Rules

A recent whistleblower lawsuit filed in California is shedding light on the risks public employees face when reporting workplace harassment and misconduct. The case involves a public health director who alleges they were fired in retaliation for reporting racial harassment and systemic issues within the County of Lake.

According to the filing, the plaintiff reported multiple instances of harassment and a hostile work environment, including racial discrimination and retaliation for voicing concerns. Despite filing a formal complaint, they were terminated before the investigation into their claims was completed. The lawsuit raises several alarming issues.

https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/55772797/Portney_v_County_of_Lake

https://parrhesiastes.substack.com/p/how-many-life-threatening-incidents-due-to-suspicious-odors-have-occurred-in-operating-rooms-during-surgeries-at-uva-health-university-hospital?utm_medium=ios

I have left the youth organisation i worked for and taken their database with me. The documents prove their corrupt and criminal ways.

Where do I post the dump to make the data available plus life insurance for myself. I do not want to go press or authorities.

Based on Eurovision rules it states here: 'The songs (lyrics and music compositions) submitted to represent the country of each Participating Broadcaster’s country in the ESC must be original*'*

However i found out, the song 'Toy' by Netta won even when it sampled white stripes Seven nation army https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/white-stripes-singer-gets-writing-credit-for-toy-579967

Instead of disqualifying the song they gave White Stripes copyright rights to the song 1 year after it was released.

Thanks to some of you, I know that TOR browser + public WIFI is a good way to stay anonymous. I have more questions.

1. How to know if I am bugged or monitored? I am currently confined unwillingly in a small area, and I dare to say that I am likely to be bugged and monitored, either online and offline. How to sort these threats out and secure myself?
2. Please evaluate the security level of each of these options, by comparing them to "TOR+Public WIFI": A)Ubuntu Linux + Firefox + Home WIFI; B)Linux other than Ubuntu + Firefox + Home WIFI; C)TOR + Home WIFI
3. Please tell if the below combination is enough to identify and/or locate me: monitored business computer + personal computer in a same network simultaneously

Update: I am a victim of misconduct of a large tech firm. I was hired to fire, and I am threatened and retaliated because I simply sought truth by contacting their HR. All I can tell is that the tech firm is a top 10 on the rankings.

There must be any number of insiders who can show either insider trading by members of Congress, or other claims made falsely to secure contracts, so why don't more people report them? Fear? Ignorance?

Anyone whistleblow against a local government agency? Details?

If you were going to make an anonymous whistleblower report, would you do all of these steps? Is this overkill?

1. Go to a public place with free Wifi
2. Use a VPN
3. Use a TOR browser
4. Use a one-time email

I am all for the disclosure hearing on November 13th. Have I missed something? David Grusch made the headlines with the original hearing but I've not heard anything from him this year? I Googled his name and nothing is coming up... what is going on please?

We write this statement as a collective of former employees from across levels and projects at Intercultural Youth Scotland (IYS). Through this statement we hope to hold to account former CEO Khaleda Noon, current Executive Director Garvin Sealy, Director of Operations Gerald Richards, and Chair of the Board Satwat Rehman, for the harm they have caused to employees, and to the young people reliant on IYS services. We write with sadness over their dismantling of an organisation that we once all believed in and saw the anti-racist impact of. In the last two years, the workforce at IYS has depleted from close to 30 staff to fewer than 8, due to a longstanding historic culture of bullying, victimisation, and racism, which has been embedded into the practices and is still present today. All staff who have left have done so under duress, for lack of morale, as victims of bullying and intimidation, or have had their contracts terminated with insufficient warning. Staff have been specifically targeted if they have been part of unionisation efforts, if they have submitted grievances, or if they have raised verbal and written concerns of financial mismanagement and poor practice.

We are concerned that IYS continues to promote services within Scottish Government spaces, on social media, and in meetings with funders, that simply cannot exist due to the staffing shortage and insufficient ethical praxis. Projects have been discontinued while informing neither the young people reliant on them, nor even the partners who think they are supporting those projects. Its Board and successive leaders have systematically acted in direct opposition to IYS’ founding anti-racist principles, and have stripped IYS of all anti-racist knowledge and practice, to the point that it can no longer ethically operate as an anti-racist organisation.

