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How DFER Leaders Channel Out-of-State Dark Money in California, Colorado, and Beyond At first glance, "Democrats for Education Reform" (DFER) may sound like a generic advocacy group, but a closer review of its financial filings and activities shows how it uses local branding to help throw the voice of huge Wall Street players and other corporate interests from out-of-state. DFER is a PAC, a Political Action Committee, which means it can (and does) play a direct role in state and local elections. Public school advocates like Diane Ravitch have been spotlighting concerns about DFER since its beginning. Because DFER is not a charity, money given to it does not result in a tax write-off but--if successful in changing laws--that money could get the hedge funders who back it a return on investment through politicians and policies that redirect tax dollars from truly public schools to "education reforms." Read the rest of this item here. Easter Rebellion: Three States Give Bernie Sanders Landslide Victories Senator Bernie Sanders in Madison, WI The Sanders campaign came to Madison, Wisconsin on Saturday with a wind at its back. Sanders swept Alaska, Washington State and Hawaii with huge margins, even though the political establishment in those states overwhelmingly supported his primary opponent Hillary Clinton. Call it an Easter Rebellion of sorts. "We knew things were going to improve as we headed West," Sanders told a crowd topping 8,000 at the Madison Expo Center. "We are making significant inroads in Secretary Clinton's lead and we have, with your support here in Wisconsin, a path toward victory." Sanders was backed by 82 percent of voters in Alaska where his wife Jane stumped for days, 73 percent in Washington State and 71 percent in Hawaii. He now has 1000 pledged delegates to Clinton's 1200 pledged delegates, though Clinton currently has a lead among Super Delegates. Read the rest of this item here. Lawyer Tormenting Scientists Revealed Working For Coal Company Chris Horner, a DC-based lawyer, climate change denier and Fox News regular, is also being paid as a "Regulatory Counsel" for the coal company, Alpha Natural Resources, according to bankruptcy filings reviewed by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD). Horner’s repeated filing of lawsuits against leading U.S. climate scientists has been described as "harassment." Alpha funding for Horner was first reported by Lee Fang, writing for the Intercept in August 2015 from earlier bankruptcy filings, although his role as Counsel was unknown until now. Horner's role as Regulatory Counsel for Alpha is described in a declaration that he signed, and which was filed with the bankruptcy court on January 11, 2016. Read the rest of this item here. Barring Plastic Bag Bans, another ALEC Law Takes Aim at Local Democracy The pay-to-play model of government advanced by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) scored another victory this week. On Tuesday, the Wisconsin Senate voted along party lines to approve a bill that would prohibit local communities from issuing their own rules on plastic bags and other containers. This is part of an emerging national trend. Preventing local governments from banning, charging a fee for, or otherwise regulating plastic bags is part of a national strategy by corporate interests and groups they fund, like ALEC to override progressive policy gains at the city and county level. Read the rest of this item here. The Safety Violations Billion-Dollar Contractor BAE Systems Should Have to Disclose If you oversaw the Department of Defense, wouldn't you want to know that one of your biggest contractors had a history of serious safety violations? In April 2013, John R. Johnson drowned at a Mobile, Alabama shipyard owned by a subsidiary of BAE Systems when a massive cruise ship in the facility broke loose, floated across the Mobile River, and struck the pier he and another company employee were on, knocking both into the water. One person was rescued. The National Transportation Safety Board later found that corroded mooring bollards failed to hold the ship in place during high winds and that the subsidiary had been warned there was a problem with the bollards in 2010. Read the rest of this item here. Cashing in on Kids: 172 ALEC Education Bills Push Privatization in 2015 Despite widespread public opposition to the corporate-driven education privatization agenda, at least 172 measures reflecting American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) model bills were introduced in 42 states in 2015, according to an analysis by the Center for Media and Democracy, publishers of ALECexposed.org and PRWatch.org. (A PDF version of this report may be downloaded here.) One of ALEC's biggest funders is Koch Industries and the Koch brothers' fortune. The Kochs have had a seat at the table—where the private sector votes as equals with legislators—on ALEC's education task force via their "grassroots" group Americans for Prosperity and their Freedom Partners group, which was described as the Kochs' "secret bank." The Kochs also have a voice on ALEC's Education Task Force through multiple state-based think tanks of the State Policy Network, ALEC's sister organization, which is funded by many of the same corporations and foundations and donor entities. Read the rest of this item here.

