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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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Merrill Paying $10M To Settle SEC Fraud Charges

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

Huffington Post - By Lila Shapiro - Jan. 25 (News Report) - Without admitting or denying any wrongdoing, Bank of America Corp.'s Merrill Lynch unit has agreed to pay $10 million to settle the Securities and Exchange Commission's charges of securities fraud and charging customers undisclosed trading fees.

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Following the Money a Year After Citizens United

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Miller-McCune - By Emily Badger - Jan. 20 (Special Report) - Observers thought heaps of anonymous cash would flood U.S. campaign coffers after the controversial Supreme Court decision. They were right.

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Bank Of America Accused Of Breaking Into Woman's Home, Taking Husband's Ashes

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 12:12:26 -0800

Huffington Post - By Ryan McCarthy - Dec. 22 (News Report) - Bank of America has seen easier days. The bank been reportedly identified as a target by WikiLeaks -- it reportedly maintains a war room to defend against the leak -- its the subject of a federal racketeering lawsuit, one of many high profile lawsuits involving its foreclosure practices.

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Beekeepers Ask EPA to Remove Pesticide Linked to Colony Collapse Disorder, Citing Leaked Agency Memo

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

panna.org - Dec. 08 (Special Report) - Beekeepers and environmentalists today called on EPA to remove a pesticide linked to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), citing a leaked EPA memo that discloses a critically flawed scientific support study. The November 2nd memo identifies a core study underpinning the registration of the insecticide clothianidin as unsound after EPA quietly re-evaluated the pesticide just as it was getting ready to allow a further expansion of its use. Clothianidin (product name “Poncho”) has been widely used as a seed treatment on many of the country’s major crops for eight growing seasons under a “conditional registration” granted while EPA waited for Bayer Crop Science, the pesticide’s maker, to conduct a field study assessing the insecticide’s threat to bee colony health.

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GE hits the electric car showroom

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Grist - By Todd Woody - Nov. 13 (News Report) - With the first mass-produced electric cars set to hit American streets next month, there's been a lot of to-ing and fro-ing in the media about whether consumers will actually buy the vehicles once they're in showrooms. But as General Electric made clear this week, some big corporations are certainly in the market for battery-powered rides and that alone could help spur the market.

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Cable Companies' $46+ Billion Robbery -- Subscribers Have Been Ripped off for $5 a Month Since 2000

Mon, 08 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By David Rosen, Bruce Kushnick - Nov. 08 (Investigative Report) - There has been no accounting for the total monies raised through this subsidy nor a thorough assessment of whether the cable operators fulfilled the system upgrades (including wiring and services to public institutions) the subsidy is suppose to underwrite.

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