[{"_id":"project-settings","settings":{"translateMetaTags":true,"translateAriaLabels":true,"translateTitle":true,"showWidget":true,"isFeedbackEnabled":false,"fv":1,"customWidget":{"theme":"dark","font":"rgb(255,255,255)","header":"rgb(0,0,0)","background":"rgba(0,0,0,0.8)","position":"right","positionVertical":"bottom","border":"","borderRequired":false,"widgetCompact":true,"isWidgetPositionRelative":false},"widgetLanguages":[],"activeLanguages":{"es":"Español","en":"English"},"enabledLanguages":["en","es"],"debugInfo":false,"displayBranding":true,"displayBrandingName":true,"localizeImages":false,"localizeUrls":false,"localizeImagesLimit":true,"localizeUrlsLimit":true,"localizeAudio":false,"localizeAudioLimit":true,"localizeDates":false,"disabledPages":[],"regexPhrases":[],"allowComplexCssSelectors":false,"blockedClasses":false,"blockedIds":false,"phraseDetection":true,"customDomainSettings":[],"seoSetting":[],"translateSource":false,"overage":false,"detectPhraseFromAllLanguage":false,"googleAnalytics":false,"mixpanel":false,"heap":false,"disableDateLocalization":false,"ignoreCurrencyInTranslation":false,"blockedComplexSelectors":[]},"version":7239},{"_id":"en","source":"en","pluralFn":"return n != 1 ? 1 : 0;","pluralForm":2,"dictionary":{},"version":7239},{"_id":"outdated","outdated":{"#Valerie Thomas was a scientist and inventor who worked with NASA.  In 1980, she received a patent for her illusion transmitter, which is still used by NASA today in some of its satellite applications.  Read more.":1,"#Valerie Thomas - Corporate Accountability":1,"#(233 characters remaining)":1,"#Not vmeredith? <a ljsid-1=\"\">Click here</a>.":1,"#Welcome back, vmeredith!":1,"#Ayúdanos a alcanzar nuestra meta de 100 donantes antes del 27 de febrero, ¡y un generoso colaborador aportará $10,000 adicionales en fondos vitales!":1,"#Not morisrm? <a ljsid-1=\"\">Click here</a>.":1,"#Welcome back, morisrm!":1,"#challenge corporate power!":1,"#Help unlock $10,000 to":1,"#la caries dental":1,"#la obesidad":1,"#el artículo":1,"#(229 characters remaining)":1,"#(230 characters remaining)":1,"#(232 characters remaining)":1,"#(234 characters remaining)":1,"#(236 characters remaining)":1,"#(237 characters remaining)":1,"#In the same realm, Wells Fargo has a history of being among the <a ljsid-1=\"\">top sponsors, funders and board members for police foundations of multiple major cities</a>, including sponsoring police foundations in <a ljsid-3=\"\">Charlotte</a>, <a ljsid-5=\"\">Sacramento</a>, and <a ljsid-7=\"\">Seattle</a>, <a ljsid-9=\"\">Atlanta</a> y <a ljsid-11=\"\">Charlotte</a>. Police foundations are private organizations dedicated to raising money for police departments as well as supplying them with <a ljsid-13=\"\">weaponry and surveillance technology</a>. Their private status enables these foundations to add millions of dollars to police budgets with very little public oversight or approval. Police foundations have been known to supply <a ljsid-15=\"\">departments with K-9s and police horses, both used as a means to harm black people and protestors</a>. The surveillance technology these foundations provide to police departments are highly controversial and disproportionately “tested and targeted in Black, Brown and Indigneous communities”. In response to the calls to defund the police that arose in the general public during Summer 2020, the police foundations for NYC, Washington D.C, Seattle and Philadelphia<a ljsid-17=\"\"> removed information on their websites</a> regarding partner organizations and board members. A shameful act intended to limit the public’s knowledge and to protect donating corporations, like Wells Fargo, from public outrage. In this year of 2022, a senior leader from Wells Fargo is listed on the <a ljsid-19=\"\">Atlanta Police Foundations’ Board of Trustees</a>, giving ample reason to believe that their efforts to fund state-sanctioned violence against Black Americans isn’t stopping anytime soon.":1,"#While Wells Fargo was <a ljsid-1=\"\">founded in 1852, it acquired Wachovia in 2008</a>, thus intertwining itself with a very dark history. Wachovia <a ljsid-3=\"\">was founded in 1879</a>, descended from the <a ljsid-5=\"\">Georgia Railroad and Banking Company, the Bank of Charleston</a> y <a ljsid-7=\"\">Atlanta’s Fourth National Bank</a>. All of these companies had deep ties to the mistreatment of black people. <a ljsid-9=\"\">As part of their banking practices, the Georgia Railroad and Banking Company accepted slaves as collateral on mortaged properties or loans</a>. They owned at least 162 slaves during their time. The Bank