November 8, 2017

Trump and Obama Are So Much Like “Goofus And Gallant” From Highlights Magazine That It’s Insane

A video posted today of Barack Obama kindly shaking hands with everyone while on jury duty, while Donald Trump is slamming around Asia, underscored that Trump and Obama are so much like “Goofus & Gallant,” a long-time feature from the children’s magazine “Highlights,” that it’s insane. The boorish Trump and the mannerly Obama are perfect
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March 28, 2016

Obama EPA Must Act To Prevent Chemical Plant Catastrophe

barton-explosion

Tomorrow I’m scheduled to speak at an EPA public hearing addressing a new rule that the agency has proposed regarding dangers from America’s chemical plants. I will draw my remarks from a formal comment submitted today by: retired Army Lieutenant General Russel Honoré, former commander of Joint Task Force Katrina; retired Army Major General Randy Manner, former acting
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October 8, 2015

For-Profit Colleges Enlist Capitol Hill Supplicants, US Chamber In Renewed Push Against Obama Rule

chambercommerce

The for-profit college’s trade association, APSCU, was once mighty but is now hobbled, discredited, and depleted. Yet the group, and its industry, still have the money — most it from taxpayer-funded student aid to its schools —  to lobby, give campaign contributions to politicians, and hire lawyers to fight its biggest piece of Kryptonite: the
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September 23, 2015

For-Profit College Lobbyist Explains Decades of Fraud as Humanitarian Mission

gunderson

A Politico profile of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan quotes just two commenters regarding the Obama Administration’s effort to curb abuses by for-profit colleges, and both of them have been long-time lobbyists for the industry: bulldog lawyer Lanny Davis and former congressman Steve Gunderson (R-WI), who heads the industry’s main trade group, APSCU.  Only Duncan is
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August 28, 2015

Charles Koch Distorts the Facts: Here Are The Ways His Money & Political Network Prevent Clean Energy Businesses From Succeeding

  Earlier this week, President Obama correctly singled out the Koch brothers – Charles and David – and the Koch-funded network for standing in the way of America’s clean energy future. Charles Koch responded saying he was “flabbergasted” after hearing Obama’s remark. He continued, “We are not trying to prevent new clean energy businesses from
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August 19, 2015

The Corporations Funding The Lawyers To Fight The Clean Power Plan

Martella Jr. co-leads the Environmental practice group at Sidley Austin LLP.

Lawyers from coal-dependent states, led by West Virginia, are challenging President Obama’s Clean Power Plan. Joining their effort is an army of industry-funded law firms that specialize in fighting the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Together, they will argue that the EPA does not have any authority under Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act to
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March 23, 2015

Leaders Tell Obama: Time Running Out On Preventing Chemical Disasters

west-TX-explosion

Late last week, hundreds of organizations and people sent a letter to President Obama warning that his administration is running of time to act on an issue long-identified by the President as essential to our national security and public safety: protecting our people from the dangers of accidents or deliberate attacks at U.S. chemical plants.
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December 10, 2014

30 years after Bhopal, Long Past Time To Make Chemical Plants Safer

Geismar LA

Thirty years ago this month, a gas leak at a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, created a toxic cloud that eventually killed perhaps 20,000 people and injured 500,000 more. No chemical accident since then has approached the scale of the Bhopal disaster, but chemical plant tragedies continue every year, including in the United States — most
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