Who’s really benefiting from the GI Bill? Why does the U.S. Coast Guard have some explaining to do? How much arsenic in our water is actually safe? There’s always more to the story.
“Reveal,” our new radio show dedicated to investigative reporting, is back. Produced with our partners at PRX, the third pilot episode examines the value of a degree from for-profit colleges reaping millions of dollars from the GI Bill, explores the Coast Guard’s shaky safety record, exposes the backroom deals over arsenic in our water and delves into the secrecy around lethal injection drugs.
Check your local listings or download the podcast here.
Profiting off the GI Bill
Under an expanded GI Bill, veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars now can go to college tuition-free. But there’s one campus in particular that has received more GI Bill money than any other in the country: the University of Phoenix in San Diego.
CIR reporter Aaron Glantz explains the phenomenon and why veterans who graduate from there say they can’t get jobs with their degrees.
Listen to the full story here.
The Coast Guard’s string of deadly accidents
The U.S. Coast Guard – the fifth branch of the military – has suffered a string of potentially avoidable and sometimes deadly accidents, along with hundreds of millions of dollars in equipment damage, lawsuits from civilians and internal investigations that have questioned safety procedures.
CIR reporter G.W. Schulz examines the Coast Guard’s safety record dating back to 2000 and finds lapses in judgment and missed opportunities to strengthen safety standards to protect crew members and civilians.
This “Reveal” investigation introduces us to a Coast Guard pilot whose helicopter ran into transmission wires that weren’t properly marked. We also talk with the family of a Coast Guard member who died as a result of a risky boating maneuver and speak to the former commandant of the Coast Guard about the service’s safety record.
Listen to the full story here.
The battle over arsenic
You may not know it, but you probably consume arsenic regularly in the food you eat and the water you drink. In 2008, scientists at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency determined that arsenic was 17 times more potent a carcinogen that previously thought. But a closed-door maneuver in Congress has blocked the EPA from issuing its findings.
Reporter David Heath of the Center for Public Integrity takes us to Maine, where researchers have found that children drinking water containing arsenic – even water that met federal standards – scored significantly lower on IQ tests. That research is just one of hundreds of studies that call into question whether the current drinking water standard for arsenic is adequate.
Heath unravels the backroom deals that have stalled the EPA’s latest assessment of arsenic. He examines how one paragraph of a congressional committee report attached to a bill instructed the agency not to take any actions based on its scientific findings. He investigates how one lawmaker received campaign contributions from a lobbyist for two pesticide companies that sell weed killer that was set to be banned on the condition that the EPA complete its scientific review of arsenic. Because of political interference, that ban never happened, and the weed killer remains on the market.
Listen to the full story here.
Buying execution drugs in secret
Missouri is one of several states that are buying their drugs for executions in secret.
Last year, St. Louis Public Radio reporters Chris McDaniel and Véronique LaCapra uncovered the identity of the state’s then-supplier, a pharmacy in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that was not licensed to sell drugs in Missouri. They also found that a top corrections official paid the pharmacy in cash – $11,000 per execution.
Since the initial investigation, the state has become even more secretive. McDaniel has sued the state for withholding records.
Listen to the full story here.
Here’s how you can get more “Reveal”:
1. Check listings for your local radio station for exact airing dates and times, or subscribe to download the podcast here.
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