of Charleston had similar practices, accepting minimum 529 slaves as collateral for loans and mortagaged properties. When slaveowners defaulted on their payments, the Bank would seize ownership of some slaves.":1,"#“the effects of slavery…and recommend appropriate remedies including reparations”":1,"#But while Wells Fargo paying reparations will help mitigate some of the harm done, the systems that allowed these actions to unfold must also change. Systemic harms also require systemic solutions, which is why Corporate Accountability supports H.R.40, the congressional bill to develop and implement a comprehensive study focused on":1,"#” during the height of Black Lives Matter protests was a lie. Simply put, since its acquisition of Wachovia, Wells Fargo continues to utilize its financial power to uphold the institutions that directly threaten the wellbeing of Black Americans, in a bid to prioritize its own financial gain.":1,"#watershed moment":1,"#. Wells Fargo’s overtly discriminatory practices are a blatant indication that its claims of having a “":1,"#Wells Fargo was accused of conducting “fake interviews” of diverse candidates for positions that were already filled, in a bid to boost diversity efforts on paper":1,"#. Most recently,":1,"#Bloomberg’s analysis and as visualized below":1,"#. Seventy-two percent of White refinancing applicants were approved, compared to just forty-seven percent of Black applicants, per":1,"#accepted less than half of Black mortgage refinancing applicants in 2020":1,"#. Bloomberg published an article only a week earlier detailing how Wells Fargo, the largest bank mortgage lender in the country,":1,"#modern form of redlining":1,"#, which Bloomberg referred to as a":1,"#Wells Fargo’s practices push Black homeowners into foreclosure":1,"#: “In recent days, they [Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JP Morgan Chase] have all officially opposed shareholder groups’ calls for them to conduct and publicize racial-equity audits and other changes, saying they are already doing enough to address equity issues” . Wells Fargo’s actions as of late, with its relationship with the Black community hanging on a tightrope, have only exacerbated the problem. A lawsuit filed on March 18 in a San Francisco federal court, argues that":1,"#vote no on racial equity resolutions":1,"#The superficial nature of Wells Fargo’s PR response was revealed early last year when they asked shareholders to":1,"#and NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund President Sherrilyn Ifill, among others, but more importantly, it drew attention to Wells Fargo’s dismal record in the Black community.":1,"#U.S. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez":1,"#” in a virtual meeting, followed by a June 2020 company-wide memo. This statement drew criticism from":1,"#a very limited pool of Black talent to recruit from":1,"#in the realms of representation, compensation, diversity role reporting, education session and anti-racism manager training. From doubling black leadership, to establishing positions to drive diversity and inclusion, it seemed to be an ambitious plan. But with Wells Fargo still facing discrimintation lawsuits and government divestments in 2021 and 2022, these statements have proved to be nothing more than an attempt to save face in the eyes of the public. It is worth noting that the pledges from Scharf and Wells Fargo were made on already shaky grounds; Scharf chalked up the scarcity of Black employees at the company to “":1,"#5 major commitments":1,"#from opening any new accounts with Wells Fargo in April 2022. This is noteworthy given that in the midst of the wave of racial reckoning that swept the nation in the summer of 2020, Wells Fargo CEO and President Charlie W. Scharf issued":1,"#city government of New York City to divest":1,"#In addition, Wells Fargo has consistently shown that it has no reservations about targeting its Black patrons with predatory schemes. Their discriminatory practices against Black homebuyers have failed to shift, prompting the":1,"#, giving ample reason to believe that their efforts to fund state-sanctioned violence against Black Americans isn’t stopping anytime soon.":1,"#Atlanta Police Foundations’ Board of Trustees":1,"#regarding partner organizations and board members. A shameful act intended to limit the public’s knowledge and to protect donating corporations, like Wells Fargo, from public outrage. In this year of 2022, a senior leader from Wells Fargo is listed on the":1,"#removed information on their websites":1,"#. The surveillance technology these foundations