The culture of manipulation, unprofessionalism, and nepotism started with the previous CEO, Khaleda Noon, and is firmly embedded into the work culture. Promotions were made based on personal relationships with leadership, rather than skills and expertise, while women of colour in particular were bullied, overlooked, and denied basic working rights. The majority of staff raised a collective concern about unethical practice and inadequate safeguarding protocols to the leadership two years ago, which was dismissed, and was then followed by recriminations and retaliations against staff seen as the ringleaders of this whistleblowing statement. Further grievances resulted in a 7-month investigation, at which point the Board confirmed that bullying allegations against the CEO were true, but chose to keep those findings from staff. This enabled the CEO to continue to bully staff, and then leave on her own terms without repercussion, having taken the intellectual property of her employees to immediately found a new charity.

Throughout this process, the Board constantly framed IYS’ financial situation as in crisis to limit staff expenditure, but refused to explain how funds for youth services continued to be misused on inflated external consultant fees, nebulous office costs, and vanity projects. The Board brought in Garvin Sealy and Gerald Richards as new leadership in 2024, who exploited and amplified the existing failures of the organisation. Basic rights like flexible working and reasonable adjustments for disabilities were withheld from all except for the most favoured employees. Essential compliance was dismissed, including food allergies for high-risk young people in the organisation’s care, data protection regulations, and urgent referrals from vulnerable service users. Indeed, staff who raised such concerns had their disabilities and poor mental health held against them as cause for marginalisation in the workplace, exclusion from meetings, and even cause for dismissal. Communication became increasingly hostile, intimidating, belittling, and humiliating, with staff regularly reduced to tears with no follow up from leadership. Leaders spread gossip and made last-minute personnel changes to pit teams and individuals against one another over scant support and presentation opportunities, fostering a culture of suspicion and mistrust, isolation and poor mental health. There became no expectation of career progression, training was scrapped, praise was focused on staff who did not raise concerns, and staff were made to work under constant threat of their jobs ending. Younger female employees were those most at risk of being cornered for coercive conversations, and of having their behaviour policed.

Gerald Richards’ initial appointment on a short-term (3-month) consultancy basis, allowed him to evade accountability and blame the previous administration, despite being in the role for almost a year now. Both leaders have maximised their high-profile public appearances in this period to legitimise their wrongdoing. Garvin Sealy, since being in post, has further toxified the entire organisation, intimidating, denigrating, and gaslighting employees, while presenting a veneer of normality to funders and partners outside the organisation. The consequence of these actions has meant that vital and previously successful projects have been cut for young people with minimal notice, and employees on programmes they were passionate about and dedicated to were reporting depression, work-related stress, and long-term physical illness. IYS became an untenable place to work, and yet at every point that staff spoke of these concerns, they risked further victimisation and marginalisation.

As a collective, we are most concerned by this fundamental dissonance between the public presentation of IYS and its internal practice. It is disingenuous for IYS to call itself youth-led when its leadership consistently dismisses the perspectives of staff working directly with young people. It is hypocritical that IYS calls itself a safe space for young Black people and people of colour when its leadership has always treated its marginalised staff with contempt. Staff leave the organisation feeling more traumatised, mentally unhealthy, and financially precarious than they did when they entered. IYS is not, and for some time has not been, anti-racist in its core values, practice, and mission. We know from experience that these four leaders of IYS have a history of scapegoating other staff, to avoid accountability for the toxic work culture they have created. We hope that this letter serves to reframe your current or prospective relationship with IYS, as well as the four leaders mentioned in this letter, as irredeemable.

Who would I need to contact and send this to? I’m tired of risking my health and body. we have oil leaking out the building into the grass. Our lifts have failed inspections… exposed wires etc etc I live in Columbia sc

I have evidence that directly links DARPA to the targeting of civilians as guinea pigs for unconsentual biomedical research and experimentation. Who should I contact to get help with this situation. I myself am a victim of unconsentual biomedical research and experimentation and need help.

Hi all,

I’m a journalist and magazine editor looking into cases of internal comms breakdowns within companies - lack of clear communications, support, poor internal cultures and management.

