An official website of the United States government. In some low-lying areas, residents had to be rescued from the rooftops of their submerged homes. EPA testing from 2013 to 2015 found significant amounts of PFAS in public water supplies in 33 U.S. states. U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Connecticut, Veterans Services Organization Bookkeeper Sentenced to 2 Years in Prison for Fraud, Tax Offenses, Canton Woman Sentenced to Prison for Defrauding HUD Section 8 Housing Program, East Hartford Man Admits Role in Catalytic Converter Theft Ring, Ansonia Man Admits Stealing and Selling Catalytic Converters. In this Aug. 1, 2018, photo weeds engulf a playground at housing section of the former Naval Air Warfare Center Warminster in Warminster, Pa. (Matt Rourke/AP). Rieckenberg emailed his superior at national headquarters on Sept. 12, 2012, to sound the alarm. Sometimes, even when supplies were plentiful, they went to waste. The Red Cross disputes the notion that the Republican National Convention influenced their deployment, saying it was responding to early forecasts that Tampa might be in Isaacs path. The claims process can be confusing and no veteran should ever have to go it alone. 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. Writing more than 135 unauthorized checks in 2013 alone, Cynthia Tanner, the now-former bookkeeper at National Veterans Services Fund (NVSF), a long time "F" graded charity by CharityWatch, is under police investigation for allegedly embezzling over $185,000 from the veterans charity in 2013. Used to describe decisions or actions made by a corporation or influencer that could potentially lead to their cancellation or wide-spread hate. Within minutes of Pepsi unveiling a new ad starring Kendall Jenner, social media users almost unanimously came down against it, calling the protest-themed commercial tone deaf and opportunistic. She executed layoffs and reorganizations that closed local chapters and centralized power at national headquarters in Washington. Public relations became the issue. After how long they were in Tampa, they obviously could not redeploy. But according to the National Hurricane Center, at least five days before Isaac made landfall it was clear the storm would not hit Tampa. They defend the Red Cross performance after Isaac and Sandy. United's latest public relations nightmare was preceded by an incident last month in which two teenagers were barred from boarding their flight because they were wearing leggings. Jobs usually last a few weeks, beyond which chiefs risk burning out from exhaustion. The storm lingered over Mississippi and Louisiana, causing major flooding and more than $2 billion in damage. "It absolutely disgusts me that the federal government would put PR concerns ahead of public health concerns," Republican state Rep. Todd Stephens declared. The skincare company Nivea took some heat on social media after it debuted an ad featuring the phrase "white is purity," which some accused of supporting white supremacy. WebNational. In New Jersey, officials urged fishermen to eat some kinds of fish no more than once a year because of PFAS contamination. The service said it is "actively reviewing the organizations mentioned" named by the FTC and the states Thursday. The Red Cross would have been helpful if it had offered food, water, shelter, cleaning supplies, blankets, says Rich Wieland, whose house in Toms River, New Jersey was flooded and whose neighborhood lost power for 16 days. Congress has since boosted the agency's authority to regulate problematic chemicals. WebFIFA, the governing body for soccer or football, as much of the world calls it has been facing multiple issues while hosting its 2022 World Cup in Qatar.As an Arab country with human rights concerns, Qatar was a controversial host city for an international event of such magnitude. 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. He has since reconciled with top executives and continues to work on disasters for the Red Cross, an organization he says he loves. Its often the result of poor planning and can be caused by From United Airlines violently removing a passenger to Pepsi, Starbucks and Chick-fil-As public faux pas. 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. In one shelter, sex offenders were all over including playing in childrens area because Red Cross staff didnt know/follow procedures.. So did scientific studies that firmed up the health risks. 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. Karen Handel, Nancy Brinker, Planned Parenthood, Public Image, Race for the Cure, Susan G. Komen. 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. And it had to start with breakfast for 100,000 the next morning. As he had after Hurricane Isaac, Rieckenberg brought his concerns to top Red Cross officials after Sandy. These are not your ERVs. The Red Cross botched key elements of its mission after Sandy and Isaac, leaving behind a trail of unmet needs and acrimony, according to an investigation by ProPublica and NPR. (Matt Rourke/AP). The iconic charity has a government mandate to work alongside the Federal Emergency Management Agency in relief efforts. President Obama, who is the charitys honorary chairman, vouched for the group after Sandy, telling Americans to donate. The non-profit, run for more than a decade by Phillip Kra ft, has generated about $70 million in He encountered an older woman who was running a kitchen for the Southern Baptists. 