NewsTrust - Lobbying - Most Recent Stories: News (Mainstream)

Web Piracy Bills Invite a Protracted Battle

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Jenna Wortham, Somini Sengupta - Jan. 16 (News Report) - The Obama administration’s statement of opposition to antipiracy legislation let the technology industry claim a victory, but few in Silicon Valley or Hollywood consider the battle over.

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Proposed lobbying rules upset business groups

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

USA Today - Dec. 02 (News) -

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Gingrich Gave Push to Clients, Not Just Ideas

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By MIKE McINTIRE, JIM RUTENBERG - Nov. 30 (News Report) - Newt Gingrich is adamant that he is not a lobbyist, but in the eight years since he started his health care consultancy, he has made millions of dollars while helping companies promote their services.

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Congress: Trading stock on inside information?

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

CBS News - By Steve Kroft, Ira Rosen, Gabrielle Schonde - Nov. 16 (Special Report) - Washington, D.C. is a town that runs on inside information - but should our elected officials be able to use that information to pad their own pockets? As Steve Kroft reports, members of Congress and their aides have regular access to powerful political intelligence, and many have made well-timed stock market trades in the very industries they regulate. For now, the practice is perfectly legal, but some say it's time for the law to change.

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Medicare cost-cutting board is under fire - The Washington Post

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By N. C. Aizenman - Aug. 12 (Investigative Report) - Known as the Independent Payment Advisory Board, or IPAB, it has been touted by President Obama as an essential tool for curbing Medicare spending over the long term. Comprising 15 health-care experts to be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate, the IPAB will have unparalleled authority to make cuts to the health insurance program for the elderly if yearly spending exceeds the law’s targets by as soon as 2015. Congress could overrule the panel, but only if it musters a super-majority in the Senate or comes up with an alternate plan that saves the same amount.

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The-Smart-and-Sexy-Story-of-Newspapers

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Editor & Publisher - By Gretchen A. Peck - Jul. 22 (News Analysis) - Aristotle pondered the modes of persuasion and determined there were three ways to present an argument. The first, “Ethos,” appeals to the audience with authority and credibility. “Pathos” is an argument that appeals to the audience’s emotions, while “Logos” is the attempt to persuade with logic. With its new marketing campaign designed to promote the newspaper industry at large, the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) managed to leverage all three rhetorical strategies. “The NAA board developed a set of strategies last year,” Mark Contreras, former NAA board chairman, said. “We sent out a survey to all the members of the NAA and asked, ‘What are the two or three issues that newspapers should work on, collectively?’” The responses were painstakingly boiled down to four key industry initiatives, according to Contreras: To better protect intellectual property and better monetize content; to agree upon mobile advertising standards; to provide an industry-wide digital shopping experience, particularly for national advertisers; and to better communicate and promote the full value of the audiences newspapers deliver across all media platforms.

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Industries lobby against voluntary nutrition guidelines for food marketed to kids

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Lyndsey Layton, Dan Eggen - Jul. 10 (News Report) - The food and advertising industries have launched a multi-pronged campaign to squash government efforts to create voluntary nutritional guidelines for foods marketed to children. Calling themselves the Sensible Food Policy Coalition, the nation’s biggest foodmakers, fast-food chains and media companies, including Viacom and Time Warner , are trying to derail standards proposed by four federal agencies. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has also lent its lobbying muscle to the effort. The guidelines are designed to encourage foodmakers to reduce salt, added sugars and fats in foods and drinks targeted to children. If their products did not meet the standards, foodmakers following the guidelines would refrain from advertising them to ...

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IBM spends $1.2M on 1Q lobbying

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

Boston Globe - Jul. 01 (News) - IBM spends $1.2M on 1Q lobbying

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NRC and industry rewrite the history of nukes

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - Jun. 29 (Investigative Report) - As part of a yearlong investigation of aging issues at the nation's nuclear power plants, the AP found that the relicensing process often lacks fully independent safety reviews. Records show that paperwork of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission sometimes matches word-for-word the language used in a plant operator's application.

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High noon for ethanol

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Hill - By Andrew Restuccia, Ben Geman - Jun. 14 (News) - he Senate is slated to vote on Sen. Tom Coburn’s (R-Okla.) plan to eliminate a major ethanol industry tax break and the ethanol import tariff. Ethanol backers are battling the amendment and seeking to pull support from Coburn.

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Senate Refuses to End Tax Breaks for Big Oil

Wed, 18 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Carl Hulse - May. 18 (News) - The Senate on Tuesday blocked a Democratic proposal to strip the five leading oil companies of tax breaks that backers of the measure said were unfairly padding industry profits while consumers were struggling with high gas prices.

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What to watch when Big Oil testifies

Thu, 12 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Politico - By Dan Berman - May. 12 (News Analysis) - It’s a tradition in Washington: the annual Capitol Hill version of the perp walk for Big Oil. It’s political theater at its best.

