About a year ago when Boehner announced his departure from Congress, USA Today surmised the Speaker could “cash in as a lobbyist.” Not even a year after retiring, Boehner is now cashing checks thanks to his work on behalf of myriad special interests.
Continue readingTracking corruption across international lines
In an era of growing globalization but decreasing journalistic capacity, some of the best international reporting comes through collaboration.
Continue readingInfluence Analytics: FDA, keep your hands off our cheap cigars
The FDA is receiving a flood of comment letters from cigar aficionados who want the agency to lay off regulating pricey cigars as part of a long-fought initiative to regulate tobacco products.
Continue readingInfluence Analytics: Who is debating marijuana?
New Jersey wins the honor for the most bills introduced by the legislature mentioning the word "marijuana" so far this calendar year — 48 — and a dozen states have considered 10+ such bills, according to an analysis of OpenStates.org.
Continue readingSenators who write farm bill fine print reap agribusiness campaign cash
As senators cast their votes today on the 1,139-page, $955 billion farm bill, the unseen backdrop is the more than $26 million in campaign cash that agribusiness has pumped into their political campaigns. All but two members of the current Senate have received money from these donors who represent every possible agriculture concern, from sugar growers to dairy farmers to chemical manufacturers and more.
It’s an axiom of agriculture politics that agribusiness interests concentrate their generosity on members of key committees who write and fund the farm bill. As the graphic below shows, the current Senate is no ...
Continue readingTobacco fueled ads helped tobacco foe Waxman win reelection
In a case of particularly odd political bedfellows, in late September the tobacco manufacturer the Liggett Group and several company executives, including the CEO, contributed more than $33,000 to a pop-up super PAC that would go on to help the candidacy of just one candidate: Rep. Henry Waxman, arguably tobacco's biggest foe in Congress.
The super PAC, the Committee for an Effective and Trusted Congressman, was formed in August and bought $100,000 worth of radio ads to support the California Democrat, who made a national reputation for his anti-tobacco crusades, beginning in the 1990s and continuing to ...
Continue readingThis Week In Transparency – June 12, 2009
Here are a few of the more interesting media mentions of Sunlight and our friends and grantees from this past... View Article
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