For PFAS, that should include addressing the new versions of the compounds coming into production, not just tackling old forms that companies already agreed to take offline, Goldman said. Circuit Judge Sarah A. L. Merriam in Bridgeport to one month of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release BRYANT BERMUDEZ, 31, of East Hartford, pleaded guilty yesterday before U.S. District Judge Sarala V. Nagala in Hartford to offenses related to his participation in a stolen catalytic converter trafficking FRANCISCO AYALA, 22, of Ansonia, has pleaded in Hartford federal court to offenses related to his participation in a stolen catalytic converter trafficking ring. DONNA CARNEY, 67, of Canton, was sentenced today by U.S. According to the Red Cross, Chief Executive McGovern participated in the press conference, but Red Cross did not hold the press conference and, to be clear, it was not the reason that ERVs were sent to Staten Island. (The Red Cross did issue a press release for the event, stating that McGovern would have a media availability.), In another diversion, an emergency response vehicle was dispatched to an early December photo-op with supermodel Heidi Klum to tour affected areas with Red Cross supplies, recalled a third senior Red Cross official who requested anonymity because the official still works for the charity. He writes a regular column for the New York Timess Dealbook section. We are constantly evolving our procedures to better identify dishonest information," it said. ) or https:// means youve safely connected to the .gov website. "Otherwise it's the game of whack-a-mole," she said. perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, DoD: At least 126 bases report water contaminants linked to cancer, birth defects, military officials are demanding that the EPA act quickly, Why women were told Dont get pregnant at George Air Force Base, Lawmakers seek registry for military water contamination cancers, illnesses, US report shows China taking steps toward space dominance, Biden to allow Afghans to stay longer in US, sources say, Michigan expands absentee voting for military members, Some companies charge hefty fees to help vets with disability claims, USS George Washington returning to Japan next year, Your next tech and incoming AI | Defense News Weekly Full Episode 4.28.2023, Home Improvement Loans What are my options? Web Clients include small private landlords to major national property companies and managing agents, as well as those in the public sector. The Red Cross mobilized hundreds of volunteers, equipment, emergency vehicles and supplies. Officers elected annually by national convention delegates include the president, vice president, chaplain, and historian. The focus on public relations persisted throughout the Sandy operation. I dont donate to the Red Cross. TANNER, who is released on bond, was ordered to report to prison on August 30, 2016. Red Cross officials are supposed to track sex offenders who come to shelters and confer with law enforcement. While most charities are trustworthy, patrons must be vigilant, says Art Taylor, president of the Better Business Bureaus Wise Giving Alliance. WebThe Public Relations Toolkit and resource annexes are a complete kit of easy to use media products that can be tailored to promote your American Legion post, unit or squadron activities during the course of the year. The real issue was that the Red Cross was failing to gather information about where hungry victims were located. After Sandy, volunteers wandered the streets of New York in search of stricken neighborhoods, lost because they had not been given GPS equipment to guide them. Share a tip or join our reporters this Friday for a live chat. EPA testing from 2013 to 2015 found significant amounts of PFAS in public water supplies in 33 U.S. states. To securely send us documents online, please visit our SecureDrop site. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas P. Morabito. The Red Cross acknowledges that nearly two-thirds of the volunteers responding to Sandy had never before provided relief after a large disaster. Its often the result of poor planning and can be caused by When the Red Cross finally appeared weeks after the storm, volunteers were planning to distribute flashlights but discovered they had no batteries, she says. We're celebrating 40 years of rare disease advocacy. It looks like nothing was found at this location. Bloomingdales ran a print ad in 2015 encouraging readers to "spike your best friend's eggnog when they're not looking." (ProPublica has raised questions about the opacity of Red Cross disclosures on how this money was spent.). The finding helped move PFAS up as a national priority. She has been ordered to report to prison on Aug. 30 and has been sentenced to two years, followed by three years of supervised release. There was an additional problem with unrelated adults showering with children., Its hard for us to know based on this document exactly what occurred and where, the charity wrote in a statement. Rieckenberg, 62, had spent his career as a nuclear engineer on a Navy sub during the Cold War. 157 Church Street Michigan last month ordered residents of two towns to stop drinking or cooking with their water, after PFAS were found at 20 times the EPA's 2016 advisory level. After how long they were in Tampa, they obviously could not redeploy. Video showed security dragging