People were killed. The region's economy is still reeling. The environment continues to suffer. And what does Congress do? Nothing, obviously.

How does one land a good job in this tough economy? It's easy, as long as you're the son of a major campaign contributor. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinal reports that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) has on staff a young man in his mid-twenties, Brian Deschane, who has virtually no management experience and no college degree. He must be a low level staffer who reponds to constituent mail or something, right? Nope.

For years the Fiesta Bowl in Arizona has rewarded student athletes for their accomplishments on the football field. But now, an internal investigative report of the Fiesta Bowl’s activities has uncovered various violations of campaign finance and tax law, inlcuded among them, "rewards" for local politicians.

The Washington Post's Ezra Klein has a piece today asking the question: why aren't more conservatives for campaign finance reform? Using the ongoing protests in Wisconsin over public sector unions as a backdrop, Klein ponders why there seems to be so much outrage at the campaign contributions the public sector unions make to elected offficials who they negociate with vs. the much larger amounts spent by corporations, who do the same thing.

An op-ed in the Huffington Post today by Health Care For America Now Executive Director, Ethan Rome, illustrates how major health insurance companies saw their profits soar as they "charged more and provided less" in the last few years.

Public Campaign Action Fund's National Campaigns Director, David Donnelly, had a piece in Huffington Post yesterday asking the question: After talking shop with a man he thought to be billionaire Republican donor David Koch last week, who else would get through to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker?

The Washington Post has a story today on how corporate donations to the new Republican leaders in he House has soared since last November's elections. The surge in corporate campaign dollars comes as the new leadership is working to repeal or scale back legislation that Wall Street and Health Care interests fought hard against in the last Congress.

Our friends at USPIRG have a new report out today, “Chemical Insecurity,” that highlights the 14 chemical companies that endanger the most Americans in the event of a chemical release and the millions of dollars they’ve spent on lobbying and campaign contributions to keep regulation at bay.

In an (un)surprising move, the oil industry is lining up to oppose House measures introduced this week to respond to the BP oil spill, according to National Journal’s Congress Daily (Subscription). The article states that two of measured in particular, one that imposes "unlimited liability on oil companies and another that federally mandates standards for well designs and operational practices."

According to the story:

The Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) has requested information about the fundraising activities of eight members of Congress, including Georgia Congressman Tom Price (R). According to news reports, the OCE has requested information regarding Rep. Price’s campaign fundraising and the financial regulatory bill passed in the House on December 11, 2009.