In The News

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is building a large-scale grass-roots political operation that has begun to rival those of the major political parties, funded by record-setting amounts of money raised from corporations and wealthy individuals.

The chamber has signed up some 6 million individuals who are not chamber members and has begun asking them to help with lobbying and, soon, with get-out-the-vote efforts in upcoming congressional campaigns.read more >>

Charitable foundations and nonprofits are taking an unusually active role this year in trying to get an accurate census count. They say the people they serve have the most to benefit but are also among the least likely to participate.

Most Americans will get their 2010 census questionnaire sometime around March 15. Every 10 years, it's a challenge getting everyone to fill out their census forms and send them back to the government. read more >>

Last month, I testified before Congress about the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC, urging new protections for American shareholders. My plea was simple: copy the British.

What does the U.K. have that the U.S. lacks, but sorely needs? Not a queen, a parliament, or a home secretary, but a law passed in 2000 that requires British companies to seek authorization from their shareholders for corporate political spending. read more >>

In a city where the phrase "bipartisan initiative" is becoming an oxymoron, the urgency of containing the damage the Supreme Court could do to our electoral system creates an opportunity for a rare convergence of interest and principle.

At issue is the court's astonishingly naive decision in January that allows unlimited corporate spending to influence elections. Its 5 to 4 ruling in the Citizens United case was a shocking instance of judicial overreach and reflected an utter indifference to how politics works.read more >>

Arizona is moving quickly to rewrite its laws in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allows corporations and labor unions to spend money directly on political campaigns, but a handful of states might be in legal limbo until after the 2010 elections.

More than a half-dozen states have major questions hanging over their campaign finance laws after the Supreme Court’s January ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which found that bans on direct spending by corporations and unions in political campaigns are unconstitutional.read more >>

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that corporations and labor unions can spend freely on political campaigns, Arizona has a simple choice - create new regulations to monitor that type of spending, or run the risk of an entire election cycle being dominated by millions of dollars worth of anonymous advertising.read more >>

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One River Place blends easily into the dense forest of Manhattan skyscrapers, its vanity address camouflaging its precise location. Still, even in New York City, a 40-story tower containing 900 apartments should be difficult to miss.

But the Census Bureau did. read more >>

As the 2010 census nears its official start in March, nonprofit leaders are raising serious concerns about the government’s ability to achieve an accurate tally in this once-a-decade population count.

In response, foundations have poured tens of millions of dollars into nonprofit census efforts, but many nonprofit leaders say much more is needed.read more >>