Palin e-mails reveal a powerful 'first dude'

MSNBC.com investigative reporter Bill Dedman revealed the influence of Todd Palin, the husband of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, during Palin's time as governor. MSNBC.com staff combed through nearly 3,000 pages of e-mails to show Todd Palin involved in a judicial appointment, monitoring contract negotiations with a public employee union and passing  "financial information marked marked 'confidential' from his oil company employer to a state attorney."  Working with Crivella West, MSNBC  published a searchable database of all the e-mails and detailed the open records request process with the state of Alaska that took more than two years.  In August 2008, the state of Alaska claimed it would cost as high as $15 million for state technicians to find the e-mails.