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Bill Buzenberg interviews former Representative Lee H. Hamilton

The Center in the News . . .

Watch the world premier video of Harry Shearer's video "935 Lies." Shearer, best known for his work on The Simpsons, This is Spinal Tap, Le Show, Saturday Night Live, For Your Consideration and A Mighty Wind, unveiled a video satire based on the Center's Iraq War Card project, which documented the 935 false statements orchestrated by top Bush Administration officials in the two years following September 11, 2001, about the national security threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune's Kirsten Mitchell reported that Sen. Pete Domenici and 16 other Republican senators, who support the easing of offshore drilling restrictions on the Outer Continental Shelf for oil and gas, have received more than $3 million in campaign contributions from individuals and PACS affiliated with the oil and gas industry since Jan. 1, 2007.

The Washington Post's Matthew Mosk reported that Steven A. Betts, a top presidential campaign fundraiser for Sen. John McCain, was one of several Arizona developers who benefited from McCain-engineered land swaps.

The New York Times reported that influential Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby's ties run deep in the mortgage industry and local real estate market.

McClatchy Newspapers correspondent Greg Gordon in the Kansas City Star article, "Disclosures understate finances of Clinton, McCain, Obama," reported that Sen. Hillary Clinton excluded nearly $24 million of her husband's earnings from Senate financial statements from 2004 through 2006.

TheStreet.com's John Stout cited the Center's Buying of the President 2008 chapter on Stealth Campaigns in "How Much Does It Cost to Buy a Presidency?" Political non-profit groups, such as MoveOn.org and the American Leadership Project, "will probably play an important role in this presidential election," he said.

Craig Newmark, Internet entrepreneur and Craigslist founder, mentioned the Center's examination of political 501(c)(4) and 527 committees in the presidential race in his Huffington Post blog. In part II of its series on stealth campaigns, the Center compared Freedom's Watch with MoveOn.org.

The Huffington Post, in "Wal-Mart Plays Politics with Charity," talked about the Center's posted video footage of Wal-Mart manager meetings that discussed employee contributions to the company's PAC.

In the The Politico's blog, "The Crypt," Jeanne Cummings called the Center's Wal-Mart clips "some pretty interesting video."

The Center's Wal-Mart videos were featured in Harper's Magazine Washington Babylon weblog in "Wal-Mart Political Videos: The ABCs of Buying Influence."


On HDNet, Dan Rather Reports examines Wal-Mart's PAC mentality.

The Kansas City Star in "Wal-Mart videos give Lenexa firm a new lease on life" featured the video production company hired to videotape Wal-Mart Store openings, shareholder and manager meetings.

"The numbers behind the stories" is a new report by the Center for Global Development (CGD) based on data provided by the Center. In 2006, in response to a lawsuit brought by the Center, the U.S. government released funding information about the President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR). Part of that data was used in the Center's award-winning Divine Intervention investigation and part was shared with CGD for their report.

The Courier-Journal in "Lobbyists throw Thunder party for senators" mentions that a special dinner for Kentucky state senators will be paid for by more than a dozen Kentucky companies and lobbying firms during Thunder Over Louisville.

The Denver Post reported in "Abramoff ties cloud Schaffer's '99 fact-finding trip" the details behind a "fact-finding" trip taken by former Conressman Bob Schaffer to the Northern Mariana Islands organized by convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Released 1/10/08
The Buying of the President 2008
100 Dollar Bills
Go to the Site
Released 1/21/08
Iraq: The War Card
Released 2/8/08
Great Lakes: Danger Zones?
Louisiana Tightens Its Ethics Standards
A bill passed during a special session of the Louisiana State Legislature puts the state's financial disclosure standards on a par with the best state disclosure laws in the nation, a new analysis by the Center for Public Integrity shows.
Influence: A Booming Business
The influence industry in state capitals continues to grow, as state lobbyists and the companies and organizations that hire them spent a record of almost $1.3 billion in 2006, according to the Center for Public Integrity's sixth-annual review.
Baghdad Bonanza
KBR, Inc., the global engineering and construction giant, won more than $16 billion in U.S. government contracts for work in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2004 to 2006—far more than any other company, according to a new analysis by the Center for Public Integrity.
The Shadow Government
More than 900 committees, boards, commissions, and councils give advice to federal agencies and the White House, forming a vast network that influences policy — often, though, not in ways that the law authorizing them envisioned.
Pushing Prescriptions
The Center’s ongoing investigation of the pharmaceutical industry — one of Washington’s largest lobbying operations — details its political firepower and the ways in which drug manufacturers seek to influence lawmakers and regulators.
Well Connected
Technology has created a chessboard of corporate and government interests in telecommunications and media. As the players battle it out in Congress, at the FCC, and in statehouses from coast to coast, the Center’s “Well Connected” Project tracks this inside influence game.
Superfund's Toxic Legacy
Twenty-seven years after the U.S. government hatched a program to identify and clean up the country’s most toxic sites, a yearlong investigation reveals the beleaguered state of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund effort, uncovers the companies and government agencies linked to the most sites, and tracks progress of the cleanup.
City Adrift
In the Center for Public Integrity’s most recent book, City Adrift: New Orleans Before and After Katrina, seven seasoned journalists investigate the hurricane from every angle, detailing what went wrong in the Big Easy and examining ways to avoid similar disasters in the future.
Collateral Damage
Changes in U.S. foreign policy and military assistance programs that seemed so urgent after 9/11 have paid off in the capture of terrorist suspects and the disruption of possible attacks. But the influence of foreign lobbying, as well as a shortsighted emphasis on counterterrorism objectives over broader human rights concerns, have generated staggering costs to the U.S. and its allies in money spent and political capital burned.