DDD50

Dirt Diggers Digest No. 50
March 18, 2004


Editor: Philip Mattera


!. SEC adopts tighter 8-K disclosure requirements

2. New European Commission database on industrial pollution

3. Student campaign pushes for greater hedge fund disclosure

4. Cintas files another defamation lawsuit

5. FTSE and ISS developing global corporate governance index

6. Tracking someone's place of employment

7. FDA database documents drug approval history

8. Database of Bush Administration (mis)statements on Iraq

9. Job Posting: Greenpeace seeks corporate campaigner [omitted from web archive]


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1. SEC adopts tighter 8-K disclosure requirements


On March 11 the Securities and Exchange Commission voted

to adopt new rules that will require public companies to report

a wider range of events on form 8-K, and those forms will have

to be issued sooner--within four days of the event rather than

the current 5-15 day deadline. Among those events are off-

balance sheet deals that involve a significant amount of debt.

Details on the rules, which take effect on Aug. 23, can be found at

http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2004-31.htm.


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2. New European Commission database on industrial pollution


The European Commission and the European Environment

Agency recently launched a database on industrial emissions

into the air and water throughout Europe. The European

Pollutant Emission Register (EPER), which is located at

<http://www.eper.cec.eu.int/eper/>, contains information on

more than 9,000 industrial facilities in the 15 countries of the

European Union as well as Norway. Searches can be done by

facility name, location, industry or pollutant. Results include the

quantity of emissions for each chemical as well as a satellite

photograph of the facility.


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3. Student campaign pushes for greater hedge fund disclosure


Corporate accountability activists at about half a dozen campuses

recently unveiled a campaign that will press for greater disclosure

of the social and environmental impacts of investments made by

hedge funds in which universities participate. The students, at

schools such as Duke, Stanford and Yale, are focusing their

efforts on a hedge fund called Farallon Capital Management, which

they say is a major investor for colleges and universities. The

campaign has a website at <http://www.unfarallon.info/> that

describes its goals and the reasons for targeting Farallon.


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4. Cintas files another defamation lawsuit


In Dirt Diggers Digest No. 49 we reported on a defamation lawsuit

brought by Cintas Corp. against socially responsible investing firm

Walden Asset Management. The company, which is under fire for

its labor practices, has taken a similar step against the labor union

UNITE, which is seeking to organize the employees of the uniform

supply firm. The suit, prompted by a press release issued by the

union, has received limited media coverage. See, for example,

<http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/02/25/biz_cintas25.html>.


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5. FTSE and ISS developing global corporate governance index


Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), a leading provider of proxy

voting services, has joined with the FTSE Group of Britain, to develop

an index that will allow investors to easily compare companies worldwide

on their corporate governance practices. The index, which will be launched

in phases beginning in Summer 2004, will provide standardized ratings

for more than 7,000 companies in the FTSE Global Equity Index Series.

Details of the announcement can be found at:

http://www.issproxy.com/pdf/FTSE%20022604.pdf


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6. Tracking someone's place of employment


It has long been possible, using public records databases,

to track down the home address of someone with an unlisted

phone. Figuring out where someone works, assuming they are

not well enough known to have their position mentioned in the

media or on the web, can be a trickier task. Now the public

records firm Accurint <www.accurint.com> has introduced a

new service called People At Work that it says provides access

to 230 million entries on more than 75 million people. Your

editor has not yet tested the service, so it is unclear whether it

provides much more than what can be learned from searching

names and addresses in corporate filings.


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7. FDA database documents drug approval history


The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has introduced a website

called Drugs@FDA that provides comprehensive information on

the regulatory history of approved pharmaceuticals. Located at

<http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cder/drugsatfda/>, the

searchable database provides the name of the drug's producer

and a chronology of the approval process, as well as the content

of the drug's label and usage guide. The site will eventually

include information on drug recalls, warnings and shortages.


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8. Database of Bush Administration (mis)statements on Iraq


This resource is not exactly about corporate research, but it is

worth noting. The office of Rep. Henry Waxman, ranking member

of the House Committee on Government Reform, has assembled a

database of what it calls "237 specific misleading statements about

the threat posed by Iraq" made by top Bush Administration officials,

including Bush himself. It can be searched by speaker, subject or date.

See <http://www.house.gov/reform/min/features/iraq_on_the_record/>

[Note: The last time I checked, this site was not working; the problem

is not with the link.]

 

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A cumulative list of resources featured in the

Dirt Diggers Digest can be found on the web at:

http://www.corp-research.org/dirt_diggers_index.htm


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Philip Mattera

Director of the Corporate Research Project

Good Jobs First

pmattera@goodjobsfirst.org

www.corp-research.org