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Reforming Politics
Blog Post
3/16/2012
Posted by Carmen Balber
In case you missed it --
Former governor Schwarzenegger was just fined $30,000 by the FPPC for illegally funding advertising for a budget fight with money he raised in unlimited amounts from corporate donors to his California Dream Team ballot measure committee. Consumer Watchdog sent a letter of complaint to the FPPC in July of 2009 about...
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News Release
2/14/2012
Posted by Carmen Balber
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Reflecting the millions of Americans concerned about the undue influence wielded by corporations and wealthy special interests in our democracy, 50 organizations have jointly signed and presented a letter to the Chairmen and Ranking Members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees requesting hearings to explore...
News Story
2/10/2012
Posted by Mark Reback
In California, the rule of politics is sometimes “one man, one ballot proposition.”
Pretty much by himself, billionaire George Joseph is financing an initiative governing insurance rates.
As the chairman and largest stockholder of Mercury General Corporation, an insurance company that does most of its business in California,...
News Story
2/6/2012
Posted by Mark Reback
John Norwood is one of California’s best known legislative advocates for the insurance and financial services sectors.
Norwood, principal of Norwood & Associates, has garnered recognition for his political work dating back to the early 1980s, including political battles to amend the state’s insurance rate regulations, and...
News Story
1/24/2012
Posted by Mark Reback
Google spent nearly as much as AT&T and Comcast on lobbying in Q4 2011, according to quarterly federal lobbying reports available last Friday. Facebook and Netflix also accelerated their Washington spending as debate over online copyright issues intensified in the fourth quarter. Spectrum legislation, the recently dissolved AT&T/T-Mobile...
News Story
1/24/2012
Posted by Mark Reback
Internet search engine giant Google has poured out $9.7 million on lobbying U.S. lawmakers and regulators in 2011, according to Google's latest bill in U.S. Senate Office of Public Records.
It nearly doubles the expenditure of $5.2 million in 2010, due its entanglement in sensitive issues such as antitrust violation and online privacy....
News Story
1/24/2012
Posted by Mark Reback
When Google blacked out its iconic logo last week in protest against antipiracy legislation, it got noticed. But new lobbying disclosures reveal that the search giant has much more than publicity in its Washington toolbox.
Google spent $3.7 million on lobbying in the fourth quarter of 2011, more than three times as much as the same time a year...
News Story
1/24/2012
Posted by Mark Reback
Google vaulted over Microsoft in money paid out to lobby the federal government, paying $9.7 million in 2011, up from $5.2 million in all of 2010.
Media and pundits like to point out the increasing parallels between Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Google, the Web application superpower that long ago passed the desktop software giant in online user...
News Story
1/23/2012
Posted by Mark Reback
A consumer group on Wednesday penned a letter to European regulators asking them to block the pending merger of Google and Motorola Mobility on anti-competitive grounds.
“The Internet is too important to allow an unregulated monopolist to dominate it,” John M. Simpson, director of Consumer Watchdog’s Privacy Project, wrote to...
News Story
1/23/2012
Posted by Mark Reback
A United States consumer group has written to the European Commission asking it to block Google’s Motorola deal and to launch an investigation into the Internet…
A U.S. consumer advocacy group has written to the European Commission asking it to block Google’s deal to acquire Motorola and to launch an investigation into the...
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