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Notable Investigations and Solutions
Dozens of states crave some kind of retribution from Purdue Pharma for its role in the deadly opioid crisis, in the form of funding for treatment, recovery and social programs. But more than two dozen states are angry with the Sackler’s settlement – because they would need to profit from Oxycontin to pay for it.
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Across multiple frontlines, Big Oil and electric car companies are clashing. Oil companies are trying to stop utility companies from building charging stations. And of course, there’s a behind-the-scenes battle playing out between different camps’ lobbyists, Politico reports.
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Senator and presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren announced she would release a revamped version of the Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity Act, after it faded in the previous Congress. Her proposal to prevent lobbyists from engaging in fundraising stretches farther than before, and will likely receive legal scrutiny.
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Companies like Amazon might not come out with their opinion on the U.S.-China trade war, but its millions spent on lobbyists indicate otherwise. Now that the deadline for rising tariffs extended once again, corporate giants are flexing more money in an attempt to prevent a massive rise in production costs.
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Among some of big special interests pushing environmentally unsustainable livelihoods, Koch-backed dishwasher coalitions – yes, your disarming Whirlpool or Kitchenaid appliance – are some of the fiercest climate change enemies.
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Juul and other vaping companies thought that they had cemented a relationship the Trump administration through lobbying, but President Trump took strict actions against the companies since deaths were published, and the companies are now lobbying up to ensure their continued existence, especially among small companies.
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More than 200 investors are calling on America’s biggest publicly traded companies to align themselves with the Paris Climate Accords approach to climate change, rather than the Trump administration’s denial, by raising concerns of significant economic damage. And they are making a pretty strong argument, through their $6.5 trillion value in assets.
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For every time President Trump chants “drain the swamp,” it appears he puts a new ex-lobbyist into an office they used to lobby. NBC unpacks the obvious divide in this ever-changing administrations.
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Throughout the country, local nonprofit hospital systems are flipping the tables, suing their own patients for unpaid medical bills. ProPublica takes a look at what impact these lawsuits are having in their different corners of the country, and whether there is any help available.
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Spotlight on Local Reporting
A lobbyist within Florida governor Rick DeSantis’ inner circle has been making out big with a sweet contract for the Orlando International Airport. Orlando Sentinel unpacks the nest of seeming shell companies and individuals for representing the controversial airport.
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Automakers in California cut a deal with Democrats to follow stricter regulations on pollution, but now the Trump administration is blaming the other representatives for violating antitrust legislation.
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A prominent Chicago lobbyist was quietly growing his investments in marijuana while the state of Illinois was looking into legalizing. But the senior lobbyist never disclosed this investment while simultaneously joining powerful cannabis trade groups and taking pot company Nature’s Treatment as a client.
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The Texas House just killed a bill that would have severely restricted cities and counties from hiring private lobbyists. Pew Research takes a deeper look at the bill’s impact, and the narrow death that one prominent state lobbying firm just escaped.
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Just as he departs his position as right hand to the Arkansas governor, the spokesman J.R. Davis immediately joined one of the state’s most powerful lobbying firms.
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Oklahoma is reckoning with a jump in lobbying in the state, and most are operating independently, without extensive oversight of their ethical and questionable behavior.
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Danielle Keeton-Olsen is the Engagement Editor at Tarbell.org and a freelance journalist based in Southeast Asia.
