Rifles at the Ruger booth at the 2016 National Shooting Sports Foundation’s Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show on January 19, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images. By Jonathan Larsen The board of directors of Sturm, Ruger & Co. (RGR), one of the nation’s largest gunmakers, is urging shareholders to vote down a resolution that would require …
Revolving Door: Food Industry Lobbyists Swarm USDA to Shape Welfare, Visa Policies
President Donald Trump with Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue in the White House on April 25, 2017. Photo by Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images. By Alex Kotch Three White House ethics waivers released this month show that former food industry lobbyists are helping shape policy by advising top officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The waivers, issued by White House counsel Donald …
Gunmaker Fails to Disclose Investor Risks in SEC Filings
Ruger CEO Christopher Killoy; Image via nratv.com. By Jonathan Larsen and Andrew Lapp, with additional research by Dylan Digel One of the nation’s largest gunmakers—Sturm, Ruger & Co. (RGR)—told its biggest investors last week that it discloses in its federal filings every risk the company faces, but at least two possible investment risks are not mentioned in its most recent filing. …
Former Banking Committee Staff Now Lobbying Senate to Roll Back Banking Rules
M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland. Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images. By Jonathan Larsen The regulatory rollback expected to pass the Senate this week is drawing new attention for weakening the ability to detect patterns of racially discriminatory lending. Now, disclosure forms reviewed by TYT show that three former staffers of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs …
A Month After Parkland, No Sign FBI Has Acted On Another YouTube School-Shooting Threat
FBI building in Miami, Florida. Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images. By Michael Tracey In July of last year, Brett Boylen found himself in a position familiar to most anyone who has spent interminable hours idling on the internet: He was sucked into a “random YouTube spiral,” unthinkingly gliding from video to algorithmically recommended video while the hours passed by. The …
In Pennsylvania House Race, 94 Percent of Spending for Saccone Is Outside Money
From left: Democratic candidate Conor Lamb, photo via conorlamb.com; Republican candidate Rick Saccone, photo via ricksaccone.com. By Alex Kotch Millions of dollars in outside spending have engulfed Tuesday’s heated special election to fill Pennsylvania’s 18th congressional district, and 86 percent has benefited the Republican candidate, state Rep. Rick Saccone. Providing a sizeable chunk of the money behind this election’s spending is a …
Dems Backing Financial Deregulation Bill Have Millions Invested in Big Banks and Mortgage Lenders
From left: Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images; Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images; Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Photo by Allison Shelley/Getty Images. By Alex Kotch TYT Investigates has found that seven of the 17 Democratic-caucusing senators who voted to advance a financial deregulation bill on Tuesday have direct investments totaling as much as $2.5 million in the …