In the summer of 1988, Democrats nominated Michael Dukakis as their presidential candidate, the Soviet Union competed in its last Olympic Games, and the U.S. government filed a lawsuit to take control of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
Now, more than 30 years later, that oversight is about to end. Feb. 17 marks the close of an unprecedented effort to root out organized crime from U.S. labor unions.
Although immediate effects of the federal departure will be largely symbolic, it opens the door to potentially significant adjustments in how the Teamsters union investigates future corruption and how it conducts elections ...