Discomforting the big shots.

• Author: Conniff, Ruth
• Position: Editor's Note

In this issue of The Progressive, I am proud to introduce three amazing researchers and writers who joined our staff when we merged with the Center for Media and Democracy.

Research Director Nick Surgey, who regularly breaks news by digging up dirt on the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the Koch brothers, and the fossil fuel companies bent on destroying our planet, contributes critical new information (see Comment this month on page 7).

Brendan Fischer, our general counsel, who recently left Madison, Wisconsin, to reopen our office in Washington, D.C., writes a brilliant analysis of the Supreme Court's cynical McCutcheon decision (page 14). He puts it in the context of a chain of campaign finance rulings by the Roberts Court that undermines our democracy.

Roberts, Brendan warns, is "laying the groundwork for the complete annihilation of all efforts to limit money in politics."

Project Director Rebekah Wilce, who specializes in food and farm issues, uncovers the insidious influence of Monsanto and ALEC behind a new law in Oregon that overrides local efforts to control genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and toxic herbicides (page 24).

"The effort to block local democratic control of food issues in Oregon began after family farmers and sustainable food advocates in Jackson County gathered enough signatures ... to put a local GMO ban on the ballot," Rebekah reports. Now these same activists are defending their communities' right to protect their health, safety, food, and water against what they call the "Monsanto Protection Act."

This is, as one of the activists...