We are pleased to welcome the Fall 2012 class of interns who are arriving today to help us serve whistleblowers and their cause.
Pictured here are (standing) Pia, Chioma, Chad, Karima, Ricardo, Carolyn, Carson and Nick, and (seated) Megan, Ashley, Garrett and Naomi.
Thank you all for dedicating this Fall semester to helping us, and don't forget to have your family and friends sign up for our Action Alerts and Partners for Truth.
British Member of Parliament Julian Smith (left in photo) today visited Stephen Kohn (right in photo) the Executive Director of the National Whistleblowers Center. Mr. Smith asked for the meeting to discuss how the United Kingdom might benefit from improved laws for whistleblowers and from an advocacy organization like NWC. Mr. Kohn explained how the United States has benefited from the False Claims Act, and has even used that law as a model for reward programs in the Dodd-Frank Act and in the Internal Revenue Service.
On May 22, 2012,
the No FEAR Coalition honored three whistleblowers and our own Richard Renner, who serves as the Legal Director and Secretary of the National Whistleblowers Center. The award for Renner recognized his advocacy for whistleblowers and his pro bono work. Appropriately the awards ceremony was held at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial. Renner, who has a long record of service for civil rights issues, received his award at the entrance to the memorial of the revered civil rights leader.
During the ceremony the No FEAR Coalition also honored three other whistleblowers. Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, founder of the No FEAR Coalition (and a Board Member of the National Whistleblowers Center), 
presented awards to Dr. Margaret Flowers, a pediatrician, single payer advocate, organizer of Occupy Washington DC and co-director of ItsOurEconomy.US. Alease Wright, former National Federal Women’s Program Manager at the U.S. Environmental Protection received an award for advancing the rights of women and involvement in community activities for women and youth throughout her career. Ms. Wright was victimized by EPA, but continued to maintain her integrity and commitment to others. Alicia Dabney, an employee of the U.S. Forest Service received an award for speaking out against sexual assaults by supervisors in that Service.
Before beginning the event Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo led a demonstration in front of the memorial, chanting “No justice, no peace!” 
This was primarily in protest to the retaliation of federal agencies against whistleblowers, and the agencies’ inefficiency in handling the outrageous number of discrimination and retaliation claims pending in their offices of civil rights. Some speakers, for example, mentioned they had cases pending since 1989. This was an inspiring crowd of whistleblowers and whistleblower supporters that gathered at the MLK Memorial. They were loud and clear that they were not scared to stand up for justice, and were definitely not scared to let their voices be heard. Matthew Fogg spoke about his whistleblowing at the U.S. Marshals Service. Melissa Seaver spoke about continuing federal discrimination against Native Americans, and about losing her home to a Department of Agriculture foreclosure.
Photos by NWC interns Adrian Amaya and Andy Lugo, and Richard Renner. This blog post was written by Adrian Amaya.
With the change of seasons comes another class of interns. This summer, we are pleased to have a large group of law students, and some undergraduates, who have devoted themselves to learn about whistleblower advocacy. Pictured here are Adrian, Jane, Nate, James, Barrett, Julia, Sehra, Samantha, Abisola, Lauren, Adam, Andy, Bassim, Matt, Amber, Vicki, Simon, Russell, Joseph, and James. Thank you all for joining us as interns.
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Our work for whistleblowers benefits indispensably from the work of generous and dedicated interns. Here is our intern class for the Spring semester of 2012. Standing are Dasha, Kelly, Lauren, Jerry, James and Nicole. Seated are Chris, Kara, Nora and Monique. Thank you all.
Oranges and Sunshine is a new feature film scheduled for limited release this Friday, October 21, 2011. It is based on the book Empty Cradles by Margaret Humphreys (portrayed by Emily Watson), a social worker in Nottingham, England. Earlier in her career, it was her job to remove babies from loving parents. By 1986, she was leading a group therapy for adults coping with issues arising from their adoptions. Some wanted to find their parents or siblings. One discovered a brother living in Australia. Then another young woman contacted her claiming that she had been taken from her parents in England and transported to Australia where she grew up.
