Nonprofit Speech Rights

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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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more news

Advocates Say Logic Puzzle Hinders Grassroots Lobbying

Jun 12, 2006 by Guest Blogger

Articles on the "Logic Puzzle": Jeffrey Birnbaum from the Washington Post discusses the issue, including On a single day last week, of the 8,262 times the logic puzzle was viewed in the House, only 1,568 people answered it and moved on to send a message -- a 19 percent success rate. It's unknowable whether this means that computers could not crack the code or whether actual humans were frustrated and gave up (though there were probably a combination of both). There is also a Roll Call article on the issue.

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FEC Won't Investigate Radio Ad Criticizing Kerry During Election

Jun 9, 2006 by Guest Blogger

From BNA: The Federal Election Commission has rejected a staff recommendation to investigate a radio ad that ran in Indiana before the 2004 presidential election and appeared to criticize Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry (D-MA)

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Hastert to Name Lobby Reform Conferees

Jun 9, 2006 by Guest Blogger

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert said today they expect conferees to produce a final lobby reform package before Congress leave town for the Fourth of July. Majority Leader Frist and Speaker Hastert added, “Lobbying and ethics reform remains an important priority for Congress. We are confident that the conferees will work hard and deliver a conference report that will build trust with the American people by making our government more transparent and accountable.”

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Report Recommends Changes to the Form 990

Jun 9, 2006 by Guest Blogger

The Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt and Government Entities (ACT) presented its fifth annual report of recommendations to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). One section of the report, “Policies and Guidelines for Form 990 Revision,” contained seven broad recommendations, including eliminating the $25,000 threshold for registering. According to 501cstrategies:

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Congress Says Send Money, Not Your Opinion

Jun 8, 2006 by Amanda Adams*

The Chief Administrative Officer of the U.S. House of Representatives recently announced the availability of an "enhancement" to the House's “Write Your Rep” system that challenges constituents with a "logic puzzle" before they are allowed to submit a comment via web form. For an example, go to http://www.house.gov/writerep, select California, and use zip code 93292. At this time, not very many representatives have adopted the logic puzzle challenge, but the numbers are growing.

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Nonprofit To Start Public-Interest Website

Jun 8, 2006 by Guest Blogger

One Economy Corp., a nonprofit group, has started a project called the Public Internet Channel, plans to create a website with easily accessible information about public safety, emergency services, education, health and economic opportunities. They believe that much of the content on the Internet is hard to find, especially if you are not web-savvy. See One Economy's existing site.

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Brennan Center Gets in the Mix Over the Blackwell Rules in Ohio

Jun 7, 2006 by Guest Blogger

The Brennan Center is taking on the Blackwell voting rules. Click here for their press release, and here to see their letter to Sec. Blackwell

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TIGTA Praises EO Division for Katrina Work

Jun 7, 2006 by Guest Blogger

According to a Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration June 5 report, the Exempt Organizations unit at the Internal Revenue Service received high marks for handling requests for new tax-exempt organizations following hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The report, The Exempt Organizations Function Effectively Processed Requests for Tax-Exempt Status From Charitable Organizations Supporting Hurricane Relief Reference Number: 2006-10-089, is available online at http://www.tigta.gov.

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Organizations Say Ohio Voter Law is a Hindrance to Registration

Jun 6, 2006 by Guest Blogger

New rules issued by the Ohio secretary of state's office governing groups that pay people to register voters are confusing and have hindered their efforts to sign up new voters, critics of the rules said Monday. For the whole scoop, check out this story in the Cinncinnati Enquirer.

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Report on Privately Funded Trips on Capitol Hill

Jun 6, 2006 by Guest Blogger

A Washington Post article on a report issued by the Center for Public Integrity, American Public Media and Northwestern University's Medill News Service.

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