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The article focuses on an investigation conducted by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to know the reasons for the increase in the price of newsprint paper in the country during the year 1916. The results of the investigation were submitted to the U.S. Senate on March 3, 1917 and June 13, 1917. It was found that the domestic consumption of newsprint paper in the year 1915 was about 1,575,000 tons and it increased to 1,774,000 tons in the year 1916. An increase in the volume of advertising forced newspaper publishers to increase the number of printed pages of each issue. The circulation of newspapers also increased which resulted in a substantial increase in the consumption of newsprint.

Recent press accounts claim that collusion is common practice in Treasury auctions and that as a result the auction profits are excessive. But, this paper finds that the auction prices are on average marginally higher than the secondary market bid prices. The auction profits, however, are systematically related to the total fraction of winning bids tendered by banks and dealers. The postauction prices of the two-year notes in which Salomon Brothers had a 94 percent holding are also examined. The secondary market prices of these notes were significantly higher than the estimated competitive prices in the four-week postissue period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks hawala, an ancient form of money transfer, has come to prominent international attention due to its ostensible role in funding global terrorism. The United States and its international allies have initiated a host of measures to try and render hawala practices more visible and hence governable. This paper details some of these measures, paying particular attention to how they connect with larger dynamics of surveillance, documentation and trust. We suggest that because officials have ignored distinctive attributes of hawala that pertain to these three dynamics, their regulatory efforts will likely have little impact on the operation of hawala. Our concluding discussion posits a number of alternative factors that might explain why officials have embraced these particular measures to try and regulate hawala. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper aims to discuss the SEC's investigatory program with respect to market manipulation in the securities of certain financial institutions and to provide constructive steps for firms to take prior to and after they receive a subpoena or other inquiry from the SEC staff. Design/methodology/approach - The paper discusses the implications of a formal SEC investigation, how to respond, arid appropriate document retention, disclosure, and internal investigation policies. Findings - It is essential that firms and individuals provide timely and accurate responses to SEC requests. Document retention and destruction policies are a critical issue. A financial services firm that has received an SEC subpoena or request for information should consider whether any disclosure to its clients and other investors is advisable. When an entity concludes that potential violations may have occurred, it should consider whether to conduct a more extensive internal investigation and whether separate counsel is advisable. In sending materials to the SEC, the responding entity should request confidential treatment. Practical implications - It is essential that firms and individuals provide timely and accurate responses to SEC requests, whether pursuant to a subpoena or to a request to submit a narrative statement. Originality/value - The paper provides practical guidance by experienced securities and litigation lawyers as a result of government investigation into market manipulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the more than decade-long fight to establish quality standards for consumer products. Drawing on archival collections, trade publications, congressional hearings, and relevant secondary literature, it traces the ongoing debates over grading standards for consumer commodities in the 1930s and 1940s. It explores the arguments behind the creation of a mandatory grading system that would have aided citizens in their role as consumers, helped fight monopolistic tendencies during a severe economic depression, and supported government economic policies during a time of national crisis. While consumer advocates and a majority of the American public applauded the idea, advertisers, believing that the system would undermine their advertising claims, fought the proposals tooth and nail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses key issues concerning the first pharmacoepidemiologic investigations on drug safety in the U.S. in 1901 that formed the basis for the 1902 Biologics Control Act. This law also served as the precedent to the government's regulation of the pharmaceutical industry and the eventual passage of the 1906 Food and Drug Act on the creation of the Food and Drug Administration.

Focuses on Democratic Senator Hugo Black's investigation on the handling of air- and ocean-mail contracts by the Hoover Administration. Handling of the contracts by private contractors following the passage of the Kelly Air Mail Act of 1925; Black's plan to expose corruption in Secretary of Commerce Herbet Hoover's airmail system.

Focuses on the press investigations by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) during the administration of former President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Case of immigrant journalist Inga Arvad; Arvad's association with the Nazis; Suspicions on Arvad's influence in the American press; Condonation of the investigations by the White House.

