Word: spadework
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...rely on methods they know best. When KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers signed off on Royal Dutch/Shell's recent societal-accountability report, they wrote that in the absence of standards, "we conducted our verification exercise in accordance with international standards for financial auditing and reporting suitably adapted." Old-fashioned investigative spadework is useful too. Ernst & Young's Wenman says that means ensuring that the actions of a company--or its contractors and suppliers--in the field measure up to principles adopted in its boardroom...
Journalism is often called the first, rough draft of history. In some ways The Dark Side of Camelot is just that. Hersh has done the spadework that the writing of history requires, but it also requires judgment, prudence and a willingness to be satisfied sometimes with ambiguous conclusions when human nature (and the best-seller list) prefers the comfort of certainties...
Despite the potential crisis, France's economy is on target to satisfy the Maastricht criteria, including the key requirement that budget deficits not exceed 3% of the gross domestic product by the end of this year. That accomplishment would be due to the spadework of Chirac and Juppe, who have already done much of the hard work of belt tightening, downsizing and preparing to privatize unprofitable state industries. But their efforts to tackle more structural reforms like deregulation, labor- market flexibility and trimming back the welfare state have met with stubborn public resistance...
...confessed" to his lawyers. Prosecutors have known about the likely contents of the report for months and have taken steps to minimize its effects, but the FBI's flawed lab work certainly damages their case. Indeed, there is a popular sense that law enforcers have yet to complete basic spadework: 76% of people polled last week said that all those responsible for the bombing have not yet been captured and identified. McVeigh's defense is likely to buttress similar feelings among jurors with a slew of stories from people who will tell tales at variance with the government's thesis...
Former president Bush took aim at the man who defeated him in 1992, saying, "It breaks my heart when the White House is demeaned, the presidency diminished." Paying tribute to Dole's World War II heroism and decades of loyal Republican spadework, Bush said of Dole: "He will be a president we can look up to. He will do us proud...