the man being off the plane by his arms with blood on his face. Suite 310 Two weeks after Sandy hit, Red Cross Chief Executive Gail McGovern declared that the groups relief efforts had been near flawless.. The charity also insists that the volunteers and resources we deployed to Florida did not come at the expense of other states. It did not provide figures for how many mass care volunteers were on the ground in other states before Isaac. "It absolutely disgusts me that the federal government would put PR concerns ahead of public health concerns," Republican state Rep. Todd Stephens declared. Fax Line: (203) 773- 5376. A federal judge issueda temporary restraining order last week prohibiting the group from making unlawful robocalls while the FTC's complaint proceeds. Americans are grateful for the sacrifices made by those who serve in the U.S. armed forces, Simons said in a statement announcing the initiative. Floor 25 Rieckenberg documented his concerns in an email on Nov. 18, 2012, to Riggen, the Red Cross executive in charge of disaster operations, and later mentioned it in a December email to other top Red Cross disaster volunteers. In Horsham and surrounding towns in eastern Pennsylvania, and at other sites around the United States, the foams once used routinely in firefighting training at military bases contained PFAS. Behind closed doors, Red Cross executives acknowledged the effort was falling short. NORD is a registered 501(c)(3) charity organization. An internal Lessons Learned PowerPoint presentation lists hindrances to service delivery. Its first bullet point: NHQ national headquarters. Staten Island pastors Daniel Delgado and John Rocco Carlo say the Red Cross didn't show up after Sandy. Charitable giving is at a record high. According to court documents and statements made in court, TANNER was employed as a bookkeeper for the National Veterans Service Fund (NVSF) located in Darien. Please note that NORD provides this information for the benefit of the rare disease community. A locked padlock In 2016, the EPA set advisory limits without any direct enforcement for two kinds of PFAS that had recently been phased out of production in the United States. Whatever the reason the Red Cross sent so many volunteers to Tampa, a number of Red Cross officials say there were delays in getting them out. While contamination of drinking water around military bases and factories gets most of the attention, the EPA says 80 percent of human exposure comes from consumer products in the home. The chemical industry says it believes the versions of the nonstick, stain-resistant compounds in use now are safe, in part because they don't stay in the body as long as older versions. Meanwhile, Sandy victims in neighborhoods along the beaches like the Rockaways couldnt get food and drinkable water. "So far, we have removed Seals for four organizations. Disaster expert Richard Rieckenberg met with senior officials in October 2012 to voice his concerns. At the same time emergency vehicles were assigned to public relations duties, the Red Cross was having problems in many other parts of the relief effort, according to the Lessons Learned presentation. That was incredibly demoralizing.. Barbra Streisand. Jobs usually last a few weeks, beyond which chiefs risk burning out from exhaustion. The charity said 15 vehicles were distributing supplies at a site in Staten Island where a press conference with then-Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano was held. In keeping with a carefully established plan, representatives from government agencies and charities gather there to coordinate, share information and respond to crises 24 hours a day. A seat was reserved for the Red Cross, the most important nongovernment responder. Top Red Cross officials were concerned only about the appearance of aid, not actually delivering it, Rieckenberg says. According to our Terms of Use we have removed Help the Vets Seal of Transparency.". On Nov. 2, 2012, at the peak of the post-storm crisis, 15 were assigned to public relations duties, Rieckenberg says. Accessibility, Amrapali Rai is a digital marketing consultant who blogs about business and marketing at, How todays growing brand imposter risks pose dangers to consumersand can fatally destroy brand reputations, 5 PR strategies to use for your new business, IPR looks back at 2022, and compiles the top PR insights of the year, 9 strategies supporting the importance of public relations in 2023, Risk management challenges: New research finds sizeable gap between C-suite and senior managers on threat of business inefficiencies. When the storm hit, officials in Bergen County, New Jersey activated their Emergency Operations Center. The groups self-assessments, drawn together just weeks later, were far less congratulatory. I agree with TheWrap's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy and provide my consent to receive marketing communications from them. 2 NightWare uses information from the Apple Problems with PFAS surfaced partly as a result of a 1999 lawsuit by a farmer who filmed his cattle staggering, frothing and dying in a field near a DuPont disposal site in Parkersburg, West Virginia, for PFAS then used in Teflon. WebThe DAV National Service Foundation develops financial resources for the assistance, aid, maintenance, care, support and rehabilitation of ill and injured veterans and their families. He