Apr 30, 2012
LINCOLN — Four Nebraska lawmakers have withdrawn from a national organization of legislators, saying the American Legislative Exchange Council has become extreme in its politics and strayed from its origins of promoting business-friendly policies. For all of the details, please click here.
Apr 30, 2012
We’ve been hearing a lot about Walmart and their activities involving worker wages in pursuit of controlling the retail markets in this country and about their membership in ALEC. We’ve also learned that they and ALEC have also been involved in trying to weaken federal laws prohibiting acts of bribery of foreign officials while they [...]
Apr 30, 2012
This media release stopped the NY Times (among others) from covering ALEC despite entreaties from many people investigating ALEC. Heck, Bruce Fealk had an e-mail about ALEC returned to him by the NY Times as “deleted, unopened” The news media needs to be vigilant, not cowed by a press release (and whatever support it may [...]
Apr 30, 2012
Based on “The Hidden History of ALEC & Prison Labor.” By Mike Elk and Bob Sloan (The Nation, August 1, 2011) which you can read here. “Many of the toughest sentencing laws responsible for the explosion of the U.S. prison population were drafted by the American Legislative Exchange Council, which helps corporations write model legislation. [...]
Apr 28, 2012
written by VLTP’s Bob Sloan for PolicyMicWith criminal justice legislation, statutes, and applications of both, the wording of legal documents and proposed bills have been used to basically disenfranchise minorities. The enactment of drug laws provides an easily recognized form of such disenfranchising of African Americans and Hispanics in the U.S. As with many U.S. [...]
Apr 28, 2012
by Rebekah Wilce — April 27, 2012 Kaplan, a for-profit education, tutoring, and testing empire that is the largest division of the $4 billion Washington Post Company, recently told the Republic Report (RR) that Kaplan’s for-profit college division “was a member of ALEC for a one year period, which ended in August 2011.” For the [...]
Apr 27, 2012
(Reuters) – Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) may not find the math easy when it tries to assess the potential criminal liabilities from an alleged bribery scandal and possible cover-up at its Mexican unit. Whether a potential settlement with U.S. authorities involves several hundreds of millions of dollars of penalties, or even billions, will likely depend [...]
Apr 27, 2012
(Reuters) – Mexico said on Wednesday it would open an investigation into allegations that the Mexican unit of Wal-Mart Stores Inc bribed officials to expand its business there, piling pressure onto the embattled retail giant. Guillermo Tamborrel, a senator for President Felipe Calderon’s conservative National Action Party (PAN), said the scandal had tarnished Mexico’s reputation. [...]
Apr 27, 2012
While funding $218 million polio and measles immunization research, the foundation also invested $400 million in 69 of North America’s worst polluting companies and $423 million in companies like Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil Corp, and Chevron – oil firms responsible for pollution which has caused respiratory problems in local African populations. In 2005, the foundation held [...]
