Deadly denial: Navajo miners stand ground in a different kind of Cold War
By Laura Frank, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published July 23, 2008 at midnight
Updated July 23, 2008 at 2:33 p.m.
Javier Manzano © The Rocky
George Blue Horse, a medicine man, performs a ceremony to improve relations between the Navajo people and the U.S. Department of Labor, at the Tuba City, Ariz., branch of the Office of Navajo Uranium Workers.
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TUBA CITY, Ariz. — This spring, officials from the U.S. Department of Labor sat around a small fire, touching sweet corn pollen to their tongues and inhaling spicy cedar smoke in a traditional Navajo ceremony.
Larry Martinez, who manages the Office of Navajo Uranium Workers, had organized the ceremony hoping to improve a working relationship that he described as "difficult and getting worse" between the Navajo and the labor department, which manages a federal program to compensate sick nuclear weapons workers.
Ten thousand Navajo men mined uranium for America's atomic bombs. The U.S. government knew early on that uranium could cause lung damage. But instead of warning the Navajo miners, the government decided to study what happened to them.
Now those who survived — and the families of those who didn't — are having trouble proving that they qualify for compensation.
"I'd like to have you understand this ceremony is going to create this coordination," Martinez said in English during the mostly Navajo-language ceremony. "We're all in this together, to make sure the Cold War patriot, the person who sacrificed his health to protect his country, is taken care of. When you leave here, you'll be part of what happened here."
But less than two hours after the ceremony, the spirit of cooperation appeared to have worn off.
At a public meeting to explain the benefits of the compensation program to sick Navajo uranium workers, the lead DOL official ejected some of the people he had just participated with in the cooperation ceremony.
Booted out were representatives of an in-home health care company from Denver authorized to provide care for gravely sick uranium workers.
Martinez was seething.
"Did that ceremony mean nothing to them?" the usually calm Martinez said.
Wall of opposition
Most of the uranium workers whom Martinez helps are by law supposed to be compensated automatically through a program created eight years ago. It compensates workers who sacrificed their health, and sometimes their lives, as they labored amid highly toxic and top-secret materials used to build nuclear weapons.
Many of the Navajo were compensated $100,000 by a previous program created in 1990 and were to be automatically eligible for the new one, so their total benefits would rise to the current standards.
Instead, the Navajos have joined other former nuclear workers in fighting a different cold war, this time against their own government.
A Rocky Mountain News investigation found that the compensation program has become so complex and adversarial that even claims that by law were to be automatically approved — the Navajo being a striking example — are being stonewalled.
Only one in four sick workers or their survivors has been compensated, while millions of tax dollars have been spent redoing faulty work, including repeatedly rewriting technical reports, re-examining old exposure records that workers say are wrong and reopening denied claims only to deny them again.
Meanwhile, top officials running the compensation program have collected tens of thousands of dollars each in bonuses. In all, program officials have been given more then $3.2 million in bonuses since the program began. That includes $116,000 in bonuses for Shelby Hallmark, the program's top official.
Sick workers believe that their government is intentionally thwarting them. They are not alone.
"It's an ideological issue," said Bill Richardson, the former energy secretary who persuaded the Clinton administration to enact the compensation program. "When the Bush administration came in, they saw this as an entitlement program they didn't believe in. They had to comply with it, but they did so by putting up barriers so it wouldn't work properly."
A White House spokesman declined to comment, saying that the labor department would speak for the administration.
While DOL didn't respond to the Rocky's inquiries, it sent a statement responding to Richardson: "The Department of Labor has paid out nearly $4 billion dollars to energy worker claimants, well in excess of estimates provided by then-Secretary Richardson's Department of Energy, which led to the official Congressional Budget Office report. In just eight years, DOL has already issued payments to almost three times as many workers and their families (6,500 vs 15,000) as the CBO estimated would be paid in ten years. We remain committed to making sure that energy workers receive the compensation to which they are entitled."
The DOL's Web site says that more that 42,000 claims have been paid. The department did not respond to questions about the discrepancy between 15,000 paid versus 42,000.
Counting the cost
The controversial method of determining which workers deserve compensation has been fraught with problems, but program officials have clung to the process. Government scientists at the National Institute for Occupation Safety and Health continually change the way they estimate how much radiation workers absorbed.
More than two thirds of these estimates — involving more than 12,000 sick Cold War veterans — have had to be reviewed or completely reworked because of changes in the methods scientists say will give the best estimates. And because the scientific understanding of how toxic substances cause disease continues to evolve, virtually no case can ever be closed for good.
