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Big Win for Worker Rights and Workplace Safety This Labor Day, the 26 million workers who work for federal contractors really had something to celebrate. President Obama issued the final rule implementing the historic Fair Pay & Safe Workplaces Executive Order which will make sure that federal contractors who repeatedly violate worker safety and labor laws will be held to account. These new federal rules will require companies to disclose violations from the previous few years when bidding for each new major contract. Read the rest of this item here. Coveted Records Exemption Wrong for Wisconsin Over the July 4 weekend in 2015, members of the state Legislature sparked a public uproar by proposing last-minute changes to the state budget bill that would have created a "deliberative process" exception to Wisconsin’s long-cherished public records law. Government transparency advocates condemned the move, and the changes were hastily rescinded. But the effort to shield records that are produced while crafting law and policy did not end there. The administration of Gov. Scott Walker continued to assert its ability to withhold these records under existing law. Read the rest of this item here. The Independent "Women's" Voice? Most Known Donors Are Men The Independent Women's Voice touts its "independent" brand in reaching potential voters. But is it even women's voices it is throwing? Let alone independent women? The reported data from the Federal Election Commission data says no. New research shows that the overwhelming majority of its known donors are men. Very rich men. Yes, men have provided most of the disclosed donations to fund election-related expenditures under the name of the "Independent Women's Voice." Read the rest of this item here. AARP To Drop ALEC after Members’ Outcry AARP will drop its membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which has a long history of peddling bills that harm the interests of retirees and other Americans. The statement comes just days after the Center for Media and Democracy reported that AARP had joined ALEC and was a sponsor of ALEC's 2016 Annual Conference. AARP joins more than 120 private sector members that have publicly cut ties with ALEC since CMD launched the ALEC Exposed investigation in 2011. Read the rest of this item here. The Anti-Transparency Agenda Hailed Inside ALEC WI Senator Leah Vukmir By Rep. Chris Taylor--I walked into my sixth ALEC conference over a week ago as one of two familiar Wisconsin myths was being told by the queen of the American Legislative Exchange Council, state Senator Leah Vukmir. It wasn't the one Governor Walker continues to repeat. That's the one where newly elected tea party politicians who had all the power took away workers' rights and faced down thousands of school teachers, firefighters and high school kids. Read the rest of this item here.

Recent Articles from PRWatch.org

Expedia Latest to Exit ALEC The Guardian is reporting that the online travel company Expedia has dumped the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). The Center for Media and Democracy has been flagging Expedia's financial support for ALEC and asking activists if they are using Expedia-connected hotel and air travel booking services. In an email to Common Cause, Expedia confirmed it had severed ties" with the corporate bill mill. Read the rest of this item here. Koch Money Trail Reveals Great Interest in 2016 State Elections In WI, OK, and TX In July, Charles and David Koch held their semiannual meeting with billionaire donors in the rightwing stronghold of Colorado Springs at the Broadmoor, a luxury hotel at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. The national media focused much of its reporting on who Charles Koch has said he is not supporting in the 2016 election cycle: Donald Trump. Koch told the hundreds of donors: "At this point I can't support either candidate, but I'm certainly not going to support Hillary." Read the rest of this item here. Revealed: AARP Is Funding ALEC AARP, the non-profit seniors organization, is secretly funding the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an organization whose bills have acted against the interests of ordinary Americans, including retirees and their families. The Center for Media and Democracy has learned that AARP had joined ALEC, and that it was a named sponsor of the ALEC annual meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana. Read the rest of this item here. ExxonMobil Top Sponsor at ALEC Annual Meeting ExxonMobil, facing multiple state investigations connected to its funding of climate change denial, is listed as a top corporate sponsor of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) annual meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana. ALEC has long promoted climate change denial to state legislators, and promotes a legislative agenda of "model" bills designed to protect the interests of its oil, gas and coal funders. Read the rest of this item here. Black Lives, Blue Lives, and the Fight Over Criminal Justice in America PHILADELPHIA--Two people from Milwaukee took to the national stage at the Republican National Convention (RNC) and the Democratic National Convention (DNC) to present two very different perspectives on one of the most divisive issues of our time, the shootings of unarmed African Americans by police and civilians. Read the rest of this item here.nationalist" who is "not a conservative." Read the rest of this item here.

Popular SourceWatch Articles

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 and water pollution. Get breaking news on these and other issues here, "Like" us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter at @PRwatch and @ALECexposed."

