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Blockbuster Reports Reveal Widespread Surveillance of Phone and Internet Records by Obama Administration

by Rebekah Wilce — June 7, 2013 - 9:15am
  • Topics: Human Rights, Media, Secrecy

    • In a series of blockbuster reports published in the Washington Post and in the British newspaper The Guardian, sources reveal that the National Security Agency (NSA) is running a previously undisclosed program called PRISM, which allows federal officials to collect material including "search history, the content of emails, file transfers and live chats" from an array of internet companies including Google, Skype, YouTube, Facebook, Apple, and more without a court order.

    Press Release

    CMD Files Open Records Suit Against ALEC Board Member Sen. Leah Vukmir

    by Brendan Fischer — June 7, 2013 - 8:12am
  • Topics: ALEC Exposed, Corporations, Democracy, Politics, Wisconsin Protests

    • ALEC Asserting Immunity From State Freedom of Information Laws

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 7, 2013

    CONTACT: Brendan Fischer, Brendan@prwatch.org

    MADISON -- The Center for Media and Democracy filed suit Thursday against Wisconsin State Senator Leah Vukmir, a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the treasurer of ALEC's national board, over her failure to disclose ALEC-related materials under Wisconsin's public records law -- possibly because ALEC told her to keep the documents secret.

    News

    WI Legislature Fast-Tracking "War on Democracy" Bill, Business Lobby Misleads on Disclosure Provisions

    by Brendan Fischer — June 5, 2013 - 3:51pm
  • Topics: Election 2012, Corporations, Democracy, Politics, Wisconsin Protests

    • Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin are fast-tracking a controversial bill to keep political donors secret, enact voter ID, and limit early voting, among other measures, with a vote scheduled for next week. The only public hearing on the bill was held Tuesday, where a representative of the business lobby made several misleading assertions about the bill's disclosure provisions.

    News

    Environmental Groups Split on Illinois Fracking Bill

    by Nick Surgey — June 5, 2013 - 7:25am
  • Topics: Activism, Fracking, Environment

    • The Illinois legislature has passed a fracking regulatory bill, expected to be signed into law by the governor, hailed by some environmental groups as the "toughest in the country." But other groups are highly critical, both of the bill and of the way some big environmental groups worked with legislators and industry to pass it into law.

    News

    Lois Lerner's "Hands-Off" Approach Likely Contributed to IRS Mess

    by Brendan Fischer — June 4, 2013 - 8:18am
  • Topics: Democracy, Politics

    • The official at the center of the IRS mess, Lois Lerner, gave indications months ago that she was refusing to provide meaningful guidance about how to interpret and apply ambiguous rules for nonprofit political activity.

    News

    Federal Court Criticizes Wisconsin Republicans for "Peculiarly Furtive" Redistricting, Closes Case

    by Brendan Fischer — June 4, 2013 - 8:01am
  • Topics: Democracy, Politics

    • A federal court hearing a challenge to Wisconsin's Republican-led redistricting sharply criticized the expensive, secretive, and "peculiarly furtive process" employed by the GOP in drawing and defending the maps, but announced a close to "this unfortunate chapter in Wisconsin political history."

    News

    Students Petition Sallie Mae for Transparency and a Better Deal on Student Loans

    by Harriet Rowan — June 3, 2013 - 11:00am
  • Topics: Activism, Education

    • Student activists and their allies gathered outside Sallie Mae’s annual shareholder meeting on May 30 to demand increased transparency and accountability from the nation’s largest student loan lender, and to draw attention to the worsening problem of student debt. Allie Gardner, a student at the University of Wisconsin – Madison drove to Delaware from Wisconsin to attend the shareholder meeting and demand a meeting with the CEO; "Sallie Mae doesn’t exist to protect students, and they are not willing to work with students. They exist to profit off of us."

    News

    Wisconsin Legislature, Failing to Create Jobs, Opts to Punish the Unemployed

    by Rebekah Wilce — June 3, 2013 - 7:47am
  • Topics: Economy, Politics

    • Wisconsin's unemployed are being subject to a double attack by the state legislature. In the state that fell to 44th in the nation in job creation in March, a bill introduced to the Wisconsin State Assembly on May 24 would make it more difficult for jobless workers to collect unemployment benefits. Then, in what Representative Chris Taylor (D-Madison) called the "ultimate bait-and-switch," a hearing on that bill occurred at the same time as a meeting of the Joint Committee on Finance that passed yet more changes related to unemployment insurance, which critics called even more extreme than the first.

    News

    Scaife-Funded Network Works Hard to Kill Immigration Reform

    by PRW Staff — May 31, 2013 - 8:25am
  • Topics: Right Wing, Front Groups, Democracy, Human Rights, International, Lobbying

    • -- By Katie Lorenze

    With immigration reform advancing through Congress, an anti-immigrant network funded by a small group of right-wing foundations is trying to kill reform by pressuring moderate Republicans and appealing to the party's xenophobic wing. The groups could stymie efforts by some Republicans to appeal to the country's growing Latino population by moving to the center on immigration.

    News

    WI Appellate Judge Upholds WI Voter ID, But Indicates Another Challenge Could be Successful

    by Brendan Fischer — May 30, 2013 - 12:37pm
  • Topics: ALEC Exposed, Democracy, Politics, Wisconsin Protests

    • A Wisconsin appellate court has overturned one decision by a lower court finding the state's voter ID law unconstitutional, but the legislation remains blocked, with a separate challenge to the law pending before a different appellate court. Despite upholding the voter ID law, the judge deciding today's case appeared to imply that there could be a different outcome for a challenge that provides more evidence of the law's burdens on the right to vote.

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