All Blog Posts from Couric & Co.

In August 2009, CBS News made a simple request of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for public documents, e-mails and other materials CDC used to communicate to states the decision to stop testing individual cases of Novel H1N1, or “swine flu.” When the public affairs folks at CDC refused to produce the documents and quit responding to my queries altogether, I filed a formal Freedom of Information (FOI) request for the materials. Members of the news media are entitled to expedited access, which I requested, since this was for a pending news report and on an issue of public health and interest.

The Obama administration made a commitment to a “new era of open government,” as stated in a presidential memorandum on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). On March 19, 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder issued new FOIA guidelines to “restore the public’s ability to access information in a timely manner.”

Two months after my FOI request, the CDC has yet to produce any of these easily retrievable materials. Sadly, this is of little surprise. This has become standard operating procedure in Washington.

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CBS News has learned that thousands of people are cancelling their AARP memberships, angry over the organization’s support of health care reform. In the face of membership opposition, the AARP has offered somewhat confusing positions - so much so that even President Obama is apparently confused about exactly where they stand.

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Sharyl Attkisson is an investigative correspondent for CBS News.

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It took a full month for many in Congress and the American public to realize that billions in bailout funds were not going to be used the way they thought.

Instead of purchasing failed mortgage assets, the Treasury Department used the taxpayer money to buy preferred shares of stock in select banks. It was not only weak banks in need of assistance, but also banks supposedly deemed to be "strong" by federal regulators; the idea apparently to help shore up the economy by ensuring strong banks take over weaker ones (although nobody from the Treasury Department has responded to our repeated requests for information).

Sources tell CBS News the bank strategy was not discussed in advance with important members of Congress who were "sold" on the bailout. Sources also say the strategy was not mentioned to top members who spoke directly with Treasury Secretary Paulson. But in the first weeks of the bailout, select banks become in-the-know quickly. Several of them have said it was "federal regulators" who approached them and urged them to apply for bailout money ... even before the public or Congress were aware this would be its use ...

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Sharyl Attkisson is an investigative correspondent for CBS News.

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Fake occupations like "lover"? Non-existent zip codes like "00000"? Imaginary people like "Doodad Pro"? Neither campaign appears to corner the market on odd entries from the donor files.

But with Obama receiving many more individual donations, a stunningly larger total (Obama's got more than $603 million to McCain's $358 million), and -depending who you ask - an impressive (or suspicious) month of record fundraising in September, some are trying to take a closer look at Obama's stats.

"He's been taking in a lot of money very rapidly," says Sheila Krumholz who heads up the Center for Responsive Politics. She says ...

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Sharyl Attkisson is investigative correspondent for CBS News.

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Back in 1972, a Republican convention corporate contributions scandal shook things up. Executives from the International Telephone and Telegraph Corp. had allegedly met secretly with Nixon administration officials – and offered to underwrite the Republican convention. In return, the Justice Department was allegedly urged to "go easy" on ITT in a pending anti-trust lawsuit. ITT ended up with what was widely regarded as a favorable out-of-court settlement.

To eliminate the appearance of tainted funding, election law was changed. The idea was to provide public funds for the conventions and limit corporate contributions. But things haven't really worked out that way. Here's why.

Corporations are still allowed to donate money through convention "host committees" (committees that presumably help promote the locality that's holding the convention). But the "host committee" exemption has become a giant loophole exploited by corporations seeking influence – and politicians eager to provide it. Corporate contributions have soared from just $1 million in 1980 to an estimated $112 million for 2008.

Tonight on the CBS Evening News our Follow the Money story will talk about what some corporate donors "get" in exchange for their generous contributions ...

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Sharyl Attkisson is the Capitol Hill Correspondent for CBS News.

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Rep. Paul Kanjorski, was just trying to do something great for his hometown: He got several million federal tax dollars to build an office building in Nanticoke, Penn., so that a major business had a place to operate and bring several hundred jobs to town. It was named the Kanjorski Center. But a few years ago, the business moved out of the city-owned Kanjorski Center, leaving Nanticoke stuck paying the $15,000 a month bill for the empty building.

Kanjorski's follow up plan was to build a city-owned parking garage for the empty city-owned Kanjorski Center in hopes of attracting new tenants. Once again, he turned to federal taxpayers for help, earmarking more than $5 million for the Kanjorski Center parking garage project.

Critics say federal tax dollars aren't meant to buy economic stimulus projects for every Congressman's hometown – there isn't enough money to go around as it is. Further objections came from local officials who said Kanjorski shouldn't be able to use an earmark to force the city to build and own another liability: a parking garage ...

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Sharyl Attkisson is investigative correspondent for CBS News.

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For years, members of Congress have been investigating financial ties between pharmaceutical companies and the government, doctors and researchers, research hospitals, colleges and universities. Sen. Charles Grassley, who has most recently been digging into money links between drug companies and the American Psychiatric Association, puts it this way: “I have come to understand that money from the pharmaceutical industry can shape the practices of nonprofit organizations that purport to be independent in their viewpoints and actions.”

In a letter to its members, the APA says it supports complete transparency and plans to provide Grassley with the information he's requested: "a complete accounting of APA revenues, except from advertising in our journals, from pharmaceutical companies, starting in 2003." The APA notes: "We are not alone; recent public focus on relationships between medicine and the pharmaceutical industry is a challenge for the whole field of medicine."

Indeed, the APA is not alone in being the subject of public focus and scrutiny for its relationships with the pharmaceutical industry. Tonight, on the CBS Evening News, we dig into the allegations of financial conflicts of interest among some widely-quoted "independent" voices in the debates over vaccine safety. We weren't as lucky as Grassley ...

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Sharyl Attkisson is investigative correspondent for CBS News.

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What's worse than an earmark that wastes tax dollars and abuses the system by allowing Congress to funnel money outside the normal process to favored businesses or entities?

Plenty, you might say. But how about a secret, classified earmark that costs American lives?

That's the allegation from a military intelligence officer Maj. Eric Egland. In an exclusive interview, Egland told me the amazing story of being on the ground in Iraq at the height of IED (Improvised Explosive Device) deaths and injuries. It was his job to evaluate a large contract that was supposed to send resources and trained people to attack the IED networks. It wasn't working. Egland says it didn't take long for him to discover the contractor was, in his words, completely unqualified for the task at hand. The workers, he said, lacked the experience, resources and know-how to do this important job. He wondered ...

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Sharyl Attkisson is investigative correspondent for CBS News.

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In a news conference this morning, Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., laid down the gauntlet against the Washington Post – and, by proxy, other journalists who have reported on the wisdom of some of the choices he's made while holding a powerful position in Congress. Most recently, the Post printed a story and an editorial involving Rangel's use of his congressional stationery and other congressional perks to allegedly help in fundraising efforts for the "Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service" at New York City College.

In the news conference today, Rangel defended his actions, saying that in the letters he wrote on his congressional stationery, he never asked for money outright. He said repeatedly that he's violated no laws or ethics rules.

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Sharyl Attkisson is an investigative correspondent for CBS News.

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Teach for America is an organization that helps recruit and place bright college graduates and professionals as temporary teachers in needy schools. The non-profit group wins lots of kudos for its intentions and work. It has grown from modest beginnings in 1990: $2.5 million and 500 teachers. Today, the group says it has 5,000 teachers in training – and the 2007 budget was $75 million.

Funding comes from a mix of public and private sources. According to Teach for America's financial disclosures, about a third of its money is your tax dollars – because it comes from local school districts, and state and federal government. But a recent audit by the Education Department Inspector Genera raises the question: Has this group grown too quickly without the proper accounting systems in place?

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