There have been complaints in states like Minnesota that the American Legislative Exchange Council violates state lobbying laws, particularly with gifts for state lawmakers and undisclosed meetings with corporate lobbyists. ALEC, as we’ve reported, is the secretive bill-writing front group responsible for risky privatization schemes, massive taxpayer giveaways to big business, and dozens of other
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On the heels of the blockbuster New York Times investigation of Wal-Mart’s systematic bribery of Mexican officials — and subsequent cover-up — Republic Report’s Zaid Jilani revealed that the company has since used corporate lobbying fronts to weaken the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a law that establishes penalties for U.S. firms engaged in bribery abroad.
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President Dwight Eisenhower represented another era, when many in both parties rebuked special interests. At one point, Eisenhower vetoed a natural gas deregulation bill that he even agreed with on principle because the gas lobby had used such disreputable tactics in moving the legislation through Congress. Eisenhower’s effort against lobbying is best remembered though by
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In one of the most watched primary elections tonight, incumbent Democratic Congressman Tim Holden (D-PA) lost to attorney Matt Cartwright. A ten-term lawmaker, Holden was well known in the region and enjoyed support from most of the state’s Democratic establishment. But Holden faced two challenges. One, a redrawn district that forced the congressman to run
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Two years after BP’s horrific oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, there are still signs of environmental and economic havoc. Recent investigations from al Jazeera and the Associated Press have found shrimp without eyes, crabs without claws, and many species of fish that carry strange deformaties and other signs of mutations. ThinkProgress notes that
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The rush to spend campaign cash is only getting started. During the Republican primaries, as both candidates and Super PACs flooded the early states with money, so many ads were purchased that local television stations ran out of space to sell. In South Carolina, Rick Santorum was forced to buy campaign spots during television shows
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The New York Times’ Mike McIntire published a bombshell story about the American Legislative Exchange Council this weekend. Using internal ALEC documents provided to the Times by Common Cause, a good government reform watchdog organization, McIntire revealed how the group’s policy task forces are designed so that corporate lobbyists — not state lawmakers — have
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Last year, two teenagers handling a large grain auger had their legs severed while working at the Zaloudek Grain Co. in Oklahoma. The Department of Labor (DOL) proposed rules that might have prevented this tragedy. The rules, designed to curb dangerous child labor in agriculture, were finally unveiled last year after a long delay. The
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