The article discusses drug enforcement efforts in the U.S. and Mexico from 1969 to 1985. Topics explored include the U.S. law enforcement operation known as Leyenda which investigated the death of U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) undercover agent Enrique Camarena in 1985, the political violence associated with U.S. drug control initiatives in Mexico, the financial assistance provided by the U.S. government to the Mexican antidrug campaign Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), factors which contributed to the mutual drug control militarization by both regions, and the response of the Mexican government to the drug control policies implemented by the U.S. government.

The article mentions ethical conflicts at Enron which led to a governmental investigation of the company--told from the perspective of a whistleblower who reported the accounting irregularities, Sharon S. Watkins, former Enron vice president and the author of this article. The extent of reform under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, indictment of Enron's Chief Financial Officer Andy Fastow by the U.S. Justice Department, hedging of assets with special purpose entities called Raptors, memos to Kenneth Lay about related party transactions, failure of auditors to identify misleading financial statements, and executive compensation are some of the topics discussed. There are also 11 questions presented to the author concerning the scandal and her responses are included.

Presents a report on Legionnaires disease (LD) associated with potable water in an Ocean City, Maryland hotel from October 2003-February 2004. Background on the diagnosis of LD cases, the evidence of Legionella infection, and the environmental investigation by the Worcester County Health Department, Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and CDC; The CDC editorial note stating the hotel's potable water system was the most likely source of the outbreak; The importance of enhanced public-health surveillance of travel-related LD.

The article focuses on issues surrounding a Facebook post that violated the U.S Securities Exchange Commission (SEC)'s Regulation Fair Disclosure, a disclosure rule. Topics discussed include the disclosure rule that prevents engagement of issuers of securities in selective disclosure, and information posted by Reed Hastings, chief executive officer of on-demand internet streaming media provider Netflix on his Facebook page regarding investigation conducted by SEC on the company.

The article discusses the U.S. government's suppression of the Washington, D.C., bookstore the Washington Cooperative Bookshop (WCB) between 1939 and 1950. According to the article, the WCB openly sold Marxist literature and hosted presentations by individuals associated with several iterations of the Communist Party (CP). The article states that the WCB was investigated by the U.S. House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), the office of the U.S. attorney general, and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Public policy is at the heart of US congressional investigations, where private corporations can confront a unique set of rules and mores-in a very public forum, often covered in the news and televised. This article traces the historical precedents to congressional inquiries, highlighting cases such as the 'Teapot Dome' scandal and the ensuing US Supreme Court case, McGrain v. Daugherty, confirming the Legislative Branch's independent investigative authority to compel a witness to testify and produce documents. The article explains the two types of congressional investigations, oversight and legislative, and how their differences could impact the corporations involved. It reviews recent examples of investigations, illuminating how a corporation's public relations and legal rights can both overlap and point to differing interests. Based upon first-hand experience, the author provides a legal perspective in explaining the investigation procedures, the legal limits to congressional authority, and the steps taken to prepare a witness for testimony. Finally, the author explains how readiness for congressional inquiries is an integral aspect of prudent risk management for any major corporation. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One hundred and fifty years ago, months before Lincoln was sworn in, an article in the New York Daily Times accused Southern congressmen of stealing books from the Library of Congress to start a library for the Confederacy. The House of Representatives launched an immediate investigation and discovered that the scene of the alleged crime was actually a much smaller library and the true culprit was bad management abetted by rumour mongering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The congressional investigation into the forced resignations of several U.S. attorneys and the subsequent civil lawsuit by Congress against the president has heightened interest in the doctrine of separation of powers. When the involvement of high-ranking presidential aides became apparent, the White House responded not only by claiming executive privilege, but also by asserting that the aides were immune from compulsory process and were not required to comply with congressional subpoenas. The declaration represents an attempt to expand the notion of executive privilege from qualified to absolute. Such an expansion is not consistent with either historical practice or the prevailing judicial understanding of executive privilege and the separation of powers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Before Watergate, presidents were generally reluctant to pardon executive branch officials after their administrations had been investigated by an outside prosecutor. Since Watergate, however, presidents are less reluctant to use clemency for their own personal interest, as demonstrated by controversial clemency decisions involving executive branch officials or cronies made by our most recent three presidents. This practice is contrary to President George Washington's use of the clemency power and later legal precedents, both of which follow the framers' intent that the pardon power be used as an “act of mercy” or for “the public welfare.” When and how presidents began misusing the pardon power, and the resulting consequences, are discussed here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States Coal Commission of 1922 undertook the most exhaustive federal investigation of the troubled early twentieth-century coal industry, but the inquiry, panned by contemporaries as ineffectual, has been largely dismissed by scholars. This essay explores the social, economic, and political context of the commission and reconsiders whether its ideas contributed to the 1920s discourse on political economy in a way that ultimately led to New Deal prescriptions for the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the symbolic politics associated with the adoption of the omnibus $30 billion federal crime bill of 1994. Based upon critical race theory and close readings of Congressional hearings and print media coverage, we argue that race was the key to midnight basketball’s prominence in the legislative debates and that its introduction ultimately reduced prevention-oriented provisions included in the final legislation. The central empirical contribution is a content analysis that specifies how racially coded references to midnight basketball exerted their impact on the political process through the discursive framing of the bill. We find that while midnight basketball directly increased attention to race in the debates, its real impact was more indirect, serving to heighten fears of crime and produce images of criminals that made prevention appear misguided. In contrast to bottom-up theoretical approaches, these discursive shifts worked at the level of elite decision makers, the legislators themselves. The article concludes by drawing out the implications of this case study for theories of how the politics of race operate in the contemporary American political arena, especially those concerning crime control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

