Nancy Watzman

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  1. Koch lobbied on consumer protection database recently defunded in the House

    3/1/11 10:45am by Nancy Watzman
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    In mid-February, freshman Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kansas, whose top campaign donor is  Koch Industries, proposed a successful amendment in an appropriations bill to defund a new public product safety database recently soft-launched by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).  Read more >

  2. The Politics of Mother's Milk

    2/23/11 9:54am by Nancy Watzman
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    You may have heard the old adage that “money is the mother’s milk of politics,” but money also has a lot to do with the politics of mother’s milk. Last week Rep. Michele Bachmann, R., Minn., criticized Michelle Obama for announcing that she would work to encourage breastfeeding as part of her campaign against childhood obesity, accusing the First Lady of encouraging a “new definition” of a “nanny state.”  Read more >

  3. NRA uses money to build political clout

    1/13/11 8:49am by Nancy Watzman
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    With details emerging of how accused shooter Jared Lee Loughner bought his semiautomatic Glock 19 at a sporting shop and ammunition at a Walmart, some in Congress are now calling for stronger gun control laws. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D., N.J. and Rep. Caroyln McCarthy, D., N.Y., both long-time gun control advocates, say they plan to introduce legislation prohibiting the manufacture and sale of high-capacity ammunition feeding devices.  Read more >

  4. Similac recall: new FDA data on beetle-infested formula, other recalls too

    10/8/10 9:56am by Nancy Watzman
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    A few days ago I received a plain white envelope in the mail from Abbott, the infant formula manufacturer. Inside was a form letter, telling me that the company was voluntarily recalling some of its cans of Similac powdered formula because they may contain beetle parts. The news was jarring; while I had just started my six-month-old son on solids, I wasn’t planning on including beetle bits on the menu.  Read more >

  5. Lobby On, Financial Interests!

    6/28/10 11:31am by Nancy Watzman
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    Congress Meeting

    In the wee hours Friday morning, Congress finally agreed upon a final version of the massive financial services reform bill, the biggest rewrite of rules for the country's finance industry since the Great Depression. In the wake of the financial implosion two years ago, the legislation is meant to provide consumers with more protection from risky investing by banks.  Read more >

  6. Obama Calls For Greater Transparency

    1/28/10 8:13am by Nancy Watzman
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    State of the Union addresses is are kind of like that story of the blind men and the elephant, where you are more likely to remember the part right in front of you. If you listened to President Barack Obama’s speech last night, maybe the line that stuck out most for you was about equal pay for equal work for women, or his vow to push health care reform forward, or to take the financial crisis in hand.  Read more >

  7. Tsunami Coming of Corporate Political Ads

    1/21/10 1:47pm by Nancy Watzman
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    Today the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, overuled major campaign finance laws to allow unlimited corporate spending on political advertising near elections.  Read more >

  8. Demand Real Transparency in Health Care Reform

    1/7/10 10:05am by Nancy Watzman
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    C-Span CEO Brian Lamb sparked huge debate in the media and blogosphere when he asked Congressional leaders to let his cameras into lawmakers’ final negotiations on health care reform.  Read more >

  9. Are You Ready to See What the Government Knows?

    12/8/09 3:51pm by Nancy Watzman
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    Today the Obama Administration announced its new Open Government Directive, the product of months of deliberation, which orders agencies to take concrete steps to make public information available on-line in machine-readable open formats.Before your eyes glaze over, think about what government data actually can tell us.  Read more >

  10. How Transparent is Your Turkey?

    11/25/09 8:14am by Nancy Watzman
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    When you’re standing in the aisle of the supermarket, trying to decide between this and that brand of fried onions for your famous green bean casserole for the Thanksgiving feast, wouldn’t you like to know—without a lot of bother--all that the government knows about it? Such as whether that brand has been subject to recalls because of bacterial infections, or whether the claims the company makes on the label are trustworthy?  Read more >

Nancy Watzman

Full Name
Nancy Watzman
Member Since
August 2006
About Me: 
Nancy Watzman is a Denver-based consultant to the Sunlight Foundation. Over the course of her career as an investigative journalist and researcher, she has worked for a number of Washington-based watchdog and advocacy groups, including Public Campaign, the Center for Responsive Politics, and the Center for Public Integrity. She is co-author, with Micah Sifry, of "Is That a Politician in Your Pocket? Washington on $2 Million a Day," (Wiley Books, 2004) contributed to "The Buying of the Congress" (Avon Books, 1998), and has penned articles and opinion pieces for publications such as Harper's Magazine, The Nation, The New Republic, The Washington Monthly, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. She served as a fellow with the Center for Independent Media and was recipient of a Century Foundation investigative journalism grant. She is one of the "gang of four" bloggers at the Denver Post's Politicswest.com, and also blogs at Muckraking Mom.
Employers: 
sunlight foundation
About Me Tags: 
politics,motherhood

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