provide to police departments are highly controversial and disproportionately “tested and targeted in Black, Brown and Indigneous communities”. In response to the calls to defund the police that arose in the general public during Summer 2020, the police foundations for NYC, Washington D.C, Seattle and Philadelphia":1,"#departments with K-9s and police horses, both used as a means to harm black people and protestors":1,"#. Their private status enables these foundations to add millions of dollars to police budgets with very little public oversight or approval. Police foundations have been known to supply":1,"#weaponry and surveillance technology":1,"#. Police foundations are private organizations dedicated to raising money for police departments as well as supplying them with":1,"#Atlanta":1,"#Seattle":1,"#Sacramento":1,"#Charlotte":1,"#, including sponsoring police foundations in":1,"#top sponsors, funders and board members for police foundations of multiple major cities":1,"#In the same realm, Wells Fargo has a history of being among the":1,"#in these private prison companies.":1,"#still held over a hundred thousand shares total":1,"#of prison divestment campaigns by stating it was exiting the credit agreement with Core Civic and phasing out of its partnership with GEO Group. This was a significant win for the organizers involved with these campaigns. But as of December 2021, Wells Fargo":1,"#succumbed to the mounting public pressure":1,"#What’s the significance of this? Core Civic and GEO Group are corporations which profit from and perpetuate the imprisonment and modern day enslavement of Black Americans. In 2019, Wells Fargo":1,"#by In the Public Interest outlines the history between these private prison operators and Wells Fargo in more detail.":1,"#report":1,"#featured in a":1,"#chart":1,"#, another leading private prison corporation presently known as Core Civic, and was also named as the trustee for a $300 million GEO Group bond. Not only did Wells Fargo learn nothing from its discriminatory lending lawsuit, it proceeded to bankroll the two leading corporations perpetuating modern-day enslavement of Black Americans through the private prison system. The":1,"#Wells Fargo was named as the issuing lender on a $785 million line of credit for CCA":1,"#in the company. Just one year later,":1,"#Wells Fargo became the second largest investor in GEO Group, a leading private prison corporation, with 4.3 million shares":1,"#in a 2011 settlement with the United States Justice Department. But the same year of their discrimination settlement,":1,"#Wells Fargo paying over $175 million":1,"#A federal investigation found that from 2004 to 2009, Wells Fargo harmed Black and Hispanic communities through engaging in discriminatory lending practices against 30,000 Black and Hispanic borrowers. This ultimately resulted in":1,"#Wachovia generated its wealth, in part, through slavery or convict labor. The past of Wachovia and Wells Fargo inform their present day practices, which build on this history of discrimination and harm through modern channels.":1,"#it made no apology for how":1,"#. When Wells Fargo acquired Wachovia,":1,"#historian Douglas Blackmon describing the company as a “death camp” for the majority Black convicts":1,"#. The conditions were abysmal, with":1,"#English leased at least 1,206 Black convicts in Georgia to labor for his businesses, including the Chattahoochee Brick Company":1,"#, the Chattahoochee Brick Company. By 1897,":1,"#through the profits he generated from his company":1,"#, James English,":1,"#Mayor of Atlanta":1,"#Atlanta’s Fourth National Bank was founded by former":1,"#. They owned at least 162 slaves during their time. The Bank of Charleston had similar practices, accepting minimum 529 slaves as collateral for loans and mortagaged properties. When slaveowners defaulted on their payments, the Bank would seize ownership of some slaves.":1,"#As part of their banking practices, the Georgia Railroad and Banking Company accepted slaves as collateral on mortaged properties or loans":1,"#. All of these companies had deep ties to the mistreatment of black people.":1,"#Atlanta’s Fourth National Bank":1,"#Georgia Railroad and Banking Company, the Bank of Charleston":1,"#, descended from the":1,"#was founded in 1879":1,"#, thus intertwining itself with a very dark history. Wachovia":1,"#founded in 1852, it acquired Wachovia in 2008":1,"#While Wells Fargo was":1,"#. This holiday holds deep significance for Black Americans as a celebration of liberation. In the years following emancipation, the so-called “owners” of