Tag: American University

Villecco, 29, wants to interview Luzerne County residents about politics and voting for an ethnographic study. Perhaps not surprisingly, his work will be carried out in the context of the 2016 presidential election — but not only that election. “Essentially I want to ask people why they vote the way they do, what informs about how they think about politics generally,” Villecco said during a visit to the Times Leader last week. “I am interested in the deeper cultural, historical, philosophical reasons” why and how people participate in the political process, he added. “Following the election I was reading almost daily, and Luzerne County started popping up repeatedly, as a harbinger county in Pennsylvania,” Villecco said. “It fits the post-industrial story, and also has the immigrant population,” Villecco added. “When people say ‘I am not political, I don’t know very much about politics,’ I definitely want to speak with them as well,” Villecco said. So far, he has interviewed about 18 people. He had in-depth interviews with about a handful. “It’s going to be about the people who decided to vote, and not people as voters — 2016 drew me here, but that’s not the focus.” To participate, call Villecco at 303-241-1390 or email him at jv6775a@student.american.edu.

The disclosure that Donald Trump’s legal fixer Michael Cohen was quietly paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to advise corporations highlights the inability of US laws to prevent secretive “shadow lobbying”, analysts said. Sign up for the Guardian's US daily email Read more As Cohen said he provided consultancy services rather than lobbying, which involves directly advocating for a client to government officials, he was not required under US law to register as a lobbyist and disclose the payments in public filings. No allegation has been made relating to Cohen’s consultancy work. Professor James Thurber of American University, who has researched lobbying for decades, said it was too easy for influential people in Washington to make money around the legislative process without informing the public, in what is loosely termed shadow lobbying. But the company has confirmed it also paid Cohen’s company Essential Consultants for “insights into understanding the new administration” beginning in early 2017, when Trump was inaugurated. Trump’s administration was last year considering whether to allow an $85bn merger of AT&T and Time Warner. Paul Miller, president of the National Institute For Lobbying & Ethics, a lobbying trade group, said of this decline in numbers last year: “The simple reality is people are reclassifying what they do as not direct lobbying and thus they are no longer covered by the Lobbying Disclosure Act.” Two other companies that paid Cohen have in recent years decided against paying registered lobbyists to advocate for them in Washington. According to public filings, Columbus Nova has not done so since paying McGuireWoods $16,000 in 2010 to lobby on business regulations. Avenatti’s document said KAI, which is competing for a Pentagon contract, paid Cohen $150,000 in November last year. KAI has not used a registered lobbyist in Washington since paying American Defense International $20,000 in February 2002, according to congressional filings.