The Spin @ Center for Media and Democracay

Is David Koch Getting a Tax Writeoff for Dropping $900K on the Walker Race? The "charitable" wing of David Koch's Americans for Prosperity has dropped nearly $900,000 on ads to boost Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's reelection campaign, just days after polls showed Walker tied with his Democratic challenger, Mary Burke. Read more

Judge Who Halted Walker Probe Attended Koch-Backed Judicial Junkets The federal judge who ordered a halt to Wisconsin's "John Doe" criminal investigation into spending during the 2011 and 2012 recall elections has regularly attended all-expenses paid "judicial junkets" funded by the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, and other ideological and corporate interests. Read more

First Amendment for Whom? Press Fights for Access to Scott Walker John Doe Docs The public may be on the cusp of learning more about the two "John Doe" investigations into Scott Walker, his associates, and groups that spent millions to get him elected. Read more

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Oregon's GMO Sellout When the headline said that Oregon’s Democratic governor, John Kitzhaber, had signed into law a corporate-backed bill overriding local counties’ ability to regulate their own food systems, Lisa Arkin, executive director of Beyond Toxics, was shocked. Read more

Derek Cressman Crusades Against the Koch Brothers in California California Secretary of State candidate Derek Cressman has made a career of fighting the billionaires who are trying to hijack democracy. His biggest victory so far was a 2012 case that resulted in the largest fine for a campaign-finance violation in California history. Read more

Are Organic Standards in Jeopardy? Watchdogs Say Yes When organic activist Alexis Baden Mayer of the Organic Consumers Association was arrested after leading a "spirited protest" against watering down organic standards last month, she wasn't at a rally on the street or in a park. She was at a meeting of the National Organic Standards Board, a 15-member advisory board with statutory authority to review what substances are allowed and prohibited in organic agriculture -- usually a relatively staid affair. Read more

Koch Cadre Billionaire Defends Nazi Comments Ken Langone, the big-spending Home Depot billionaire and ally of Charles and David Koch, clumsily defended his March 2014 comments comparing populist criticism of the 1% with the rise of Nazi Germany, in an interview with Capital New York published this week. Read more

After Railing Against John Doe Secrecy, WI Club for Growth Fights to Keep Docs Secret After months of railing against the secrecy necessitated by Wisconsin's dark money criminal investigation, Wisconsin Club for Growth (WCFG) is now fighting to keep hundreds of documents in the probe secret. Read more

Scott Walker, Opponent Mary Burke Tied in Latest Poll Bad news for Scott Walker: the latest Marquette University Law School poll shows the divisive Wisconsin governor in a dead heat with Democratic challenger Mary Burke, 46 to 46. That result marks a "significant tightening of the race," according to poll director Charles Franklin. Read more

NY Times Firing of Abramson Hurts Women “Stunned” is how one New York Times reporter I know described the reaction in the newsroom yesterday to the sudden announcement that Times executive editor Jill Abramson was fired. She had been in the job less than three years, was the first woman editor of the august paper of record. Read more

California Steaming California is a trendsetter. Food, fashion, music, film… a lot of what makes up contemporary American culture today got its start in the Golden State. Usually, that’s a good thing. But not always. Read more

Brown v. Board at Sixty On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court struck down the “separate but equal” doctrine, fundamentally changing the life of our nation. The Brown v. Board of Education decision “ignited the spark of courage among the nation’s forces fighting for equality of opportunity for all,” The Progressive editorialized at the time. Read more

America Ferrera Interviews Lisa Graves on Showtime Showtime recently premiered an episode of its new series, "Years of Living Dangerously," that focused on the facile claims of climate change deniers like the Heartland Institute's Joseph Bast. In this episode of the Showtime series, subtitled “Against the Wind,” actress America Ferrera interviewed CMD/The Progressive Inc.'s president, Lisa Graves.