NewsTrust - Corruption - Most Recent Stories

What a Real Cover-up Looks Like

Wed, 22 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Consortium News - By Robert Parry - May. 22 (News Analysis) - Republicans won’t let go of their conspiracy theory about some nefarious “cover-up” in “talking points” for Ambassador Susan Rice’s TV interviews on the Benghazi attack. But they should at least have better skills for detecting a real cover-up, since they’ve had direct experience,

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Rise Up or Die

Tue, 21 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

billmoyers.com - By Chris Hedges - May. 21 (Opinion) - What has taken place in these sacrifice zones — in postindustrial cities such as Camden, N.J., and Detroit, in coalfields of southern West Virginia where mining companies blast off mountaintops, in Indian reservations where the demented project of limitless economic expansion and exploitation worked some of its earliest evil, and in produce fields where laborers often endure conditions that replicate slavery — is now happening to much of the rest of the country. These sacrifice zones succumbed first. You and I are next. Corporations write our legislation. They control our systems of information. They manage the political theater of electoral politics and impose our educational curriculum. They have turned the judiciary into one of their wholly owned subsidiaries. They have decimated labor unions and other independent mass organizations, as well as having bought off the Democratic Party, which once defended the rights of workers. With the evisceration of piecemeal and incremental reform — the primary role of liberal, democratic institutions — we are left defenseless against corporate power.

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How far did PBS go to avoid offending a sponsor?

Mon, 20 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New Yorker - By Jane Mayer - May. 20 (News Report) - When Koch joined the boards of WGBH and WNET, it seemed to mark an ideological inroad, enabling him to exert influence over a network with a prominent news operation. Meanwhile, the member stations, by having Koch as a trustee, were inoculating themselves against charges of liberal bias, and positioning themselves to receive substantial new donations.

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The money swamp created by Citizens United: Dark Money, corporate shell games, and SuperPAC plutocrats

Sun, 19 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Hightower Lowdown - By Jim Hightower - May. 19 (Special Report) - Forty years later, however, CREEP is back. Thanks to 2010's disastrous Citizens United ruling by a handful of raging corporatists on the Supreme Court, the moneyed elite can again buy as much political power as they want, without disclosing who's doing the buying.

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Genetically Modified Democracy: Monsanto and Congress Move to Stomp on States’ Rights

Sat, 18 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

nationofchange.org - By Ronnie cummins - May. 18 (News Report) - the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) that Monsanto has begun secretly lobbying its Congressional allies to attach one or more “Monsanto Riders” or amendments to the 2013 Farm Bill that would preempt or prohibit states from requiring labels on genetically engineered (GE) foods.

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The IRS and the Real Scandal

Sat, 18 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

nationofchange.org - By Robert Reich - May. 18 (Opinion) - Despite a growing number of billionaires and multi-millionaires using every tax dodge imaginable – laundering their money through phantom corporations and tax havens — the IRS’s budget has been cut by 17 percent since 2002, adjusted for inflation. To manage the $594.5 million in additional cuts required by the sequester, the agency will furlough each of its more than 89,000 employees for at least five days this year.

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Everything Is Rigged, Continued: EU Raids Oil Companies in Price-Fixing Probe

Thu, 16 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Rolling Stone - By Matt Taibbi - May. 16 (News Report) - According to numerous reports, the European Commission regulators yesterday raided the offices of oil companies in London, the Netherlands and Norway as part of an investigation into possible price-rigging in the oil markets. The targeted companies include BP, Shell and the Norweigan company Statoil. The Guardian explains that officials believe that oil companies colluded to manipulate pricing data:

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The Real Scandal: Official Washington Goes Nuts Over IRS Doing Its Job

Tue, 14 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Steven Rosenfeld - May. 14 (News Analysis) - The IRS was doing its job. Its staff was overwhelmed by the thousands of obvious political groups that sought the cover of being designated as charities in the 2010 and 2012 elections; so they could raise money and hide their donors names. Some IRS employees spent far too much time or were assigned to spend time on lowest-hanging fruit—political amateur groups from the Tea Party movement—and not enough on the bigtime players, such as Karl Rove, who was lawyered up. And the IRS still has not ruled on the tactics and likes of the Roves ( Crossroads GPS), Koch brothers ( Americans for Prosperity) and the pro-Obama groups ( Organizing for America and Priorities USA) that put millions into thepresidential election via groups pretending to be charities.