captive slaves were compensated for their loss. Meanwhile, those whose forced labor built the wealth of this nation were never repaid and were, in fact, systemically harmed by those who profited in the wake of emancipation. The effects of this failure to redistribute wealth are felt to this day and have contributed greatly to current racial inequities. It’s time for those who profited from the suffering of black people to pay reparations, including Wells Fargo.":1,"#two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed":1,"#Each June, Black Americans commemorate the emancipation of enslaved people on Juneteenth. On the 19th of June in 1865, federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas to free the last slaves,":1,"#illustrated by Paloma Rae.":1,"#timeline":1,"#Check out a visual representation of the racist history of Wells Fargo, along with the actions organizers are taking to demand reparations, in the Roadmap to Reparations, a beautiful":1,"#Congress website":1,"#in supporting H.R. 40 by calling on your congressional representatives to cosponsor this bill today! You can learn more about H.R.40 on the":1,"#. Action at the national level is necessary to repair the historic crime of kidnapping and slavery, and the ongoing exploitation of Black Americans from the forced labor of the convict leasing and prison systems, and discriminatory mortgage lending policies. Please join us and our allies at the":1,"#el colesterol":1,"#editorial que acompañaba al nuevo artículo":1,"#un artículo del New York Times":1,"#publicados el lunes en JAMA Internal Medicine":1,"#las grasas saturadas":1,"#The New York Times":1,"#(240 characters remaining)":1,"#(231 characters remaining)":1,"#Not in <span ljsid-1=\"\">GT</span>?":1,"#But while Wells Fargo paying reparations will help mitigate some of the harm done, the systems that allowed these actions to unfold must also change. Systemic harms also require systemic solutions, which is why Corporate Accountability supports H.R.40, the congressional bill to develop and implement a comprehensive study focused on <a ljsid-1=\"\">“the effects of slavery…and recommend appropriate remedies including reparations”</a>. Action at the national level is necessary to repair the historic crime of kidnapping and slavery, and the ongoing exploitation of Black Americans from the forced labor of the convict leasing and prison systems, and discriminatory mortgage lending policies. Please join us and our allies at the <a ljsid-3=\"\">Instituto del Mundo Negro Siglo XXI</a> in supporting H.R. 40 by calling on your congressional representatives to cosponsor this bill today! You can learn more about H.R.40 on the <a ljsid-5=\"\">Congress website</a>.":1,"#(239 characters remaining)":1,"#This war profiteering is not new for Lockheed Martin — it’s the core of its business model. At the same time, Lockheed has cozied up to political power, donating $1 million to both Donald Trump and Joe Biden’s inaugural committees. Now, the corporation stands to benefit greatly from the Trump regime’s review of foreign military equipment sales policies that aim to further boost weapons sales.":1,"#Recently, Lockheed Martin has come under scrutiny for its role in supplying the Israeli military with the weapons used in the ongoing assault on Gaza. According to a July 2025 report by the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, arms corporations, including Lockheed Martin, are complicit in the genocide in Gaza by enabling Israel’s military campaign through the continuous supply of weapons and military technologies.":1,"#But Tesla's concerning safety record isn't its only failing. Elon Musk has wielded his immense social and political influence through X, the social media platform he owns and operates, and through his involvement with the Trump regime in its earliest days of its second term. Through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk helped slash essential government programs, promoted cuts that have resulted in hundreds of thousands of workers being laid off, and was involved in an immense data breach of citizen's sensitive data with potentially disastrous consequences. It's CEO sought to undermine the heart of the nation's most essential services and programs — a terrifying expansion and entrenchment of corporate power that undermines democratic governance.":1,"#Lockheed Martin is one of the most powerful and profitable corporations on the planet — because it profits from war. As the largest weapons manufacturer in the world, Lockheed Martin fuels and benefits from armed conflict, militarism, and human