Connecting these two cases, Humphreys begins research that uncovers a decades-long British practice of exporting dependent children. In the 1950's and 1960's, upwards of 130,000 children were deported under the program, about 7,000 to Australia. Humphreys used her personal vacation to travel to Australia with that one woman who so treasured meeting her brother. While there, Humphreys continues her research into the child deportations.
Were this a typical whistleblower story, Humphreys would have received a hostile reaction from her superiors when she started raising concerns about a massive fraud and conspiracy by government officials. Instead, when Humphreys explains her concerns to her supervisor, the supervisor is upset that Humphreys had to use her personal vacation time for her investigation in Australia. The supervisor arranges to assign Humphreys to investigate her own concerns, full time, and starts raising the money to cover her salary and expenses for two years. This is a whistleblower fantasy. Our hero also has a supportive husband, and children who share only a few words about missing their busy mother.
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Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo (pictured with Rev. Walter E. Fauntroy) celebrated the release of her new book at Busboys and Poets last night. Her book is called, NO FEAR: A Whistleblower's Triumph Over Corruption and Retaliation at EPA.
The event began with a short documentary film produced and directed by Tylon Washington and Shawna Glover. The film began with interviews in South Africa of victims of vanadium mining. They explained how they worked without protective equipment. The vanadium pentoxide entered their lungs, came out of their pores, and damaged their bedsheets and bodies. Some interviews were with their widows. The American company that ran the vanadium mine took x-rays of their workers' lungs, but would not share those x-rays with the injured workers. 
Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo sacrificed her career at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to speak out against the poisoning of South Africa. NO FEAR tells the story of these workers, Dr. Coleman-Adebayo's efforts to protect them, the retaliation she suffered, her historic jury verdict against EPA, and the campaign that led to the NO-FEAR Act.
Rev. Walter E. Fauntroy introduced Dr. Coleman-Adebayo. He called her a Rosa Parks for the 21st Century.
Hosts of the event were Teaching for Change, TransAfrica Forum, National Whistleblowers Center (of which Dr. Coleman-Adebayo is a Board member), No FEAR Coalition, Alliance for Justice in the Workplace, and USDA Minority Committee.
You can order her new book from the NWC store.
For more information about her current campaign to remove one EPA retaliator, follow this link. You can also visit Dr. Coleman-Adebayo's own web page. Follow the continuation of this blog post for more photos.
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We are grateful to have the assistance of new interns for the Fall. Standing are Mark, Trevor, Daphney, Tim, Kim and Owen (our staffer for the National Whistleblowers Center). Seated are Rafaele, David, Fay and Yasin. Our intern program provides a unique learning opportunity for those interested in the law or other forms of public advocacy. These interns are already busy with a variety of projects helping us to advance the whistleblower cause. Thank you.
We are so thankful to have the services this Summer from this fine group of interns:
Pictured here, from the left, are Emily, Michael, Zach, Ramina, Anna, Shawn, Dasha, Adam and Cho. Not pictured: Danielle, Daniel, Parth, Andrew, Lillian and Sara.
Thank you, interns. If you are interested in being a future intern with us, follow this link.
Fourteen whistleblowers hosted a book signing party last night for Stephen Kohn's new book, The Whistleblower's Handbook. Pictured here are: Jane Turner, Jim Murtagh, Bunnatine "Bunny" Greenhouse, Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, Bill Sanjour, Russell Tice, Kiki Ikossi, Jim Bobreski, Dr. David L. Lewis, Tom Hunter, Linda Tripp, Marita Murphy, Dr. Frederic Whitehurst, and Bassem Youssef.
You can still buy The Whistleblower's Handbook for $16.95, plus shipping and handling. More pictures follow in the continuation of this blog entry.
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