A California ballot measure to raise taxes on cigarettes by a dollar per pack failed yesterday. 50.8 percent of voters opposed the initiative compared to 49.2 percent who favored the tax, which would raise money for cancer research and anti-smoking projects for kids. Just a few months ago, about two-thirds of voters backed the measure. But
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Republic Report has covered how political money can corrupt government by influencing the actions of elected representatives. But professional hacks can also disrupt democracy by interfering with the voting process itself. Late last year, Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign began paying Nathan Sproul, a political consultant with a long history of destroying Democratic voter registration forms
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Today, the Paycheck Fairness Act — which seeks to help close the pay gap between men and women in the United States — suffered a defeat in the U.S. Senate. Although much of the opposition to the bill is being summed up as ideologically driven, some Big Money interests also oppose it — fearing that
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Today a federal appeals court in Washington, DC, issued a decision in a challenge by the for-profit college lobbying group APSCU to regulations issued by the Obama Administration. The regulations are aimed at combatting well-documented deceptive and misleading recruiting activities by some for for-profit schools, activities that have lured many students into low-quality programs and, eventually,
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Many areas of the country are experiencing a sudden rise in the number of speed and traffic cameras installed near roads. While some cameras have been a welcome development in curbing dangerous driving, many motorists have complained about what they perceive as an effort by authorities to simply extract revenue without community input on such
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Last month, the Chicago Tribune published a series of articles detailing how the makers of flame retardant products distorted science to hide the health dangers of their products and spent big to win over politicians to their cause. As just one example, these chemical companies manufactured fake grassroots groups to send out mailers attacking politicians
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The Philadelphia Inquirer has a great article up which delves into the lobbying cash special interests are using to influence public policy in that city. Big Soda leads the lobbying pack, spending $238,921 in the quarter, six times the amount spent by the next competitor. Interestingly, the article notes that cable giant Comcast spent $32,985 lobbying
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For-profit college companies have been investigated for predatory business practices, providing worthless degrees with high levels of debt, and systematically deceiving tens of thousands of students. Yet these businesses continue to enjoy over $30 billion a year in taxpayer support, thanks to their elaborate use of lobbyists and political consultants. One of the leaders of
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