FBI files on Kurt Lewin, founder of this journal, and his close colleague Goodwin Watson, reveal inter alia the investigation of Lewin postmortem by the FBI/CIA, and FBI surveillance of Watson while he was a proponent of corporate T-groups, a precursor to present day team development. Sixty years on from Human Relations' launch, and Lewin's premature death, the files enrich understandings of Lewin's, and Watson's, lives and work. The socio-political structures-in- process they evidence also support the idea of the T-group as a knowing political tactic, apparently emancipatory, yet immunized from (proto-)Cold War inquisition by its very focus on the here-and-now. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the move of Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr to use his subpoena power against the press to obtain information about United States President Bill Clinton's alleged relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Background on qualified privilege to protect the media from the compelled disclosure of information; Implications of such move.

Focuses on the threat posed to the press by Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr. Implications of Starr's use of subpoenas to extract privileged information from reporters and their news organizations; Details on Starr's investigation of United States President Bill Clinton's alleged relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky; Significance of the subpoenas.

Examines state initiatives in antitrust investigation in the United States. Informational requirements of antitrust prosecutors; Factors differentiating federal and state investigatory practice; State interest in competition policy and consumer welfare; Constraints in state antitrust investigation.

Focuses on the wheat products and semolina dispute between United States and Canada. Increase in US wheat imports from 23 million to 95 million bushels in 1993/1994 market year; Response of former President Bill Clinton on the complaints of US wheat growers; Investigation of the certainty of importation of wheat products and semolina.

This article presents information on the survey undertaken by the Columbia University Council, which seeks to determine the attitude of students toward U.S. Congressional investigation of college faculties and related issues. One limitation of the Columbia study was the omission of background material from the questionnaire. The results of the student poll, as a whole, indicate strong support for academic freedom on the Columbia campus and an emphatic rejection of Congressional investigations into the nation's colleges.

The article examines the important role played by photography and film campaigns in the exculpation and expansion of U.S. petroleum industries. Topics discussed include the investigation into the relationship between Standard Oil of New Jersey (SONJ) and the German petrochemical firm IG Farben, the use of the so-called rhetoric of recruitment in the photography of films that promoted oil in the 1940s, and the SONJ photography project and "Louisiana Story."