Larry Elliott, who directs dose reconstruction at NIOSH, declined to say how much each of nearly 18,000 dose reconstructions cost taxpayers. But since the program began, his office has spent more than $280 million in administrative costs.
Too much of that has been wasted, said U.S. Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., cousin to Colorado Congressman Mark Udall.
"Nothing could be more irresponsible than to spend taxpayer dollars fighting claimants rather than compensating them," Tom Udall said. "When claimants are forced to submit to unnecessary tests — or when NIOSH spends time and resources hunting for records that simply don't exist — taxpayer money is wasted and sick workers are forced to bear additional suffering."
One key government contractor was paid for completion of essential reports, and got paid more when those reports proved faulty and had to be fixed.
One of the key documents used in the dose reconstruction is called a site profile. This report attempts to list the kinds of toxic exposures workers in different jobs at different sites might have encountered. But not one of the site profiles for any of the major weapons sites was correct the first time, the Rocky found in reviewing various versions of the reports.
A big part of NIOSH's administrative expense went to Oak Ridge Associated Universities, the Tennessee-based consortium that won the original $70 million contract to do the profiles and estimate worker radiation doses. As of last year, the contract, still going after nine extensions that include new dose reconstruction work, had nearly tripled to $200 million.
As one result, the administrative costs for the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program are 15 times higher than similar programs.
While the government declined to detail its spending in response to the Rocky's questions, labor department officials acknowledged earlier this year that administrative costs for the program reach about 33 percent of its payments to claimants.
That is a stunning figure for administrative costs when compared with the 2 percent for a sister program that compensates uranium miners and people exposed to atomic bomb testing. Administrative costs for Social Security Disability Insurance are about 2.5 percent of payments.
Officials say part of the reason is that the nuclear workers program is much more complex than the other compensation programs. But that, says Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., whose district includes the former Rocky Flats weapons site near Denver, is exactly the problem.
"It's putting the onus and the burden on the people who are already carrying significant burdens," Udall said. "I think it's an outrage."
Double dose of rejection
DOL has had to reopen thousands of cases it had already denied, citing changes in the scientific methods it uses to determine who receives compensation.
Government scientists discovered, for example, that Rocky Flats contained a previously unknown kind of plutonium — "Super-S" — that had not been monitored or studied. They spent two years working on a scientific method to estimate the radiation wallop that the Super-S might have given Flats workers. Some were notified by letter that their denials were being overturned and their cases reconsidered.
But many former workers found their new dose estimates lower than before.
Shelby Hallmark, the labor department executive who oversees the program, predicted workers' dismay with these so-called reworks earlier this year.
"More people are going to go back through reworks and get a second denial," he said. "It's not going to be pleasant for these folks."
Hallmark knew even then that the reworks were unlikely to result in more workers being compensated. That is because the original method used more claimant-friendly assumptions in estimating radiation doses. But the newer methods are more exact, Hallmark said.
The original estimates were "claimant-favorable ... overestimates," said Larry Elliott, who oversees the work at NIOSH.
But the original estimates apparently weren't favorable to all claimants. Elliott acknowledged some reworks came back higher than the original "overestimates."
The constantly changing methods have not benefited most workers, Mark Udall said, but the changes have benefited the contractors.
"It keeps those folks employed," Udall said.
Questions pile up
Among all of the complicated claims of illness related to half a century of nuclear weapons production, two kinds were supposed to be slam-dunks. If you were a uranium worker compensated in an earlier program, or a beryllium worker or uranium worker with lung damage, your claim was supposed to slide right through the system.
But that isn't happening because laws and rules are not being followed.
A 90-year-old Navajo woman who lost her uranium miner husband is still waiting for federal compensation from the new program, even though the law says that compensation should be automatic.
A 48-year-old beryllium worker tried for five years to get compensation that was supposed to be automatic, given his diagnosed lung disease.
An 86-year-old uranium miner is too sick to complete the breathing test required to prove that he qualifies for compensation.
But some workers never even make it into the system to be considered. DOL calls these "non-covered" applications because they failed to prove the employee worked at one of the more than 300 covered sites or had one of some two-dozen covered illnesses.
But the Rocky found evidence that the failure to prove information was sometimes the labor department's fault. For example, a uranium miner in New Mexico was rejected because DOL said he didn't submit medical records to prove his illness. But Jarvina Lee, a caseworker at the Navajo office of uranium miners in Shiprock, N.M., said she personally had sent 1,600 pages of medical records to DOL's Denver office on behalf of the worker.
