NewsTrust - Corporate Governance - Most Recent Stories: News (Independent)

Large Corporations Seek U.S.–European 'Free Trade Agreement' to Further Global Dominance

Mon, 13 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Andrew Gavin Marshall - May. 13 (Special Report) - A corporate world order is emerging, and like any parasite, it is slowly killing off its host. Unfortunately, the "host" happens to be the planet, and all life upon and within it. So, while the extinction of the species will be the end result of passively accepting a corporate-driven world, on the other hand, it’s very profitable for those corporations and their shareholders.

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Firearms Vendors Raise Millions for NRA

Sat, 15 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0800

thecuttingedgenews.com - By Peter H Stone - Dec. 15 (Special Report) - Over the last two decades, MidwayUSA has done just about everything to help the National Rifle Association flourish financially. In 1992 MidwayUSA developed a fundraising tactic to boost the NRA’s fortunes, dubbed “Round-Up,” that has yielded $5.7 million for the NRA’s lobbying operations. The MidwayUSA money drive asks customers to “round up” the total of each order to the nearest dollar or higher. Then the company donates the difference to the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, a lobbying arm of the gun rights group.

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Twinkie CEO Admits Company Took Employees Pensions and Put It Toward Executive Pay

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Thom Hartmann - Dec. 12 (News Report) - Hostess’ CEO, Gregory Rayburn, essentially admitted that his company stole employee pension money and put it toward CEO and senior executive pay (aka “operations”). While this isn't technically illegal, it's another sleazy theft by Hostess executives - who've paid themselves handsomely while running their company into the ground. Just last month, a judge agreed to let Hostess executives suck another $1.8 million out of the bankrupt company to pay bonuses to CEOs.

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Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): Canada Creating Secret 'Insider Group' Of Lobbyists, Observers Say

Sun, 02 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0800

huffingtonpost.ca - By Daniel Tencer - Dec. 02 (News Report) - The Harper government is creating a secret “consultation group,” likely comprised of lobbyists, who are getting inside information about Canada’s participation in Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations, observers allege. Advocacy group OpenMedia has obtained a non-disclosure agreement (see below) it says the federal government mistakenly sent to it, asking the recipient to keep secret the information it receives about negotiations on the controversial economic and trade agreement. “I think it confirms that lobbyists are being permitted to have access to information about the TPP that is otherwise kept secret from public interest groups and citizens in general,”

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Lobbyists Feign Budget 'Fix': Trojan Horse Filled with Corporate Tax Breaks

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Common Dreams - Nov. 14 (News Report) - As boisterous threats of a 'fiscal cliff' persist and progressive voices urge President Barack Obama to avoid falling for shortsighted solutions to illusory ultimatums, a group of corporate lobbyists and CEO's going by the name "The Campaign to Fix the Debt" are set to unleash an onslaught of campaign ads which propose bi-partisan 'compromises' to the problem, but in reality would act as a "Trojan horse concealing massive corporate tax breaks that would make our debt situation much worse

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Miracle-Grow Poisons Bird Feed, Violates Pesticide Laws

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Agence France-Presse - Sep. 10 (News Report) - Scotts sold the illegally treated bird food for six months after employees warned management of the dangers of the pesticides, the department said.

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Dark side of a Bain success

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Salon - By Art Levine - Jul. 23 (Investigative Report) - Our investigation found previously unreported allegations of abuse and neglect in at least 10 CRC residential drug and teen care facilities across the country, including three I visited undercover in Utah and California. With rare exceptions, such incidents have largely escaped notice because the programs are, thanks to lax state regulations, largely unaccountable. Court documents and ex-staffers also allege that such incidents reflect, in part, a broader corporate culture at Aspen’s owner, CRC Health Group, a leading national chain of treatment centers. Lawsuits and critics have claimed that CRC prizes profits, and the avoidance of outside scrutiny, over the health and safety of its clients.

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The 12 Cookies Joke

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Stan Sorscher - Jul. 11 (News Analysis) - A CEO, a Tea Party member and public employee sit at a table, with 12 cookies on a plate. The CEO grabs 11 cookies and tells the Tea Party member, "You better watch him. He wants your cookie." The CEO took 11 out of 12 cookies. This isn't a question of what's fair. The CEO has the economic power to take 11 cookies, and he does.

