(Adapted from a post at Needlenose -- more tips have been posted since then, including one with an e-mail address for journalists to contact.)
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote at Needlenose about Operation Blue Roof, the FEMA program for putting blue tarps on hurricane-damaged roofs across the Gulf Coast ... at an outrageously inflated rate of 10 times the normal price.
It's not as popular a topic as writing about Valerie Plame, Judith Miller, or Karl Rove, but it obviously strikes a chord for some people -- every few days, someone finds the post through a Google search and adds a comment about their personal experience.
A few days ago, someone posted this
anonymous comment:
After being screwed around over and over by the contractors, I split. I went down there after being promised the world, I knew it was crap, but I didn't know how bad it really was. No one was willing to put it down on company letterhead just how much they were going to pay the workers. Then, they made us wait until the start of a new pay cycle to start working (4 days of waiting). That initial pay period is 12 days, and then I find out they are paying with a personal check, not a company check because the contractors created a multi-level marketing type system to recruit people and the money has to trickle down. It's a damn shame they are doing this to people. The biggest sham of the whole deal is Gov. Blanco said the work was going to go to LA people, but while I was down there, I saw 2 crews from LA, hundreds from TX, and hundreds more from OK. Meanwhile the LA crews, I was one, were getting the biggest jerk-around of all.
A couple more people have posted similar complaints since then. Anyone know a journalist they can get to look into this? Seems like it would be a fair-sized scandal if word got out... and it might help these people get the money they deserve.