Category: Bulldog Extra

May 2, 2014 6:27 AM

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Financial watchdog held hostage for gold; Precious metals scams target seniors

By Daniel Wagner
Center for Public Integrity
A key government agency that oversees financial derivatives could remain without a permanent leader until the man nominated to run it shows he plans to crack down on investment scams involving precious metals.
Apr 25, 2014 6:25 AM

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Meet the banking caucus, Wall Street’s secret weapon in Washington

By Daniel Wagner and Alison Fitzgerald
Center for Public Integrity
The lawmakers were at an impasse. More than two hours into a meeting of the House Financial Services Committee last month, the members were bickering over two versions of a bill designed to ease a new regulation that affected banks, part of the sweeping 2010 overhaul of financial laws known as the Dodd-Frank Act. The dispute? Whether to give banks everything they asked for, or whether to give them even more.
Apr 12, 2014 6:32 AM

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Long after Sandy, Red Cross post-storm spending still a black box

By Justin Elliott and Jesse Eisinger
ProPublica
Following Superstorm Sandy, donors gave $312 million to the American Red Cross. How did the aid organization spend that money? A year and a half after the storm, it’s surprisingly difficult to get a detailed answer.
Apr 4, 2014 1:46 PM

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What the proposed NSA reforms wouldn’t do; big differences among plans

By Kara Brandeisky
ProPublica/small>
Ten months after Edward Snowden’s first disclosures, three main legislative proposals have emerged for surveillance reform: one from President Obama, one from the House Intelligence Committee, and one proposal favored by civil libertarians. All the plans purport to end the bulk phone records collection program, but there are big differences – and a lot they don’t do. Here’s a rundown.
Mar 28, 2014 6:10 AM

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Inside the Koch brothers’ campus crusade; Billionaire industrialists investing in students

By Dave Levinthal
Center for Public Integrity
Billionaire industrialists David and Charles Koch may rank among the nation’s biggest bankrollers of conservative causes and Republican campaign vehicles. But Koch proselytizing of government deregulation and pro-business civics is increasingly targeted not just at creatures of Capitol Hill, or couch sitters in swing states, but at the hearts and minds of American college students, as well.
Mar 21, 2014 1:12 PM

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Wireless companies fight to control your cell phone as rare frequency auction looms

By Allan Holmes
Center for Public Integrity
The setting was ornate, the subject esoteric, but the implications huge. The crowd that filed last month into the wood-paneled room 226 in the Dirksen Senate Office Building included lawmakers, lobbyists, company executives, and a few mystery guests — a roster that reflected the enormity of the issue at hand: nothing less than control of the growing wireless market and the hundreds of billions of dollars that go with it.