New Resource Details “Think Tanks” Tanking Americans’ Rights MADISON, WI — The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), the publisher of the award-winning ALECexposed.org investigation, is releasing a new web resource for reporters and citizens about the activities of Tracie Sharp’s State Policy Network (SPN) and its state “think tank” members. Although the funding of the American Legislative [...]

This article was originally published by the Center for Media and Democracy at PRWatch.org. The World Trade Organization (WTO) issued a final ruling today against the U.S. country-of-origin labeling (COOL) law . This popular pro-consumer policy, which informs shoppers where meat and other foods were raised or grown, enjoys the support of 93% of Americans, according to a 2010 Consumers Union [...]

This article was first published by the Center for Media and Democracy at PRWatch.org. To see some of the political ads discussed in this article, see the videos embedded in the original article at PRWatch.org. Most of the headlines in recent weeks have focused on embattled Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s effort to ward off a recall, but four Wisconsin State [...]

This article was first published by CMD at PRWatch.org. Wal-Mart, a member of ALEC’s corporate “Private Enterprise” board and of the Public Safety and Elections Task Force that adopted Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” as a “model” bill, announced yesterday that it is “suspending” its ALEC membership. “We feel that the divide between these activities and our purpose as a business [...]

This article was originally published by the Center for Media and Democracy at PRWatch.org. The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote today on the Food and Drug Administration Reform Act of 2012, H.R.5651. Groups advocating for open and transparent government have found a provision in the bill that would keep potentially important health and safety information [...]

This article was originally published by the Center for Media and Democracy at  PRWatch.org. Herbicide manufacturer Syngenta had an interesting way of celebrating Earth Day this year, touting the joys of pesticides. The multinational conglomerate sent out a press release during the approach to Earth Day exclaiming that “modern farming is grounds for Earth Day celebration” because, it continues, [...]

This article was originally published by the Center for Media and Democracy at  PRWatch.org. The national certifying body for teachers in the United States, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), participated in the Education Task Force of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) until April 2012. In an official statement sent to the Center for Media and [...]

This article was originally published by the Center for Media and Democracy at PRWatch.org. Kaplan, a for-profit education, tutoring, and testing empire that is the largest division of the $4 billion Washington Post Company , recently told the Republic Report (RR) that Kaplan’s for-profit college division “was a member of ALEC for a one year period, which ended in August 2011.” Kaplan’s [...]

This article was originally published by the Center for Media and Democracy at PRWatch.org. With thousands of consumers expressing their concerns about the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to corporations across America, even former supporters of ALEC are feeling the heat, and some are rushing to distance themselves from the organization. YUM! Brands (owners of KFC, Taco Bell and [...]

This article was originally published by the Center for Media and Democracy at PRWatch.org. Shortly after issuing a press release announcing that it was disbanding its ” Public Safety and Elections Task Force ” after 30 years, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) held a training for the right-wing blogosphere. ALEC Director of External Relations Caitlyn Korb spoke yesterday at a Heritage [...]

This article was originally published by the Center for Media and Democracy at PRWatch.org. The seventh and eighth corporations to publicly state that they cut ties with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) are candy-maker Mars and the Arizona Public Service Company (APS), Arizona’s largest electric utility. Mars had been an exhibitor at ALEC’s 2011 annual meeting in New Orleans. [...]

This article was originally published by the Center for Media and Democracy at PRWatch.org. A stampede seems to be on the way as more and more groups break ties and dump ALEC. Intuit, Inc. (maker of Quicken and QuickBooks accounting software) told the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) that Intuit also decided not to renew its membership [...]

This article was originally published by the Center for Media and Democracy at PRWatch.org. Public interest groups campaigning to convince Coca-Cola to break ties with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) scored a major victory yesterday when Coke announced it had ” elected to discontinue its membership with ” ALEC. According to a statement Coke made to the Washington Examiner , “Our involvement with [...]