Chisholm, two other DAs seek to move John Doe to U.S. Supreme Court. DOJ Mysteriously Quits Monsanto Antitrust Investigation. Just a handful of companies control the US seed market. Stevie Rocco/Flickr There's an age-old tradition in Washington of making unpopular announcements when no one's listening—like, you know, the days leading up to Thanksgiving. That's when the Obama administration sneaked a tasty dish to the genetically modified seed/pesticide industry. This treat involves the unceremonious end of the Department of Justice's antitrust investigation into possible anticompetitive practices in the US seed market, which it had begun in January 2010. What's harder to figure out is why the DOJ ended the investigation without taking any action—and did so with a near-complete lack of public information. A DOJ spokesperson confirmed to me that the agency had "closed its investigation into possible anticompetitive practices in the seed industry," but would divulge no details.
According to Monsanto's rival, DuPont, Monsanto owns 98 percent of the US market in GM soybean traits and 79 percent of the corn traits. Free Banking » The Fed Wants Secrecy and the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit Gives It To Them. “I personally have always been a big believer in providing as much information as you can to help the public understand what you’re doing, to help the markets understand what you’re doing, and to be accountable to the public for what you’re doing.”
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Press Conference, April 27, 2011. Bhwahaha! One of the most attractive features of a free banking environment would be in reducing the power of a secretive government agency. There is a good reason that one of the most well-known books on the Federal Reserve was given the name Secrets of the Temple. I have some personal experience with this issue and that all came to a head this past week in my Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case as reported by Dow Jones Newswire (3 June 2011): A federal appeals court ruled Friday that the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System doesn't have to release records stemming from the 2008 rescue of Bear Stearns.
The U.S. See the court’s full opinion. Samantha L. Clarence Thomas Fails to Disclose Citizens United In-Kind Contributions. Will Clarence Thomas Recuse Himself on Health Care Reform? Justices Scalia And Thomas's Attendance At Koch Event Sparks Judicial Ethics Debate. Reports that two Supreme Court Justices have attended seminars sponsored by the energy giant and conservative bankroller Koch Industries has sparked a mild debate over judicial ethics.
On Tuesday evening, the New York Times reported that an upcoming meeting in Palm Springs of "a secretive network of Republican donors" that was being organized by Koch Industries, "the longtime underwriter of libertarian causes. " Buried in the third to last graph was a note that previous guests at such meetings included Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, two of the more conservative members of the bench. It's not rare for a Justice to attend a seminar sponsored by a group with judicial or political interests. Members of the court, for instances, often speak at academic institutions or think tanks. Virtually all companies, meanwhile, are affected by the judicial branch. But the Koch event appears more political than, say, the Aspen Ideas festival.