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NEWS ABOUT: Koch Industries

Now Kraft Quits 'Stand Your Ground' Supporter

Joins Coke, Pepsi in ditching conservative ALEC group

(Newser) - In January, it was Pepsi; earlier this week, it was Coke . Now Kraft is leaving the American Legislative Exchange Council, which supports laws like Florida's "stand your ground" rule. The food company won't be renewing its membership in the conservative group "for a number of reasons,... More »

Obama Airs First Campaign Ad

New ad targets 'secretive oil billionaires'

(Newser) - President Obama's re-election campaign has unveiled its first ad and there is no mention of hope or change. Instead, the ad attacks "secretive oil billionaires" and defends Obama's record on clean energy and jobs, the Wall Street Journal reports. The ad, titled "Unprecedented," will air... More »

Herman Cain: I'm the Other Koch Brother

He mocks media scrutiny of his ties to the conservatives

(Newser) - Herman Cain is happy to embrace at least one story about him that's emerged of late: his deep ties to conservative power brokers Charles and David Koch. "I'm proud to know the Koch brothers," Cain told their Americans for Prosperity group today, reports MSNBC . "I'... More »

Rove, Kochs Square Off for Heart of GOP in 2012

Two big groups may be working at cross purposes

(Newser) - Two of the most powerful and moneyed groups in conservative politics could be working at odds with each other during the 2012 election, leading some Republicans to worry about the GOP’s chances to take both the Senate and the White House. On one side is Karl Rove’s network,... More »

Koch Brothers Skirted Iran Ban, Made Millions: Report

Bloomberg profiles violations by Koch Industries over years

(Newser) - Despite former President George W. Bush calling Iran part of the "axis of evil" and a 1995 ban on doing business there, hard-right supporters the Koch brothers kept selling millions of dollars of petrochemicals to the nation until at least 2007, using complex legal maneuvers and plenty of subsidiaries... More »

Corporations Push to Influence Redistricting

As do other special interests

(Newser) - “Minnesotans for a Fair Redistricting” may sound like a pretty innocuous, non-partisan group. But its leadership is almost identical to the Freedom Foundation of Minnesota, a group tied to Koch Industries, a ProPublica investigation discovered. The Freedom Foundation’s head, Annette Meeks, claims she has “no involvement” with... More »

Group Helps Big Biz Shape Friendly Laws

ALEC brings together companies and lawmakers

(Newser) - Say "hi" to ALEC—as in the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative think-tank that allows businesses to play a role in writing laws on energy, the environment, telecommunications, taxes, public safety, and more, reports Bloomberg . Corporations pay up to $25,000 to join ALEC and thousands more to... More »

Koch Brothers Fight Back, Still Decry 'Radical' Obama

'Weekly Standard' profile defends brothers 'demonized' by left

(Newser) - The Koch brothers are fighting back against the perception (at least on the left) that they're evil personified. The latest salvo comes via a lengthy profile in the Weekly Standard , which argues that the brothers behind Koch Industries are "demonized" by liberals who see them as "convenient scapegoats.... More »

David Koch: Maybe I'm Not So Bad

Billionaire gives rare interview at cancer center opening

(Newser) - Rather than evilly plotting the takeover of the world , David Koch was busy opening a cancer center yesterday that he gave $100 million to build. It's a cause dearer to his heart than Wisconsin or the Tea Party, the cancer survivor tells the New York Times in a... More »

Congress Buys GOP's Foam Cups From Ex-Koch Exec

But the cafeteria managers, not GOP, chose his company

(Newser) - The GOP's decision to bring back Styrofoam cups to a Capitol cafeteria has been a real boon for an old pal of the seemingly ever-present Koch brothers. The owner of WinCup, the company supplying the Styrofoam cups, is a former Koch Industries exec, the Huffington Post reports. But everybody swears... More »

Charles Koch: Why We're Against 'Crony Capitalism'

Koch brother stands up for his family's activism

(Newser) - With the heat intensifying around him and his brother, conservative fundraiser/oil tycoon Charles Koch penned an op-ed piece today to explain himself. “For many years, I, my family, and our company have contributed to a variety of intellectual and political causes,” he writes in the Wall Street Journal... More »

Anonymous Targets Koch Bros

Website linked to Tea Party-backing brothers attacked

(Newser) - Anonymous—fresh from taking down the Westboro Baptist Church —is now targeting the Koch brothers in its support of Wisconsin protesters. The hackers have taken down the website of a free-market advocacy group funded by the billionaire brothers, Gawker reports. Anonymous says "Operation Wisconsin" is payback for the... More »

Koch Brothers Have a Hand in Wisconsin Fight

Their activist group is on Gov. Scott Walker's side

(Newser) - The billionaire Koch brothers are said to have a hand in the Tea Party , the new Congress … why not the Wisconsin protests, too? Americans for Prosperity, a Koch-created and Koch-financed nonprofit, has a definite presence at the demonstrations, with the group’s president recently telling anti-union counterprotesters that the... More »

Koch Brothers Wield Influence in New Congress

Change in House Energy and Commerce Committee 'like night and day'

(Newser) - Billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch have been thrust into the spotlight as of late —and though they once ran outside the typical Washington political circles, their increasing influence is now becoming more clear. That influence is most obvious in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, to which Koch... More »

Protesters, Leave Those Rich Koch Brothers Alone

Editorial: Conservative pair is wrong, but they have rights, too

(Newser) - The protesters who rallied outside Charles and David Koch’s latest conservative pow-wow over the weekend were out of line, the LA Times argues in an editorial today. “We’re not sure the marchers were quite clear on the concepts of democracy and free speech,” the paper opines.... More »

Hundreds Protest Outside Koch Brothers' Retreat

Demonstrators blast billionaire conservatives' 'corporate greed'

(Newser) - Nearly a thousand protesters rallied against two major conservative backers at a California resort yesterday, slamming “corporate greed” as they chanted and waved signs. The Rancho Las Palmas resort was the site of a meeting of top conservatives held by the Koch brothers, who run the country’s second-biggest... More »

Koch Bros, GOP Fatcats to Plot 2012 at Secret Huddle

Billionaires urging rich movers and shakers to join libertarian network

(Newser) - Billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch and their secretive network of wealthy Republican donors are planning a meeting first thing next year to forge their strategy for the 2012 elections. The bros—who finance libertarian causes and are accused of secretly funding the Tea Party movement , though David denies it... More »

Koch: I'm Not the Tea Party's Secret Sugar Daddy

David Koch refutes New Yorker profile

(Newser) - Jane Mayer’s New Yorker piece accusing David and Charles Koch of secretly funding the Tea Party and loads of other shadowy conservative groups has created lots of buzz, but David Koch says it’s all hogwash. “If what I and my brother believe in, and advocate for, is... More »

The Koch Brothers: Secret Tea Party Financiers

For decades, the Kochs have manipulated US politics

(Newser) - The Tea Party may look like a grassroots movement, but follow the money and you’ll see that it’s largely a creation of David and Charles Koch, a pair of billionaires who for decades have been the biggest political force you’ve never heard of. In a huge, 10,... More »

Greenpeace Finds 'Kingpin of Climate Denial'

Little-known US oil company has spent $67M to foster doubt

(Newser) - A little-known private US oil company called Koch Industries has become the driving force behind the climate change denial industry, according to an investigative report from Greenpeace (full pdf here ). Koch funneled $25 million into groups opposed to climate change from 2005 to 2008—three times as much as... More »

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