If anyone would be interested in talking to me anonymously about their experiences with any of the above, please get in touch.

email: rxcca@proton.me

I called osha the other day and they came through and investigated what I called them about still waiting on the report. However it was talk of my company when I came in today and I was told "they know who called and have to wait 30 days before they can do anything about it". I know i have rights but how long am I actually protected against retaliation? I'm a model employee i.e Perfect attendance and have been recognized as on of the top operators on my shift. Not really looking to loose my job like this however my safety guy is a joke and doesn't know anything nor will he enforce anything. I work in the state of Indiana

Sounds crazy but I am very serious about this. Three weeks ago I left my job working for a retail chain store. The mistreatment and abuse that I and many others faced is repulsive. The corruption is putrid. I feel it is an injustice to simply leave quietly. Some things they did were definitely against labor laws at time, but I feel this needs to be known outside of just the legal realm so that others can avoid a similar fate to mine. How do I do this? Is there a safe way for me to connect to a journalist or a publishing company that would be willing to hear my stories? This retail company is massive, I'll be honest, I do fear retaliation of some kind as some people have already faced that while still employed. Any advice would be great, thank you.

Hi this is gonna be a long post about just the different terrible things dollar general did not only while I worked there but to some people I know, before you even think I promise this isn’t just a rant about hours or pay this goes way beyond that.

So I worked at dollar general back in 2021 but some people close to me had been working there since way back in the early 2010’s. First of all more than anything I don’t want to use anyone’s real names but a lot of this stuff can be fact checked I’m sure somewhere by others anecdotes or reports. But anyways the person i was closest to, i’ll call Sarah, had started off at the bottom of the totem pole and had to work her way up over years. During this time she went through multiple events such as robbery, assault, many instances of overworking etc.

Fast forward a little while and Sarah is training to become a manager while acting as assistant manager to another store. One of Sarah’s main duties was working the freezer section and ordering/checking in new merchandise. One day while trying to get some frozen food out of the back freezer the door ,which normally would have been propped open, shut and closed her inside. Normally these doors are very heavy and can swing back easily, there was also an emergency push button inside the freezer to open the door incase of an emergency. Sarah attempted to use the emergency button but it would not open the doors. Turns out the lubrication mechanism was faulty and caused the doors emergency button to fail.

Sarah would then bang on the walls of the freezer hard enough to leave dents to try to get the attention of another employee or customer. Sadly no one was able to hear her due to how far back in the store the freezer was. Sarah had used boxes from the frozen food to try to insulate herself until someone could help her. Luckily after a couple of hours her manager finally heard the banging and was able to get her out of the freezer. At first she thought it was a joke because coincidentally this happened in April first.

After reporting and letting district managers know what happened Dollar General was nice enough to have the vice president at the time come down and investigate the incident himself. He himself put himself into the freezer and yet again the emergency button failed. Sarah despite what had happened to her and the proof that it wasn’t a one off accident, denied any sort of compensation for the incident. She believed in the company at the time but also was worried about any repercussions the company may have had. The vice president actually had stepped away from dollar general shortly after due to the incident but did come back and actually take on the CEO position for a while.

About a year or so after Sarah went on to become the manager of her own store, while here she was met with more challenges due to low hours. I can recount the years she would work by herself in the store just to be able to give employees their own hours. You see dollar general managers were salary but expected to work overtime as needed without compensation. Which isn’t atypical in many companies but to work entire shifts months on end by herself was outright theft of her time. Dollar general managers didn’t count against the hours for the other employees so sadly this was her only solution.

Sarah managed however to bring the store to a grand point. It was awarded circle of excellence which in the dollar general world means one of the top performing stores. Afterwards she was asked by a district manager if she’d like to take on a new store. Sarah wanted this challenge and thought it would be good for herself. The new store however was left in shambles by a previous manager.

It was around this time I had started working for dollar general at Sarah’s old store. My employment with the company did rely on my being flexible to work multiple stores as needed which I agreed to since hey more hours. Sarah’s new store was one of them.

Fast forward a few months because I’m sure I’m starting to bore you, typical hours issues and labor being hard to keep was normal at this point. But then came the rats. You see dollar general warehouses aren’t the very clean. And when these warehouses get infested the rodents like to come in with the stock that gets sent out. Luckily my main store wasn’t affected but Sarah’s store was. We would have a dumpster dropped off outside the store and take turns throwing away whole containers of merchandise due to the outbreak. At this time the store was still open to the public and we were instructed not to mention why the merchandise was getting thrown out.