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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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Who Is Profiting From Charters? The Big Bucks Behind Charter School Secrecy, Financial Scandal and Corruption

Sat, 11 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By kristin Rawls - May. 11 (Investigative Report) - Studies shows that charter schools don’t typically outperform public schools and they often tend to increase racial and class segregation. So one must wonder, what exactly is motivating these school “reformers”? And why have they pushed for more and more closure — and new charter schools — at such an unprecedented rate in recent years?

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Obama Embraces Plutocrats Again With His Billionaire Commerce Secretary Choice

Tue, 07 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Steven Rosenfeld - May. 07 (News Analysis) - her record as a businesswoman shares similarities with Mitt Romney’s. Her massive wealth is kept in tax-avoiding offshore accounts. Her family’s best-known business, the Hyatt hotel empire, is known for bitter and ongoing disputes with labor unions. Her resume includes running a bank that pioneered high-interest subprime loans and then failed miserably, leaving uninsured depositors with losses averaging $6,000.

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Your Retirement for a Bottle of Champagne: How Wall Street Fraudsters Ripped You Off, Again

Tue, 07 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Lynn Stuart Parramore - May. 07 (Special Report) - LIBOR was, in the opinion of many, the con of the century. But is it a crime without punishment? About a month ago, the Wall Street Journal reported that a federal court judge had let several banks off the hook, dismissing claims that 16 banks targeted by lawsuits had broken federal antitrust laws by rigging LIBOR. As Matt Taibbi explained in his must-read article on the banking scandal, the federal judge bought the banks’ ridiculous blame-the-victim story that if cities and towns and other investors lost money over LIBOR rigging, it was their own fault.

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5 Ways That Raw, Unregulated Capitalism Is Acting Like a Cancer on American Society

Sun, 05 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Paul Buchheit - May. 05 (Opinion) - The uncontrolled growth of investment wealth is diverting resources away from vital programs, effectively smothering them.

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Mel Watt Enjoys Close Ties to Financial Industries

Sun, 05 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

nationofchange.org - By Alison Fitzgerald - May. 05 (Special Report) - Rep. Mel Watt has plenty of friends in the financial services industry: The North Carolina Democrat whom President Barack Obama has appointed to oversee mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has received more campaign money from financial interests than any other industry or special interest. Since he entered Congress in 1992, Watt has received $1.33 million in campaign contributions from the finance, real estate and insurance industries, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit research group that tracks money in politics. That’s almost a quarter of the total $5.47 million in total contributions he’s received through his career.

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NRA Leader Warns of Rising Cost of Senators

Sun, 05 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Andy Borowitz - May. 05 (Comedy News) - "Over the past few years, we've seen the price of purchasing a Senator surge astronomically," he told the N.R.A. faithful. "Unless something is done to make Senators more affordable, the ability of a tiny lobbying group to overrule the wishes of ninety per cent of the American people will be in jeopardy." The days are over, he said, when "you could buy a Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) for little more than pocket change."

