Environment

Fenton Communications is helping the Rainforest Action Network respond to a conservative non-profit group's claims that RAN illegally uses tax-deductible donations to fund its advocacy campaigns. In a move that could begin what the Wall Street Journal called a "war of the non-profits," Washington, D.C.-based Frontiers of Freedom, which bills itself the "antithesis" of the green movement, has urged the Internal Revenue Service to revoke RAN's tax-exempt status.

The conservative Frontiers of Freedom Institute has petitioned the Internal Revenue Service to rescind nonprofit status for the San Francisco environmental group Rainforest Action Network (RAN). The Arlington, VA-based research and education group--funded by the John M. Olin Foundation, the Bradley Foundation, and other right-wing foundations--has condemned RAN for being "fundamentally radical, anti-capitalist and lawless." Environmentalists worry this may have a chilling effect on activist organizations.

The Christian Science Monitor quotes industry mouthpiece Steven Milloy in defense of the Bush administration's decision to scrap regulations limiting arsenic in drinking water. "Over the last 40 years, and accelerating over the last 20, science has become very political in Washington," Milloy complains. Somehow the Monitor fails to mention that Milloy himself is a Washington policy wonk, not a scientist, who spends his days politicizing science and harassing researchers in defense of corporate polluters.

Melinda Ballard, former PR executive at Ruder Finn and United Brands in New York, on June 1 won a $32 million toxic mold case against a unit of Farmers Insurance Group. She charged the company mishandled her family's claim for mold damage which damaged the health of her husband and son and made her 22-room house uninhabitable.