Bad Deeds for 2/21/2010

 

School Spied on Kids at Home via Laptop Computer Webcams – Students in a Philadelphia-area school district have launched a lawsuit accusing their schools of spying on them at home through webcams installed in laptop computers the district gave them. The parents of Blake Robbins, a student at Harriton High School in Rosemont, Pennsylvania, found out that school officials were allegedly spying on students when an assistant principal confronted Robbins about “improper behavior in his home,” and showed him a picture taken from Robbins’ school-issued laptop.

 

Lobby Firm Tells Clients How To Sway Elections While Avoiding ‘Public Scrutiny’ – In the wake of last month’s Citizens United ruling, a powerhouse Washington lobbying firm is informing its corporate clients on how they can use middlemen like the Chamber of Commerce to pour unlimited amounts of money into political campaigns, while maintaining “sufficient cover” to avoid “public scrutiny” and negative media coverage.

A “Public Policy and Law Alert” on the impact of the Supreme Court’s ruling, prepared by two lawyers for K&L Gates and posted on the firm’s site last Friday, notes that, thanks to disclosure rules, corporations could alienate their customers by spending on political campaigns — especially because they could become the target of negative media coverage.

So, what’s a corporation looking to advance its political goals to do? According to the alert, written by K&L lawyers Tim Peckinpaugh and Stephen Roberts:

“[G]roups of corporations within an industry may form coalitions or use existing trade associations to support candidates favorable to policy positions that affect the group as a whole. While corporations that contribute to these expenditures might still be disclosed, this indirect approach can provide sufficient cover such that no single contributing entity receives the bulk of public scrutiny.”

 

World’s Top Firms Cause $2.2 Trillion of Environmental Damage, Report Estimates – The cost of pollution and other damage to the natural environment caused by the world’s biggest companies would wipe out more than one-third of their profits if they were held financially accountable, a major unpublished study for the United Nations has found.

 

Rick Perry Cares About Polluters More Than People – Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) announced at a press conference Tuesday that he’s suing the Environmental Protection Agency on behalf of Texas over its December decision to regulate greenhouse gases as a pollutant.

Regards,

Jim