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...

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

New report examines elections in 5 Midwest states

Jan 3, 2008 by Amanda Adams*

A new report surveys the impact of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) on state and local election administration in five Midwestern states — Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Ohio. From Registration to Recounts: The Election Ecosystems of Five Midwestern States was written by Ohio State University Law election law scholars Edward Foley, Steven Huefner and Dan Tokaji. In addition to advocating specific policies for each of the five states, the authors make the following broader observations and recommendations:

read in full

Arizona judge rules in favor of verifying electronic voting records

Dec 21, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

An Arizona judge ruled this week that the local Democratic party has the right to review electronic voting databases from the 2006 primary and general elections. The decision in Pima County, Arizona, affirmed that electronic voting records are public documents.

read in full

Study Finds Handful of Industries Dominate Presidential Campaign Contributions

Dec 21, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

A joint Campaign Finance Institute-Public Citizen study of over 2,000 individuals raising contributions for the 2008 presidential candidates finds that these donations were dominated by just three sectors: law, finance, and real estate .

read in full

IRS Releases Redesigned Form 990

Dec 20, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has announced the release of the redesigned Form 990, the form that public charities and other tax-exempt organizations are required to file annually. The new form will be used for the 2008 tax year starting in 2009 and will be phased in over a three year period for smaller organizations. Many changes have been made since a draft was released after the IRS received more than 650 public comments.

read in full

Democrats on House Task Force Propose Independent Ethics Panel

Dec 20, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

The Hill and the Washington Post report that Democrats on the House Special Task Force on Ethics Enforcement support the creation of an independent panel to review ethics complaints and make recommendations to the House ethics committee. The "Office of Congressional Ethics" would consist of six members jointly appointed by the speaker and minority leader who would serve four-year terms and be served by a nonpartisan professional staff. Current lawmakers and lobbyists would not be able to be on the panel.

read in full

Everyone is Wondering About the FEC

Dec 20, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

It appears that the confirmation of one member (Hans von Spakovsky) to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) held up the rest. Four nominees have been serving recess appointments that expire with the end of the congressional session and with those seats vacant, the six-member commission will not be able to operate. The Senate did not confirm them yesterday, and now many are worried about what this means for the enforcement of campaign finance laws in an election year.

read in full

Trouble With FISA Reform

Dec 20, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

According to Wired.com, the FBI's software for recording telephone surveillance of suspected spies and terrorists intercepted 27,728,675 "sessions". "Twenty-seven million is a staggering number given that the FBI only got 2,176 FISA court orders in 2006 from a secret spy court using the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. According to the math that means each court order resulted in 12,742 'sessions,' all in regards to phone, not internet, surveillance."

read in full

OMB Watch Analysis & Insight

OMB WATCH REPORT Overcaution and Confusion: The Impact of Ambiguous IRS Regulation of Political Activities by Charities and the Potential for Change November 2007 Summarizes debate from August 2007 panel discussion sponsored by OMB Watch on IRS enforcement of the ban on partisan intervention in elections by 501(c)(3) organizations Summary and Analysis: IRS Revenue Ruling on Charities and Election Activity June 2007

read in full

Court Finds Material Support Provision of Patriot Act Unconstitutional

Dec 20, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

On December 11 federal appeals court ruled in Humanitarian Law Project v. Mukasey, that some portions of the Patriot Act that deal with foreign terrorist organizations are unconstitutional because the language is too vague. Plaintiffs argued that the language of the law is so vague that people could be prosecuted who trained members of foreign groups to peacefully resolve disputes.

read in full

Florida judge rules voter registration law unjustified

Dec 20, 2007 by Amanda Adams*

A federal judge in Florida granted an injunction on Tuesday to stop enforcement of the state's "no match, no vote" voter registration law. The law requires the name of a registrant be matched with a Social Security number or driver's license number. The suit was filed by the Florida branch of the NAACP, the Haitian-American Grassroots Coalition, and the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project.

read in full