Conservative nonprofit ALEC acts as stealth business lobbyist
Membership includes nearly 2,000 state legislators – and corporations
By MIKE McINTIRE
Desperate for new revenue, Ohio lawmakers introduced legislation last year that would make it easier to recover money from businesses that defraud the state.
It was quickly flagged at the Washington headquarters of the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, a business-backed group that views such “false claims” laws as encouraging frivolous lawsuits. ALEC’s membership includes not only corporations, but nearly 2,000 state legislators across the country – including dozens who would vote on the Ohio bill.
Bahrain Grand Prix to go ahead despite protester’s death
Formula One race subject to mounting global outcry after discovery of body of protester allegedly abducted from village by military
Paul Weaver in Manama and Peter Beaumont
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 21 April 2012 23.27 BSTBahrain’s Formula One grand prix will go ahead despite a growing international outcry about the staging of the race in the Gulf state that intensified on Saturdayfollowing the discovery of the body of a protester allegedly abducted from a village by security forces.
According to the opposition party Wefaq, the body of 36-year-old Salah Abbas Habib Musa, a father of five, was found on a rooftop in the Shia village of Shakhoura the day before the race
A bad heart killed Neil Heywood. But whose?
Theories about the Briton’s death in China are stacking up
Clifford Coonan , David Randall
Beijing Sunday 22 April 2012
Solving the Neil Heywood mystery is beginning to resemble a bizarre parlour game. A variety of people each tell an utterly implausible story and everyone else has to guess which one is true – except, in this case, the suspicion is growing that no one remotely in the know can be relied upon.
This weekend, after several days of new testimony, claims and authorised leaks, there is still no version of his death that makes coherent sense. This is hardly surprising. Nearly all the “facts” come from a normally secretive officialdom which is, itself, far from disinterested. The result is that we have no convincing version of what happened, but a number of intriguing theories. First, however, the facts we know:
Getting a real taste of living in the ‘Big Durian’ one smelly mouthful at a time
Indonesia correspondent Michael Bachelard just had to take a bite out of Jakarta’s stinky nickname.
April 22, 2012
AMONG the racks of rip-off brand clothing in markets across Asia is a T-shirt whose design harks back to an old Apple computer ad campaign.
But instead of the instantly recognisable company trademark, the shirt bears a picture of an oddly shaped, spiky looking fruit with an Apple-sized bite taken out of it and the catch-line “Eat Different”.
Libya says building case against Gaddafi son: ICC prosecutor
Reuters
Libya says it is building its case against Muammar Gaddafi’s detained son, gathering witnesses and documents, according to the Hague-based war crimes prosecutor, as it seeks to persuade the International Criminal Court to allow for a local trial.
The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Saif al-Islam last year after prosecutors accused him and others of involvement in the killing of protesters during the revolt that eventually toppled his father, who ruled with an iron fist for 42 years.
Globe to Globe: Maori Troilus and Cressida puts haka into Shakespeare
As the Globe to Globe Festival begins in London, the director of New Zealand’s version of Troilus and Cressida explains how she put Maori culture at the heart of Shakespeare’s Trojan tragedy.
By Tim Masters Entertainment and arts correspondent, BBC News
Of all the theatre companies who are presenting all 37 of Shakespeare’s plays in 37 different languages at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, it is New Zealand’s Ngakau Toa who have travelled the furthest.
The Maori version of Troilus and Cressida begins the six-week Globe to Globe season on Monday, which is also Shakespeare’s birthday.
“It’s a great honour to be on first – we are thrilled and quite nervous,” says director Rachel House, during a break from final rehearsals in Auckland.
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