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While Wronged Homeowners Got 300 Apiece in Foreclosure Settlement, Consultants Who Helped Protect Banks Got 2 Billion

Sat, 04 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Rolling Stone - By Matt Taibbi - May. 04 (Investigative Report) - not only were these consultants not so independent, not only did they very likely skew the numbers seriously in favor of the banks, and not only were these few consultants paid over $2 billion (over 20 percent of the entire settlement amount) while the average homeowner only received $300 in the deal – in addition to all of that, it appears that federal regulators will not turn over the evidence of impropriety they discovered during these reviews to homeowners who may want to sue the banks

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How Two Secretive Global Trade Deals Will Further Enrich the American Elite

Thu, 02 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Dean Baker - May. 02 (News Analysis) - the Obama administration is pursuing two major "free trade" agreements that in fact have very little to do with free trade and are likely to hurt those without the money and power to be part of the game. The deals in questions, the Trans-Pacific Partnership ( TPP) and the US-European Union "Free Trade" Agreement are both being pushed as major openings to trade that will increase growth and create jobs. In fact, eliminating trade restrictions is a relatively small part of both agreements

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China Is Plundering the Planet's Seas

Wed, 01 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Atlantic Monthly - By - Gwynn Guilford - May. 01 (Special Report) - The average it told the UN Food and Agriculture Organization over the last decade was 368,000 tons each year. A recent European Parliament report puts that number at 4.6 million tons -- some 12.5 times more than what China reported

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Exposed: The Billionaire-Backed Group Strong-Arming Parents into Destroying Their Kids' Public Schools

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Yasha Levine - Apr. 30 (Investigative Report) - The parents told me that a Los Angeles-based group calling itself Parent Revolution organized a local campaign to harass and trick them into signing petitions that they thought were meant for simple school improvements. In fact those petitions turned out to be part of a sophisticated campaign to convert their children’s public school into a privately-run charter — something a majority of parents opposed. At times, locals say, the Parent Revolution volunteers’ tactics were so heavy-handed in gathering signatures that they crossed the line into harassment and intimidation. Many parents were misled about what the petition they signed actually meant. Some told me that the intimidation with some of the undocumented Latino residents included bribery and extortion

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U.S. Judges Admit to Jailing Children for Money

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

inquisitr.com - Apr. 30 (Opinion) -

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How the CIA's Bags of Cash Undermined the Afghanistan War

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Wired - By Spencer Ackerman - Apr. 29 (Opinion) - It’s the most understandable, intuitive and tempting mistake in geopolitics: secretly pay a powerful foreigner to do what you want. The CIA, like many spy agencies, has done it throughout its history, and now we know it helped undermine the America’s longest war.

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When Your Boss Steals Your Wages: The Invisible Epidemic That’s Sweeping America

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Lynn Stuart Parramore - Apr. 29 (Special Report) - Americans like to think that a fair day’s work brings a fair day’s pay. Cheating workers of their wages may seem like a problem of 19th-century sweatshops. But it’s back and taking a terrible toll. We’re talking billions of dollars in wages; millions of workers affected each year. A gigantic heist is being perpetrated against working people: they’re getting screwed on overtime, denied their tips, shortchanged on benefits, defrauded on payroll, and handed paychecks that bounce like rubber balls. A conservative estimate of unpaid overtime alone shows that it costs workers at least $19 billion per year

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In Gasland sequel, fracking saga’s pressure ratchets up

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Grist - By Sarah Laskow - Apr. 27 (Review) - Gasland Part II shows how much higher the stakes have grown in the battle over fracking since Josh Fox made its predecessor.

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Everything Is Rigged: The Biggest Price-Fixing Scandal Ever

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Rolling Stone - By Matt Taibbi - Apr. 25 (Investigative Report) - Conspiracy theorists of the world, believers in the hidden hands of the Rothschilds and the Masons and the Illuminati, we skeptics owe you an apology. You were right. The players may be a little different, but your basic premise is correct: The world is a rigged game.

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Sixteen Years for Espionage; Life in Jail for Whistleblowing

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

truth-out.org - By Nathan Fuller - Apr. 20 (Special Report) - Millay “admitted to trying to pass on classified information to someone he believed was a Russian agent,” according to Reuters’ report. An FBI agent said, “Millay betrayed his nation’s trust by attempting to sell classified national defense information for profit to a foreign nation.” Contrast that motive with Bradley Manning’s. In chat logs with government informant Adrian Lamo, Manning hypothesized, “what if i were someone more malicious…i could’ve sold to russia or china, and made bank?”

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