suffering on a massive scale.":1,"#for profiteering from war and destruction globally by being one of the world’s largest weapons manufacturers and one of the biggest drivers of the military industrial complex, and for its role in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.":1,"#A recent study found that from 2018 to 2022, Tesla had the highest fatal accident rate of any major brand on U.S. roads. And not by a little, but by double the U.S. national average. Meanwhile, a new Guardian investigation shared harrowing accounts of Teslas crashing without clear reason or accelerating or braking abruptly — sometimes with children onboard.":1,"#But it's not just aligning itself with the regime, the bank is plotting how to privatize public institutions — most notably the U.S. Postal Service. It has been actively promoting proposals that would allow it and other corporations to participate in postal privatization schemes, thereby profiting from dismantling a vital public service.":1,"#Wells Fargo has quietly rolled back its internal DEI initiatives, succumbing to conservative pressure to dismantle these programs and mute its diversity reporting, which is especially egregious given Wells Fargo's well-documented roots in profiting from and exacerbating systemic racism. This is seen as a way of signalling the bank's acquiescence to the Trump regime.":1,"#Wells Fargo has established itself as a bank that not only profits from systemic wrongdoing but also actively abandons its public promises when political winds shift. Under the emerging Trump regime, the financial giant has dramatically altered course, backing away from commitments from diversity to transparency.":1,"#for giving in to the regime’s agenda by scaling back on its diversity, equity, and inclusion policies in spite of its longstanding exacerbation of systemic racism, and plotting how corporations can benefit from privatization of public services like the U.S. Postal Service.":1,"#Tesla presents itself as a forward-thinking automaker, but beneath the veneer of innovation lies a troubling pattern of persistent safety concerns, corporate obfuscation, and CEO Elon Musk's attempts to capture and weild government influence for his own benefit.":1,"#In the U.S., PMI has some deep ties to the Trump regime. It donated half a million dollars to Trump’s inauguration fund. Thanks to those ties, the Trump regime has rolled back public health protections like the proposed ban on menthol cigarettes and shuttered the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health — moves public health advocates called a “gift to Big Tobacco”.":1,"#PMI continues to spend millions lobbying to stop public health measures worldwide like efforts to limit flavored nicotine and vaping products. In places like the Philippines, PMI has undermined public health policies by exploiting relationships with local officials.":1,"#Philip Morris International (PMI), one of the largest tobacco corporations in the world, has long positioned itself as a public health partner while continuing to addict new generations to nicotine and fuel preventable health epidemics. PMI aggressively markets harmful products that kill more than 8 million people world wide every year — including heated tobacco devices and flavored vapes — often to young people and new users in the Global South. The company has been accused of manipulating science, targeting doctors and politicians, and even sponsoring global events like Formula 1 to normalize and promote nicotine use.":1,"#for its relentless role in perpetuating nicotine addiction and continuing to profit from the sale of cigarettes, mainly in the Global South.":1,"#for ongoing safety issues of its vehicles and CEO Elon Musk’s outsized and insidious role in the current regime.":1,"#Globally, Chevron ranks among the top corporate climate polluters, and it continues to expand fossil fuel operations while using deceptive greenwashing and advertising to appear climate-conscious. It has also worked to undermine climate action through lobbying and election contributions — including donating to Trump's 2025 inaugural committee. These contributions came after Trump allegedy promised to grant the fossil fuel industry tax breaks, slashed environmental regulations, and loosened rules in exchange for requested campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry. And the Trump regime has already announced its plans to roll back regulations on emissions from oil and gas production.":1,"#Chevron has built its business through an agenda of pollution, deception, and political influence. In