About 500 state legislators from across the country will pour themselves cups of coffee and file into conference rooms of the Hyatt Regency hotel in Washington on Wednesday to talk about cutting taxes and killing regulations. This is Legislating 101, brought to you by corporate America. 

Taxes?    No problem.

Ford CEO Alan Mulally earned $23.2m last year while Ford got a tax refund of $19m.

This most recent gap between executive pay and taxes is part of an alarming trend reflecting a generous corporate tax code

The Sunlight Foundation is releasing “Fixed Fortunes,” a groundbreaking analysis and dataset of the money the biggest corporate political donors put into campaigns and lobbying and what they get in return. 

Of late, the comparatively good news on the U.S. economy suggests the worst of the recession is behind us. Nonetheless, millions remain out of work; federal food and nutrition assistance outlays – one measure of the number of people struggling to get by—were at an all time high in 2013.

The LEGO Foundation and Ashoka Changemakers want “to transform the way the world learns.”

By Guest Blogger: Page Snow,chief philanthropic officer at Foundation Source

For decades, both parties supplanted a push for higher wages with well-intended public aid. The result: calamity

2013 is the year many Americans discovered the crisis of the working poor. It turns out it’s also the crisis of the welfare poor. That’s tough for us: Americans notoriously hate welfare, unless it’s called something else and/or benefits us personally. We think it’s for slackers and moochers and people who won’t pull their weight.

The deal that helped one of the poorest nations raise $850 million and bond investors lock in rates three times higher than U.S. Treasuries is also spurring concern some of the money isn’t going where the buyers -- and one of the underwriters -- expected.