Research Cited

Where Running Over Protesters Could Become Legal

Source: The Daily Beast | Published: 9/23/2020

It’s unclear if the similarities were coordinated. Such legislative templates are a feature of the conservative corporate coalition known as the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which brings together corporate lobbyists and state lawmakers to draft, vote on, and circulate favorable legislation. That legislation infamously included the justifiable-homicide “Stand Your Ground” laws that drew national […]

Anatomy of Deceit: Team Trump Deploys Doctors with Dubious Qualifications to Push Fake Cure for Covid-19

ALEC, Democracy, Economy

Source: The Washington Spectator | Published: 9/8/2020

In April, CNP Action, the lobbying arm of the CNP, began a series of weekly conference calls to discuss Covid strategy. On May 11—as U.S. Covid deaths reached 74,270—one of the calls was intercepted and published by the Center for Media and Democracy and the Associated Press.

Trump official says coal isn’t dead, it’s just waiting to become ceramics, roof tiles, and iPhones

ALEC, Climate, Economy, Environment, Trump

Source: Grist | Published: 8/12/2020

A verbatim record of Winberg’s comments to lawmakers on ALEC’s Energy, Environment, and Agriculture task force was provided to Grist by the Center for Media and Democracy, a nonprofit government watchdog group that tracks ALEC’s initiatives.

Budget hawks hatch plan to force constitutional convention

ALEC, Democracy

Source: Associated Press | Published: 7/31/2020

Arn Pearson, executive director of the progressive watchdog group Center for Media and Democracy, also warned that a so-called runaway convention could be called to consider one subject but then decide to make other big constitutional changes. Republicans control 60 percent of the state legislative chambers, potentially giving them a numerical advantage in selecting who […]

Trade Group Floats ‘Model’ Bill To Shield Oil Industry from Climate Lawsuits

ALEC, Climate, Democracy, Environment, Koch

Source: The Climate Docket | Published: 7/31/2020

Following the May call, the civil justice task force convened an emergency meeting to finalize the suggested legislation, according to David Armiak, research director for the Center for Media and Democracy. “The fact that they met in an emergency meeting and passed it shows that this was a very, very important issue to them,” Armiak […]

FirstEnergy scandal is latest example of utility corruption, deceit

Climate, Democracy, Economy, Environment, SPN

Source: Energy and Policy Institute | Published: 7/23/2020

In 2016, Florida voters were close to being tricked by the state’s monopoly utilities into voting for an amendment on the state ballot that would have fortified the utilities’ monopolies and locked out rooftop solar companies. Days before the election, Mary Ellen Klas of the Miami Herald/Tampa Times reported on audio obtained by EPI and […]

Does a Nonprofit Organization Have to Have a Moral Compass?

ALEC, Bradley Files, Democracy, Economy, Koch, Wisconsin

Source: Nonprofit Quarterly | Published: 7/17/2020

According to David Armiak, research director for the Center for Media and Democracy, writing in Common Dreams, the real agenda of the Coalition was to attack government interventions and push for rapid reopening despite the enactment of stay-at-home orders by many states after coronavirus cases skyrocketed. Neither public health and safety was their priority.

Hate groups cashed in on pandemic relief before millions of Americans protested for social change

Democracy, Economy, Trump

Source: Salon | Published: 7/10/2020

The Center for Media and Democracy was the first to report on the loans, which went to six nonprofits for a total of somewhere between $2,350,000 and $5,700,000. (The SBA has only disclosed loan amounts in ranges — not exact sums.) The groups will not need to repay the government if they put the money towards payroll and other operational expenses.

Millions in aid from small business relief fund went to “hate groups”

Democracy, Economy, Trump

Source: CBS News | Published: 7/9/2020

A report from the Center for Media and Democracy, a corruption watchdog, on Tuesday identified six of the nonprofits that have been labeled hate groups. Imraan Siddiqi, executive director of the Arizona branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told the Center for Media and Democracy that many of the groups that “traffic in hate” are well […]

Keeping seed sovereignty local

ALEC, Climate, Economy, Environment

Source: Grist | Published: 7/7/2020

Seed preemption bills have been passed in at least 29 states, with most of those bills drawing from language crafted by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) — a group that describes itself as “America’s largest nonpartisan, voluntary membership organization of state legislators dedicated to the principles of limited government, free markets, and federalism.” But […]