Dollar general thought it was more important to keep making money than prevent major health risks to the consumers. It took about two months of work constantly throwing away inventory before the issue was resolved. At this point Sarah desperately needed a break which I think we can all agree was well deserved. During this time multiple employees decided to quit due to not having their way with the schedule and i along with one other employee were left to fend for ourselves, note again this store wasn’t the main one I was assigned to work at.

We managed the best we could with the very little help given to us, Sarah would have to come back and hire almost all new staff which was roughly 5 persons. Which the size of this store isn’t the normal size dollar general, it was much larger and I’d estimate needed at-least 5 employees a shift in order to function properly let alone 5 employees on the payroll alone. Sarah would still have to work shifts alone in order to give these employees enough hours to live off of, this reached the point of her passing out in the store while by herself. I begged and pleaded with Sarah to quit as obviously this was not good for her mental or physical health anymore but she couldn’t. Dollar general had brainwashed her and wouldn’t let her go. Many excuses and empty promises made but never fulfilled. It took another year from that point before Sarah would finally leave the company.

While this story is about Sarah and her awful experience with the company it’s not uncommon to hear other managers be treated with such little regard. Sarah is just one of many who suffered for a company who didn’t care about anything more than profits. A company who gave sweet promises in order to brainwash people and risk the health and safety of their own consumers before making any changes.

This isn’t a call to start a major boycott against the company but if anything raise awareness. These people are treated terribly and without any sort of compensation for their efforts. If Sarah could go back she would’ve gladly taken any sort of settlement from Dollar general for the freezer incident, she would have also never left her store she had worked so hard on to reach circle of excellence. But regardless if she really could, Sarah would have avoided working for dollar general at all.

Side note: feel free to question anything as I may have had some details fuzzy in my memories, I’m more than welcome to any corrections on if something mentioned turns out to be misrepresented or I was misremembering anything. Also I’m down to answer any reasonable questions in the comments.

TLDR: dollar general mistreats their managers by making them work overtime without compensation and would prefer costumers buy rat infested products versus shutting a store down.

This article highlights the most corrupt politicians around the world and explores corruption by some of the world’s most popular politicians and how it affects the systems.

https://maltabulletin.mt/top-10-most-corrupt-politicians-world/

I'm writing this as an ex-employee at a BPO in Gurgaon, which is a small US-based cellular network company. They hire quickly but overwhelm staff with 5-6 stressful chats at once. They claim not to fire employees, yet the pressure often drives them to leave.

Many Indian workers still face exploitation, with little government support. Those who try to start their own businesses often face pushback from authorities, leaving them disheartened.

Employees are easily manipulated and sometimes even insult each other. Despite being a US company, they hide low salaries under the guise of performance incentives, which are nearly impossible to achieve due to constant monitoring.

We’re required to log every action, and the work environment feels oppressive, with management displaying a lack of empathy. New hires are expected to perform like experienced staff, without proper training. They don’t provide proper support for customers in the USA, leaving employees feeling overwhelmed and unable to assist effectively. The tools we have are inadequate, making it difficult to resolve customer issues. Many times, I felt helpless while chatting with customers, wanting to help them, but my team lead or SME would say we weren’t authorized to offer even a $1 credit.

Every time you see a chat support executive, please have some compassion for them. I wanted to assist customers, and the low pay wasn't an issue for me as long as I could provide help. But ultimately, we have very little control over the situation.

The company also uses music to distract from the stress of handling multiple chats, but realistically, no one can effectively manage more than three at once. Attendance tracking is complicated, with several systems in place that make the workday even more stressful.

