Research Cited

Rispone: Insider Background Contradicts Outsider Claims

Source: The Bayou Brief | Published: 7/22/2019

Rispone also started and chaired the Louisiana Federation for Children, a state chapter of the national American Federation for Children, defined by SourceWatch as “a conservative 501(c)(4) dark money group that promotes the school privatization agenda via the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and other avenues. The group was organized and is funded by the billionaire DeVos family, who are the heirs to the Amway fortune.” (Yes, that would be the same DeVos – current U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. And on ISC Constructors’ website, there’s a July 2017 article bragging about a meeting Rispone had with the Secretary, and the length of their work together.)

How a Trojan Horse Project to Rewrite Our Constitution Could Actually Happen if Trump Wins in 2020

Democracy

Source: Common Dreams | Published: 7/17/2019

The group leading this charge for the billionaires is called Citizens for Self-Governance (CSG), which SourceWatch.org says, “is a right-wing political organization … that is campaigning for an Article V convention to amend the U.S. Constitution.”

SourceWatch notes that, “Through its ‘Convention of States’ project, CSG promotes an effort to amend the U.S. Constitution pursuant to Article V, which provides that thirty-four states (two-thirds) can trigger a convention to propose an amendment, which must then be ratified by 38 states (three-fourths).”

Why the Minimum Wage Won’t Rise

Bradley Files, Wisconsin

Source: Urban Milwaukee | Published: 7/9/2019

In Wisconsin the Badger Institute can be relied upon to release reports showing a hike in the minimum wage is a terrible idea. Formerly known as the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, the group has received at least $14.2 million in funding from the conservative Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation including $375,000 in 2018, as the liberal Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) has reported.

University of Alaska Faces Budget Crisis

Education, Koch

Source: Eos | Published: 7/8/2019

Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy’s decision to slash the state’s funding for the University of Alaska by nearly 41% has the academic and research community up in arms.

Your Right to Know: Lawsuit Put End to Abusive Practice

Wisconsin

Source: The Cap Times | Published: 7/4/2019

Wisconsin’s open records law applies to all records requests, big or small. But under former Attorney General Brad Schimel, the Wisconsin Department of Justice implemented a restrictive policy that limited access based on the number of potentially responsive emails.

RTD Publishes Utterly Dishonest Screed by Former VA Speaker Bill “ALEC” Howell on “Green New Deal”

ALEC

Source: Blue Virginia | Published: 6/24/2019

From SourceWatch: “Speaker Howell is on the Board of Directors of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) as of September 2014 (and has been since 2003) and is the former National Chairman…In April 2012, Speaker Howell strongly defended ALEC at a press conference in Richmond, Virginia, saying that it had “been subjected to a six-month attack by liberal groups, including the Occupy movement, Moveon.org and billionaire George Soros.”

Dirty Front Groups Endanger Planet’s Present and Future Health

ALEC, SPN

Source: ecoRI News | Published: 6/22/2019

SourceWatch outlines the Center for Freedom and Prosperity’s strong ties to Koch-funded organizations such as the State Policy Network — a group that touts the free market as the panacea to all ills and rails against government regulation — and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a corporate bill mill.

Koch Brothers Gives Virginia Dems a Handy Guide for Several Districts We Need to Focus Our Time, Attention and Money On This Year

Koch

Source: Blue Virginia | Published: 6/14/2019

Thanks to our pals at the Koch brothers’ oxymoronic “Americans for Prosperity” and at The Bull Elephant for giving us a good shortlist (see below) of which Virginia Republicans we need to go all-out OPPOSING this year. First, a quick reminder — courtesy of SourceWatch — of how bad “Americans for Prosperity” is:

…

Getting the idea? In short, AfP is the worst of the worst; totally antithetical to anyone who cares about fighting for workers, the environment, healthcare, transit, good government, etc.

Revealed: Mobil Sought to Fight Environmental Regulation, Documents Show

Environment

Source: The Guardian | Published: 6/12/2019

“It’s extremely troubling,” Lisa Graves, president of the board of the Center for Media and Democracy, said.

“One of the primary rules for nonprofits is that they’re supposed to be in the public interest,” she said, “not for private benefits.”

This Billionaire Rebuilt Her Town — While Funding a Right-Wing Revolution in Her State

Democracy, Wisconsin

Source: Vox | Published: 6/12/2019

We talk to Stevenson and to Mary Bottari, a muckraker at the Center for Media and Democracy who has investigated Hendricks’s political donations, about how Hendricks has changed the state of Wisconsin, and whether the good she’s done for Beloit can ever make up for the harm (especially from the perspective of labor unions and their supporters) her political giving has done to the state’s workers.