was in charge of tracking food and, at the time, the Red Cross was already wasting three out of every 10 meals being prepared, he estimates. "VietNow has admitted it did not fund programs assisting veterans.". Turnover and reorganizations appear to have had a corrosive effect on the Red Cross effectiveness. This is a brand to die for, she said in an early interview as the Red Cross chief executive. That was before testing showed it had some of the highest levels of the toxic compounds of any public water system in the U.S. "You all made me out to be a liar," Hagey, general water and sewer manager in the eastern Pennsylvania town of Warminster, told Environmental Protection Agency officials at a hearing last month. The FTC and attorneys general in Florida, California, Maryland, Minnesota, Ohioand Oregonfiled a complaint and reached a settlement with Help the Vets, officials announced Thursday. We believe the number is 24-25 Veterans a day. In 2015, Starbucks had its own PR disaster with its "race together" campaign, which sought to help heal race relations in America through coffee cup stickers, and not much else. If you didn't find what you're looking for, use the search bar below to search the site: Subscribe to RSS headline updates from: Powered by FeedBurner. The new system uses Apple technology to help disrupt nightmares for those with PTSD. They consumed all their available time and went home, says Bob Scheifele, who served as mass care chief in Louisiana. She started working in the Rockaways a couple of days after the storm hit and stayed for 10 months. It declined to provide documentation for its account. Public relations nightmare. The BBB and the FTC posted new educational information on their sites for consumers to better spot potential scammers. When Rieckenberg arrived in Mississippi to help coordinate victim care, he witnessed the incident that so troubled Dunham, the emergency vehicle driver. But according to the National Hurricane Center, at least five days before Isaac made landfall it was clear the storm would not hit Tampa. This investigation was conducted by the U.S. Secret Service, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division and Darien Police Department. They belong to Gail and shes going to do whatever she wants with them, referring to McGovern, the Red Cross chief executive. More recently, sitting on his patio in a small town in New Mexico, he says his experiences in Isaac and Sandy had permanently altered his view of an organization he had loyally served for years. "It's a serious problem.". Before he left New York, Rieckenberg finally was able to look up from his post, leave the relief operation center in Manhattan and get out to see Sandys destruction for himself. While often praised as a stabilizing presence by those outside the Red Cross, McGovern initiated a series of changes inside the organization that roiled the venerable charity. Jesse Eisinger is a senior reporter at ProPublica, covering Wall Street and finance. He and Scheifele presented a host of other concerns to the officials. Even as the Trump administration says it advocates for clean air and water, it is ceding more regulation to the states and putting a hold on some regulations seen as burdensome to business. There was nothing political in our decisions regarding Tampa, the charity says. Don't let anything ruin it.". District of Connecticut In response to questions about its performance after Sandy overall, the Red Cross frequently points to the total number of services it says it delivered: 17 million meals and snacks, 74,000 overnight stays in shelters, more than 7 million relief items like blankets and flashlights. WebThe yearly average given to veterans is $500,000, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Laura Sullivan is a NPR News investigative correspondent whose work has cast a light on some of the countrys most disadvantaged people. Facebook is trapped in a PR nightmare of their own making Ed Zitron Oct 20, 2021, 8:45 AM PDT Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in New York City on Friday, October 25, 2019. The NVSF was established to manage social services and limited medical assistance to Vietnam and Persian Gulf War veterans and their families with a focus on families with disabled children. Police believe that 55 Kenosia Avenue Not a threat; simply a promise. YOU'VE REACHED YOUR MONTHLY ARTICLE LIMIT. One reform, the Red Cross says, moved nearly one-third of its disaster positions out of national headquarters and into the field, closer to the victims. by Justin Elliott and Jesse Eisinger, ProPublica, and Laura Sullivan, NPR, (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post via Getty Images), (Catherine Barde/American Red Cross via Flickr), (Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for AOL), (Jason Colston/American Red Cross via Flickr), caliber of the people is a major issue (this is not a training issue). Have a question about Government Services? Seven PR nightmares youll never believe happened by Ronn Torossian | Jun 25, 2019 | Analysis, Public Relations Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Public relations is supposed to be a means of managing the spread of information between an organization or an individual and the public. Suite 500 He joined the Red Cross after seeing the images of Katrinas devastation. