The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "corporate lobbying" ...
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Buying the Election
“Never Mind the Super PACs: How Big Business Is Buying the Election” investigates previously unreported ways that businesses have taken advantage of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, which overturned a century of campaign finance law and allowed corporations to spend directly on behalf of candidates. The piece debunks a common misperception that businesses have taken advantage of their new political spending powers primarily through so-called Super PACs. In fact, most Super PAC donations have come from extremely wealthy individuals, not corporations. The investigation shows how corporations have instead used a variety of 501(c) nonprofits, primarily 501(c)(6) “trade associations,” to direct substantial corporate money on federal elections. As one prominent advisor to GOP candidates as well as corporations points out, "many corporations will not risk running ads on their own," for fear of the reputational damage, but the trade groups make these ad buys nearly anonymous. In 2010, 501(c)(6) trade associations and 501(c)(4) issue-advocacy groups outspent Super PACs $141 million to $65 million. The investigation shows that the growth of trade association political spending has had a number of significant ramifications, such as increased leverage during beltway lobbying campaigns. Most troublingly, legal loopholes allow foreign interests to use trade associations to directly influence American elections. One of the most significant revelations in the piece was that the American Petroleum Institute, a trade association for the oil and gas industry, had funneled corporate cash to groups that had run hard-hitting campaign ads while being led in part by a lobbyist for the Saudi Arabian government, Tofiq Al-Gabsani. As an API board member, Al-Gabsani was part of the team that directed these efforts, which helped defeat candidates who supported legislation that would move American energy policy away from its focus on fossil fuels. Federal law prevents Al-Gabsani, as a foreign national, from leading a political action committee, or PAC. But nothing in the law stopped him from leading a trade group that made campaign expenditures just as a PAC would.
Tags: Elections; campaign finance; corporations; Super PACs
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Prison Profiting: Behind Arizona's Immigration Law
NPR's report shows that private prison corporations helped to write Arizona 1070, its controversial immigration law. The story examines "the private prison companies' handin getting the law written and passed, beginning with a private meeting at the Hyatt in washington D.C and ending with extensive campaign contributions and political connections to lawmakers and the governor of Arizona."
Tags: immigration; private prisons; lobbying; Arizona 1070; illegal immigrant; illegal immigration; criminal justice
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Chamber of Commerce series
Reporter Josh Harkinson details how the US Chamber of Commerce represents far fewer business interests than it claims, possesses an undemocratic leadership structure and sets policies beneficial to the most powerful members of the organization.
Tags: chamber of commerce; lobby; josh harkinson; mother jones; main street; businesses; lobbying; employee free choice act; Consumer Financial Protection Agency; corporate; Donohue;
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Wal-Mart Goes to Washington
This report offers a glimpse at how corporate America needs to pay lots of money to have influence in Washington. What makes this story stand out from others about how Washington works are videotapes of Wal-Mart's internal meetings where company executives pass the hat looking for money from store managers for Wal-Mart's political action committee. The videotapes actually show the viewer that Wal-Mart understands what they are getting for their contributions to legislators.
Tags: Wal-Mart; lobbyists; corporate lobbying; Washington lobbyists; political action committee; fundraising
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3-part Corporate Espionage Series
Between Aptil and August 2008, Mother Jones published an exclusive three-part investigation into corporate espionage on its Web site, MotherJones.com. The groundbreaking series exposed a private security company that spied on activist groups, and it also blew the cover on a mole for the gun lobby who spent more than a decade infiltrating the highest ranks of the gun-control movement.
Tags: gun control; lobbyists; Beckett Brown International; gun control; Mary Lou Sapone
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Internal Combustion: How Corporations and Governments Addicted the World to Oil and Derailed the Alternatives
Author Edwin Black discusses the world's use of oil, asserting that it is corporate greed that has kept oil a prominent part of society. He examines the history of the dependence going back 100 years, "expos(ing) a century of lies about internal combustion that arose from a millennium of monopolistic conduct in energy."
Tags: Oil; corporations; energy; monopolies; environmental concerns; politics; energy lobby
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Health care influence at the Rhode Island General Assembly
This series of stories raised a number of ethical concerns involving state legislators. The stories detailed how the president of the senate made hundreds of thousands of dollars selling Blue Cross Insurance to CVS pharmacy employees, while as a legislator he used his position to kill pharmacy choice legislation. Other stories showed how another senator worked as a "consultant" for health care concerns and how the national drugstore industry entertained state legislators from around the country at luxury resorts. Following the newspaper's reports, the senate president and the head of Blue Cross resigned, while the state police and the FBI began an investigation.
Tags: politics; health care industry; pharmaceutical industry; drugstores; ethics; corporate influence; lobbying; special interests
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Conflicts of Interest in the Senate
The LA Times investigates five senators who were lobbying for certain companies and corporations. These companies were funding the senators or their immediate family members. The investigation revealed that all the senators had sons who had recently launched lucrative businesses as consultants for these corporations. Altogether the Times revealed that there were 28 US senators receiving funds form various corporations.
Tags: US senators; US senators and major corporations; funds from corporations; Ted Stevens; Harry Reid; Orrin Hatch; John Breaux; Trent Lott; FOI
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Behind One $42,000 Trip to Asia: The Story of Who Paid the Tab
Roll Call investigates trips to China by members of Congress and who is paying for them. "It appears that both Chinese government funds and funds from a corporate mogul whose business heavily lobbies Congress have indirectly, and legally gone toward paying for such travel."
Tags: Congress; travel; China; lobbyists; foreign governments
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Chelan County PUD, Inc.
The World reports on financial blunders at the Chelan County Public Utility District, one of the largest publicly owned electricity generators in the country. The stories found that "the PUD had evolved into a corporate-like entity focused on profits and run by appointed managers rather than elected commissioners; had engaged in other questionable practices (such as rewarding employees with "cashouts" and cushy pensions, and spending millions on consultants and travel); and had lost touch with its public power roots, long part of the community psyche."
Tags: privatization; lobbying; politics; business; finances; electricity