A Sunlight investigation finds that many companies on our Fixed Fortunes 200 list are buttering up party committees on both sides of the aisle with valuable hard money contributions.
Continue readingHow telecoms and cable have dominated net neutrality lobbying
With the FCC's proposal threatening net neutrality, lobbying activity looks like it's reached a fevered pitch. But for the organizations involved, especially telecom companies, lobbying has been at a fevered pitch for a decade.
Continue readingCodeAcross is here!
Sunlight Foundation together with Code for America are partnering to take data beyond transparency through CodeAcross 2014.
Continue readingBig tech, big oil and defense help underwrite Obama inaugural
President Barack Obama raised more than $43 million for his second inaugural, including seven-figure donations from some of the nation's biggest tech, defense and energy companies, a report filed on Saturday with the Federal Election Commission shows.
The top donor to the 2013 presidential inaugural was AT&T, which gave $4.6 million in equipment and services. That single donation equalled more than all of the inaugural committee's smallest donors (those who gave $200 or less than therefore did not have contributions itemized in the FEC report) combined.
Other members of the seven-figure check club: Microsoft, which gave ...
Continue readingImmigration: Give me your poor, your tired . . . your lobbyists?
Long before the last election put new political momentum behind the stalled efforts to enact a comprehensive update of the nation's immigration laws, Washington's influence industry was teed up to make it a titanic battle, an analysis of lobbying disclosures by the Sunlight Foundation shows.
Amidst widespread reports that bipartisan groups of lawmakers in the House and Senate are hoping to unveil immigration proposals after Congress's upcoming spring recess, research shows there is an army of lobbyists ready for action. More than 3,000 people were listed as lobbyists in forms which cited immigration as an issue ...
Continue readingLegacy media bankrolling campaigns of SOPA cosponsors
Traditional big media firms have contributed more than $5 million to the sponsors of the Stop Online Piracy Act, with California Democratic Reps. Howard Berman and Adam Schiff as the top recipients.
The bill, known as SOPA, would strengthen and extend the penalties for online copyright violations, and could force websites hosting pirated content to come down or prevent search engines from sending users their way. Legacy media companies stand to benefit if there's less unlawful movement of their content on the web, like pirated movies and songs for download.
Some of the nation's top tech companies — Facebook ...
Influence Explored: Corporations lobby for tax breaks
An article on the front page of the New York Times yesterday reported on the pressure some major corporations—such as Microsoft—... View Article
Continue readingKey net neutrality supporters hire former government officials to lobby
Two of the biggest proponents of net neutrality rules for broadband providers involved in closed door congressional committee negotiations have... View Article
Continue readingOpponents of net neutrality attending congressional telecom meetings spend more on lobbying
Last Friday, two congressional committees held closed door discussions with 31 representatives from industry and activist groups to discuss writing... View Article
Continue readingCivic Hackers for Haiti
The systems and information infrastructure that the entire network of relief requires for a place like Haiti, however, is also something that often needs building and supporting in times of disaster, and "civic hackers" as we often refer to them are answering the call.
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