Ecuador Texaco (which later merged with Chevron) dumped over 16 billion gallons of toxic wastewater into the Amazon, contaminating water and soil and impacting Indigenous communities to this day — while Chevron continues to evade responsibility. In Richmond, California, its refinery has polluted a majority-Black and Brown community for decades, and Chevron has worked to undermine local initiatives to hold it accountable, all to protect its operations.":1,"#for its role in fueling the climate crisis through the expansion of its oil and gas business and contributing directly to the Trump inauguration.":1,"#We're nominating":1,"#Despite this track record, GEO continues to rake in millions in taxpayer-funded contracts, in large part thanks to its ties to the Trump regime. GEO Group was the first corporation to max out its contributions to Trump's campaign and poured over $1 million to Trump re-election efforts. In return, it benefits handsomely from cruel immigration policies and mass incarceration strategies undertaken by the regime. The corporation has already secured a number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) contracts or commitments for it's private detention centers worth tens of millions of dollars each year, and is expecting more to come, with one expert calling this moment a \"gold rush\" for the industry.":1,"#GEO Group profits from the incarceration and detention of people from Black, Brown, and immigrant communities. Through its vast network of private prisons and immigrant detention centers, GEO has continuously prioritized profits over human dignity — often at a horrifying cost. Numerous reports and lawsuits have been brought against GEO for allegedly subjecting people in its custody to dangerous and inhumane conditions, from unsafe food and unavailability of water, to prolonged exposure to toxic chemicals at its Adelanto facility in California.":1,"#for facilitating and benefiting from the Trump regime’s cruel and brutal immigration policies through its private immigrant detention centers.":1,"#casi 50 000 millones de dólares":1,"#The latest: Flint residents’ case against Veolia ends in settlement":1,"#The story of Veolia in Flint":1,"#The story of Veolia in Flint: From alleged corporate abuse to a $53 million settlement - Corporate Accountability":1,"#In the years since, Veolia has poured money into dubious <a ljsid-1=\"\">PR</a> <a ljsid-3=\"\">efforts</a> to distort and distract from the accusations related to its role in the crisis.":1,"#Veolia was brought in early during the crisis to assess Flint’s water system and failed to sound the alarm. After internally <a ljsid-1=\"\">discussing</a> the potential for lead contamination over email (which Corporate Accountability helped bring to light by digging through troves of court documents), Veolia <a ljsid-3=\"\">told Flint residents their water was safe</a> to drink. All the while, Veolia <a ljsid-5=\"\">chased other lucrative contracts</a> with the city.":1,"#To this day, Flint lacks <a ljsid-1=\"\">reliable access to clean, drinking water</a> – and a <a ljsid-3=\"\">majority of residents</a> still haven’t seen a penny of compensation from the legal settlements. Flint residents are still dealing with the long-term health impacts of the water contamination. Studies show that children who were exposed to lead during the crisis are more likely to <a ljsid-5=\"\">experience learning delays</a>. In general, lead exposure is also linked to the potential for <a ljsid-7=\"\">early on-set dementia</a> and <a ljsid-9=\"\">higher risk of death from cardiovascular disease</a>.":1,"#On April 25, 2014, Flint’s state-appointed emergency manager <a ljsid-1=\"\">allowed</a> the switch of Flint’s water supply, which occurred <a ljsid-3=\"\">without treating the water to protect it from pipe corrosion</a>. What followed was a series of government failures and corporate abuse that exacerbated this public health and human rights disaster.":1,"#Flint’s water crisis: What happened and what role did Veolia play?":1,"#As our Water Campaign Director, Neil Gupta, <a ljsid-1=\"\">shared with reporters</a> after Veolia’s settlement announcement, “With billionaire CEOs at the highest levels of government, it’s more important than ever that we safeguard our most precious resource, and keep our communities’ water under community control.”":1,"#Together, we can stop corporate abuse, keep our water systems under community control, and ensure that public dollars go directly towards fixing the issues that plague our water systems – addressing leaky pipes, keeping lead out of our