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Supreme Court Reversed Anti-Citizens United Ruling From Montana

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Mike Sacks - Jun. 25 (News Report) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday struck down Montana's century-old limits on corporate political spending, putting an end to the state's resistance to Citizens United and effectively expanding that controversial ruling to the state and local elections

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Breaking '08 Pledge, Leaked Trade Doc Shows Obama Wants to Help Corporations Avoid Regulations

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Juan Gonzales - Jun. 14 (News Analysis) - A draft agreement leaked Wednesday shows the Obama administration is pushing a secretive trade agreement that could vastly expand corporate power and directly contradict a 2008 campaign promise by President Obama. A U.S. proposal for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact between the United States and eight Pacific nations would allow foreign corporations operating in the U.S. to appeal key regulations to an international tribunal. The body would have the power to override U.S. law and issue penalties for failure to comply with its ruling. We speak to Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, a fair trade group that posted the leaked documents on its website. "This is not just a bad trade agreement," Wallach says. "This is a '1 percent' power tool that could rip up our basic needs and rights." [Transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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Frankenfoods: Why Is the Gates Foundation Helping Monsanto Push Genetically Modified Food?

Fri, 11 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Paige Aarhus - May. 11 (Special Report) - serious concerns about viability, corporate dependency and health effects linger — even while leading research firms and NGOs do their best to smooth them over. Monsanto-patented seeds are usually costly, which has led to numerous accusations of exploitation and contemporary colonialism. But how long will these particular strains of seeds last? What are the guarantees? Critics fear dependence on corporate fertilizers and pesticides, the emergence of super-weeds and pests that can no longer repel GM varieties, and terminator seeds that only last for one planting season.

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From Coal to Foreclosures, Bank of America Faces Protest at Shareholders Meeting in Charlotte

Wed, 09 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - May. 09 (News Report) - Occupy Wall Street protesters, environmental activists, and struggling homeowners are converging in Charlotte today for a protest outside Bank of America’s annual shareholder meeting. The protesters are calling attention to the bank’s involvement in the financial crisis, its support for the coal industry, and its long record of alleged foreclosure abuses.

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Are CEO Bonuses Wrecking the Wider Economy?

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

finance.yahoo.com - Apr. 27 (News Analysis) - In an editorial in daily newspaper "Evening Standard," Mount wrote that, for 30 years after WW II, the UK had become a more equal and open society but now "it is painfully obvious that social mobility has slowed again and a new super-class is soaring out of sight." "Without knowing why or how, we seem to have hatched our own oligarchs, and we stand aghast and bewildered at this flock of monstrous cuckoos," Mount wrote.

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The Greenlining Institute : Greenlining Report > Tech Untaxed Report

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

greenlingin.org - Apr. 27 (Investigative Report) - Tax avoidance by wealthy high-tech firms is on the rise, a new report from The Greenlining Institute finds. Cash held overseas by tech firms rose 21 percent from 2010 to 2011. Apple’s 2011 tax rate of 9.8 percent was lower than that of American households making an average of $42,500 per year.

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Corrupt Wal-Mart: Bribery Goes Unchecked While Corporate HQ Focuses on PR, Breaks International Laws

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Julianne Escobedo Shepherd - Apr. 23 (Investigative Report) - More gross insider info about corrupt mega-corporation Wal-Mart: the New York Times has run an extended expose about how, faced with charges that Wal-Mart de Mexico used bribery and other tactics to force its own "market dominance," the company spent more time fixing its public image than actually fixing the problem. Which is to say: they likely broke the law in both the United States and Mexico, but neglected to stop it:

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General Motors Decides Climate Change Is Real, Pulls Support From Heartland Institute

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Sharon Silke Carty - Mar. 30 (News Report) - After getting called out by an environmental group, General Motors has pulled support from the Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based nonprofit well-known for attacking the science behind global warming and climate change. The automaker told the Heartland Institute last week that it won't be making further donations, spokesman Greg Martin said. At a speech earlier this month, GM CEO Dan Akerson said his company is running its business under the assumption that climate change is real. "We applaud GM's decision and the message it sends -- that it is no longer acceptable for corporations to promote the denial of climate change and that support for an organization like Heartland is not in line with GM's values," said Daniel Souweine, campaign director for Forecast the Facts, a group that urges meteorologists to talk more openly about climate change.

