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 "Michael Powell" ...
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"Judgment Day"
Two judges accepted $2.67 million in payoffs for sending juveniles to "two for-profit" detention centers. In this investigation, the reporter uncovers the identities of the lawyer and contractor who supplied the payments, and revealed the mob connections of one of the judges.
Tags: Pennsylvania Child Care LLC; William D'Elia; Michael Conahan; Mark Ciavarella; juvenile center; Robert Mericle; Robert J. Powell
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Teens and Strangers
Children are taught to avoid strangers and dangerous situations, and should have these lessons ingrained by the time they are teenagers. The Early Show drove around in a van, attempting to lure teenagers - including students at Princeton University- into the car to find out just how well those lessons are learned, and how easy or difficult it would be to get a teenager to exhibit poor judgment. Using cover stories including being a film crew seeking young people for a commercial, and posing as a police officer, the show lured people into the van.
Tags: abduction; kidnapping; strangers; lure; The Early Show
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"Travel Scams"
The Early Show bought a vacation package they received by fax. They filmed their vacation and found they did not receive promised activities, their five-star hotel was a dump, they were charged high-season premiums even though they were traveling in an off-season month. The Florida Better Business Bureau said the travel company that arranged the trip had a long list of unanswered complaints.
Tags: Travel; fraud; vacations; scams; overcharges
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Bad Sourcing; Chalabi: A Questionable Use of U.S. Funding; A Double Game; Our Con Man in Iraq; Chalabi: and the Questions Keep Coming...; The Hunt for the Iranians' Informer; Forget the 'Poisons and Deadly Gases'; Rewriting History
This series about prewar intelligence in Iraq was the first to uncover doubts that the Bush administration and the CIA may have had about all of the Iraqi defectors, as mentioned in Secretary of State Colin Powell's Feb. 2003 speech. The series questions a number of different intelligence sources, including Ahmad Chalabi, and investigates their credibility and unauthorized use of U.S. funding.
Tags: Iraqi National Congress. Defense Department; Iraq; Ahmad Chalabi; prewar intelligence
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The Man who Knew
This story investigates Colin Powell's assertion that the United States was justified in going to war with Iraq because Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. The investigation found that Secretary Powell's claims were exaggerated and misrepresented. Greg Thielmann was "The Man who Knew" in this story, telling CBS News that the American public was not given the truth by Powell. Thielmann, who was the Director of the Office of Strategic Proliferation and Military Affairs, gave the truth behind Powell's accusations, and exposed them for not being backed up with valid evidence.
Tags: War on Terrorism; President George W. Bush; aluminum tubes; uranium; United States intelligence
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Disconnect
By allowing new competitors into the local phone market, the 1996 telecom act helped create the new telecom economy. But it contained a fatal flaw that allowed the Bells to control new entrants' access to customers, even as these two compete for the same customers. The result is that the Bells are dominating the market and able to drive new telecom companies out of business.
Tags: telecom industry; Rhythms NetConnections; Telecommunications Act of 1996; DSL; Internet; broadband; Michael Powell; FCC; deregulation
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The Bush team
The Center investigates the backgrounds of some of the Bush administration employees. The report reveals that many of them have ties to those very industries that they are currently regulating.
Tags: TRANSCRIPT; John Ashcroft; Andrew Card; Michael K. Powell; Condoleezza Rice; Chevron; Christopher de Muth; John Paul Woodley; Norman Mineta; fund raising; lobbying; monopoly; CAR
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Call to Arms
This insightful Washington Post Magazine piece takes a critical yet objective look at the National Rifle Association's power politics. Though once nearly crippled by internal rift, the NRA is quickly becoming one of the most important, if reviled, lobby groups in Washington. The article scratches beneath the surface to see what lies within the organization.
Tags: Gun control; NRA; Washington; Politics; Gun owners; Gun violence
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"From the Top, A City that Doesn't Work...
The packet of stories represents part of a year-long focus on misuse of tax funds by city officials and general malfeasance across the government of the District of Columbia. Powell's series shows how government corruption and incompetence cost Washington hundreds of millions of dollars a year. This series shows failure to spend approved federal grants, poorly written contracts and city work crews wasting time and doing private work on city time. Thompson and Woodlee focused on smaller numbers, but more audacious abuses by specific officials. The mayor paying police excessive overtime to move his luggage and a Corrections Department supervisor collecting overtime herself and authorizing overtime for city workers repairing her house.
Tags: None
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How Sweet It Is!
Newsday reports that "New York City's newly elected mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, won office based largely upon his reputaion as a crime-busting former federal prosecutor... Giuliani spoke frequently of a need to set high ethical standards for those in positions of public trust. Cops shouldn't accept so much as a free meal and elected officials should be held to an even higher standard, he said... In New York City, finding the right apartment at the right price is akin to striking gold. (Newsday found that with the help of landlord William Koeppel,) some of the mayor's highest-level appointees obtained breaks clearly unavailable to the average citizen.
Tags: cronyism; ethics; conflicts of interest; corruption