Dirt Diggers Digest No. 60
April 18, 2005
Editor: Philip Mattera
1. Concerns grow over secrecy claims for federal data
2. Center for Public Integrity creates comprehensive lobbying database
3. Feds put hospital performance data on the web
4. North Dakota close to enacting subsidy disclosure law
5. Access to info from European business registries
6. A behemoth begets a Goliath
7. "Best corporate citizens"; leading corporate greenwashers
8. Full-day workshop on strategic corporate research: May 11 in Baltimore
9. SEIU seeks new research director [omitted from web archive]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Concerns grow over secrecy claims for federal data
Public-interest groups, first-amendment organizations and others are
expressing growing concern over the federal government's efforts to restrict
access to various types of unclassified public data by using designations
such as "sensitive security information." Some of the practices border on the
nonsensical. The Wall Street Journal reported on March 22 that the
Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has barred airplanes from flying
near nuclear power plants but it will not give pilots data on the exact location
of the nukes.
Other actions are impeding organizations working on issues of public safety.
An environmental group in Utah was denied access to flood maps showing what
areas would be inundated if a major dam failed. OSHA refused to make public
a study of work-related hazards at an airport. A report issued by the Congressional
Research Service last year < http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/RS21727.pdf > claimed
that the feds were working to alleviate concerns over the issue, "but some experts
are not convinced."
OMB Watch, for example, has warned that agencies such as the TSA are
overusing the sensitive security designation "to hide information from concerned
citizens" < http://www.ombwatch.org/article/articleview/2773/1/1?TopicID=1 >.
In a recent article distributed by the Scripps Howard News Service and picked
up by numerous papers, Paul McMasters of the First Amendment Center wrote:
"In a breathtakingly short time, one of democracy's core principles, 'the right to
know' for the public, has devolved into a 'need to know' for certain individuals
and now threatens to become a 'right to control' for government officials only."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Center for Public Integrity creates comprehensive lobbying database
Special interests and their lobbyists have reported spending almost $13 billion
since 1998 on buying influence in the federal government, according to a
comprehensive new report issued by the Center for Public Integrity
< http://www.publicintegrity.org/lobby/report.aspx?aid=675&sid=200 >. The
report is based on the Center's examination of all of the lobby disclosure forms
filed with the Senate Office of Public Records since 1998. As part of its project,
the Center created an online, searchable database of all registered federal
lobbyists in the United States and their clients. The site also includes a list
of some 250 former members of Congress and federal agency heads now
working as lobbyists.
Speaking of the revolving door, the Edmonds Institute has launched a
searchable database < http://www.edmonds-institute.org/newdoor.html >
focusing on individuals who have moved back and forth between the
biotechnology industry and government agencies that are supposed to
be regulating it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Feds put hospital performance data on the web
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently launched a web-
based database on the performance record of nearly all of the country's 4,200
hospitals. Called Hospital Compare < http://www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov/ >,
it provides data on 17 widely used yardsticks relating to the treatment of heart
attacks, heart failures and pneumonia, though it lacks measures such as mortality
rates from cardiac surgery. The site complements a similar service the Centers
created for nursing homes < http://www.medicare.gov/NHCompare/Home.asp >.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. North Dakota close to enacting subsidy disclosure law
Members of the House and Senate in the North Dakota legislature reached
agreement last week on an economic development accountability law that
includes a provision for disclosure of subsidies granted to corporations. The
measure, House Bill 1203, would require reporting of the value of the subsidy,
the job-creation goals (including wage levels) and the consequences if the firm
does not meet the goals. The state would be required to publish an annual
compilation of data on subsidy deals beginning in 2007. North Dakota would
join a group of about a dozen states that have some sort of subsidy disclosure
requirement.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Access to info from European business registries
Your editor has just learned of a service that was launched last year to
provide a single gateway to information from official business registries in most
of Europe. Called EuroInfoPool < https://www.euroinfopool.com >, it is owned by
a subsidiary of the Swedish investment company Ratos. The service allows
searches of registries from 15 countries, the most recent addition being the
UK's Companies House. Apart from the data provided by the registries,
EuroInfoPool sells access to credit reports on more than 22 million companies
in 19 countries. Use of the service requires payment of a monthly fee of
5 euros plus pay-as-you-go charges that vary by country.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. A behemoth begets a Goliath
Thomson Gale, a behemoth among the providers of business databases for the
institutional market, has now introduced a lower-cost service for individuals
and smaller organizations. Called Goliath < http://goliath.ecnext.com/ >, it
draws on various Thomson services to provide company, industry and market
profiles as well as individual articles from the trade press. The company profiles
are said to cover 450,000 firms, though with varying levels of detail.
The service is designed to discourage pay-as-you-go usage: individual reports are
priced at a steep $30, and individual articles at $10, while unlimited usage in
one of the categories is $50 a month.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7. "Best corporate citizens"; leading corporate greenwashers
Business Ethics, "the magazine of corporate responsibility," has published
its latest list of what it calls the "100 best corporate citizens"
< http://www.business-ethics.com/whats_new/100best.html >. The
ranking, based on data compiled by KLD Research & Analytics,
evaluates firms in eight categories such as governance, environment,
diversity and human rights. At the top of the list this year is Cummins Inc.
Apparently, the engine maker's increasing use offshore outsourcing did
not tarnish its reputation.
The same issue of Business Ethics has an article by Tracey Rembert
on the backlash against corporate reform:
http://www.business-ethics.com/current_issue/spring_2005_csr_crosshairs.html
Meanwhile, the Green Life, an environmental non-profit, has released a report
called DON'T BE FOOLED: AMERICA'S TEN WORST GREENWASHERS that
highlights the companies said to be most guilty of using misleading and exaggerated
marketing and public relations to project an eco-friendly image. The report,
available at < http://www.thegreenlife.org/dontbefooled.html > put Ford Motor
at the top of its list because of its campaign touting the Escape hybrid and the
installation of green features at its River Rouge factory while obscuring the
fact that hybrids account for less than one percent of its sales, which remain
highly dependent on heavily polluting vehicles such as the F-150 truck. Other
companies listed among the worst greenwashers were BP, General Motors
and ChevronTexaco.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8. Full-day workshop on strategic corporate research: May 11 in Baltimore
A full-day workshop on corporate research techniques designed for staffers
and activists of unions, environmental groups and other progressive
organizations will take place in Baltimore on May 11.
The workshop will be one of five training sessions being held on the first day
of RECLAIMING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT II, a conference sponsored
by Good Jobs First. For more information on the entire conference as well
as registration forms, see http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/2005gjfconfagenda.htm.
You can register for one of the workshops alone (at a reduced price) if you
do not wish to attend the entire conference.
The workshop--which will cover a wide range of topics on companies small
and large, public and private--will be led by Dirt Diggers editor Phil Mattera
and Rick Rehberg of the Food and Allied Service Trades department of the
AFL-CIO.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
------------------------------------
Philip Mattera
Research Director & Director of the Corporate Research Project
Good Jobs First