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