As a news hound and a mom, I have an early morning routine for catching up on developments while getting the kid ready for school. I head downstairs, snap on the radio, start making coffee, and packing a kid-friendly lunch. The kitchen radio is permanently tuned to 1670 AM WTDY's "Sly in the Morning" show because I know that Sly has been up since 4 a.m. reading half a dozen state and national newspapers, scanning the front pages and the classifieds for the critical, the controversial, the funny, and the obscure.

Corporate lobbyists and right-wing legislators of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) will be gathering in Washington, DC today for ALEC's annual States and Nation Policy Summit. Today also marks the release of an in-depth report on the failure of ALEC's economic recommendations for the states. The report claims that "states that were rated higher on ALEC's Economic Outlook Ranking in 2007," the first year the ranking was published, "have actually been doing worse economically in the years since, while the less a state conformed with ALEC policies the better off it was."

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 27, 2012
CONTACT: Sara Jerving, Center for Media and Democracy, (608) 260-9713; Mary Boyle, Common Cause, (202) 736-5770

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) convenes its annual policy summit this Wednesday in Washington, DC. The three day meeting at the Grand Hyatt Washington hotel caps a year of intense controversy surrounding the organization's political agenda and tax-exempt status. The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) and Common Cause have obtained new documents and produced reports that shed more light on the inner workings of ALEC and offer you valuable resources as you prepare for coverage of the ALEC conference.