Checks Roll In as Laws Flow Out

[madmusic]

As legislators vote on hundreds of bills before their session ends, special interests affected by the measures donate thousands of dollars.
By Dan Morain, Times Staff Writer
August 31, 2006

SACRAMENTO — Entertainment companies seeking a tax break, Staples Center owners hoping for a change in labor law, an ersatz Indian tribe angling for a casino: All are among the scores of donors writing checks to lawmakers in the final days of the legislative session. As those lawmakers cast final votes on hundreds of bills, moneyed interests directly affected by them are contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

On Monday, the start of the final four days of the legislative session when 600 bills were awaiting action, interest groups donated at least $193,000, according to information filed with the secretary of state's office and posted on its website.

Insurance companies, rental car firms and major pharmaceutical makers were among the donors whose four-figure checks arrived Monday, as legislators were voting on bills that could mean millions in profits or losses in years to come.

"The whole thing has turned into an almost 24-7 crazy, obsessive system," said attorney Barry Broad, a longtime Capitol lobbyist for the Teamsters union. "All this money is corrosive. It is eating away at the credibility of democratic government."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-money31aug31,1,6258085.story?coll=la-headlines-california

[yourout]

1. We need a Speaker of the House that doubles as an Auctioneer.

Next up for bids this sweet piece of Legislation making it much harder to declare Bankruptcy.

Sold to Citibank....

[UpInArms]

2. shades of Cunningham's "Bribe Menu"?

a "bribe menu" on congressional letterhead

Convicted former representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.) should be sentenced to the maximum 10 years in prison because of "unparalleled corruption" that included a "bribe menu" on congressional letterhead telling a defense contractor what payments were required for different levels of federal funding, federal prosecutors said in court papers yesterday.

Cunningham pleaded guilty in November to bribery-related and tax-evasion charges of accepting $2.4 million from two contractors and two other men in return for steering defense work to them. The pre-sentencing memo filed by prosecutors in San Diego yesterday offered new details on the extent of his crimes and efforts he made to cover them up.

For instance, it said that Cunningham offered one of the contractors, identifiable in the court papers as Mitchell Wade, head of a Washington company called MZM Inc., $16 million in government contracts in return for the title to a boat Wade had just bought for $140,000. A copy of the notes is included in the filing, showing, the government said, that Cunningham charged an additional $50,000 for every $1 million more.

When the payments reached $340,000, the rate for each $1 million of federal funding dropped to $25,000, the document said.

...more...