Author: Mitch Weiss
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‘They kept us as slaves’: AP reveals claims against church
Ana Albuquerque during an interview with AP, in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Wednesday, March 29, 2017. Bent over a desk, Albuquerque says church founder Jane Whaley and member Brooke Covington repeatedly spanked her with a flat piece of wood while screaming that she was “unclean” and possessed by the devil.(AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo) Silvia Izquierdo Ana Albuquerque…
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AP Exclusive: Ex-congregants reveal years of ungodly abuse, sex rules
SPINDALE, N.C. — From all over the world, they flocked to this tiny town in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, lured by promises of inner peace and eternal life. What many found instead: years of terror — waged in the name of the Lord. Congregants of the Word of Faith Fellowship were regularly…
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Facility in West Virginia spill flew under regulatory radar
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The facility whose chemical spill contaminated the water supply for 300,000 West Virginia residents was barely scrutinized, flying largely under the radar of government regulators who viewed it as a low-risk operation — but in reality, a problem at a key holding wall went undetected and unreported at Freedom Industries Inc. The…
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AP IMPACT: US fails to tackle student visa abuses
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — Lured by unsupervised, third-party brokers with promises of steady jobs and a chance to sightsee, some foreign college students on summer work programs in the U.S. get a far different taste of life in America. An Associated Press investigation found students forced to work in strip clubs instead of restaurants. Others…
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Groups stunned that government is ignoring 27,000 wells
Leading environmental groups and a U.S. senator on Wednesday called on the government to pay closer attention to more than 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells in the Gulf of Mexico and take action to keep them from leaking even more crude into water already tainted by the massive BP spill. The calls for action…
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Emerging oil rig evidence shows lack of regulation
WASHINGTON — The first firm evidence of what likely caused the disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil blowout — a devastating sequence of equipment failures — drives home a central unsettling point about America’s oil industry: key safety features at thousands of U.S. offshore wells are barely regulated. Wednesday’s hearings by congressional and administration panels —…