| | | | June 16, 2011 | | Obama’s Big Bundlers Get Their Due | |  Share on Facebook |  Share on Twitter | |  Some things just don’t change. More than two years after President Obama took office vowing to banish “special interests” from his administration, nearly 200 of his biggest donors have landed plum government jobs or gotten other special treatment, a new investigation by iWatch News finds. These “bundlers” raised at least $50,000 and sometimes more than $500,000 in campaign donations for Obama’s 2008 run. Two dozen have been appointed ambassadors to foreign countries, a common patronage-job practice.
| | | | | | Odd Couple Represents U.S. Chamber | | Share on Facebook | Share on Twitter | |  Ex-politicos need to make a living somehow. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has enlisted former Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., and erstwhile George W. Bush White House chief of staff Andy Card for a road show to promote a bipartisan blitz against what it deems excessive and costly government regulations. According to a seven-page memo from Chamber President Tom Donohue obtained by iWatch News, Donohue said that Card and Bayh will be doing “speeches, events and media appearances at local venues.” The Chamber is masterful at massaging public opinion in favor of business interests.
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| | Blue Shield California’s Lame Refund | | Share on Facebook | Share on Twitter | |  The $180 million refund from Blue Shield of California may sound like a lot of money, but to customers it's sofa change. Once again, Senior Analyst Wendell Potter shows us how the health insurance industry works – and where its spin meisters are busiest. Potter makes the case that the California insurer is sitting on reserves of $3 billion and could afford to give back much more. “Its individual and fully insured group customers will each get a 30 percent credit against one month—yes, one month—of premium,” he writes. And most of that money will go to employers."
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| | Australian Ryle to Lead International Consortium | | Share on Facebook | Share on Twitter | |  I’m pleased to announce that Gerard Ryle has been named director of the Center’s International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Ryle is currently deputy editor of The Canberra Times. He has more than 25-years of experience as an investigative reporter and editor and his work has won four Walkley Awards, the top Australian citation for journalism, for which he has also been a finalist 12 times. Ryle will lead the ICIJ’s headquarters staff in Washington, D.C., as well as oversee the consortium’s 100 member journalists in 50 countries.
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Until next week,
  Bill Buzenberg
Executive Director | | | |  |
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