Recent Articles from PRWatch.org

Honeywell's String of Dangerous Close Calls Doesn't Stop Flow of Taxpayer Dollars Six Honeywell workers were cleaning a 100,000-gallon sulfuric acid tank when it became over-pressurized and violently ruptured in January 2015. Other workers sheltered in place as fire crews rushed to Honeywell International, Inc.'s Hopewell, Virginia plant, one of the world's largest single-site producers of caprolactum, the primary feedstock in the production of nylon polymer used in carpet fibers, plastics, and films. Luckily, no one was hospitalized. But the incident was just one in a string of problems at the troubled Hopewell plant, which has been cited by OSHA for 7 "Serious" violations in three separate inspections from 2013-2015. Read the rest of this item here. Koch-ALEC Right to Work Power Play Exposed in a Small Illinois Village Last month, four unions sued the Village of Lincolnshire in federal court in Chicago. The unions representing engineers, construction workers, and carpenters--including three affiliated with the AFL-CIO--filed suit on February 18, 2016, to have Lincolnshire's anti-union "right-to-work" ordinance declared invalid and prevent its enforcement. Two days after the federal lawsuit was filed, the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 filed a related lawsuit alleging that Lincolnshire Mayor Elizabeth Brandt wrongfully barred two men from speaking against the ordinance when it was originally being considered in December. Read the rest of this item here. House Republicans Get Secret Briefing from Koch Veterans Group The Koch brothers' group targeting veterans gave a secret briefing to U.S. House Republicans on "Reforming Veterans Health Care" last week, according to an invitation to the meeting provided to CMD. The Kochs' Concerned Veterans for America (CVA) has been in the news lately for a six-figure ad campaign in Nevada supporting Rep. Joe Heck's campaign for Senate. Read the rest of this item here. Koch-Funded Concerned Veterans for America Goes to Bat for Joe Heck The Koch brothers have fired their first salvo--that the public knows about--in the 2016 election year. The Koch-funded Concerned Veterans for America is beginning to air a $700,000 broadcast and digital advertising buy throughout Nevada supporting U.S. Representative Joe Heck's candidacy for Senator Harry Reid's seat. Koch Industries has been one of Rep. Heck's top contributors throughout his career, and Heck voted with Koch-held positions nearly 90 percent of the time in 2015. In 2014, the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity also ran a $200,000 advertisement in support of Heck. Read the rest of this item here.

Featured SourceWatch Article

SourceWatch.org is an interactive wiki website that depends on readers like you to improve content. If you want to help us grow SourceWatch with well documented research and become a volunteer editor, click here for more information. Excerpts from longer SourceWatch article: Concerned Veterans for America Concerned Veterans for America (CVA) is a 501(c)(4) non-profit whose major funders through the years have been the Koch brothers and their donor network; as such Sourcewatch.org considers CVA to be a Koch Brothers front group. The Koch donors network appears to use CVA to advocate for reductions in federal spending, to attack the 2010 Affordable Care Act and to advance other "free market" policies. An investigation by ProPublica found that Concerned Veterans for America submits its IRS filings under the name Vets for Economic Freedom Trust. Those documents list former Koch Industries managing director Wayne Gable as a trustee. Many Koch funding vehicles are set up as nonprofit trusts rather than not-for-profit corporations, "an unusual step that reduces their public reporting requirements," says ProPublica. “My guess is that we’re looking at various forms of disguise — to disguise control, to disguise the flow of funds from one entity to another,” said Gregory Colvin, a tax lawyer and campaign-finance specialist in San Francisco who reviewed all the documents for ProPublica.” Funding from Secretive Trusts As a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, CVA is not required to disclose its donors. However, CVA appears to have received the vast majority of its revenues from Koch network funding vehicles, structured to keep donors secret and the public in the dark. Many Koch funding vehicles are set up as nonprofit trusts rather than not-for-profit corporations, "an unusual step that reduces their public reporting requirements," says ProPublica. “My guess is that we’re looking at various forms of disguise — to disguise control, to disguise the flow of funds from one entity to another,” said Gregory Colvin, a tax lawyer and campaign-finance specialist in San Francisco who reviewed all the documents for ProPublica.” From mid-2011 to mid-2012, the Koch-linked TC4 Trust gave $1,968,000 to CVA, according to research by ProPublica. This would appear to be almost all of the revenue CVA reported to the IRS for its 2011-2012 fiscal year. Read the entire SourceWatch page on the Concerned Veterans for America here. References

