Corporations

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M&I Bank in Madison Sees Throngs of Protesters Tuesday Evening

by Erica Pelzek — March 16, 2011 - 1:00am
  • Topics: Activism, Corporations, Wisconsin Protests

    • "Where did our money go? Down the Walker rat hole!"

    Such was the popular chant Tuesday evening outside the downtown Madison Marshall and Ilsley Bank branch. Protesters rallied outside the small bank front on the Capitol Square.

    M&I Bank, founded and based in Milwaukee, and its executives were top contributors to Governor Scott Walker's campaign fund in 2010. After Walker passed the controversial "budget repair" bill, eliminating collective bargaining rights for many Wisconsin public workers, M&I Bank found itself smack-dab at the top of two boycott lists.

    "Who funds Walker? M&I Bank!"

    The crowd of about 100 people gained steam as the protesting continued. At one point, a burly bald man with "M&I Security" emblazoned on his suit came out and told protester Miles Kristan he could not sit against the door of the bank because "it is private property."

    News

    Reframing the Debate to Make Health Insurers Look Poor

    by Wendell Potter — March 15, 2011 - 11:53am
  • Topics: Corporations, Health, Public Relations

    • In 2010, the U.S. Census Bureau delivered the troubling but hardly shocking news that almost 51 million Americans -- nearly one out of every six of us -- had fallen into the ranks of the uninsured. If you think that news would also be troubling for health insurance companies, think again. While the country was struggling to emerge from a recession, and more and more of us were struggling with no medical coverage, the big for-profit insurance companies were rolling in dough.

    Over the past few weeks, UnitedHealth, WellPoint, Aetna, CIGNA and Humana reported fourth quarter 2010 earnings, and all but Humana exceeded Wall Street's profit expectations, most by wide margins. The combined earnings of just those five companies were more than $11.7 billion last year, which was 17 percent more than they made in 2009. Since the end of 2008, their earnings have increased a Wall Street-pleasing 51 percent. Just imagine how much more they would have been able to reward their shareholders if the economy had been running on all cylinders.In fact, 2010 will go down in the history books as one of the most profitable ever for the five biggest for-profit health insurers.

    Companies Move to Block Fast Food Toy Bans in Arizona

    by Anne Landman — March 14, 2011 - 11:14pm

    A little-known bill making its way through Arizona's legislature would make it illegal for local governments to restrict the use of toy giveaways to promote fast-food, like McDonalds' Happy Meals. Fast-food companies are behind the measure, HB 2490, which was approved in Arizona's House Commerce Committee by a vote of 6-2. Now it is headed for a full vote in the House. The Arizona Restaurant Association, which lobbies for fast food interests, is backing the bill. San Francisco recently passed a measure restricing such toy giveaways, but the law doesn't ban "Happy Meals." Rather, it prevents restaurants from using toys to attract children to meals that have particularly low nutritional value and excessive amounts of fat or sugar. Arizona recently ranked among the top "10 States with the Deadliest Eating Habits", and the state has the second-fewest grocery stores per person, which results in more people buying fast food. As a result, Arizona ranks fourth in per capita expenditures on fast food. The effort by fast-food companies to pass the measure comes on the heels of studies that show fast food chains have been significantly [p://www.prwatch.org/node/9587 increasing] their marketing targeted at children in the last few years.

    Main Source: 
    Change.org, February 24, 2011

    M&I Bank Protest: Stop Bankrolling Attacks On Workers

    Event Date: Tuesday, March 15, 2011 - 4:00pm - 7:00pm

    Event Contact Name: Peter Rickman

    Taking place at:
    M&I Bank Capitol Square Branch
    1 West Main Street
    Madison, WI

    Facebook event can be found here.
    M&I Bank got a $1.7 billion bailout while working people get sold out. Their CEO got a golden parachute of $18 million only to turn around with his M&I Bankster cronies to be the largest contributors to Scott Walker's campaign.

    Working people are fed up with big banks and the attacks on working families. We're not going to take it anymore.

    See map: Google Maps

    News

    Karl Rove's Secretly-Funded Crossroads GPS Attacks Unions in Nationwide Ad

    by Brendan Fischer — March 11, 2011 - 6:37pm
  • Topics: Corporations, Labor, Media, Politics, U.S. Government, Wisconsin Protests

    • Karl Rove's secretly-funded Crossroads GPS is spending $750,000 airing a terribly misleading ad attacking public-sector labor unions. With support declining for the GOP's anti-union stance, Rove's group is looking towards the 2012 elections and aiming to counteract that slide by unfairly demonizing unions.