DOL eventually found the box of records six months later at its Seattle office, after the worker had died.
"I don't know how someone could lose 1,600 pages of medical records," Lee said. "But we have had lots of horror stories like that."
The federal compensation program is so difficult to navigate for sick workers or their survivors that both the Navajo Nation and the state of New Mexico have established offices to help claimants file for their benefits.
"It's a sham," Richardson, the former Energy Secretary who is now governor of New Mexico, said of the program. "It's an insult to our workers, and it's wrong."
Vera Begay lives in a home on the Navajo reservation in eastern Arizona that was made from smooth, square stones her husband brought home from the uranium mines. The mines were so close by that blasted rock sometimes rained down on the three-room house, which even now is slightly radioactive.
Begay's husband died of lung cancer 24 years ago. She was given a "compassionate payment" for his lost life years ago, through the earlier program specifically for miners. That should have made her automatically eligible for additional compensation.
But the 90-year-old Begay — whose grandson is Martinez, the man who oversees the Navajo Uranium Workers office — has been waiting three years.
"I don't know why," Begay said in English, though she speaks mostly in Navajo.
Even Martinez is not sure why his grandmother has not received the compensation.
"She should already have been paid," he said.
Talk of reform so far just talk
Congress has the authority to change the compensation program, but so far, its efforts to do so haven't had much impact. A series of hearings in 2006 and 2007 resulted in little change. At least a dozen bills are pending that would improve the compensation program, but none has gone anywhere. There is talk of holding more hearings and submitting more bills to reform the law.
"The bottom line is we want to protect and help the most needy and most deserving folks," said U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo. "I think we have to continue to push on this."
U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., said he is working on new legislation to relieve the workers' plight.
"More and more evidence is surfacing that former workers have had their claims lost or ignored, that claims examiners were encouraged to deny claims, and that bureaucratic red tape is tying the program in knots," Salazar said.
"This is an absolutely unacceptable way to treat those who have sacrificed for our country."
Dr. Laurence Fuortes is a physician and University of Iowa professor who studies occupational illness. He has helped some sick workers with lung disease try to get compensation.
When he began to suspect that workers were being wrongly rejected, he filed a Freedom of Information Act request to see more examples of lung disease claims that had been denied. Of the first 19 cases he reviewed, he found five of them contained medical evidence that they should have been approved instead.
Fuortes said he told program director Peter Turcic that the cases suggested a larger problem that needed further review.
"He seemed to agree," Fuortes said, adding that it was not clear what DOL might do about it.
"This system has been designed with maximum complexity," Fuortes said. "To me, it's setting things up for disaster."
That is exactly what's happened, said former DOL claims examiner Anne Block.
Block, a Seattle attorney who said she was fired from her job because she too helpful to claimants, said that mistakes are rampant in the system.
When a case goes through the years-long dose reconstruction process, DOL sends it to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health for an estimate of how much radiation the worker absorbed.
"I would send half the claims back to NIOSH because there would be something wrong with them," Block said.
Other times, claims examiners would be given "pre-screened" files marked as "accept" or "deny."
"I'd say 90 percent of the time, they were wrong," Block said.
She described cases that should have been approved automatically but were instead sent to NIOSH for the dose reconstruction process, cases sent off for review when a final decision already had been issued, and meetings where senior managers encouraged claims examiners to deny claims to close out cases more quickly.
"It's a complete mess," she said of the program. "And a complete waste of taxpayers' money."
DOL officials declined earlier this year to address Block's allegations.
Standing their ground
Mike Chance oversees DOL's resource centers, 11 offices across the country that are designed to help sick nuclear weapons workers file claims for compensation and medical coverage. Chance was the lead DOL official at the Navajo cooperation ceremony.
After the ceremony, Chance was about to start a "town hall" meeting at the Navajo chapter house in Tuba City, Ariz., to describe benefits available to sick workers and their families.
One of those benefits is home health care, if a doctor orders it for a gravely ill worker. Although Chance did not mention this benefit during the meeting, the labor department has approved Denver-based home health care company Professional Case Management as one provider. The company had been invited by the Navajo Nation to participate. But when employees of the company tried to set up a table to display their services, Chance ousted them from the public meeting.
Chance said he was not allowed to comment to the media, but he was overheard saying that he ousted Professional Case Management because DOL did not want to appear to endorse the company, which is suing DOL for failure to pay covered medical expenses of some of its clients.
Chance held a second town hall meeting on the Navajo reservation the next day in Kayenta, Ariz., near the Four Corners area. Again, he ejected the Professional Case Management employees. Martinez, who was setting up an information table with staff from his Office of Navajo Uranium Workers, confronted him.
