A year after the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, Congress has not passed any major law to prevent another disaster. Why? “The opposition to new legislation that requires stricter oversight largely stems from the anti-regulatory zeal of conservative lawmakers and from the influence of the oil industry, say congressional staffers from both [...]
Sweethearts of the Tea Party elected to Congress last November have quickly become water carriers for heavy duty lobbyists and special interests. And they are cashing in like the veterans. So much for their promises of integrity or changing the system; if anything, these guys are even deeper in the pocket of Wall Street and [...]
The problem with politics in America boils down to this: General Electric piled up $14 billion in profits last year and paid ZERO in income taxes; GE’s chief executive Jeffrey Immelt, who coordinated the massive political effort to win those tax breaks, received millions in salary and an appointment by Barack Obama to head up [...]
Duke Energy and Progress Energy are combining forces into one giant company, the largest electric utility in the nation. But all their cash flow and technological wizardry is still not enough to convince Wall Street to endorse building multiple nuclear power plants as the smartest energy future for America. Wall Street wants a no-risk guarantee, [...]
Kudos to the Independent Weekly for dissecting the octopus that is K & L Gates, the most powerful law firm “the Triangle has never heard of [and] one of the region’s most formidable and pervasive forces in development and politics.” Operatives with this global firm are behind dozens of projects in the Durham area and [...]
Lobbyists with Republican credentials are in hot demand among the various interest groups that want something from the NC General Assembly’s new GOP majority. The News & Observer and Associated Press have two stories describing who’s hiring whom and why. The Associated Press also has an initial overview of the campaign fundraising in the 2010 [...]