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

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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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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A real Wall Street takeover threat

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Salon - By David Talbot - Sep. 19 (News Report) - The hundreds of young people who converged on the New York Stock Exchange this weekend are calling their demonstration against Wall Street greed an "American Tahrir Square." While they have a long way to go before they create the tremors that brought down the Mubarak regime, their passion was clearly on display on a sunny Sunday afternoon in Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan. The protestors were gathered in the square at the corner of Broadway and Liberty Street, after police blocked them from the epicenter of American finance a couple of blocks away. Many had spent the night in sleeping bags and insisted they were prepared to spend many more to make their point. "This country is in decline," said Jack Laxson, an 18-year-old Hampshire College student who was carrying a sign that read, "Corporations Run This Country -- Let's Do Something About It."

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25 Giant Corporations That Paid Their CEOs More Than They Paid Uncle Sam

Sat, 03 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Josh Harkinson - Sep. 03 (Investigative Report) - It might make sense for a small business to pay its top brass more than it doles out to Uncle Sam in taxes, but what if that company has tens of thousands of employees and billions of dollars in profits? Well, this is America folks. What follows is a list of 25 mega corporations that paid one guy—their CEO—more money than what they spent on their entire federal tax bills last year. The same companies averaged $1.9 billion each in profits

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As Economy Lags, New Study Reveals 25 Top Firms Pay More to CEOs Than in Taxes

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Juan Gonzalez - Sep. 01 (News Report) - A new study reveals that 25 of the nation’s largest corporations paid more money to their CEOs last year than they did to the federal government in income taxes. Often using overseas tax havens, many of the corporations managed to make billions in profits but paid little to nothing in federal taxes. In many cases the companies received large tax rebates. The list includes some of the country’s best known companies, such as Ford, Coca-Cola, Verizon, General Electric and eBay. The same study found that the ratio of CEO pay to that of the average worker in the United States jumped to 325-to-1 last year.

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Alleging Captive Labor, Foreign Students Walk Out of Work-Study Program at Hershey Plant

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Juan Gonzalez - Sep. 01 (Investigative Report) - We look at the story of 300 foreign students who came to the United States as part of a work-study program, and found themselves engaged in what they refer to as captive labor at a Hershey’s packing plant in Palmyra, Pennsylvania. The students — from Eastern Europe and Asia — went on strike two weeks ago, after they were reportedly required to lift heavy boxes, work eight-hour shifts beginning at 11 p.m., and stand for long periods of time while packing candy on a fast-moving production line. Federal agencies have launched four investigations into the alleged exploitation. The walkout apparently marks the first time that foreign students have engaged in a strike to protest their employment. The guest workers are demanding a return of the $3,000 to $6,000 each student paid for the cultural exchange program to work at Hershey; that Hershey end exploitation of J-1 student cultural exchange workers; and that the 400 jobs the guest workers filled instead be given to local workers paid a living wage.

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This Mystery Chemical Could Cause You To Miscarry

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Rebecca Huval - Aug. 10 (Special Report) - Did you print a piece of paper today? Or use a digital camera? If so, it could have exposed you to glymes, a clear liquid class of chemicals used as solvents in printer ink, carpet cleaners and other household products. For a decade, the EPA has known about studies that link glymes to health problems including miscarriages, developmental damage, and gene mutation. And yet only now is the agency beginning to regulate them. This July, the EPA announced that it plans to clamp down on glymes, which may join the ranks of the 360 chemicals subject to the EPA's "significant new use rule." This means that any time a company wants to use glymes, it would have to ask the EPA first. In contrast, the EPA plans to regulate BPA, the chemical once found in Nalgene bottles, by simply identifying it in a list of harmful chemicals.

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Debt Deception: Borrower Nightmares

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

iWatch News - By Julie Vorman - Jul. 16 (Special Report) - To mark the July 21 launch of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a new regulator with broad powers, iWatch News is publishing stories about borrower nightmares: Americans from different walks of life who borrowed money with terms they didn’t understand and couldn’t afford. The stories build on our Debt Deception investigation, begun in February, of how lenders are accused of exploiting gaps in existing laws to make predatory and confusing loans. Here's a brief description of the borrowers we will profile in this installment:

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Yellowstone Oil Spill Prompts Evacuations

Sun, 03 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Matthew Brown - Jul. 03 (News Report) - Hundreds of barrels of crude oil spilled into Montana's Yellowstone River after an ExxonMobil pipeline beneath the riverbed ruptured, sending a plume 25 miles downstream and forcing temporary evacuations, officials said. The break near Billings in south-central Montana fouled the riverbank and forced municipalities and irrigation districts Saturday to close intakes. The river has no dams on its way to its confluence with the Missouri River just across the Montana border in North Dakota. It was unclear how far the plume might travel.

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Sheconomics: Why more women on boards boosts company performance

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

significancemagazine.org - By Karen Pine - Jul. 01 (Investigative Report) - How many women does it take to make a company more profitable? Just three. Karen Pine finds a remarkable statistic that is being ignored in city boardrooms worldwide.

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American Banks 'High' On Drug Money

Sun, 12 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Clarence Walker - Jun. 12 (Investigative Report) - A fraud investigator helped expose the shocking world of multi-billion dollar drug laundering by American banks and the surprising lack of oversight by the Feds. Martin Woods, an Englishman in his mid-40s, is blessed with a Sherlock Holmes instinct and demeanor. Woods is an expert at sniffing out "dirty" money passing through International Banking Systems. A police officer for 18 years and later a detective with London Metro Police Agency, Woods capitalized on his unique expertise as a fraud expert by joining Wachovia's London-based Bank in March 2005 as an anti-money laundering officer. It wasn't long after taking the job that he discovered that his own employer, one of America's leading banks, was a major player in aiding the "bloodthirsty" Mexico drug cartels to launder billions of dollars in drug money through Wachovia banks. Woods traced and identified a "number of suspicious transactions" related to Mexico-based Casa de Cambios (CDC).

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Koch buys online advertising to attack report on its lobbying influence

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Center for Public Integrity - By Cole Goins - Apr. 18 (News Report) - Koch Industries has launched an online advertising campaign to rebut a Center for Public Integrity report about its lobbying activities that it refused to respond to when the story was published last week. The story, headlined “Koch’s Web of Influence” by John Aloysius Farrell, outlined Koch’s multimillion-dollar lobbying network in Washington and its attempts to influence Congress and federal agencies. The Center sought comment from Koch Industries repeatedly while the story was being reported, including 11 emails and phone calls to several Koch communications and lobbying officials. Koch’s only response then was an email on the eve of publication from Melissa Cohlmia, director of corporate communications.

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Bear Stearns Reportedly Emails Suggest Bank Sold Clients 'Sack Of Sh--'

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Lila Shapiro - Jan. 25 (News Report) - A new lawsuit alleges fresh evidence of corruption at collapsed banking giant Bear Stearns. The lawsuit -- filed in 2008 by mortgage insurer Ambac Assurance Corp against Bear Stearns and JP Morgan -- was unsealed last week, the Atlantic reports. The suit alleges that Bear Stearns took extreme measures to defraud investors -- and that JP Morgan has been hiding the evidence since it was first filed in 2008.

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