Martinez told Chance that he and his entire staff also would leave if the home health care display was not allowed. Chance let them put the display in the hallway of the Kayenta Recreation Center, outside the auditorium where the meeting was being held.
The memories of the cooperation ceremony fiasco were still burning in Martinez's mind as he stood outside the century-old, eight-sided mud and log Hogan where his grandmother grew up, amid the red sands of eastern Arizona, just over the border from Colorado.
Years of frustration fueled the fire inside him.
"Time doesn't mean anything to the Department of Labor," he said. "They're not thinking about the individuals out there who are suffering. Congress is the only one that can do anything about this. And if we keep pushing them, maybe they will."
frankl@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5091
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July 23, 2008
3:55 a.m.
Suggest removal
LOUIE writes:
Sounds like the same issues as when the government allowed several black men to endure the veneral desease, Syphllis, to study it's effects. Government held off paying till there were limited victims, one or two left. Powerful thoughts on issues like these.
July 23, 2008
4:42 a.m.
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roger44 writes:
This Government is sadistic. They are doing it to the Navajo, the veterans, and anyone associated with the nuke industry that did government work. The nukes they tested in Nevada killed sheep in Utah but they deny it had any effect on humans. They aren't much different than Saddam was, he just did it in the open.
July 23, 2008
5:22 a.m.
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me2 writes:
This is not the America I pledge allegiance to. This is just a small part of the reason why our country is losing respect around the world.
July 23, 2008
7:15 a.m.
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HoosierGuy writes:
First this is a terrible offense to the workers who are now ill. Knowingly putting someone at risk is unacceptable.
Second don't argue from the specific to the general. The same govt. that did this is feeding children when their fathers won’t.
Don't throw the baby out with the bath water.
July 23, 2008
7:40 a.m.
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CDee writes:
I think everyone in Denver and East can that God that the fire in '69 didn't actually make it through the roof (though is was very close) The government would have had their wide scale test, that's for sure. And they still may have. I don't believe the whole truth was ever told about how much radiation was released into the air. Makes you wonder why Colorado is one of the healthiest states with such a high cancer rate.
July 23, 2008
8:05 a.m.
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windbourne writes:
ripcord.
I do not know which is worse. Ppl that sold our nuke secrets to Turkey and Pakistan for a buck, or ppl like you that just gut us from the internal. Both of you are disasters.
Ppl like Perle, Feith, Edleman, and grossman should be swinging for their treason, but you, OTH, are the type that allow them. In fact, I would argue that you create them. Your ignoring actions such as these that occurred COMBINED with your putting down those that take offense at it, makes you almost worst that a group of republican traitors.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news...
July 23, 2008
8:08 a.m.
Suggest removal
LOUIE writes:
HoosierGuy has it right, we are the greatest country and government on earth. These are the people, who like veterans and others made us great. All that's being asked is for the government to abide by those who gave. Each case on it's own merit(s), and to help these people if thier affliction is truly related to thier sacrifice. I agree with the government, some are not related; many of the affliction claimed afflict all Americans. Nuclear workers are a special people, at least we should honor them by examining the merit(s) of each case seperately to determine if it is related. HoosierGuy is correct that you don't throw the baby out with the bathwater; but you also don't bath the baby in gasoline, and act like nothing happened because of it. Both partys need to be fair, many knew the risks, but the high wages were more than most at the time could make given thier socio-economic background (that's another completely different arguement as many feel the government unfaily targeted the employees they used). I had one friend who worked with plutonium at the Flats. Upon it's closing out her job, she went back to high school and openned a janitorial service. Something to be said about no diploma and working with the most hazzardious substance on earth. She earned big bucks along with her husband and they lived extremely well for the many years they worked there. Fair is fair, both partys need to be fair with each other.
July 23, 2008
8:18 a.m.
Suggest removal
Balances writes:
One thing is positively sure. It's no coincendence that at every site in the country dealing with "Nuclear' people are sick. Further more that DOE ran these sites. At first it was the cold war, but somewhere money creeped in and the sucontractors were left in charge of protecting the health and safety of the workers. DOE had programs called DOELAP and NVLAP to oversee these labs. The part that some people don't know or refuse to believe is that when it was discovered that at Piketon for example the subcontractors were criminally falsifying the dose. DOE would not investigate. The CDC and NIOSH were brought in and confirmed the criminality then took the position that they had no responsibility to act for or officially report for the workers behalf. Now knowing that HIOSH is taking money for the very question they know the answer to. DOE is still withholding the documents that will confirm. Lastly the Federal program to fix this is still broken. Start the Congressional investigation. Get it straight. How much did we squander on Ken Star? It's as much about the future safety of the Nuclear industry as it is the past. We have the laws and the system in place to correct this. Where is the leadership from the elected officials? Where is the representation from the Unions? Surely a call for correctness does not jeapordize the Unions place with the Government. A Blue Ribbon Pannel to correct this is in order.
