There’s a lot to like about the state of Vermont: cheddar cheese, Chubby Hubby, maple syrup, and the Green Mountains. And now, a thorough rejection of corporate personhood. Yesterday, in what the Associated Press called “the most concerted effort” to amend the U.S. Constitution to declare that corporations are not people, 58 Vermont communities voted
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Transparency is a conservative value — at least it used to be. In the past, conservative Republicans voted time and again for greater public oversight in the public process. But in recent years, because of pressure from corporate lobbyists, reformers in the GOP have transformed into supporters of dark money slush funds. For instance, when
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The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is the most powerful corporate front group you’ve never heard of. The group, sponsored by some of America’s largest corporations, writes legislation that tends to benefit its donors and ships these template bills to state legislatures for compliant lawmakers to pass. ALEC has pushed for legislation doing everything from
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To many in the South, Waffle House is a family-friendly restaurant that serves up some of the best grits and hashbrowns around. But behind that iconic sunny yellow sign is a corporate agenda aimed at stripping Americans of their rights. State Senator Don Balfour of Snellville, Georgia — a Waffle House vice president who serves on
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The for-profit college industry  — which runs what some would refer to as “subprime schools” — is facing more and more scrutiny for its abusive practices that leave students drowning in debt and taxpayers on the hook for paying for worthless degrees. That’s why it’s ramping up its lobbying in Washington, demanding that the federal government continue
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John Lovell is a lobbyist who makes a lot of money from making sure you can’t smoke a joint. That’s his job. He’s a lobbyist for the police associations in Sacramento, and he is a driving force behind grabbing Federal dollars to shut down the California marijuana industry. I’ll get to the evidence on this
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This post is the second in a series. Yesterday, Republic Report’s Suzanne Merkelson reported on how members of Congress travel to Israel largely on AIPAC’s dime, thus viewing the Israel-Palestine conflict from a one-sided perspective. Few members have visited the area on behalf of J Street, a pro-two state solution organization that brings politicians in
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As we head into an election year, we’re going to increasingly hear that Democrats and Republicans fight like cats and dogs, that there is a civil war in Washington. This describes the state of play on some issues, but on others there is bipartisan agreement to do the wrong thing: Both parties do what the money
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