Editors' Pick

ALEC Exposed: Corporate Polluters Undermining Clean Power in Virginia The Sierra Club Virginia Chapter and the Center for Media and Democracy released ALEC EXPOSED: Corporate Polluters Undermining Clean Power in Virginia, a report that reveals the influence that ALEC and its political allies have exerted to stymie state climate and clean energy policies. The report focuses on ALEC's efforts to stop the Clean Power Plan, which sets the nation's first-ever protections against harmful carbon pollution by giving each state a carbon reduction goal to help cut national carbon pollution from power plants by 32% from 2005 levels by the year 2030. EPA has estimated that by 2030 the Clean Power Plan will prevent 150,000 asthma attacks and up to 6,600 premature deaths annually. The Clean Power Plan is an important part of the U.S. commitment to reduce harmful carbon pollution under the Paris international climate agreement, and the goal for Virginia is modest compared to surrounding states. "I was pleased that during the 2016 General Assembly session we were able—at least so far—to fend off ALEC's attempt to derail Virginia's plan to curb emissions and comply with the Clean Power Plan," said Virginia Delegate Rip Sullivan (D-48). "It is disappointing and troubling, though, that ALEC-inspired HB2 and SB21 passed the General Assembly—thankfully not by veto-proof majorities. Virginia should be leading the way on clean energy, but sadly, we lag far behind." Read the rest of this item here. CMD Calls on ALEC to Disclose Information during Sunshine Week In the spirit of national Sunshine Week, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) has written a letter to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and its state chairs (see list) calling on them to live up to their own statements about the importance of transparency and release basic information about their legislative operations. "It's interesting that ALEC has touted the principles of public transparency for government accountability," said CMD executive director Lisa Graves. "Now we'd like to see ALEC apply those principles to their own legislative activities and interactions between ALEC legislators and ALEC corporations that undermine accountability." Read the rest of this item here.

Featured Video
Arizona's NBC 12 and CMD Expose ALEC's Corporate Influence on State Laws
Sunday Square Off, December 9, 2015 Phoenix Arizona's NBC affiliate KPNX hosted the Center for Media and Democracy's Executive Director Lisa Graves on the December 6 episode of "Sunday Square Off" to expose the American Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC) effort to push corporate backed model legislation in state legislatures.

Popular SourceWatch Articles

One of our most popular articles this week is about the American Council on Science and Health, which actively solicits funding from corporations and advocates positions that back those corporate interests. Two related articles about the backgrounds of two of the doctors that are part of the ACSH PR operations, Henry I. Miller and Gilbert Ross, are also popular this week. SourceWatch's home page is the top landing page in this website. Here are some of the other hot pages: our portal on Outsourcing America Exposed, our article on the Existing U.S. Coal Plants, our article on ALEC Corporations, our article on Koch Industries, our article on Monsanto, and our article on Fracking. Get breaking news on these and other issues here, "Like" us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter at @PRwatch and @ALECexposed."

Koch Exposed

Follow the Money! The Center for Media and Democracy, publisher of ALEC Exposed, brings you this unique wiki resource on the billionaire industrialists and the power and influence of the Koch cadre and Koch cash. Read about Koch Funding Vehicles: Koch Family Foundations Koch Network Freedom Partners Knowledge and Progress Fund American Encore DonorsTrust Donors Capital TC4 Trust Visit Koch Exposed for more.

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The Center for Media and Democracy publishes SourceWatch to track corporations. We provide well-documented information about corporate public relations (PR) campaigns, including corporate front groups, people who "front" corporate campaigns, and PR operations. Dating back to when tobacco companies deployed doctors to try to prevent labeling of cancer-causing cigarettes, many corporations use the "tobacco playbook" to hide behind neutral-looking "experts" as well as think tanks or non-profits in their efforts to influence or distort public policy to protect their bottom line or agenda--often a narrow agenda at odds with the broader public interest. This specialized encyclopedia watches those sources and provides detailed information about corporations and special interests, using the collaborative "wiki" platform, like Wikipedia. CMD relies on concerned citizens like you to keep this research online. You can contribute here. Please visit SourceWatch's sister websites PRWatch, to read our original reporting, and ALECexposed, to see our award-winning investigation of a corporate front group where corporate lobbyists actually vote as equals with elected legislators on "model" legislation to change our rights. Also, please check out the in-depth research from around the world by our partner projects within SourceWatch: CoalSwarm and FrackSwarm. You can also use the sign up box below to get breaking news about our breakthrough investigations. — Lisa Graves, Executive Director

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