March, 09 2012, 10:41am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Blair Bowie, Democracy Advocate, U.S. PIRG
202-546-0173, bbowie@pirg.org
Throwing Down the Gauntlet Against Corporate Influence in Elections
Major Announcement from New Coalition of Public Interest, Consumer Watchdog, Labor, and Progressive Groups to Detail Campaign Targeting Companies that Use Corporate Profits and Secretly Spend to Influence Elections
WASHINGTON
WHAT: Press Conference with Coalition of Public Interest, Consumer Watchdog, Labor, and Progressive Groups to Announce Major Campaign Targeting Companies that Use Corporate Funds to Make Contributions to Super-Pacs/Non-Profits to Influence the Fall Election.
WHO: Common Cause, Public Citizen, New York Public Advocate and New York City Pension Fund trustee Bill DeBlasio, Coalition for Accountability in Political Spending (CAPS), Service Employees International Union, MoveOn.org, Americans United for Change, U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S.PIRG), USAction, Sierra Club, Campaign for America's Future, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, National People's Action, Progress NOW, Every Child Matters, Health Care for America Now, Occupy Wall Street .
WHERE: SEIU headquarters, 1800 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington DC
WHEN: Monday, March 12 at 11:00 am ET
U.S. PIRG, the federation of state Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs), stands up to powerful special interests on behalf of the American public, working to win concrete results for our health and our well-being. With a strong network of researchers, advocates, organizers and students in state capitols across the country, we take on the special interests on issues, such as product safety,political corruption, prescription drugs and voting rights,where these interests stand in the way of reform and progress.
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Anti-poverty organization Oxfam on Monday expressed grave concern over reports that Russia has been increasingly deploying chemical weapons in Ukraine.
The Associated Press reported late last week that two Dutch intelligence agencies are claiming that Russia has been ramping up its use of chemical weapons in its war against Ukraine. Among the chemical weapons allegedly being deployed by Russia are chloropicrin, a banned poison gas that was used by European powers during World War I, and CS gas, which is typically used as a riot control agent.
Sarah Redd, Oxfam's advocacy and campaigns manager in Ukraine, called reports of banned chemical weapons use deeply troubling and called for a full investigation into the matter.
"Oxfam is appalled at the recent intensification of violence against civilians in Ukraine, especially the reports of Russia's use of chemical weapons, which would be an egregious violation of international law," she said. "The increasing erosion of the rule of law is deeply concerning. Such laws were put in place to prevent humanity from sliding back into a darker chapter of history. Oxfam calls for an immediate and independent international investigation into these allegations and to hold those responsible to account."
Russia is a signatory of the Chemical Weapons Convention, a treaty first drafted and enacted in the 1990s that bars the use of both chloropicrin and CS gas in war. This makes Russia subject to potential investigations carried out by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, although such an investigation can only take place if requested by member states.
Ukraine has claimed that Russia has carried out more than 9,000 chemical weapons attacks ever since it launched its invasion of the country more than three years ago. During the 2024 election campaign, President Donald Trump claimed that he could bring an end to the Ukraine-Russia war within a single day although so far fighting between the two nations has only intensified.
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Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality at the Institute for Policy Studies, called bonus depreciation "a massive tax break for billionaires and centi-millionaires that use the most polluting form of transportation on the planet."
"A corporation purchasing a $50 million private jet could potentially deduct the entire $50 million from their taxes in the year of the purchase, rather than spreading the deduction over many years," Collins wrote. "This amounts to a massive taxpayer subsidy, as ordinary taxpayers pick up the tab for the private jet industry and billionaire high flyers."
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