According to a new report, CEOs at the forefront of the drive to "fix the debt" by slashing Social Security and Medicare, possess personal retirement funds worth an average of $14.5 million.
Twelve new reports released today expose the State Policy Network (SPN), an $83 million web of right-wing "think tanks" in every state across the country. Although SPN's member organizations claim to be nonpartisan and independent, an in-depth investigation reveals that SPN and its state affiliates are major drivers of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)-backed corporate agenda in state houses nationwide, with deep ties to the Koch brothers and the national right-wing network of funders. The reports show how these groups masquerade as "think tanks," and describe how some of them may be skirting tax laws while really orchestrating extensive lobbying and political operations to peddle their legislative agenda to state legislators, all while reporting little or no lobbying activities.
As freshly reported by the Huffington Post, ALEC is winding down a year of mostly failed attacks on clean energy laws, concluding with the ongoing final battle to weaken Ohio's renewable portfolio standard and energy efficiency incentives.
Amid the backward reeling of Washington's bid to launch yet another Middle Eastern invasion, there was one unexpected collateral casualty: the fanciful résumé of Elizabeth O'Bagy.
"The taxpayers have been left holding the bag.... As a result of this I think there is going to be a lot more oversight." Those were statements made by Nevada Assemblyman James Ohrenschall in an interview on Vegas Inc. September 21.
Bill Moyers profiles Wendell Berry, one of America's most influential writers, on an edition of his show Moyers & Company, which will be available on local public television stations starting on October 4, 2013.
-- by Ron Seely, Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism
Prions -- the infectious, deformed proteins that cause chronic wasting disease in deer -- can be taken up by plants such as alfalfa, corn and tomatoes, according to new research from the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison.
On October 1, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) filed a brief countering claims by Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen and Senator Leah Vukmir that legislators cannot be held accountable for violating the open records law during their entire term in office.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 30, 2013
CONTACT: Brendan Fischer, brendan@prwatch.org
MADISON -- Texas Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott has issued an Open Records Letter Ruling rejecting an effort by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to declare itself immune from the state's public records law, after the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) and the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas filed briefs in the matter.
-- by Joshua Frank
Snow drifts arc along the Interstate as a frigid wind rips through this austere landscape of western North Dakota. The scene is something out of a colorful and lonely C.M. Russell painting. If it weren't for the long line of semi-trucks backed up along Highway 85, leading into the nearby rural enclave of Williston, you may not have any idea there is something huge going on in this remote region that straddles Montana's eastern-most border.
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