Jim Axelrod

Jan 27, 2025 | cbsnews.com | Jim Axelrod |Matthew Mosk |Michael Kaplan

The Chinese intelligence officer who convinced Thomas Zhao to hand over sensitive information about the U.S. military seemed to know the 24-year-old U.S. Navy petty officer had a passion for the stock market. The agent approached Zhao in a stock trading chat group on the Chinese-owned social media network WeChat, CBS News learned in interviews with people involved in the case.

Dec 1, 2024 | cbsnews.com | Jim Axelrod

"The Barn": A murder in Mississippi If you know where to look in the Mississippi Delta, you can find markers of what a culture has spent decades trying to erase. This plaque at the Tallahatchie River – replaced every now and then every time it's been riddled with bullets – marks the spot where young Emmett Till's brutally-beaten body was pulled from the water, a cotton gin fan wrapped around his neck, secured with barbed wire.

Oct 21, 2024 | cbsnews.com | Jim Axelrod

For decades, the Willamette River that runs through Portland, Oregon, was a look-but-don't-touch situation. "When we first moved here, there was no way in hell you'd get in the water," resident Matthew Mangus said. The river was contaminated by raw sewage and had been closed for swimming since 1924, but now things are very different. Willie Levenson, founder of the Human Access Project, helped turn the Willamette into a vibrant recreational space that officially became swimmable again in 2012.

Sep 25, 2024 | cbsnews.com | Jim Axelrod |Sheena Samu |Clare Hymes

In the intractable fight against America's online scam epidemic, there is one unlikely place where efforts to fight back appear to be making an impact. From her office in Dubuque, Iowa, Jill Gogel has been doing everything she can to combat the scammers plaguing her customers. Fraud has become, in her words, "an everyday occurrence," and last year, the FTC reported that victims nationwide lost $10 billion to scams.

Sep 7, 2024 | cbsnews.com | Jim Axelrod |Paul LaRosa |Dena Goldstein

Sneak peek: The Case of the Black Swan (Part 2) After nearly four years, the trial of Ashley Benefield, the former ballerina charged with second-degree murder for shooting her estranged husband Doug, began in the summer of 2024. In the lead-up to the trial, a small group appeared near the courthouse to support Ashley's claims of self-defense. Among the supporters was Ashley's mother Alicia and Ashley and Doug's 6-year-old daughter Emerson, who stopped to speak to a reporter.