July 23, 2008
8:34 a.m.
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SLAP writes:
Maybe they have lung problems because they are using a charcoal grill in the living room. I think those are for outdoor usage.
July 23, 2008
8:47 a.m.
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LOUIE writes:
I was looking at the indoor grill situation myself. What gives, does anyone know why you'd grill on a charcoal grill indoors on the livingroom floor? Maybe we are all missing something here, at least it's not our house to fire. He's a native indian, and I am sure there is an itelligent reason for this. Anybody respectfully know why?
July 23, 2008
9 a.m.
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freedomfighter1 writes:
Winbourne
Nicely said.
The goverment is mistreating the Native Americans...an the new news is?
July 23, 2008
9:10 a.m.
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Mike1969 writes:
Does the guy in the picture know it's dangerous to use a charcoal grill indoors? I bet he does and is doing it anyway! I bet he also would have mined knowing mining was dangerous. I bet he drinks lots of firewater too knowing that is not good for him.
July 23, 2008
9:24 a.m.
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davis_x_machina writes:
Ah- as usual a wingnut responding to any criticism, however slight, with the standard wingnut invitation to move.No sir, and not just no but h*** no. Frustrating as it can be at times the preferable course is to stay and try to take the country back from the busheviks and people like the busheviks.
Another poster has it right in that if we ramp up our nuclear power generation program especially under a republican administration the plight of these workers will become the standard for the industry. This story does not mention the ongoing problems created by the waste left from the extraction and processing of uranium.
July 23, 2008
9:39 a.m.
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Justin_Credible writes:
Methinks the Navajos have forgotten a few fire safety tips... like don't use a grill inside as you will suffocate from Carbon Monoxide - must be too much firewater.
July 23, 2008
9:46 a.m.
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pj48b writes:
Everyone is a victim. Why don't we just become a socialist country and take care of everyone. No one works, everything is free to everyone. NOT......... people need to learn to take care of themselves. People in these law suits get more money than they would ever make in a lifetime and lawyers are getting rich. Who do you think pays these people ? You may call it the government, ut it is the taxpayer. OH I forgot... people don't work so they don't pay taxes.
July 23, 2008
10:03 a.m.
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chobbes writes:
artstarzz - are you sure Obama is the answer? Much of what has gone on happens behind close doors in senate and representatives offices. They sell out the people of their own states for money and political power. If you believe a Dem is different then a Rep, think again. Obama has flipped so much this election and for what? Votes! So he can have power, it is so strong right now he can smell it!
Oh and offshore drilling - we have so many foreign countries drilling of our coast in international waters it isn't funny. Then we buy the oil they drilled that is really under out waters and sell it to us and profit.
So artstarzz, wake up and smell the coffee. Your Obama is no different than any other politician.
July 23, 2008
10:15 a.m.
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freedomfighter1 writes:
vote libertarian!
July 23, 2008
10:31 a.m.
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buffsblg writes:
ph48b, do you even try to read before you write? These people DID work, at the request of their government to help what they were told was a vital national security issue. They did pay taxes, they were productive members of society and the work they did poisoned and killed them. More importantly the government knew it would and told them to do it any way. They really are victims and your rant about socialism and personal responsibility is not only factually inaccurate, but just plain stupid. This is not welfare, it is the government and the tax payers taking responsibility for what the government did to the workers. I assume you oppose VA benefits for soldiers and health care for government employees as well. If your boss consciously allowed you to be poisoned, you would be crying so loudly that they could hear you in Finland.
July 23, 2008
11:14 a.m.
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begaye08 writes:
thanks for that buffsblg. Navajos use ember to burn the cedar and that is not a grill LOL.
July 23, 2008
11:39 a.m.
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Miss_Kitty_Kat_Girl writes:
Thanks begaye08 for clarifying that point for the uncultured who post on what they do not know and assume they do.
July 23, 2008
12:19 p.m.
