out that it was also staffed with temps and contract employees who weren’t properly trained, according to tax records and an FDA inspection report filed earlier this year. [More]
Criminal Charges Are Possible For Tylenol Recall Scandal
By 5.27.10
CNN is reporting that the FDA has referred the Tylenol recall case to their criminal division for investigation. At issue is a pattern of non-compliance with FDA warnings and failures by management of McNeil to investigate and provide a timely resolution to serious problems with the product. These problems include excess amounts of the active ingredient in Tylenol, acetaminophen. [More]
Government Investigating Apple On Music Practices
By 5.26.10
The U.S. Department of Justice is reportedly investigating Apple, to determine whether the company used its position as the nation’s largest music retailer to unfairly influence music labels. Apple allegedly told labels not to offer exclusives to Amazon.com, and punished those that didn’t comply by dropping marketing support on iTunes. [More]
Some Skin Lightening Creams Are Full Of Banned Mercury
By 5.22.10
The Chicago Tribune bought 50 creams used to lighten skin and fade age spots and had them sent to an outside lab for testing — and got troubling results. Six of the creams were found to contain amounts of mercury banned by federal law. Five of the creams had enough of the toxic metal to cause kidney damage over time, the Tribune reports. [More]
FDA Announces Widespread Investigation Of McNeil After Tylenol Recalls
By 5.19.10
Remember the recalled liquid Tylenol and other children’s medicines last month? Or the stinky drugs that were recalled back in January? Or the children’s Tylenol that was recalled last September? The FDA remembers, which is probably why it’s “conducting a company-wide investigation of McNeil Consumer Healthcare’s drug manufacturing practices to determine whether similar problems exist throughout the company.” Also, a date has now been set (May 27) for the House Committee hearing where the CEO and chairman of parent company Johnson & Johnson are expected to testify. [More]
Do Dry Max Pampers Burn Babies' Backsides?
By 5.14.10
Parents have complained that Procter & Gamble’s Pampers Dry Max diapers are irritating their babies’ skin, and now the company is facing a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Ohio, as well as an investigation from the Consumer Product Safety Commission. [More]
Cuomo: Banks May Have Misled Raters On Mortgage Securities
By 5.13.10
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has opened an investigation of eight major banks, to find out whether they gave misleading data to rating agencies to pump up the ranking of mortgage-backed securities. The companies in the crosshairs are Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, UBS, Crédit Agricole and Merrill Lynch (aka Bank of America). [More]
