New Posts

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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Report: US Ranks as Third for Financial Secrecy

The Tax Justice Network has released the largest ever survey of global financial secrecy. The United States ranks third—only Switzerland (#1) and Hong Kong (#2) pose larger threats to financial transparency efforts, according to the index.

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Worker Safety Before Profits

During one of his early morning shifts, Jose Melena stepped into a 35-foot-long oven and began loading pallets of canned tuna at a Bumble Bee Foods plant. Not realizing Melena was inside, fellow employees shut the machine door behind him and turned on the oven. With temperatures reaching about 270 degrees, he was cooked to death.

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Proposal Would Block Inverted Companies from Receiving Government Contracts

Corporations that have reclassified themselves as “foreign-owned” received approximately $1 billion in federal contracts over the last five years. These companies profit from American tax dollars despite avoiding U.S. taxes themselves.

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Flow of Illicit Money Undermines Governments and Impedes Development

A lack of transparency in the global financial system hinders the ability of governments worldwide to stop the flow of illicit money that comes from crimes like tax evasion, money laundering, and bribery. These illegal flows rob many poor nations of their opportunity to develop and thrive.

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Report: Anonymous Companies Threaten American Interests

It is easier to form a corporation in the United States than it is to get a library card or driver’s license. Current law allows people or existing corporations to create new companies without requiring any information about the human owners of the businesses. A powerful new report by Global Witness details the threats these anonymous companies pose.

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Poisoned Peanuts: Verdict Sends Strong Message to Food Company Executives

The guilty verdicts handed down on Sept. 19 in the unprecedented federal criminal case against senior officials of the Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) should send a strong message to food company executives – you can and will be held criminally responsible for deliberately risking the health and safety of the American public for the sake of profits.

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A Taxing Double Standard: Americans with Troubled Mortgages Penalized While Scofflaw Banks Enjoy Tax Breaks

In early August, Bank of America agreed to a $16.65 billion settlement, which includes funds for “consumer relief.” However, after tax write-offs and deductions, Bank of America's net penalty could be less than $15 billion.

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Report: Obamacare Limits Subsidies for Excessive CEO Pay, Saves $72 Million

A new report from the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) calculates that the Affordable Care Act (ACA), popularly known as Obamacare, reduced taxpayer subsidies by more than $72 million last year. It did this by capping the deductions that currently reward companies for providing excessive pay to their CEOs.

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Q & A With Philip Mattera: Tens of Billions in State and Local Subsidies Annually Go to Big Business

States and local governments strike deals with corporations all the time – deals that normal people like you and I would have a hard time getting and deals that often deprive our governments of revenue even as promises of job creation often disappoint. These tax breaks, publicly funded cash incentives, free buildings, and worker training are done in the name of keeping or wooing businesses. Until relatively recently, the public mostly knew about these subsidies on an anecdotal basis.

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Resources & Research

Living in the Shadow of Danger: Poverty, Race, and Unequal Chemical Facility Hazards

People of color and people living in poverty, especially poor children of color, are significantly more likely...

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A Tale of Two Retirements: One for CEOs and One for the Rest of Us

The 100 largest CEO retirement funds are worth a combined $4.9 billion, equal to the entire retirement account savings of 41 percent of American fam...

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