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Doubts about democracy growing in world's richest nations - Featured Findings

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

globescan.com - Feb. 03 (Poll) - Citizens of some of the world's richest, most democratic nations are questioning whether their countries are really governed in accordance with the public will, according to the latest GlobeScan tracking.

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Occupy New Hampshire Member on His Exchange With Mitt Romney Over Support for Corporate Personhood

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Jan. 06 (News Report) - Occupy New Hampshire activist Mark Provost made national headlines Wednesday when he attended a town hall meeting hosted by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and asked about his past comment that "corporations are people." Provost's question to Romney came Occupy New Hampshire is preparing for a series of events leading up to the state’s Republican primary to highlight the disproportionate impact corporations and wealthy donors have on the political process. We play an excerpt of the town-hall exchange and get Provost's response to Romney reply. "I think his response, really, again is this denial that there's this class in the country, and that there are some people within the corporation — specifically, the workers — that are taking it on the chin so that the United States' executive management can make massive bonuses and serve their shareholders rather well too, because the profits largely go to capital gains and dividends." [Rush transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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The Real History of 'Corporate Personhood': Meet the Man to Blame for Corporations Having More Rights Than You |

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Jeffrey Clement - Dec. 08 (Special Report) - In 1971, Lewis Powell, a mild-mannered, courtly, and shrewd corporate lawyer in Richmond, Virginia, soon to be appointed to the United States Supreme Court, wrote a memorandum to his client, the United States Chamber of Commerce. He outlined a critique and a plan that changed America.

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Income Inequality Rising In Most Wealthy Countries, OECD Finds

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Alexander Eichler - Dec. 05 (News Report) - Income inequality -- the gap between a society's richest members and its poorest -- is rising not only in the United States but in most of the world's major economies, according to a new report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Since 1985, income inequality has grown more pronounced in 17 of the 22 countries for which the OECD has long-term data, including Mexico, Italy, Japan, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom.

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Scalia and Thomas Dine With Healthcare Law Challengers

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

readersupportednews.org - By James Oliphant - Nov. 15 (News Report) - The day the Supreme Court gathered behind closed doors to consider the politically divisive question of whether it would hear a challenge to President Obama's healthcare law, two of its justices, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, were feted at a dinner sponsored by the law firm that will argue the case before the high court.' James Oliphant, Los Angeles Times

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"Corporations Are Not People": Activists Push Amendment to Revoke "Corporate Personhood"

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Nov. 09 (News Report) - After an Election Day that saw a number of wins for progressive causes nationwide, activists opposed to "corporate personhood" — the notion that corporations have equal rights to individuals — are pushing ahead with a campaign to add a twenty-eighth amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would reject the idea that corporations are people and reverse the 2010 landmark case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. In a 5-to-4 vote, the Court ruled corporations have First Amendment rights and that the government cannot impose restrictions on their political speech — clearing the way for corporations and other special interest groups to spend unlimited amounts of money on elections. We speak to John Bonifaz, a constitutional attorney and co-founder and director of Free Speech for People. [Rush transcript to come. Please check back soon.]

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Missoula voters say corporations are not people, ask for constitutional amendment

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

missoulian.com - Nov. 08 (News) -

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Bad Accounting Killed the US Economy

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0700

populist.com - By Bob Burnett - Nov. 02 (News Analysis) - In each case Dell accepted the proposal because from a perspective of making money, it made sense: Dell’s revenues were unaffected and its profits improved significantly. However, the next time ASUSTeK came back, it wasn’t to talk to Dell. It was to talk to Best Buy and other retailers to tell them that they could offer them their own brand or any brand PC for 20% lower cost.”

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Dear Big Coal: You're Not Above the Law | Truthout

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

truth-out.org - By Sarah van Gelder - Sep. 22 (News Report) - On Friday, two public interest groups asked the attorney general of Delaware to revoke the charter of Massey Energy, a company they call a criminal enterprise.

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