Headlines

The secret "John Doe" criminal investigation of Governor Scott Walker's former staff and associates during the time he served as Milwaukee County Executive has resulted in 15 felony indictments so far.

One spring day in Wisconsin last year, as a bustling crowd of Madison teachers got ready to march on the Capitol to protest Governor Scott Walker's bill to dismantle public sector unions, the march was led by an unusual team -- a group of African Americans wearing dark shades, snazzy berets, blue uniforms, and taps on their shoes. They were the International Longshore and Warehouse Union's drill team, all the way from California showing their support for Wisconsin's working families. The tradition dates back to the union's founding in the 1930s.

President Barack Obama rode into office in 2008 on a wave of small donations that some expected would change politics. The small-dollar strategy is still helping Obama fill his campaign accounts, but the electoral landscape has changed rapidly over the past four years and candidates' official campaigns are being overshadowed by unlimited spending from nominally "independent" groups funded by a handful of ultra-wealthy donors.

After a court decision in March required nonprofit groups running phony "issue ads" to disclose their donors, David Koch's Americans for Prosperity (AFP) shifted to ads expressly calling for President Obama's defeat in the November 2012 elections. At the time, they claimed the change in tactics was only because the president's record was "disastrous," but now that the decision has been overturned and AFP can again run issue ads while keeping their funders secret, they have reverted to their old strategy. Is it because the group no longer thinks the president's record is "disastrous?"