Exposed by CMD

Fossil Fuel Industry Paid for Meetings with GOP Attorneys General to Plan Attack on Clean Power Plan Fossil fuel giants Murray Energy and Southern Company paid for meetings with Republican attorneys general to discuss their opposition to the Clean Power Plan less than two weeks before the same GOP officials petitioned federal courts to block the Obama administration’s signature climate proposal, according to private emails (see below) from state attorneys general obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy. The meetings took place at an August 2015 summit hosted by the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) in West Virginia, where attendees were offered the opportunity to meet with GOP attorneys general in exchange for financial donations to help reelect the Republican state prosecutors. Confidential documents also reveal that some of the GOP attorneys general again discussed “the future of the fight to stop the Clean Power Plan” at a meeting of the Republican Attorneys General Association’s 501(c)(4) organization, the Rule of Law Defense Fund, this past April. Read the rest of this item here. New Koch-Funded Campaign to Kill the Electric Car and Squash Clean Energy With reports out that every month so far in 2016 has been the hottest on record, it seems a little unbelievable that even the oil-rich Koch Brothers would have the audacity to launch a new multimillion dollar campaign to kill clean energy initiatives and promote the use of fossil fuels that are at the heart of the climate change crisis. But launch they have in the from of a new organization called Fueling U.S. Forward — a cheeky double entendre presumably meant to inspire both national and personal pride in the glories of oil and gas. 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: DonorsTrust DonorsTrust (DT) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit started in 1999 "to ensure the intent of donors who are dedicated to the ideals of limited government, personal responsibility, and free enterprise." Along with its supporting 509(a)(3) organization Donors Capital Fund (DCF), it is a spin-off of the Philanthropy Roundtable, a coordinating body for conservative foundations founded by Whitney L. Ball, who passed away in 2015. Both funding organizations are "donor-advised funds," which means that the fund creates separate accounts for individual donors, and the donors then recommend disbursements from the accounts to different non-profits. They cloak the identity of the original mystery donors because the funds are then distributed in the name of DT or DCF, contributing another step to what has been called a "murky money maze." Funding Climate Change Denial DonorsTrust promises to only funnel money to groups with an extreme anti-environmental bent, so industrial billionaires need not worry about their money winding up at Greenpeace... Read the entire SourceWatch page on the DonorsTrust here. References

Editors' Pick

Independent Women's Forum and Independent Women's Voice Use "Independent" Brand to Push Right-Wing Agenda to Women Voters The Independent Women's Forum and its 501(c)(4) affiliate, the Independent Women's Voice, market themselves to the media and voters as "non-partisan," "independent," and "neutral." An investigation of the groups by the CMD reveals them to be anything but that. Joan Walsh in The Nation broke this story about these not-so independent women's groups. CMD's Reporters' Guide exposes the groups' leaders admitting to—and boasting about—their true role: finding ways to sell right-wing policies and candidates to independent women voters under the guise of neutrality. 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.

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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We Track Corporations and PR Spin

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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"As a journalist frequently on the receiving end of various PR campaigns, some of them based on disinformation, others front groups for undisclosed interests, [CMD's SourceWatch] is an invaluable resource." —Michael Pollan, author of The Botany of Desire "Thanks for all your help. There's no way I could have done my piece on big PR and global warming without CMD [the Center for Media and Democracy] and your fabulous websites." —Zoe Cormier, journalist, Canada "The troublemakers at the Center for Media and Democracy, for example, point to dozens of examples of "greenwashing," which they defined as the "unjustified appropriation of environmental virtue by a company, an industry, a government or even a non-government organization to sell a product, a policy" or rehabilitate an image. In the center's view, many enterprises labeled green don't deserve the name. —Jack Shafer, "Green Is the New Yellow: On the excesses of 'green' journalism," Slate. "The dearth of information on the [U.S.] government [lobbying] disclosure forms about the other business-backed coalitions comes in stark contrast to the data about them culled from media reports, websites, press releases and Internal Revenue Service documents and posted by SourceWatch, a website that tracks advocacy groups." —Jeanne Cummings, 'New disclosure reports lack clarity," Politico. "The folks at the Center for Media and Democracy have done incredible work documenting fake grassroots ("astroturf") groups. Here, they're helping protect the rights of all Americans to exercise their right to vote. They are completely non-partisan. These guys are the real deal." —Craig Newmark, Craig's List

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