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PaducahWorker writes:
When Allied Troops took Germany at the end of World War II, all of the world was appalled at the way Hitler used people to experiment and research to see how substances would affect the human body. Yet, we look the other way as secret experiments have been conducted by American scientists working for the Government of the U.S.A. These experiments have maimed and killed thousands of hard working, law abiding innocent Americans and left behind massive contamination that covers hundreds of square miles of this great nation. Victims do not criticize America, nor its great people, but these are some of the most patriotic individuals in America who are using their rights to take a stand against a corrupt portion of our Government and the energy companies who have carefully conspired to take control. These workers were referred to as "Expendable Acceptable Casualties of the Cold War". But they forgot to tell us that we were "expendable". We only sought employment in the years following Hiroshima and Nagasaki to process fuel rods for nuclear power, CLEAN power, they told us. When we became sick, we were summarily dismissed, ignored, abandoned, unless we were a part of the inner "click" of friends of the management. When my friend was discovered to have bladder cancer, his case was expedited, so my friend could not see why that I was upset. He never took time to see all the victims who were not in that special group of the "click", because he was one of them. I never received even one call. Back to the energy companies; Here is your challenge. Name one item that you use daily that is not somehow affected, or controlled by some form of ... "ENERGY"? Now, who has ultimate total control of the energy? The U.S. Dept. of Energy is the single most powerful organization in the entire World. Why doesn't Congress just make the DOE do what it is supposed to do? Because the DOE has the power to thumb its nose at Congress. As an awesome power, it feels no obligation to society. How many times has Laura quoted victims saying that the DOE, or DOL simply did not reply, or respond? Those who are major stock-holders of energy companies believe they are the elite, above the law of our land and we peasants are here to serve them. Who owns, or controls the major news media networks? The energy companies. Without public knowledge of these illnesses and the wide spread contamination, we drudge on about our daily business thinking all is well with the entire World, while your neighbors are suffering and dying. Laura and the Rocky Mountain News are taking a great risk as they expose this crime against America. I stand at full attention and pledge my loyalty to them as they publish the truth that should have been published long ago by the national networks. Do you not see that these same wealthy energy companies who have created this disaster in the Uranium/Radioactive industry are the same ones who are gouging you at the gas pumps today? Wake up!
July 23, 2008
12:31 p.m.
Suggest removal
Balances writes:
Hey Laura ,
Are you feel'in it yet? They send out their minions. They will attack you. The make fun of the gentleman in the photo. They create discourse. Why are you the only one writing about this? Why isn't there a national investigation to set the record straight? There are surely enough people affected by it to warrant one. Sort of reminds me of when I was in Federal Court and the Sububbacontractor had 6 lawyers. 1 Speaker 1 go to guy 1 swamper for the go to guy and 3 schmoes sitting behind them to giggle and play grab a. The three Judge Panel starts off with. "DOE being honest." I told my 1 lawyer "uh oh we're in trouble." Quote Crush tween it's finger and it's thumb."
July 23, 2008
1:06 p.m.
Suggest removal
HSTOWEL writes:
Once again artstarzz posts without any knowledge of the subject matter. This has nothing to do with nuclear plants and the safety and reliability of those plants. Nuclear power has been proven to be safe and effective. Why do the French (yes the French) use so much nuclear power? All of our aircraft carriers (save one) and most of our submarine fleet is powered by nuclear power.
Artstarzz (as usual) wants to place this mess on the Republicans. Bush did not cause this mess, he inherited it. I think all Americans want to see these people justly compensated (if that's possible) but once again this huge bureacracy moves too slow and is ineffective. Now people like Artstarzz want the government to take more of our money and run a national health care program.
I think that this case should be resolved fairly and that somebody from the government needs to cut through or eliminate red tape to solve the problem for these Americans who have suffered doing a job that the country needed them to do. I also think that it's outrageous that federal employees can and do get bonuses for doing what the government calls a good job. These types of bonuses have no place in government and should be eliminated because this causes people to work for the bonuses instead of working for the taxpayers.
Nobama 08 (Anybody but Obama)
July 23, 2008
1:16 p.m.
Suggest removal
davies writes:
Some of you people are so naive, it is incredible.
#1, if you establish a program that gives out $100,000 to a group of people who were harmed by radiation, you are likely to have a great many false claimants come forward. Are we (the Federal Govt) to pay out this money and more to everyone, just on their say-so? Or should there be some verification for eligibility? OF COURSE the legitimate victims are going to suffer in the process; that is the very nature of fraud. When you hand out money, there will be fraud. Duh.