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. But the Red Cross seat remained empty for the full duration of the Sandy response. In October, it issued a software update to brick the model entirely. Veterans of America also operatedunder the names Vehicles for Veterans LLC, Saving Our Soldiers, Donate Your Car, Donate That Car LLC, Act of Valorand Medal of Honor, the FTC says. SOMEONE SHOULD PUT THIS GUY AND HIS CRONIES OUT OF BUSINESS. That includes toughening up the federal Toxic Substances Control Act and regulatory mandates for the EPA itself in 2016. The National Veterans Foundation is a one-stop resource for veterans looking for assistance. Our resource page includes links information and help with crises, navigating VA services, jobs, housing, and more. Our veteran counselors are also standing by 9-5 PT, Monday through Friday to assist you with any help you might need. When the storm hit, officials in Bergen County, New Jersey activated their Emergency Operations Center. Floor 25 The Red Cross typically deploys about 20 volunteers to such meetings. The disarray and deception in Mississippi made Rieckenberg furious, he recalls. "I know that you can't bring back three people that I lost," Betz, a retired airman, told the federal officials at the Horsham meeting. Budweiser found itself in a similar position when customers noticed that some Bud Light cans featured the quote The perfect beer for removing no from your vocabulary for the night. One of 140 slogans printed on the cans as part of the Up for Whatever campaign, the quote nonetheless drew the ire of those who said the company was encouraging rape. 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. Follow USA TODAY reporter Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider. WebUnited's latest public relations nightmare was preceded by an incident last month in which two teenagers were barred from boarding their flight because they were wearing leggings. They sent hundreds of millions of dollars to the Red Cross, confident their money would ease the suffering left behind by Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Isaac. Richard Rieckenberg, who oversaw aspects of the Red Cross efforts to provide food, shelter and supplies after the 2012 storms, said the organizations work was repeatedly undercut by its leadership. "If the risk appears to be high, and you've got it every place, then you've got a different level" of danger and urgency, Clough said. Sandy and Isaac Lessons Learned PowerPoint, Minutes from post-Sandy meeting of Red Cross execs, Hurricane Isaac emails from Red Cross officials, Hurricane Sandy letter from Red Cross official. Chick-fil-A's history of anti-LGBT activism came to light after the company's CEO Dan Cathy admitted to opposing same-sex marriage in 2012. Washington, DC 20036 A former veterans services organization bookkeeper who plead guilty to embezzling close to $800,000 has been sentenced to two years in prison. The Red Cross has endured patches of trouble in the recent past. 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. Laura Sullivan is a NPR News investigative correspondent whose work has cast a light on some of the countrys most disadvantaged people. TANNER, who is released on bond, was ordered to report to prison on August 30, 2016. McGovern had spent her career as an executive at AT&T and Fidelity and was teaching marketing at Harvard Business School. 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." WebDescription. Other charities hit with legal actions by federal andstate officialsfor various fraudulent violations include Healing American Heroes, Healing Heroes Network, Operation Troop Aidand Veterans Relief Association. Chiefs often work 18-hour days, setting up makeshift command centers in places like motel hallways, sometimes working without electricity. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Turnover and reorganizations appear to have had a corrosive effect on the Red Cross effectiveness. Top Red Cross officials had assured Rieckenberg that someone would get him the locations where staffers could deliver the meals. Stop right there, a Red Cross executive from headquarters responded. Secure .gov websites use HTTPS Updated 05/02/2016. While EPA considers its next step, states are taking action to tackle PFAS contamination on their own. Phone: 202-588-5700. It's in her.". Earlier this year, federal toxicologists decided that even the EPA's 2016 advisory levels for the two phased-out versions of the compound were several times too high for safety. This is extremely systemic.. For more "And yet there are instances in which we have to be careful.". 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. As the Red Cross internal documents note, the challenges of urban disaster response include physically grueling tasks such as walking up stairs in high rises to get to people in need. "They knew they had seeped into the water, and they didn't tell anybody about it until it was revealed and they had to," she said. The vehicles had been sent to Staten Island at the request of the borough president to address needs in that area, the charity says. "Your $10 gift will mean so much to a disabled veteran., However, Help the Vets, which touteda "Gold" rating from GuideStar, primarily helped itself, using 95 percent of every donation, gathered through mailings and telemarketing calls,to cover fundraising, administrative expensesand Paulsons salary and benefits, according to the Federal Trade Commission. The Red Cross knows what theyre doing, he said. This is