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NBC deal OK’d, Comcast hires regulator

Thu, 12 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - By Associated Press - May. 12 (News) - A top telecommunications regulator who voted to approve Comcast Corp.’s takeover of NBCUniversal in January is leaving to join the company as a lobbyist.

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Obama order could make corporate political spending public

Mon, 09 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Matea Gold - May. 09 (News Report) - A lobbying battle is raging largely behind the scenes over a seemingly obscure executive order that could — if signed by President Obama — make public the political spending that many corporations can now keep secret.

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Democrats See Strategy to End Big Oil Tax Breaks

Mon, 09 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Carl Hulse - May. 09 (News Report) - Linking two of the politically volatile issues of the moment, Senate Democrats say they will move forward this week with a plan that would eliminate tax breaks for big oil companies and divert the savings to offset the deficit.

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N.R.A. Declines to Meet With Obama on Gun Policy

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Jackie Calmes - Mar. 15 (News) - More than two months after the Tucson shootings, the administration is calling together both the gun lobby and gun safety groups to find common ground. But President Obama has no plans to take the lead in proposing further gun control legislation, aides say, and the nation’s major gun rights group is snubbing the invitation.

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GOP freshman Pompeo turned to Koch for money for business, then politics

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 12:57:37 -0800

Washington Post - By Dan Eggen - Mar. 10 (News Report) - Pompeo received $80,000 in donations from Koch and its employees, making him the top recipient of Koch-related money in the 2010 elections.

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Lobbyists: White House sends meetings off-site to hide them

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

The Politico - By Chris Frates - Feb. 24 (News Report) - Caught between their boss’ anti-lobbyist rhetoric and the reality of governing, President Barack Obama’s aides often steer meetings with lobbyists to a complex just off the White House grounds — and several of the lobbyists involved say they believe the choice of venue is no accident.

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Kochs' plans for 2012: Spend $88M

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

The Politico - By Kenneth P. Vogel, Ben Smith - Feb. 11 (News Report) - In an expansion of their political footprint, the billionaire Koch brothers plan to contribute and steer a total of $88 million to conservative causes during the 2012 election cycle, according to sources, funding a new voter micro-targeting initiative, grass-roots organizing efforts and television advertising campaigns. In fact, as the annual Conservative Political Action Conference meets this week in Washington and conservatives assess the state of their movement, the Koch network of nonprofit groups, once centered on sleepy free-enterprise think tanks, seems to be emerging as a more ideological counterweight to the independent Republican political machine conceived by Bush-era GOP operatives Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie before the 2010 midterm elections.

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Koch brothers now at heart of GOP power

Sun, 06 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Los Angeles Times - By Tom Hamburger, Kathleen Hennessey, Neela Banerjee - Feb. 06 (Special Report) - The billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch no longer sit outside Washington's political establishment, isolated by their uncompromising conservatism. Instead, they are now at the center of Republican power, a change most evident in the new makeup of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

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Lawmakers Rally Lobbyists in 'Call To Arms' For Upcoming Spending Fight

Fri, 04 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

ABC News - By Jonathan Karl, Matthew Jaffe - Feb. 04 (News) - In an e-mail obtained by ABC News, a top staffer for the key Senate Appropriations subcommittee called for a meeting of lobbyists and interest groups that would be affected by expected cuts to the Labor and Heath and Human Services budget. The Jan. 24 meeting was attended by approximately 400 people, sources told ABC, and served as a "call to arms" for those determined to fight Republican budget cuts.

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Lawmakers press Supreme Court for verdict on healthcare law

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

The Hill - By Alexander Bolton - Feb. 02 (News) - Democratic and Republican lawmakers believe the Supreme Court will ultimately decide the fate of President Obama’s healthcare law, and some of them are already exerting pressure on the justices.

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NRA-led gun lobby wields powerful influence over ATF, U.S. politics

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Sari Horwitz, James V. Grimaldi - Dec. 15 (Investigative Report) - The fate of the Mexican gunrunning rule is only the most recent example of how the gun lobby has consistently outmaneuvered and hemmed in ATF, using political muscle to intimidate lawmakers and erect barriers to tougher gun laws. Over nearly four decades, the NRA has wielded remarkable influence over Congress, persuading lawmakers to curb ATF's budget and mission and to call agency officials to account at oversight hearings. The source of the NRA's power is its focus on one issue and its ability to get pro-gun candidates elected.

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Health Insurers Paid U.S. Chamber $86.2 Million to Oppose Health-Care Law

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Bloomberg - By Drew Armstrong - Nov. 17 (News) - Health insurers last year gave the U.S. Chamber of Commerce $86.2 million that was used to oppose the health-care overhaul law, according to tax records and people familiar with the donation.

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Wall Street quietly seeks to undo new financial rules

Tue, 16 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

McClatchy - By Kevin G. Hall - Nov. 16 (News Report) - "Taken all together, these are all proposals that were considered (by Congress) and rejected . . ." Through Republican lawmakers who will soon hold leadership positions in the House of Representatives, big banks are backing proposals that could lead to its being defunded or subject to conditions that weaken it.

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