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. "VietNow was a telemarketing scheme which used professional fundraisers who tolddonors their donations would help local vets," said John Wobensmith, secretary of state for Maryland, one of the states that investigated the group. Other recent studies point to immune problems in children, among other things. For more Phone: 617-249-7300, Danbury, CT office In a statement, the Red Cross denied that emergency response vehicles were dedicated to public relations duties. See todays top stories. Youve got a 75-year-old emergency response vehicle driver whos got to go up 17 stories to feed a 75-year-old disaster victim. She also altered records to conceal her scheme and by falsely claiming that the stolen monies were being paid to veterans in need. In one previously unreported incident that became instantly notorious among Sandy responders, the Red Cross brought a truck full of pork lunches to a Jewish retirement high-rise. The superstorm was the worst to hit the northeast in a generation. He has since reconciled with top executives and continues to work on disasters for the Red Cross, an organization he says he loves. Stop right there, a Red Cross executive from headquarters responded. But law enforcement officials found VietNow used only applied 0.2 percentof its donations to directly helpveterans, officials said. Phone: 202-588-5700. Used to describe decisions or actions made by a corporation or influencer that could potentially lead to their cancellation or wide-spread hate. He encountered an older woman who was running a kitchen for the Southern Baptists. In addition to targeting filing complaints against fraudulent charities, the FTC has launched aneducation campaign to help consumers make sure they are donating to legitimate charities. Supervisors ordered dozens of trucks usually deployed to deliver aid to be driven around nearly empty instead, just to be seen., After both storms, the charitys problems left some victims in dire circumstances or vulnerable to harm, the organizations internal assessments acknowledge. This is extremely systemic.. Among the multiple systems that failed was the charitys tracking of its emergency response vehicles. Cynthia Tanner, 54, of Darien, pleaded guilty to fraud and tax evasion after embezzling around $800,000 from the National Veterans Service Fund and using the funds to instead pay for various personal expenses for her family and family members. The non-profit, run for more than a decade by Phillip Kra ft, has generated about $70 million in People should do what they think is best for them.. Rating Overall satisfaction rating Description: Charity - Veterans & Military Address: PO Box 2465, Darien, Connecticut, United States, 06820 In early November, the Red Cross had a limited number of emergency response vehicles, or ERVs, active in the New York City area. Tim Hagey, manager of a local water utility, recalls how he used to assure people that the local public water was safe. Veterans find relief from nightmares with NightWare and Apple Watch. Scheifele documented the incident at the time in a memo for the record.. They defend the Red Cross performance after Isaac and Sandy. Among the findings: The 50 worst charities in America devote less than 4% of donations raised to direct cash aid. But some Red Cross veterans say they see few signs the organization has made the necessary changes since Sandy and Isaac to respond competently the next time disaster hits. In mid-October 2012, Rieckenberg and Scheifele traveled to Washington to present their experiences to Riggen and two other high-level Red Cross executives. In Horsham and surrounding towns in eastern Pennsylvania, and at other sites around the United States, the foams once used routinely in firefighting training at military bases contained per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that CYNTHIA TANNER, 54, formerly of Darien, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton in New Haven to 24 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for embezzling approximately $800,000 from a Connecticut-based veterans services organization, and for failing to pay taxes on that income. They sent me a check for $2.50 with the expectation that I would send the check back with a donation. According to the U.S. attorney's office, Tanner altered records to conceal her scheme and falsely claimed the money was being paid to veterans from 2009 to 2014. The vehicles had been sent to Staten Island at the request of the borough president to address needs in that area, the charity says. In early December 2012, Red Cross officials asked Bob Scheifele, who was then mass care chief for New York, to put on a demonstration for donors who had funded the Spirit of America, a giant mobile kitchen attached to a semi, which has the capacity to make 30,000 meals a day. "No one wants to say no to a charity that is purportedly supporting veterans. Asked about that, Riggen says crippled is a strong term. The public enumeration of the Red Cross services was accurate, he says. These people give veterans organizations a bad name. But staff didnt know/follow procedures, the presentation notes. President Obama, who is the charitys honorary chairman, vouched for the group after Sandy, telling Americans to donate.
California Independent Petroleum Association Annual Meeting,
How Does Internet Censorship Affect Intelligence Agencies,
Together Pangea Allegations,
Articles N