By Zachary Ellison, Independent Journalist

• October 18, 2021: Meeting of Nury Martinez, Kevin de León (KDL), Gil Cedillo, and President Ron Herrera is illegally recorded at the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO (LA Fed)
• September 19, 2022: Recording of October 18, 2021 meeting is posted on Reddit in segmented clips
• September 30, 2022: Meeting of Ron Herrera and consultant Hannah Cho with Chief of Staff Justin Wesson by phone is illegally recorded
• October 6, 2022: Recording of September 30, 2022 meeting is posted on Reddit
• October 9, 2022: The LA Fed sends a letter to the LA Times attempting to block publication of the recordings
• October 9, 2022: The Los Angeles Times and Knock LA report on the recordings
• October 10, 2022: Ron Herrera resigns as President of the LA Fed
• October 10, 2022: Mayoral candidate Karen Bass condemns the racism in the recordings; rival Rick Caruso attempts to connect Bass to the participants
• October 11, 2022: The LA Fed launches internal investigation, reverses position on recordings as racist, and calls on Martinez, KDL, and Cedillo to resign
• October 11, 2022: President Joe Biden, through Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, calls for the resignation of Martinez, KDL, and Cedillo
• October 12, 2022: Nury Martinez resigns as President of the Los Angeles City Council
• October 12, 2022: California State Attorney General (AG) Rob Bonta announces investigation into the discussion of redistricting
• October 2022: Attorney’s for LA Fed former Director of Finance Santos Leon allege that KDL and Cedillo pressure District Attorney George Gascón to find evidence on the LA Fed employee and his wife
• October 25, 2022: Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Chief Michel Moore announces an investigation into the source of the recordings
• November 8, 2022: Karen Bass wins the Los Angeles Mayor’s race, defeating Rick Caruso despite being outspent 10:1 by a vote of 54.8% to 45.2%
• March 2023: Karla Vasquez states that she “resigned,” but Judge Stephen Pfahler later writes that she terminated from her position as part of LA Fed’s “workplace investigation” after suspicious software is allegedly found on her computer
• April 3, 2023: According to Santos Leon, he receives notice that investigators from AG Bonta’s office seize his work computer for investigation and becomes suspicious he’s going to be framed for the leak
• June 26, 2023: Former Mayoral candidate Rick Caruso claims that the LA Fed Tapes hurt his support with Latinos and attempts to directly connect Karen Bass to the leak
• July 2023: Santos Leon is is terminated from her position as part of LA Fed’s internal investigation after suspicious software is allegedly found on her computer
• July 12, 2023: The home of Santos Leon and Karla Vasquez is searched by LAPD
• October 2023: LAPD sends case against Leon and Vasquez to District Attorney (DA) George Gascón for prosecutorial review. DA Gascón sends the case back to LAPD for further investigation into the source of the leak
• October 7, 2023: KDL and Gil Cedillo file civil lawsuits against Leon and Vasquez, and Cedillo also sues the LA Fed over the matter
• October 9, 2023: Cedillo blames Democratic Socialists of America-Los Angeles aligned politicians and the daughter of the owner of the Los Angeles Times, Nika Soon-Shiong for the leak in an interview with La Opinión
• January 12, 2024: LAPD Chief Michel Moore announces retirement
• January 29, 2024: LAPD sends case back to the DA’s office for a second review
• February 28, 2024: LAPD Chief Moore retires after 40 years of service; Dominic Choi becomes Interim Chief of the LAPD
• April 26, 2024: DA Gascón declines to file felony charges against Leon and Vasquez, referring the case to City Attorney Hydee Feldstein-Soto for misdemeanor prosecution
• August 19, 2024: Anti-SLAPP motions from Leon and Vasquez in KDL’s civil lawsuit fail; Judge Stephen Pfahler orders the case to trial in June 2025
• September 11, 2024: KDL blames the DSA-LA for the leak in debate with opponent Ysabel Jurado
• September 18, 2024: Leon and Vasquez again deny responsibility for the leak in formal answers to the judge. Leon accuses KDL of intentional or negligent fraud in a civil court filing. 
• October 2, 2024: Los Angeles Times reports on AG Bonta’s Draft Stipulated Judgment and closed meeting discussion with the City Council over a redistricting settlement to increase Latino representation on council
• October 7, 2024: Attorney’s for Leon and Vasquez file notice that they plan to appeal the decision to order a jury trial in KDL’s lawsuit
• October 16, 2024: City Attorney Feldstein-Soto announces that no misdemeanor charges will be filed against Leon and Vasquez, citing “insufficient evidence” for prosecution, KDL and Cedillo accuse her of “having shirked her duty” and “injustice” in declining to prosecute the matter
• October 29, 2024: Next hearing is scheduled in Gil Cedillo’s civil lawsuit against Leon, Vasquez, and the LA Fed
• June 25, 2025: Potential civil case jury trial in Kevin de León vs. Leon and Vasquez scheduled before Judge Pfahler

Link: https://zacharyellison.substack.com/p/part-122-the-la-fed-tapes-leak-a

What if no one had investigated Watergate?