News

Fossil fuel companies have been overvaluing coal and gas reserves resulting in a dangerously inflated investment bubble, according to the latest report released by the Carbon Tracker Initiative and the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. With the 2010 agreement among governments to limit global warming to two degrees, the study's authors calculated that 60 to 80 percent of the oil, gas, and coal reserves listed on stock exchanges are unburnable.

United States forces and agents engaged in torture following the attacks on September 11, 2001, according to a nonpartisan, independent study by The Constitution Project. The report found that the country's most senior officials were ultimately responsible for allowing and contributing to torturous interrogation techniques. There also is no firm evidence that the widespread use of torture produced significant and valuable information.

As the Fund's overall work has increasingly incorporated support for the involvement of youth in key issues, the board of trustees has approved a revision to the Democratic Practice program guidelines to wind down its focus on youth organizing. The decision was made after careful consideration and acknowledgment that other programs will continue to carry forward a commitment to support youth as a necessary constituency in furthering program goals.

The Center for Public Integrity (CPI) has published a comprehensive digital newsbook about the drastic change in campaign financing during the 2012 elections, as a result of the Supreme Court's February 2010 Citizens United ruling. Consider the Source is a project that was launched in January 2012 to track the impact of campaign spending by nonprofits and Super PACs throughout the election year.

The Wesleyan Media Project analyzed the enormous amount of political advertising projected at Americans during the 2012 election campaigns. With 2013 underway, co-directors Erika Franklin Fowler, Michael M. Franz, and Travis N. Ridout, offer their reflections, highlighting fascinating discussion points such as the predominance of male voiceovers, and the primary emotion conveyed in ads—anger.

According to Bob Moser, executive editor of The American Prospect, democracy suffered a blow in the 2012 election, due to big money and voter suppression. In a special report supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Moser argues that the enormous influence and amount of money spent on campaigns and attempts to disenfranchise populations of voters across the country, contributed to the failure of American democracy.

The tobacco industry contributed nearly $54 million to state-level candidates, political parties, and ballot measure campaigns leading up to the 2012 elections, according to a new report, published by the National Institute on Money in State Politics.

Barack Obama has overtaken Mitt Romney in advertising in 14 of the top 15 media markets in the country, according to analysis recently released by the Wesleyan Media Project, an RBF grantee. The report also examines the tone in advertising by the favored candidate during presidential election campaigns since 2000.

Seventy percent of the 2012 primary ads aired on television were negative, according to analysis released by the Wesleyan Media Project, an RBF grantee. In 2008, only nine percent were negative during the same part of the election cycle. The surge of negative ads correlates to the rise in the number of ads sponsored by interest groups; in 2008, 97 percent of ads came from candidates, while this year, 60 percent were sponsored by super PACs.

Civic Engagement: The Next Chapter sheds light on the critical role human service organizations play in strengthening democracy in the United States by developing and supporting an engaged and active citizenry. The report was released by the Alliance for Children and Families, an RBF grantee, and its sister organization United Neighborhood Centers of America.