Big-money corporate lobbying has reached into one of the most obscure corners of state government: the offices of secretaries of state, the people charged with running elections impartially. Targeting them with campaign donations, weekend outings and secret meetings with industry lobbyists reflects an intense focus on often overlooked ballot questions, which the secretaries frequently help write. A difference of even a few words on a ballot measure can have an enormous impact on the outcome.   read more

The top 1% of earners managed to increase their share of the nation's income at about the same pace after their taxes were raised as they had before, according to a study that taps into a key debate in the current presidential race. That outcome suggests that wealthier Americans did not respond to the higher taxes by either working less or saving less, as many economists often say will happen. "The 2013 tax hike had no discernable negative effect on economic growth," Saez said.   read more

It's a scary world out there, risk experts agree, but they say Trump and Clinton often focus on the wrong dangers. "I have not heard or read about any significant deliberations of the major risks that face our country today and tomorrow. Sad for the U.S.," said Prof. Bea. Loewenstein said climate change, "a problem that threatens the very existence of the human race," was barely mentioned in the presidential debates, usually in the context of Trump's questioning that it is even happening.   read more

Wealthy powerbrokers. Special interest groups. Millions of dollars pouring in to elect conservatives or liberals. It sounds like a typical election-year contest for Congress or a state legislature, but it's actually a high-stakes battle for institutions that were once considered above politics: state supreme courts. Political groups view control of the high courts as essential to either defending or thwarting state laws. And they are more and more willing to spend big to gain the advantage.   read more

A federal judge rejected the settlement of a lawsuit stemming from the NYPD's surveillance of Muslims, saying it doesn't provide enough oversight of an agency that had shown a “systemic inclination” to ignore rules protecting free speech and religion. It was authority granted after Sept. 11,with help from the CIA, that allowed the city to turn its eyes on Muslims. Police eavesdropped on conversations, kept files on Muslims and investigated mosques, placing them under scrutiny for years.   read more

Since 1975, more than 40,000 Vietnamese are believed to have been killed and about 60,000 maimed by unexploded ordnance — land mines, artillery shells, cluster bombs that failed to detonate decades ago. Unexploded yet active remains of the Vietnam War now lie in wait for unsuspecting children at play. There are no time limits to their destructive abilities. “This was our responsibility,” said one ex-U.S. intelligence officer. “We had created the problem.”   read more

Walker quotes civil rights leaders and employs soaring rhetoric to call for a more just and equitable society. So it seemed discordant to some critics when, this month, Walker joined the board of Pepsi, which makes the bulk of its money by selling sugary drinks and fatty snacks. What’s more, there is a well-established link between obesity and economic inequality. His new Pepsi connection raised the question: Would Walker’s day job and his new board duties be working at cross-purposes?   read more

Two studies of U.S. news coverage suggest that this is a presidential campaign with little substance — unless groping women, tax returns and email servers are your idea of major issues. The coverage has become a referendum on Trump and Hillary Clinton's fitness for office, said Tyndall. But he suggests the broadcasters should be making more of an effort to strike out on their own. The MRC report said the newscasts have spent 785 minutes on Trump coverage, 478 minutes on Clinton.   read more

Of the economic divide, the report says that "at the current rate of change, and given the widening economic gender gap since last year, it will not be closed for another 170 years." The widest gap between the sexes, according to the survey, is in political empowerment. No country has fully closed its overall gender gap, but those in the top five, which includes Rwanda, have closed more than 80% of theirs. The U.S. placed 45th in the index, down from 28th in 2015. Yemen comes in last.   read more

In an election year when turnout could be crucial, many factors — foot-dragging by states, confusion among voters, the inability of judges to roll back bias — are blunting the effect of court rulings against the laws. The courts’ effort “in practice so far has not fixed problems for voters facing special burdens to produce identification,” said Prof. Hasen. Some courts said laws were biased against minorities, but ordered state officials to modify the laws instead of striking them down.   read more

Rigged elections. Vigilante observers. The fear is that the ugly rhetoric could escalate into violence, endangering students. Anxieties have been stoked by Trump's repeated claims that the election is rigged and his call for supporters to stand guard at the polls. Some are worried about clashes between the self-appointed observers and voters. "If anybody can sit there and say they don't think this is a contentious election, then they aren't paying much attention," said police chief Ed Tolan.   read more

Even with Obamacare, the U.S. still ranks poorly among comparable countries in insurance coverage. While the rate of insured is the best it has ever been in the U.S., a greater percentage of the population is uninsured than that of pretty much any other industrialized nation in the world. When asked if patients could get a same-day or next-day appointment with their provider when they were sick or needed care, 52% of Americans said no. This placed the U.S. next to last among 11 wealthy nations.   read more

About 9,700 current and retired soldiers received notices to repay some or all of their bonuses with more than $22 million recovered so far. Soldiers said they feel betrayed at having to repay the money. “These bonuses were used to keep people in,” said Christopher Van Meter, a 42-year-old former Army captain and Iraq veteran who was awarded a Purple Heart. “People like me just got screwed.” If soldiers refuse, they could face interest charges, wage garnishments and tax liens.   read more

Texas classified more than 1,800 offenders arrested near the border by highway troopers in 2015 as "high threat criminals." But not all live up to that menacing label or were anywhere close to the border — and they weren't caught entering the country illegally, as Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who is Texas' chairman for GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, has suggested. Crimes lumped in with suspected killers and human traffickers were speeding teenagers and harmless hit-and-runs.   read more

It means that Google can now build a complete portrait of a user by name, based on everything they write in email, every website they visit and the searches they conduct. The move is a sea change for Google and a further blow to the online ad industry’s longstanding contention that web tracking is mostly anonymous. “It was a border wall between being watched everywhere and maintaining a tiny semblance of privacy,” said Paul Ohm. “That wall has just fallen.”   read more

The EPA had sufficient authority and information to issue an emergency order to protect residents of Flint, Michigan, from lead-contaminated water as early as June 2015 — seven months before it declared an emergency, the EPA's inspector general said Thursday. The Flint crisis should have generated "a greater sense of urgency" at the agency to "intervene when the safety of drinking water is compromised," said the report.   read more