#2, we were at war here people, and not just a little piddling war like Vietnam. Literally tens of millions of people died all over the world, and the stakes could not have been higher: worldwide domination. These people are victims of World War Two. Lots of people suffered, and we absolutely HAD to win this war. There was no other option.
July 23, 2008
1:18 p.m.
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MrBrightSide writes:
"Bush did not cause this mess, he inherited it. I think all Americans want to see these people justly compensated (if that's possible) but once again this huge bureacracy moves too slow and is ineffective. Now people like Artstarzz want the government to take more of our money and run a national health care program."
Wrong, Bush exacerbated would be the correct thing to say, all that Richardson wants to do is get the program working as intended and take care of those people who were mislead and sacrificed. We at least owe them that.
July 23, 2008
2:03 p.m.
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buffsblg writes:
Davies:
Yes to watch for fraud is important and Congress has tried to balance the need for compensation with the need for confirmation. What this article points out however is that the bureaucracy seems to ignore this balancing and has instead put unreasonable and at times totally irrational obstacles in the way and may at times have deliberately punished people for criticizing the program. At the same time, those in charge get bonuses given to them by their buddies. It is totally appropriate to question whether the priorities of the program are being frustrated by those bureaucrats.
By the way, most of these folks were well post WWII (figuring that most of those who built the first bombs would be in their 90's now) These people were building the bombs for the cold war, which is a different issue.
July 23, 2008
2:09 p.m.
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davies writes:
By the way: I'm glad that a cedar-smoking, corn-pollen-licking ceremony did not influence the actions of the federal employees responsible for this compensation program. Smoking a frickin' peace pipe should not effect how a federal program is administered.
July 23, 2008
2:25 p.m.
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AndyB588 writes:
So how does the DOL measure success? If your a DOL employee what is your incentive in order to earn that big fat bonus?
July 23, 2008
2:29 p.m.
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MrBrightSide writes:
"So how does the DOL measure success? If your a DOL employee what is your incentive in order to earn that big fat bonus?"
Meeting their budget, career minded agendas reside in our government as much as anywhere these days, especially with the Peter Principle being to prevailent.
July 23, 2008
4:09 p.m.
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LOUIE writes:
I truly want to apologize for my earlier post concerning the incense/spiritual burner, Mr. Blue Horse, my earnest apology. I didn't mean to sound derogatory, my question must have sounded quite ignorant. Forgive my lack of understanding. Sometimes I say something and never realize it's impact. I actually thought it was a Hibachi grill you were using in the spiritual ceremony; my church has always swung the incence suspended by hand. I really hope in the future I can exercise better judgement when it comes to things I have little or no understanding of. Thanks Mr. Blue Horse.
July 23, 2008
4:43 p.m.
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davies writes:
buffsblg: I stand corrected that this program is apparently not directly associated with WWII. But here is some of the information distilled from the article:
(1) The Department of Labor says it has already paid out to date over $4 billion dollars (that's billion, with a 'b') to 15,000 claimants and their families. Both of those figures already exceed what was estimated when the program was enacted. I did not see these numbers refuted anywhere in the article.
(2) $4 billion divided by 15,000 equals $266,000 per claimant. So a serious amount of dough has been paid out here, with many more still waiting in line, or back in line for another helping. This program has been an entitlement disaster.
(3) The bonuses that are supposed to be so egregious amount to less than 1% of the total paid out to claimants, and this amount goes back to the beginning of the program, which was enacted during the Clinton administration.
July 23, 2008
4:44 p.m.
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buffsblg writes:
I did not think you were disrespectful Louie but it is not my belief system you were asking about. I suspect that to non-christians the idea of eating the body and drinking the blood of the savior might look strange as well.
Of course davies chooses to ridicule the ceremony in crude and childish terms, as anything he does not understand (a category so large as to boggle the mind) is immediately subject to attack. I too would prefer that religion did not affect policy, but this administration disagrees with me.
July 23, 2008
4:56 p.m.
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buffsblg writes:
Davies, I do believe the article points out that many of the numbers seem inconsistent. For example "The DOL's Web site says that more that 42,000 claims have been paid. The department did not respond to questions about the discrepancy between 15,000 paid versus 42,000." If they cannot keep their numbers straight, their credibility is a bit suspect. Further, the quoted experts seem to indicate that the process is at least at times deeply arbitrary.
Even if the amount paid is higher than estimated three decades ago, does that mean that the system is working? Perhaps the initial estimates were deeply flawed. Seems that there is at least anecdotal evidence of deep injustice.
Finally, why is this an "entitlement disaster". First of all it is not an entitlement program at all,in that it is based upon actual injury caused by governmental policies. You are so big on taking responsibility as an individual, but you seem to be fine with the U.S. avoiding it.
