William M. Daley, President Barack Obama's new chief of staff, is a major Wall Street player who sought to loosen corporate reform laws and protect big accounting firms from investor lawsuits and criminal prosecution. Read more»

Even with a new majority in the House come January, Republicans concede that winning a repeal vote in the Democratic-controlled Senate is unlikely – and the two-thirds needed to override a presidential veto, well out of reach. Read more»

With the Obama mandate of 2008 slipping away, Congressional Democrats hope to find a more practical species of Republican sitting in their assigned seats later this month when the "lame duck" Congress reconvenes in Washington. Read more»

Midterm elections are an embarrassment of riches for fact-checkers — this year more than others. With both parties fighting desperately control of the House and Senate, the amount of deceit in political advertising is at least as high as we’ve ever seen. Read more»

Democrats are trying to turn an evidence-free allegation into a major campaign theme, claiming that foreign corporations are "stealing our democracy" with secret, illegal contributions funneled through the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. It’s a claim with little basis in fact. Read more»

For an agency so widely feared and demonized by American business, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is a relative pushover. Compared to the Environmental Protection Agency, which has tough statutes such as the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act at its disposal, OSHA is a paper tiger. Read more» 1

Businesses, trade groups and other interests hired more than five lobbyists for each member of Congress to influence financial regulatory reform legislation pending before the Senate, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis. Read more»