The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "American Bar Association" ...
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Money Trails to the Federal Branch
At least two dozen of the 249 federal judges appointed in 2001 by George W. Bush have given money to Republicans while the judges were under consideration for a lifetime appointment on the bench. More than $44,000 was given by the 18 district court judges and the six appellate judges.
Tags: American Bar Association; campaign contribution; Deborah Cook; Bob Taft; John R. Adams; Tomas M. Hardiman; John E. Jones; George W. Bush; Republicans
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Signing Statements
Among the presidential powers the Bush-Cheney Administration has worked to expand are "to act in defiance of laws passed by Congress, to shield itself from outside oversight and to impose greater political control over the permanent government." The Globe exposed the role of "a previously obscure device called a "presidential signing statement." President Bush "has employed this mechanism to claim the right to ignore more than 800 laws, asserting that he can set aside any bill provision conflicting with his interpretation of the powers given to him by the Constitution." This power has been used in place of the more limited presidential veto, and "he has used it more often than all previous presidents combined." This has been a push from Vice President Cheney's office, as his history of asserting nearly unlimited presidential power is also examined.
Tags: Signing statements; Bush Administration; presidential veto; Vice President Dick Cheney; presidential powers
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Randy Richardson was a hotshot criminal - defense lawyer. Now he needs one.
Randy Richardson was a very successful lawyer, until he was indicted for bribing a witness, theft and witness - tampering. His multiple infractions and ethical breaches were often ignored or downplayed because of his enormous talent and super-star attitude. However, this reporter was able to unearth a lot of information about his shady past and illegal tactics. It is also mentioned in the article that it likely that Richardson hung onto his job for so long because he is African American.
Tags: lawyers; American Bar Association; fraud; witness; jury; purgery; Jayson Blair
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"A Question of Trust
For years, federal officials knew that Karen Fotiou, a woman pretending to be a lawyer, was targeting disabled veterans. She was illegally charging them for filing claims with the Department of Veterans Affairs. Records show she illegally collected nearly $200,000 from veterans who had little or no income and who suffered from emotional and physical problems. Even though federal officials had evidence she was breaking the law, they never charged her, never warned veterans about her and even helped her continue operating. She was able to operate freely because filing claims with the VA is slow, and an often unfair process; and veterans, under the law cannot pay a lawyer to help them. When mistakes happen in the VA system, no-one is held accountable.
Tags: disabled veterans; Department of Veterans Affairs; Veterans Affairs Medical Center-Northport; VA Hospital; U.S. Inspector Genera report; state corporate records; court appeals; New York Bar Association; VA investigators; Disabled American Veterans; National Organization of Veterans Advocates; post-traumatic stress; filing claims
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INS fails to see the light
The National Law Journal reports on how the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has been denying detained aliens the right to hear a presentation about their legal options from a group of New York lawyers. "Under rules promulgated in 1998, the lawyers should have been able to do so, but were stymied for a year and half, even as the agency proudly announced the expansion of the legal access program to federal prisons and county jails," the story reveals.
Tags: American Bar Association; human rights; civic rights; legal counsel; detainees; deportation
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An Empty Promise
This National Law Journal investigation "examined the network of state funds that exist to reimburse clients whose money have been stolen by their attorneys." The reporter concluded that "the funds in general were largely a sham: they are poorly endowed, stingy about payouts and not publicized." The three-story packet compared the victims' experiences in "a large state and small state, Illinois and Nebraska" and provided information about the security funds caps and average reimbursements state by state.
Tags: theft; disbarment; American Bar Association; security funds; reimbursement
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Banking on Fear
The American Bar Association Journal reports that "this is part revisionist history of the banking and savings & loan scandals of the 1980s-early-90s, but more significantly a look at how unprecedented powers subsequently given to regulators to clean up the mess created a 'Frankenstein monster' that harmed and destroyed a lot of innocent bankers and investors. This story shows that not only did Congress in large part create the problem by loosening regulation of savings & loans, its hasty attempt to fix the problem in 1989 with the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act beefed up a bureaucracy that has failed to pull back from cases even after it learns the targets are innocent...."
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Race and the Law
ABA Journal and the National Bar Association Magazine collaborated on a special report on race and the legal system. Articles describe how views of the legal system are influenced by lawyers' race, discriminatory race-based profiling by the U. S. Customs Service, environmental justice, racially skewed juries, and the struggles of minorities in the legal profession. ABA Journal's series of articles focuses primarily on the experiences of African Americans.
Tags: Civil Rights; Courts; Criminal Justice System; Environment; Discrimination; Minorities
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Gate Keepers of the Sacred Portals
This two part series investigates the role the American Bar Association plays in determining who becomes a lawyer in the United States. The ABA's long and less than distinguished history as accreditor of the nation's law schools and the intense controversy its accreditation standards have generated among law school deans are explored. The standards dictate virtually every aspect of law school including the hours students may work, the physical size of libraries, office space and use of adjunct professors. (Feb. 6 & 7, 1995)
Tags: audio tape; Gellerman CAR Gatekeepers of secret portals Contest entry Education TAPE
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No title (id: 9966)
American Bar Association Journal brings enough information to light to have another trial ordered for a convicted murderer on Oklahoma's death row; finds that police and prosecutors withheld information from defense attorneys; story underscores inherent problems in death penalty trials, December 1993.
Tags: OK IL Fricker 14 pages