Headlines

Catch Wendell Berry Speaking with Bill Moyers

Bill Moyers profiles Wendell Berry, one of America's most influential writers, on an edition of his show Moyers & Company, which will be available on local public television stations starting on October 4, 2013.

New Records Released Detailing FBI and DHS Fusion Center Monitoring of Activists

  • Topics: Corporations
  • DBA Press releases an additional 1,784 pages of Phoenix Police Department Homeland Defense Bureau (PPDHDB) records pertaining to Occupy Phoenix and other Phoenix area activist groups.

    Prions in Plants? New Concerns Regarding Chronic Wasting Disease

    -- by Ron Seely, Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

    Prions -- the infectious, deformed proteins that cause chronic wasting disease in deer -- can be taken up by plants such as alfalfa, corn and tomatoes, according to new research from the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison.

    CMD Pushes Back Against Attorney General’s Attack on Open Records in ALEC Lawsuit

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

    CONTACT: Brendan Fischer, brendan@prwatch.org

    MADISON -- On October 1, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) filed a brief countering claims by Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen and Senator Leah Vukmir that legislators cannot be held accountable for violating the open records law during their entire term in office. The government's position is not supported by a careful analysis of the Wisconsin Constitution and its historical context. It is also a rash reversal of how the Attorney General's office has always construed the limits of legislative privilege.

    From Junk Bonds to Junk Schools: Cyber Schools Fleece Taxpayers for Phantom Students and Failing Grades

    The data is in and K12 Inc.'s brand of full-time public "cyber school" is garbage. Not surprising for an educational model kicked off with a $10 million investment from junk-bond king Michael Milken.

    Texas Attorney General Rebuffs ALEC's Effort to Declare Itself Immune from Open Records Law

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 30, 2013

    CONTACT: Brendan Fischer, brendan@prwatch.org

    MADISON -- Texas Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott has issued an Open Records Letter Ruling rejecting an effort by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to declare itself immune from the state's public records law, after the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) and the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas filed briefs in the matter.

    Koch Bros Retainer to PRWatch: “Bring It!”

    Some interesting emails were released as part of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's ongoing investigation of a $500,000 taxpayer grant awarded to the Koch-tied United Sportsmen's group. The grant was tailor-made for United Sportsmen and slipped into the budget by State Representative Scott Suder as one of his last acts as a state legislator. (Suder, who also served as ALEC's Wisconsin State Chair, was given a new job at the Public Utilities Commission and a $45,000 pay raise by Governor Scott Walker.)

    Violence, Abuse, and Death at For-Profit Prisons: A GEO Group Rap Sheet

    This week CMD launched a new web resource, OutsourcingAmericaExposed, where we will detail the privatizers and profiteers selling out our democracy. The website will be populated with "rap sheets" or corporate profiles of America's top outsourcing companies.

    FrackSwarm: Harnessing the Power of the Anti-Fracking Movement into a Valuable Web Resource

  • Topics: Energy
  • -- by Joshua Frank

    Snow drifts arc along the Interstate as a frigid wind rips through this austere landscape of western North Dakota. The scene is something out of a colorful and lonely C.M. Russell painting. If it weren't for the long line of semi-trucks backed up along Highway 85, leading into the nearby rural enclave of Williston, you may not have any idea there is something huge going on in this remote region that straddles Montana's eastern-most border.

    CMD Launches OutsourcingAmericaExposed.org to "Expose the Private Companies Behind the Corporate Takeover of Public Services"

    CONTACT: Rebekah Wilce, rebekah@prwatch.org

    - Center for Media and Democracy site will feature corporate profiles, local privatization deals gone bad, and "fine print follies" spotlighting outrageous contract giveaways

    - New video accompanies launch, from Pulitzer-winner Mark Fiore, illustrating the corporate take over of schools, prisons, water, and other vital services

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