The Guardian gives a straightforward description of this weekend’s corporate conspiracy confab hosted by rightwingers David and Charles Koch: “Amid great secrecy, about 200 of America's wealthiest and most powerful individuals from the worlds of finance, big business and rightwing politics are expected to come together on Sunday in the sun-drenched California desert near Palm [...]
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, [...]
Facing South has an excellent summary of the meaning of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United case and its immediate impact in North Carolina's 2010 elections. On the one-year anniversary of the decision, Common Cause asked the US Justice Department to investigate conflicts of interest involving two members of the US Supreme Court who sided with the [...]
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 [...]
In the wake of the Tucson shootings, many people are again calling for measures to slow the rate of gun violence. As in the past, such calls will meet stiff opposition from one of the best funded and most powerful special interests in America: the National Rifle Association. The NRA spent about $18 million on [...]
The final campaign disclosure reports for North Carolina’s 2010 election cycle are rolling into the State Board of Elections this week (postmark deadline: Jan. 11), so hopefully we’ll see some detailed analysis by the media and others of who raised how much, from what special interests, etc. The Charlotte Observer is first out of the [...]
Remember Tom DeLay, aka “The Hammer” – one of the most powerful men in Congress when George W. Bush was president? A judge sentenced the former US Representative from Texas to three years in prison for an elaborate scheme to funnel $190,000 in illegal corporate contributions into state elections. The money helped Republicans win a [...]
A new edition of Democracy NC's brochure featuring quotes and photographs of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is now available. It includes information about the upcoming H K on J assembly in Raleigh, the redistricting process affecting local and state political districts, the controversial proposal to require a photo ID for voting, and Dr. King's challenge [...]
The investment by Art Pope Inc. in NC General Assembly elections could begin to look like a buyout of the state legislature. Not only did Pope’s corporate money (from Roses department stores and his other enterprises) play a decisive role in Republican victories, he now has staff members from his wholly owned non-profits moving over [...]