Building Nonprofit Advocacy Capacity

Feb 8, 2016

Top 400 Taxpayers See Tax Rates Rise, But There’s More to the Story

As Americans were gathering party supplies to greet the New Year, the Internal Revenue Service released their annual report of cumulative tax data reported on the 400 tax r...

read in full

Feb 4, 2016

Chlorine Bleach Plants Needlessly Endanger 63 Million Americans

Chlorine bleach plants across the U.S. put millions of Americans in danger of a chlorine gas release, a substance so toxic it has been used as a chemical weapon. Greenpeace’s new repo...

read in full

Jan 25, 2016

U.S. Industrial Facilities Reported Fewer Toxic Releases in 2014

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data for 2014 is now available. The good news: total toxic releases by reporting facilities decreased by nearly six percent from 2013 levels. Howe...

read in full

Jan 22, 2016

Methane Causes Climate Change. Here's How the President Plans to Cut Emissions by 40-45 Percent.

UPDATE (Jan. 22, 2016): Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its proposed rule to reduce methane emissions...

read in full

more news

Punishment for Robo Calls

Nov 21, 2006 by Amanda Adams*

It is no secret that during this past election there was wide spread use of "robo calls". Voters were bombarded throughout the country with repetitive, deceptive calls and now legislators want to act on these misleading campaign methods. The incoming majority leader Harry Reid and other Democratic leaders have serious concerns about these calls and other unethical campaign practices utilized before the election. Rep. John Conyers has called for federal officials to investigate complaints about the calls, possibly resulting in hearings before the House Judiciary Committee. Most notably, Sen.

read in full

FEC Fines Sierra Club $28,000 For "Express Advocacy" in Voter Guide

Nov 16, 2006 by Kay Guinane

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) charged that in 2004 the nonprofit environmental group Sierra Club, a 501(c)(4), used funds from its corporate treasury to pay for a pamphlet "expressly advocating" the defeat of federal candidates. A specific guide was considered titled, "Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide," that used check marks to compare the environmental records of Bush and Kerry and the U.S. Senate candidates. It was found that the pamphlet “expressly advocated” Kerry and Castor’s election and Bush and Martinez’s defeat.

read in full

Any Hopes for Senate Electronic Filing?

Nov 15, 2006 by Amanda Adams*

The Campaign Finance Institute brings light to the fact that in six of the top ten Senate races, voters could not look up candidate's election contributions since June 30. House and Presidential candidates, other party committees, all PACs, and Section 527 political organizations, all have to file their federal campaign finance reports electronically while Senators do not. The Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act (S.1508)would require U.S. Senate candidates to do so.

read in full

Bank Plans to Close Life for Relief and Development's Accounts

Nov 15, 2006 by Amanda Adams*

As previously reported, on September 18 the Joint Terrorism Task Force raided the Muslim charity Life for Relief and Development in Michigan. It has recently been revealed in the Detroit Free Press that subsequently after the raid the organization was told by Comerica Bank that they were to close all seven of their bank accounts by October 2. While in operation the charity used Comerica to circulate millions of dollars. In light of Ramadan and the difficulty of closing the accounts so quickly, they were given an extension till November 15.

read in full

Government Funding of Religious Structures

Nov 15, 2006 by Amanda Adams*

On November 9 a federal appeals court ruled that the government can not fund a building where both secular and religious activities occur, even if it is in the interest of supporting secular work that assists the community. The case Community House Inc. v. the City of Boise involves a secular nonprofit, Community House, which ran a homeless shelter in the city-owned building. A Christian nonprofit, Bosie Rescue Mission was then selected to run the shelter planning to change the facility to be for men only and requiring all residents to attend religious services.

read in full

Civic Engagement For A Thriving Democracy

Nov 14, 2006 by Amanda Adams*

The focus of Katy J. Harriger's opinion piece in the Philanthropy Journal should not be overlooked; nonprofits and the philanthropic community are hurt when government and citizens are not engaged in politics. This makes government less responsible and in addition to various other reasons, the public sector becomes weakened which there by hurts the nonprofit sector. As we all learned in class, a three-legged stool is used to represent the relationship between the public, private, and nonprofit sectors and therefore each must be equally strong.

read in full

Pelosi: "Honest Leadership and Open Government"

Nov 13, 2006 by Amanda Adams*

It has been reported that it may be more likely in the upcoming 110th Congress for changes in lobbying and ethics rules. According to BNA (subscription required) on November 9, six reform groups, the Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause, Democracy 21, League of Women Voters, Public Citizen, and U.S. PIRG held a press conference commending Pelosi's promise to quickly take up ethics and lobbying reforms. Exit polls reveal that scandals were a major issue in the election, opening up opportunity to bring up such legislation.

read in full

Agenda of House Administration Committee

Nov 10, 2006 by Amanda Adams*

BNA Money and Politics reports that lobbying and ethics reform could top the Democrats' agenda in the 110th Congress. The House Administration Committee, which will most likely be led by Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-Calif.), has worked on campaign finance and lobbying rules in the past and the Help America Vote Act in 2002.

read in full

Responses to Election Day

Nov 10, 2006 by Amanda Adams*

Common Cause has released GETTING IT STRAIGHT: A Preliminary Look at Data Collected from Voters During the Elections of 2006. This report summarizes the information that was called in to the voter assistance hotline 866-MYVOTE-1. As noted, the problems highlight that there are still serious flaws in our voting system.

read in full

Grassley Asks IRS About ACORN

Nov 9, 2006 by Amanda Adams*

As previously reported, Senator Grassley had asked ACORN for information to investigate whether they are at risk for losing their tax exempt status because of voter fraud allegations. ACORN has yet to supply any response to that letter, and Grassley has now contacted the Internal Revenue Service.

read in full