Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group

1. Stealthy Wealthy: Jerry Perenchio speaks softly, carries a big checkbook

   By Nancy Watzman May 14, 2012 11:54 a.m.
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2. Happy Mothers Day! Policymakers stalled on breastfeeding in the workplace guidance

   By Nancy Watzman May 11, 2012 9:19 a.m.

   Many a working mother who nurses her baby faces a major challenge upon returning to her job: exactly where will she find the space and how will she find the time to pump milk so she can continue to breastfeed?

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3. Congressional letter writing campaign helps torpedo voluntary food marketing guidelines for kids

   By Nancy Watzman May 1, 2012 9 a.m.

   Days after receiving several campaign checks from the food lobby last May, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat who is up for reelection this year, sent a letter raising concerns about the Federal Trade Commission's efforts to develop voluntary guidelines aimed at toning down the marketing of junk food to kids.

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4. Super PAC profile: State bankers target lawmakers over Dodd Frank law

   By Nancy Watzman Apr 5, 2012 12:08 p.m.

   A group of state-based banking associations have launched a new Super PAC--known as "Friends of Traditional Banking"--to target lawmakers who they consider hostile or friendly to their concerns: namely, the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law.

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5. Big financial interests chip away at Dodd Frank regulations

   By Nancy Watzman Mar 26, 2012 4:43 p.m.

   Today the House plans to take up two industry-backed bills dealing with derivatives, the hitherto opaque financial instruments so crucial to the 2008 meltdown, under a procedure usually reserved for noncontroversial matters.

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6. Banking money fuels senators who want to slow down Volcker

   By Nancy Watzman Mar 22, 2012 6:33 p.m.

   The six senators who introduced legislation Thursday to slow down implementation of the "Volcker rule," designed to prohibit banks from profiting from trading on their own accounts, are the recipients of ample amounts of campaign cash from the financial industry.

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7. Adelson gives Gingrich a lifeline

   By Nancy Watzman Mar 21, 2012 12:10 a.m.

   In February, casino magnate and pro-Israel advocate Sheldon Adelson, along with his wife, Miriam, bet $5 million more on Newt Gingrich's flagging presidential bid by contributing to his super PAC, Winning our Future. This makes the couple the source of five out of six dollars raised by the super PAC since it launched late last year. Their daughter, Shelley, contributed another $500,000.

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8. Simmons-controlled company fights for protectionist measures

   By Nancy Watzman Mar 13, 2012 11:17 a.m.

   When Titanium Metals Corp., a defense contractor that's part of Harold Simmons's business empire, lobbied for protectionist policies designed to shield it from foreign competition, the fight allied the Texas billionaire and Republican mega-donor with some unlikely political bedfellows, including Sen. Sherrod Brown, a liberal Democrat from Ohio, and a union that overwhelmingly gives to Democrats. 

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9. FINRA: Open data not on the table

   By Nancy Watzman Mar 8, 2012 5:45 p.m.

   A quasi-governmental agency that polices the investment industry has come up with a plan to make it simpler for consumers to avoid shady money managers -- but it includes no provisions to make the underlying data available to the public.  

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10. Lawmakers demanding LightSquared docs got campaign money from company's adversaries

    By Nancy Watzman Feb 29, 2012 12:42 p.m.

    The three GOP House lawmakers who yesterday demanded that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) cough up documents detailing its actions and relationship with wireless telecommunications company LightSquared have gotten ample campaign contributions from the embattled firm's corporate adversaries.

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11. Restore our Future spends heavily in states going to the polls soon

    By Nancy Watzman Feb 23, 2012 10:34 a.m.

    The pro-Mitt Romney super PAC, Restore our Future, burned through $4 million in just three days this week on independent expenditures in half a dozen states with upcoming primaries. If it keeps up this rate, the super PAC would spend more than $16 million in the 12 days leading up to Super Tuesday, topping the total it spent in January.

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12. Big banks press financial agencies on Volcker rule

    By Nancy Watzman Feb 14, 2012 12:42 p.m.

    Big banks paid calls on federal financial agencies in the days leading up to Monday's midnight deadline for the public to submit comments on the controversial Volcker rule, a provision of the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory legislation meant to prohibit banks from using customers' money to make risky bets on the market.

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13. No government money to criticize soda, says freshman lawmaker

    By Nancy Watzman Feb 13, 2012 2:22 p.m.

    Outraged that federal stimulus money has been used for local advertisements targeting soda as unhealthy, Rep. Scott DesJarlais, R-Tenn., has introduced the Protecting Foods and Beverages from Government Attack Act, which would make it illegal to use federal funds to criticize a legal food or beverage product.

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14. Revolving door from CFTC to lobbying firm

    By Nancy Watzman Feb 7, 2012 3:26 p.m.

    A former Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) commissioner has gone through the revolving door to the law and lobbying firm firm Patton Boggs, where he'll work as a senior policy advisor, the firm announced Tuesday.

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Investigations by Sunlight Foundation reporter Nancy Watzman