Dirt Diggers Digest No. 36
May 28, 2003
Editor: Philip Mattera
1. WorldCom Settlement Documents and Contract Controversy
2. New Database on Media Holdings
3. Los Angeles City Council Votes to Require Slavery Disclosures
4. ACORN Report and Campaign on Predatory Lending at Wells Fargo
5. War Profiteers Card Deck
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1. WorldCom Settlement Documents and Contract Controversy
If you're interested in the details of the $500 million settlement
recently reached by the SEC and WorldCom (the largest fine
the agency has ever imposed on a non-financial company), you
can find the Final Judgment and Consent on the FindLaw website
at http://news.findlaw.com/legalnews/documents/.
WorldCom, which now calls itself MCI, is still being targeted by
critics who ask why a company involved in the largest accounting
fraud in history is still allowed to do business with the federal
government. (See, for example, the Citizen Works commentary at
http://www.citizenworks.org/corp/worldcon.php.) At the same time
the $500 million fine was being announced, MCI was awarded a
contract to rebuild the wireless phone network in Iraq. Sen. Susan
Collins of Maine, chair of the Governmental Affairs Committee, recently
announced an inquiry on whether MCI should be allowed to continue
as a federal contractor <http://govt-aff.senate.gov/052103presssc2.htm>.
If MCI is disqualified as a federal contractor, it will join Arthur Andersen
and many others on what is known as the Excluded Parties Listing System
<http://epls.arnet.gov/>. The EPLS website was recently upgraded to allow
a greater variety of searches and downloading functions.
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2. New Databases on Media Holdings
The Center for Public Integrity has assisted the campaign to block the
Federal Communication Commission's plans to weaken media ownership
rules with the launch of a project called Well Connected <www.openairwaves.org>.
Along with a report on industry-sponsored junkets for FCC officials, the
Center has created a database that provides information on the ownership of
broadcasting, cable and telephone properties throughout the United States
<http://www.openairwaves.org/telecom/analysis/default.aspx>.
Among the Center's other recently released resources (access via the website
at www.publicintegrity.org) is HIRED GUNS, a report and database on state
lobbyists.
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3. Los Angeles City Council Votes to Require Slavery Disclosures
The Los Angeles City Council voted recently to require every company doing
business with the city to report whether it or a precedessor firm ever earned
profits from slavery. The law, which has no provision for investigation or
enforcement, is mainly symbolic in nature.
In 2000 the California legislature passed a law required the state department
of insurance to collect data on insurance companies whose predecessor firms
may have written policies on slaves in the 19th Century. The department's 2002
report on the subject and other material can be found online at:
http://www.insurance.ca.gov/SEIR/main.htm
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4. ACORN Report and Campaign on Predatory Lending at Wells Fargo
ACORN recently launched a campaign against Well Fargo because of
the bank's predatory lending practices. Those practices are described
in a report called STOP THE STAGE COACH!, which can be found
at http://www.acorn.org/campaigns/wellsfargo.
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5. War Profiteers Card Deck
You can now use your weekly poker game as a vehicle for popular education
on profiteering in postwar Iraq. In a response to the Pentagon's p.r. gimmick
featuring Iraq's "most wanted" on a deck of cards, the Ruckus Society and
various allies have created an alternative set of playing cards that feature the
faces and descriptions of corporate executives, government officials and others
responsible for U.S. policy in Iraq. As the Ruckus website puts it: "These are
individuals and institutions that stack the deck against democracy in the rigged
game of global power." Among the companies featured are Bechtel, Halliburton
and the Carlyle Group. For ordering information and electronic images of the cards,
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Philip Mattera
Director of the Corporate Research Project
Good Jobs First