    News

    Americans for Prosperity Road Show is Classic Astroturf

    by Anne Landman — March 9, 2011 - 9:10am
  • Topics: Corporations, Labor, Lobbying, Real Economy Project, Wisconsin Protests

    • For some, when the going gets tough, the tough gas up the custom-painted luxury motorcoach.

    So it is with the Wisconsin branch of the Koch-backed group, Americans for Prosperity (AFP), whose four-day, ten-city bus PR event across Wisconsin to support controversial Governor Scott Walker started in Kenosha March 3 and concluded in Madison on March 7 -- but not at the Capitol, where the bus would have been surrounded by the tens of thousands of people gathered to oppose Walker's union-crushing "budget repair" bill. Instead, AFP ended its tour at the Alliant Energy Center, where protesters against Walker's radical proposals who were outside in the cold easily outnumber the pro-Walker crowd in inside the rented space.

    And so it went with AFP's "Stand with Walker" Wisconsin road show. At every stop, the AFP PR gambit was met by some supporters, but it was also greeted often by an equal or a substantially greater numbers of opponents. A little-watched YouTube video of AFP's stop at Serb Hall on March 3, 2011 shows a group of about a dozen Scott Walker supporters, and a sidewalk packed with what appears to be about several hundred demonstrators against the governor's extreme proposals.

    Op-Ed

    The "Badger Advocates": Corporate Advocates, Not UW-Madison Advocates

    by Steve Horn — March 6, 2011 - 5:05pm
  • Topics: Banking, Corporations, Education, Lobbying, Wisconsin Protests

    • Madison, Wisconsin -- A new lobbying firm, the Badger Advocates, has opened on Capitol Square.

    According to its newly-minted website, the Advocates "are dedicated to supporting the University of Wisconsin-Madison ... [and] will promote greater accountability through enhanced autonomy for this unique institution." This lobbying effort is similar to efforts afoot in other states to use state budget issues to privatize public higher education institutions and put more assets and power at the disposal of powerful corporate interests.

    The lobby shop's PR description closely mirrors the title of the Wisconsin Public Research Institute's December 2010 report titled, "Making the University of Wisconsin More Accountable Through Greater Autonomy." WPRI is heavily funded by the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, a right-wing neo-conservative think tank.

    David Koch Donates to Fight Cancer While His Company Fights the Regulation of Carcinogens

    by Anne Landman — March 5, 2011 - 11:39am

    Scientists, politicians and Nobel laureates lauded billionaire David H. Koch at an event on March 4, 2011 for donating hundreds of millions of dollars to cancer research. Koch decided to put money towards cancer research after he contracted prostate cancer in 1992.

    Main Source: 
    New York Times, March 4, 2011

    ABC's "Made in America" Puts Blame on Consumers

    by Anne Landman — March 2, 2011 - 5:55pm

    On February 28, ABC World News with Diane Sawyer premiered a TV series called "Made in America" that ostensibly encourages viewers to buy American-made products to help spur U.S. job growth. In the first episode, a reporter tours the home of an average American family, discovering that most of the family's belongings were made in foreign countries. To illustrate how remiss the family has been in buying American, a moving crew takes everything out of the house that is made in a foreign country. The crew rips out the family's stove, carts off their furniture, beds and refrigerator, and takes virtually everything in the home away except a small vase with a flower in it. The family returns, shocked, to see their empty home. The series blames consumers for not purchasing American-made products, while failing to mention how major American corporations choose to manufacture their products overseas. Also unmentioned is the fact that ABC's parent company, Disney, manufactures toys, including Mickey Mouse memorabilia and other goods, in Chinese factories. The show obscures the fact that consumers don't choose where the products offered in their local stores are made, and doesn't discuss the limited American-made products offered at ubiquitous big-box appliance, electronics, furniture, drug and toy stores.

    Main Source: 
    Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, March 2, 2011
    News

    Wisconsin Governor Defies Court Order to Open Capitol

    by Mary Bottari — March 1, 2011 - 9:02pm
  • Topics: Activism, Corporations, Economy, Labor, Politics, Real Economy Project

    • Madison – In a dramatic turn of events at the Wisconsin State Capitol today, Governor Scott Walker defied a court order to open the Capitol for normal business operations. State legislator, Representative Marc Pocan, called the move "not only unprecedented, but contempt of court as well."

    On Monday at 8:00 a.m., the Wisconsin Capitol building, which was the site of dozens of major protests in the last two weeks including one of over 100,00 on Sunday, was virtually locked down as the Governor moved to limit protester access in advance of his scheduled budget address on Tuesday.

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