Protecting Nonprofit 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

Subcommitee Debate on Renewal of Office of Government Ethics

Jul 18, 2006 by Guest Blogger

According to CQ (subscription required), Rep. Jon Porter's (R-NV) House Government Reform subcommittee will mark up a HR 5710, which would renew the Office of Government Ethics. New in the bill is a requirement that the Government Accountability Office study ways to improve the office, including the advantages and disadvantages of transferring its functions to some other part of the federal government. The office’s current authorization (PL 107-119) is scheduled to expire at the end of fiscal 2006.

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Interesting Logic Puzzle Article

Jul 17, 2006 by Guest Blogger

More on the Logic Puzzle from Chronicle on Philanthropy. Mr. Greene hopes that the coalition's efforts will persuade lawmakers that online activism offers them "a bonanza of data." He says that legislators can use the names and e-mail addresses that constituents provide to set up a two-way conversation. "It's not just, then, constituents who are hitting their members with all these messages," says Mr. Greene. "Members are able to communicate back to their constituents and say, 'Here's what's happening. Here's where I stand on this. I'd like to hear more from you.'"

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Grassley Specifies Nonprofit Issues in Need of Legislative Reform

Jul 12, 2006 by Guest Blogger

In a letter to the Hill newspaper, Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) identifies the issues he sees most pertinent in nonprofit reform. These are:

Excessive compensation perks, pay and sweetheart deals involving officers and directors.
Nonprofit groups that act more like for-profit businesses than charities.
Inappropriate political activity.
Lack of financial transparency and accountability to donors.
Nonprofit hospitals that do not provide adequate charity care and community benefits.
Tax-exempt organizations fronting as tax-shelters.

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GAO Finds Some CFC Charity Recipients Might Not Be Legit

Jul 12, 2006 by Guest Blogger

According to BNA: About 200 of the 22,000 charities that participated in the 2005 Combined Federal Campaign, the nation's largest annual workplace giving program, have questionable exempt status and may not be legitimate charities under tax code Section 501(c)(3). In addition, GAO said in testimony before the Oversight Subcommittee, it was able to create a bogus charity and successfully apply to three large local campaigns.

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Whither Lobby Reform?

Jul 12, 2006 by Guest Blogger

Two stories on lobby reform in the news today: A story in BNA (subscription required) saying that despite all the scandals surrounding Jack Abramoff and Duke Cunningham, expenditures on lobbying broke new records in 2005.

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Op-Ed on Logic Puzzle

Jul 11, 2006 by Guest Blogger

Read an op-ed on the logic puzzle by Get Active CTO Bill Pease.

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Report Finds IRS Program Could Hamper Free Speech for Organizations

A new OMB Watch report finds fault with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) program to enforce the ban on partisan activities by charities. The report's most serious findings suggest that the IRS's Political Activities Compliance Initiative (PACI) threatens the constitutional rights of nonprofit organizations and churches to speak out on issues of the day. It also suggests that the IRS exaggerated the extent of noncompliance in an agency report on its enforcement efforts in 2004.

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Nonprofits File Suit Contesting Ohio's New Voter Registration Requirements

A coalition of organizations and individuals have filed suit to stop new voter registration rules in Ohio, charging they are designed to suppress the registration of minority and economically disadvantaged voters.

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Catholic Group Responds to IRS Complaint By Forming New Group

A Catholic anti-abortion group, Catholic Answers, recently announced it will form a new organization, Catholic Answers Action, after a 2004 complaint filed with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) claimed its Voter's Guide for Serious Catholics was a partisan intervention in that year's election. The new group is a social welfare organization exempt under 501(c)(4) of the tax code, and is not subject to the ban on partisan activity that applies to charities and religious organizations under section 501(c)(3). It intends to publish a similar 2006 version of its voter guide.

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Coalition Files Lawsuit To Stop Blackwell Voter-Registration Rules

Jul 7, 2006 by Guest Blogger

We recently reported in our blog that a Republican-controlled panel in Ohio had voted to keep Sec. of State Ken Blackwell's (who is running for governor) controversial new voter-registration regulations. In response, a coalition of groups is filing a lawsuit for an injunction on the new rule. According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, The suit will request an injunction, claiming a reform law passed by the General Assembly last year, followed by rules Blackwell's office drafted, have all but ended the groups' voter-registration activities in Ohio.

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