Temat: WHISTLEBLOWER NEWS 2014 – 02

WHISTLEBLOWER NEWS 2014 – 02

CNN: Death Threats and Denial for Woman who Showed College Athletes
Struggle to Read
Summary: A whistleblowing professor at the University of North
Carolina – who previously exposed that student athletes were
enrolled in classes that never met – is back in the news after the
school has greatly misled the media while disavowing her research
showing that some student athletes can’t read or write at an adult
level.

Please Help CIA/Torture Whistleblower John Kiriakou!
Summary: CIA/Torture whistleblower and GAP client John Kiriakou is
calling for supporters to send messages to prison officials and urge
them to grant him a nine-month halfway house stay to finish his
sentence. He is currently serving a 30-month jail sentence in
retaliation for being the first former CIA officer to a.) confirm
that the agency waterboarded detainees, and b.) label waterboarding
as torture.

The Guardian: Bafta Whistleblower Says Voters Reward Big-Budget
Movies They Have Never Seen
Summary: An anonymous whistleblower who is a voter for the
influential BAFTAs – the U.K. equivalent of the Academy Awards –
is claiming that s/he, and probably many others in the voting bloc,
vote for big-budget productions that they have not watched, in
violation of BAFTA rules. The whistleblower claims that big-budget
films are more likely to be rewarded than small independent movies,
because the studios behind the former can afford to organize
expensive events that are essentially gifts to the voters.

Los Angeles Times: Whistleblower Warned EDD Bosses About Glitches in
Software Upgrade
Summary: In September 2012, a new online system launched that was
supposed to allow Californians to better track their disability
claims. When the system was launched, it immediately malfunctioned.
This article details how a whistleblower tried in vain for one year
to warn his supervisors that the site was riddled with errors.

Insurance Journal: West Virginia University Sued by Fired
Whistleblower
Summary: West Virginia University is facing a lawsuit from a
whistleblower who claims that he was fired for exposing that the
university allegedly failed to comply with federal ‘Buy
American’ provisions attached to 2009 stimulus funds.

Reuters: Novartis Sued by US States over Alleged Kickbacks to
Pharmacy Firm
Summary: Yesterday, a complaint was unsealed showing that nine
states have sued drug maker Novartis for allegedly providing
kickbacks to pharmaceuticals to promote its drug, Exjade, which is
designed to treat excessive iron in patients’ blood. Novartis
allegedly paid for companies “to keep patients on Exjade at a time
when the Swiss company feared patients were discontinuing its use
because of harmful side effects.” The lawsuit was initiated by a
whistleblower’s filing.

Al Jazeera America: Meet the Whistleblowers Behind This Week's $320
Million Mortgage Fraud Settlement
Summary: Last night, Al Jazeera sat down with financial industries
whistleblower Comfort Friddle, whose whistleblowing disclosure was
the driving force behind a $320 million settlement between the
Department of Justice and two home loan companies – Home America
Mortgage and its parent Taylor, Bean and Whitaker.

Wall Street Journal: California to Ring in 2014 with New
Whistleblower Laws
Summary: Passed by the California legislature last year, multiple
enhanced whistleblower protections have now gone into effect in that
state. Starting last week, employers are prohibited from either
retaliating against whistleblowers who raise concerns internally (an
upgrade from when whistleblowers report to authorities alone), or
from engaging in “anticipatory retaliation.”

Stamford Advocate: Nalder – 'Snowden is by Definition a
Whistleblower'
Summary: In this column, retired reporter (and former two-time
Pulitzer Prize winner) Eric Nalder defends the actions of Edward
Snowden as a whistleblower, likening the treatment and attacks
against him to that of nuclear weapons plant whistleblowers who
previously exposed great harm to the American population.

Honolulu Civil Beat: Biotech's Influence on Hawaii Government Under
Scrutiny
Summary: GAP’s Food Integrity Campaign has been working with
coalition groups in Hawaii in support of transparency around
pesticide use in the state. Last month, GAP submitted information
requests to determine whether biotech companies exerted improper
influence over Hawaii government officials while the Kauai County
Council debated pesticide disclosure legislation.

See: http://www.whistleblower.org/