a brand to die for, she said in an early interview as the Red Cross chief executive. County officials had no easy way to get in touch with Red Cross leadership to tell them about areas of need on the ground, he says. I dont donate to the Red Cross. Copyright 2023 NORD National Organization for Rare Disorders, Inc. All rights reserved. Meanwhile, Sandy victims in neighborhoods along the beaches like the Rockaways couldnt get food and drinkable water. Similarly, Help the Vets operated on several names, too, officials say, includingAmerican Disabled Veterans Foundation, Military Families of America, Veterans Emergency Blood Bank, Vets Fighting Breast Cancerand Veterans Fighting Breast Cancer. Eigers objection letter quickly turned into a PR disaster as the company received public backlash. An internal Lessons Learned PowerPoint presentation lists hindrances to service delivery. Its first bullet point: NHQ national headquarters. The charity ultimately raised $312 million to help Sandy victims. Other recent studies point to immune problems in children, among other things. However, one internal report casts doubt on the reliability of these figures: The sheer size of the disaster crippled our ability to count the number of relief items distributed, it says. VFW has offices across the nation, including locations on military installations to help those who have served. When the Red Cross finally appeared weeks after the storm, volunteers were planning to distribute flashlights but discovered they had no batteries, she says. Lock Multiple systems failed, say minutes from a closed-door meeting of top officials in December 2012, referring to logistics. Public relations nightmare. Rieckenberg says this was 40 percent of all available ERVs; the Red Cross says thats wrong but could not say how many ERVs were in New York that day. Critics slammed the campaign, which began in response to a series police shootings, as a cheap marketing ploy. It was a dog-and-pony show, Scheifele says. Not a threat; simply a promise. The ad, which depicted Jenner resolving the tension at a protest scene with a can of Pepsi, was pulled after a day and the company issued an apology. "No one wants to say no to a charity that is purportedly supporting veterans. Your generosity sees to it that VFW Service Officers are available free of charge to any veteran in need of help. Two weeks after Sandy hit, Red Cross Chief Executive Gail McGovern declared that the groups relief efforts had been near flawless.. 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. They sent me a check for $2.50 with the expectation that I would send the check back with a donation. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. His first contact with the charity came two months after the storm when Red Cross workers finally called to offer aid. Our care Health research National leaders. Among the more worrisome instances had to do with sex offenders. According to our Terms of Use we have removed Help the Vets Seal of Transparency.". 1900 Crown Colony Drive On December 15, 2015, she pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of tax evasion. WebNational Veterans Service Fund, Inc. From a broad perspective I completely agree with you, Trevor Riggen, the top Red Cross disaster response official, replied that same day. 2023 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC. 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. They were the only major player not there, says police lieutenant Matthew Tiedemann, who helped run Bergen Countys response to Sandy. $8 Million in fund raising and 97% goes back into fundraising. Top Red Cross executives were furious. The groups self-assessments, drawn together just weeks later, were far less congratulatory. It faced allegations of financial mismanagement after Sept. 11 and Hurricane Katrina and a series of chief executives were forced to resign. That wasnt the problem, Rieckenberg told his superiors. In Mississippi we were unable to open a single shelter with proper staff, materials and food resources prior to landfall, Rieckenberg wrote. We believe the number is 24-25 Veterans a day. Sandy victims were going hungry. Weve written about the National Veterans Services Fund before. During the Sandy disaster, some government officials came to resent the Red Cross. Connecticut Financial Center We all want to help these heroes," he said, speaking at the FTC event. WebFrom fighting for veterans benefits on Capitol Hill, to financial grants, transition support and educational scholarships, we're there to ensure current and former service members With the charity stumbling badly in the early days after Sandy, Red Cross headquarters began feeling pressure. Behind closed doors, Red Cross executives acknowledged the effort was falling short. But staff didnt know/follow procedures, the presentation notes. "It's a serious problem.". Muriente and others recall that Red Cross workers got lost driving around New York without GPS devices, trying to find devastated neighborhoods. Another organization, Veterans of America and its founder,Travis Deloy Peterson, was charged with illegally making millions ofrobocalls to get people to donate cars, boats and other things of value, falsely claiming that donations would go to veterans charities and were tax deductiblebut were sold for personal benefit. The claims process can be confusing and no veteran should ever have to go it The Red Cross has a humanitarian responsibility to provide safe shelter to all people who seek refuge in our facilities and has policies and procedures to handle a wide array of situations, including the presence of sex offenders in shelters., More generally, in response to questions from ProPublica and NPR about the Lessons Learned presentation, the Red Cross wrote, Some of the issues were corrected immediately during the response, others we are taking additional steps to improve.. EPA testing from 2013 to 2015 found significant amounts of PFAS in public water supplies in 33 U.S. states. 