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

New Means to Enforce Church Politics

Dec 8, 2006 by Amanda Adams*

Attorneys Marcus S. Owens and Natalie E. Fay wrote an article titled, "Penalizing Instigators of Political Campaign Intervention." The authors suggest that in light of increased attention on IRS audits of tax-exempt groups who have engaged in campaign intervention, the IRS should redirect enforcement measures to the candidates who in fact encourage the misuse, particularly of churches. Owens and Fay describe how candidates entice a church's involvement through various examples, such as candidates who have openly included churches in their campaign strategy, leaving the churches vulnerable.

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Plans to Probe Privacy Issues

Dec 7, 2006 by Amanda Adams*

This New York Times article reports that Democratic leaders want to conduct increased oversight of counterterrorism programs, including wiretapping and data-mining programs. Senator Leahy made this opinion clear during a hearing yesterday questioning Robert S. Mueller III, director of the FBI. These investigatory plans are very encouraging.

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Senate Electronic Campaign Filing Editorial

Dec 7, 2006 by Amanda Adams*

This editorial, "Dark Ages Disclosure" appeared in yesterday's Washington Post. "In an age when such reports can be filed with the click of a mouse, Senate candidates submit their disclosures on paper, with weeks of delay before they are transferred to a form available and searchable on the Internet. . . This delay is so obviously unjustified that we expected the legal glitch to be quickly fixed." It speaks of one clear-cut reform that the 109th Congress should pass before recess.

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Campaign Finance Reformers Advocate Quick Action

Dec 6, 2006 by Amanda Adams*

A bipartisan group of campaign finance reformers joined together yesterday at a press conference announcing their commitment to lobbying and ethics reform. BNA Money and Politics reports; "Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) and other lawmakers said at a press conference that they are working together on a strategy that will permit identical bills to be introduced in the House and Senate.

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Reform Rumblings

Dec 5, 2006 by Amanda Adams*

Given that the soon to be Democratic majority will have 10 unapproved spending bills, incoming House Majority Leader Hoyer was questioned on how Democrats will handle the 100-hour legislative agenda. The National Journal (subscription required) reported that Hoyer commentated that the 100 hours of legislating will take place before the continuing resolution expires. "One change in the Democrats' agenda is that the rules changes and ethics reforms promised by Democratic leaders will not be part of the 100-hour slate . . .

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Rating for All International Travelers

Dec 5, 2006 by Amanda Adams*

Recent news reports have revealed that Americans that travel internationally are being rated under the Automated Targeting System which uses computer-generated scores to rate the risk they pose of being terrorists or criminals.

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ACLU Seeks Congressional Hearings on Monitoring of Antiwar Groups

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) recently released more documents highlighting government surveillance of antiwar organizations. As information on the scope of the Pentagon's Threat and Local Observation Notice (TALON) database continues to accumulate, the ACLU has requested a congressional investigation into this use of counterterrorism resources for surveillance of nonviolent domestic organizations.

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Reid To Revisit Old Senate Ethics Bill

Dec 4, 2006 by Amanda Adams*

Roll Call (subscription required) reports that Senate Majority Reid plans to initiate lobbying and ethics reform with a previous GOP-authored bill. This bill passed in the Senate was opposed by some Senators and advocacy groups for being too weak. By using the old bill, it can be brought straight to the floor because it already had broad support.

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FEC Will Allow Hearings of Accused Violators

Dec 1, 2006 by Amanda Adams*

BNA Money and Politics and Roll Call (subscription required) have reported on the FEC decision to go forward with a pilot program that allows those accused of violating campaign finance rules to have closed hearings whereby the commissioners will decide whether or not to take on the case. This change of enforcement procedures allows the accused to contest the charges. Some feel that this will only slow down the enforcement process. Two other measures were voted on:

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Nonprofit Agency?

Nov 30, 2006 by Amanda Adams*

The Federal Times reports that nonprofit leaders are advocating for the creation of a new agency that would regulate the nonprofit sector. The IRS is the main agency dealing with nonprofits because of the tax code, but no agency strictly deals with supporting, monitoring, and regulating nonprofit organizations. The nonprofit sector is also increasingly growing, which has caused increased Congressional interest.

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