And in what way is it a disaster except that you do not believe these people deserve anything, a position that the elected representatives of the U.S. reject. Even if you disagree with the law, is it your position that bureaucrats have a right to deliberately or negligently ignore the intent of congress?
July 23, 2008
5:41 p.m.
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davies writes:
buffsblg: Thanks for a thoughtful response. I do not mean to state or even imply that none of the people were injured by the government's actions, or that none of them deserve any compensation. But with so many people's one-sided comments favoring the claimants, I am inclined to point out that there are two sides to almost every story.
The question of 15,000 versus the 42,000 does not necessarily appear to be discrepant. The 15,000 appears to be the number of claimants paid, while 42,000 is the total number of claims paid to the 15,000. The article does make clear that there are multiple payments to some claimants.
Also note your own statement: "Further, the quoted experts seem to indicate that the process is at least at times deeply arbitrary." I agree, but maybe some of the arbitrary nature of this process originates from having overpaid some claimants in the past, or from having paid unqualified claimants. I find this to be quite likely with many government programs.
So now that the program has exceeded its projections and there is no end in sight, some people with legitimate claims get stonewalled; also typical with government programs. Congress SHOULD have authorized a clear, one-time payment to victims fitting a certain criteria. Instead we have yet another well-intended, ill-conceived mess.
Last, when a program is established that determines that certain people are entitled to compensation for something, that is an entitlement program. The word entitlement does not necessarily mean charity. In fact the entire article concerns the problems with determining whether or not a particular individual is entitled to payment.
July 24, 2008
9:49 a.m.
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ABlock35 writes:
MrBrightSide writes: How does the DOL measure success in determining who at the DOL gets bonuses?
As a former Seattle DOL EEOICP examiner, I can tell you how Christy Long and Tracy Johnson determined success, because it's actually in the bonus report the Rocky managed to post.
If you take a look at who at the DOL received bonuses just in the Seattle EEOICP Office for 2007, you will see a pattern of who management liked verses who they did not like by the amount of money each employee received.
Example: Bell is an examiner inside the Seattle office who had only worked for the DOL for just over one year at the time of her bonus. While working at the DOL, and one who came in between 6 and 7 am almost every morning, I saw Bell clock in and within 30 minutes head directly to the cafe just below the Seattle DOL office, with three other employees for approx 45 minute. This examiner has little or no education and had little experience to support her most recent promotion to a senior examiner ( yes she sits over people with law degrees), other than that she is friends with management inside the Seattle Office. Ms. Bell received a rather high bonus check for her experience level.
Another examiner, who happens to have a MA, has years of experience inside this program, has been harassed and filed complaints against management, and has been refused a promotion anytime she's applied. Why? Well that's simple, Johnson and Long do not like her because she reports wrongs when she sees them. Fact is that she had the second lowest bonus award in the Seattle Office, but has one of most claimant friendly attitudes inside the Seattle Office. Her only fault is that she does not get along with management because she, like me, views managements actions as subjective.
Subjective? Yes. No federal employee should get bonuses because it leaves too much room for friends to give friends a welfare check at taxpayers expense. If welfare isn't good for single parents, it's not good for federal employees. Being a federal employee should be an honor to "serve", but as explained above, its become a welfare program for friends of the DOL's management.
Anne Block is a former Seattle EEOICP examiner and a Washington attorney and welcomes emails at lifeisgood357@comcast.net
August 19, 2008
11:37 p.m.
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jkalember writes:
I was a teacher at Tuba City Jr. High 2007-2008. There is much more to this story than just the despicable treatment of the injured miners. The radioactive plume from the abandoned uranium processing plant a few miles SE of Tuba City is moving towards the sacred Hopi springs in Moencopi. The health of all the people living in the area is threatened, so much so that Henry Waxman, chair if the House Govt. Oversight Committee stated that is this situation existed in Beverly Hills, it would have been fixed 50 years ago! My students calculated that the clean-up and the 'rescue' of the Moencopi would cost 70 minutes of the war in Iraq. Andy Bessler, the Sierra Club leader in Flagstaff, commented that apparently the safety and long term welfare of the first people in this area is worth less than 70 minutes of the peacekeeping in far away Iraq. The drastic (70%) reduction in EPA clean-up activity under the Bush regime has left many people vulnerable at at risk. The DOL needs to help the miners, and the DOE needs to remove the toxic tailings that are threatening Moencopi and the welfare of the people there.