DecodeDC

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160: Trump and Clinton charities and the NY AG Sep 15, 2016

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A recent Scripps investigation found that the New York Attorney General has the power to force the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Health Access Initiative to publicly disclose the names of foreign governments and the millions they donate each year to the charities, but he’s not doing it.
In this episode we speak with investigative reporter Mark Greenblatt, who pored through IRS tax returns and required NY charity filings and found that year after year the Clinton charities have ignored New York law.

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159: The buying and selling of America's experts Sep 08, 2016

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Corporate America has found a new way to exert its influence: think tanks, the non-profits dedicated to independent, scholarly research.
That’s according to a recent investigation by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting and The New York Times.
This week on the podcast, reporter Brooke Williams explains how this new type of backdoor deal-making is blurring the lines between scholars and lobbyists. Williams details how a $15 million donation by JPMorgan Chase to the Brookings Institution resulted in the think tank essentially doing marketing for the bank. (Brookings has issued a rebuttal, disputing the reporting done by Williams’ and her colleague Eric Lipton)
Increasingly, the role of researcher and lobbyist are merging, with little to no transparency for the public.

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158: The biases that keep Native Americans from the polls Sep 01, 2016

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When the two U.S. Senate candidates went to bed on election night 2002 in South Dakota, it looked like the Republican would be the winner. But then late results came in from two Native American reservations, and Democrat Tim Johnson won re-election.
It’s this potential power of the Native American vote to swing local and state elections that voting rights activists in South Dakota are trying to unlock. And they argue the state has spent decades trying to block that power.
In part two of our investigation into voting rights for Native Americans, we go to South Dakota, where access to the ballot box is crucial for solving issues of poverty and suicides on reservations. We take you to the second oldest powwow in the nation, where deep racial and cultural tensions between Native Americans and non-natives create a different type of barrier to voting.
This report is part of a project on voting rights in America produced by the Carnegie-Knight News21 program. Make sure to check out News21’s full story here.

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157: A dash of salt with your politics Aug 25, 2016

Show notes

Salt is a magical substance. An essential nutrient, it was once even used as currency. So what’s behind the push to get food makers to reduce sodium — one of salt’s components — in Americans’ diets? In partnership with the Gastropod podcast, we look at the science and history of salt, and explain how and why the government is trying to lower sodium intake.

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156: The battle for Native American voting rights Aug 18, 2016

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When San Juan County, Utah made the move to all mail-in voting in 2014, it seemed like a great idea. The county is almost 8,000 square miles with about 15,000 residents and voting by mail meant you no longer had to travel to a polling place. But for residents of the Navajo reservation, about half the county’s population, that change actually made voting more difficult.
Gone were the six in-person polling places on the reservation and gone were the translators to help the many Navajo-only speakers vote. The mail-in ballot was English only, and Navajo is a predominantly spoken language. “My first reaction was what about those people that don't speak English? What happens to those people?” said Terry Whitehat, who lives in a part of the reservation called Navajo Mountain. The one place left to vote in person was located off the reservation, which for Whitehat meant up to a 10-hour return trip drive. How were these voters going to be able to vote wondered Whitehat. “Basically, it’s impossible,” he said.
This week on the podcast, in collaboration with News21, we take you to the frontlines of the battle for voting rights where Native Americans, are still fighting for equal access to the ballot box.
This report is part of a project on voting rights in America produced by the Carnegie-Knight News21 program.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this episode incorrectly stated that a federal court had granted a preliminary injunction sought by the Navajo in San Juan County in summer 2016. The podcast has been updated.

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155: Trump's money fantasy Aug 11, 2016

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How does Donald Trump figure his net worth? It depends on his mood. So says Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist, David Cay Johnston. In his new book, "The Making of Donald Trump," Johnston combs through his findings after 28 years of reporting on Trump. On the latest DecodeDC podcast, Johnston tells Jimmy Williams about Trump’s business dealings with the mob and his ruthless mentality toward others.

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154: The scary link between slavery and the Second Amendment Aug 04, 2016

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You may think the founders gave us the right to bear arms as a way to defend against government tyranny. But in this episode, Carl Bogus, a professor at Roger Williams University School of Law, tells Jimmy that that's not entirely true.

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153: Why small-dollar donors won't save politics Jul 28, 2016

Show notes

Throughout his campaign for the Democratic nomination, the "small donor revolution" became a rallying cry for Bernie Sanders and his supporters. While counteracting big money with the little guy sounds like an appealing idea, it ain't that easy. And it doesn't always produce the best candidates.
On the latest podcast, host Jimmy Williams chats with Victoria Bassetti of the Brennan Center for Justice about her study into why small donations aren't the solution to money in politics.

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152: Meet the magician behind the Democratic convention Jul 27, 2016

Show notes

So what's it like to run an event with tens of thousands of people for four straight days? That's what host Jimmy Williams asks Matt Butler, the number two guy in charge of this year's Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. We take you behind the scenes (we literally did this interview behind the stage) of all the bells and whistles that go into running a convention.

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151: Convention Parties 101: An insider's perspective Jul 22, 2016

Show notes

If you've been tuning into the political conventions, you've been watching a staged performance. But behind the scenes there's a different show going on, one that you can only access through money or power. On this episode, host Jimmy Williams explains how the money game being played in Cleveland is different than past years.

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