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. Danbury, CT 06810 Find the latest business news on Wall Street, jobs and the economy, the housing market, personal finance and money investments and much more on ABC News The Young Marines is a national non-profit 501(c)(3) youth education and service program for boys and girls, 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. A seat was reserved for the Red Cross, the most important nongovernment responder. Main Office: He was asked: Should people give money to the Red Cross? Amid increasing public outcry, the company eventually vowed to stop donating to anti-LGBT causes. Thank you for the low-down on this organization. New Haven, CT 06510, Telephone: (203) 821-3700 District of Connecticut Barbra Streisand. I was quite bluntly told that they didnt care it was the plan that was going to make the ARC [American Red Cross] look the best to the local politicians, he wrote. 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. The Red Cross "divert[ed] assets for public relations purposes," says one internal report. (ProPublica has raised questions about the opacity of Red Cross disclosures on how this money was spent.). Tanner pleaded guilty to wire fraud and tax evasion. Heres where were donating our money, 13 ways to give to charity without breaking your budget. On Nov. 2, 2012, at the peak of the post-storm crisis, 15 were assigned to public relations duties, Rieckenberg says. The finding helped move PFAS up as a national priority. We are more enamored with the perception of success rather than success, Rieckenberg told them, according to his notes. He says he refused, telling his superiors that if anyone should be let go, it should be him, since he was in charge. Justin Elliott has been a reporter with ProPublica since 2012, covering politics with a focus on money and influence. Some of the Red Cross Sandy volunteers were hindered not only by their lack of experience or skills but by their advanced age. We didnt have the kind of sophistication needed for this size job, noted a Red Cross vice president in the same meeting, the minutes say. Riggen, the disaster official, pledged to call him the following week. A major offender, officials say, was Help the Vets, which had a nationwide operation, soliciting donations for its funding of veterans' medical care, including breast cancer treatment, a suicide prevention program, retreats for recuperating from stressand veterans fighting breast cancer. Asked about that, Riggen says crippled is a strong term. The public enumeration of the Red Cross services was accurate, he says. Please note that NORD provides this information for the benefit of the rare disease community. The real issue was that the Red Cross was failing to gather information about where hungry victims were located. "As an industry today we're very forthcoming meeting any kind of regulatory requirement to disclose any kind of adverse data," said Jessica Bowman, a senior director at the American Chemistry Council trade group. It declined to provide documentation for its account. Officials at the Red Cross national headquarters stood firm over Rieckenbergs objections. We would have made the same decisions if it had been a convention of chiropractors.. Given the findings on the compounds, alarm bells "should be ringing four out of five" at the EPA, Kerrigan Clough, a former deputy regional EPA administrator, said in an interview with the AP as he waited for a test for PFAS in the water at his Michigan lake home, which is near a military base that used firefighting foam. The Red Cross was supposed to be supplying the kitchen with propane, but the woman said it hadnt arrived. The Red Cross says Klum was delivering supplies to families. As a reservist, Rieckenberg was paid small sums for responding to disasters. This story was co-produced with NPR. And then, on Oct. 29, 2012, Sandy hit New York. They belong to Gail and shes going to do whatever she wants with them, referring to McGovern, the Red Cross chief executive. The new system uses Apple technology to help disrupt nightmares for those with PTSD. Rieckenberg, 62, had spent his career as a nuclear engineer on a Navy sub during the Cold War. He was quickly promoted and became part of a select group of Mass Care Chiefs. In Red Cross lingo, mass care is the provision of food, shelter and supplies immediately after a disaster. The list was never supplied. (Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images) In the ensuing chaos, the caterer was Handicapped victims slept in their wheelchairs for days because the charity had not secured proper cots. She started working in the Rockaways a couple of days after the storm hit and stayed for 10 months. Some were ordered to stay in Tampa long after it became clear that Isaac would bypass the city. You cant do that, bemoaned one top Red Cross official who was on the scene in New York. To securely send us documents online, please visit our SecureDrop site. 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