News

James O'Keefe, the right-wing activist famous for his undercover and ethically questionable sting operations on prominent liberal organizations, has settled a lawsuit filed against him for $100,000 from a former ACORN employee. O'Keefe's misleading ACORN videos led to the collapse of the organization, which was hugely successful in registering minority and low income voters. Less well known is how the American Legislative Exchange Council helped in the larger campaign to take down ACORN.

Remember "fecal soup"? A CBS "60 Minutes" exposé in 1987 documented widespread food safety violations by the poultry industry, making use of undercover video from a hidden camera placed by the "60 Minutes" crew. The episode vindicated U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) whistleblower Hobart Bartley, who had been ignored and threatened by his superiors and finally transferred to another plant when he warned of unsanitary conditions at a Simmons Industries plant in Missouri.

Ever since Governor Scott Walker imposed his anti-union legislation on Wisconsin, the state has become exceptionally polarized. This polarization is reflected in the current race for Supreme Court. Once again Wisconsin is seeing massive spending from outside groups in a race that is officially nonpartisan.

- by Wenonah Hauter

Tonight, millions of people will enjoy a beer. What the vast majority of them probably won't realize is that the variety of brands they see in the stores come from just two foreign-based multinational companies that control 80 percent of the market here in the U.S.