water, and making rates affordable.":1,"#And it really is possible. Last year, we and our allies in Houston <a ljsid-1=\"\">stopped a major water privatization threat</a> by mobilizing a group of residents, environmental activists, and labor leaders, who called attention to the dangerous track record of the private water industry and voiced opposition to these plans at City Council. And by building powerful coalitions, public water advocates have won similar victories in cities across the U.S. like <a ljsid-3=\"\">Providence</a>, <a ljsid-5=\"\">St. Louis</a>, and <a ljsid-7=\"\">Baltimore</a>, and around the world like <a ljsid-9=\"\">Lagos</a>.":1,"#Yesterday, Veolia, the world’s largest private water corporation, held its annual shareholders’ meeting in Paris, celebrating its profit-making schemes that generated billions of euros in 2024. But of all the stories they shared in this meeting, there’s one that Veolia failed to include: that today marks the eleventh year since the start of the Flint water crisis. And while Veolia recently announced a settlement with residents, it still refused any legal admission of wrongdoing in Flint.":1,"#Third, we cannot allow Veolia to sweep its abuses under the rug. People and public officials need to know about the dangers of doing business with Veolia and other private water corporations. By taking action together, we can take on corporate giants and win.":1,"#Provide comprehensive healthcare and educational services for all those from the community.":1,"#Replace all damaged water service lines using Flint workers; and":1,"#Refund all bills residents paid since April 2014 till the water is deemed safe;":1,"#Second, we must listen to and mobilize to meet the needs of Flint residents. While Michigan has failed to meaningfully hold any of the <a ljsid-1=\"\">government actors</a>, such as Former Governor Rick Snyder, or <a ljsid-3=\"\">corporations</a> legally accountable for their role in the crisis, the state can take steps to rectify its mistakes by addressing community needs, including Flint Rising’s <a ljsid-5=\"\">three demands</a> to the state of Michigan:":1,"#First, Flint residents must receive their settlement funds swiftly so they can get the resources they need to deal with the impacts of the crisis. A vast <a ljsid-1=\"\">majority</a> still haven’t received a penny of settlement funds so far, including from the state of Michigan’s landmark $626 million settlement with residents. Recent reporting <a ljsid-3=\"\">suggests</a> that most residents will receive settlement checks this summer – over eleven years since the start of the crisis – with the highest payments going to child claimants who were aged 6 or under during the crisis and susceptible to developmental delays due to lead exposure.":1,"#Despite the limited progress, Flint residents march forward on their struggle for justice. And together, we must ensure the following:":1,"#Moving forward: Holding the private water industry accountable and preventing future harm":1,"#Across the globe, Veolia’s dangerous schemes have risked public access to clean and affordable water, one of our most essential resources. This story rings familiar for far too many. It is no coincidence that private water corporations often <a ljsid-1=\"\">target cash-strapped cities</a> to privatize water systems. And while private water corporations line their coffers with public dollars, all too often, communities pay the price through <a ljsid-3=\"\">unaffordable water bills, job losses, and poorer quality service</a>.":1,"#<strong ljsid-0=\"\">Plymouth, MA:</strong> Under Veolia’s operation of the city’s wastewater treatment system, over <a ljsid-2=\"\">10 million gallons of raw untreated sewage</a> discharged in areas around Plymouth between December 2015 and January 2016.":1,"#Every person should have reliable access to safe, clean drinking water. But this is far from reality for too many across the globe due in large part to aging infrastructure, lack of public investment, and unchecked corporate greed.":1,"#<strong ljsid-0=\"\">Gabon:</strong> A typhoid outbreak occurred <a ljsid-2=\"\">in 2004</a>, during the time <a ljsid-4=\"\">a Veolia subsidiary</a> managed the water utility. Government officials also <a ljsid-6=\"\">alleged</a> “widespread supply cuts, bill irregularities, environmental hazards, and unkept commitments” under Veolia’s management, and ultimately the State decided to discontinue its contract with the Veolia-controlled utility.":1,"#<strong ljsid-0=\"\">Pittsburgh, PA:</strong> Under Veolia’s management, the city’s water authority <a ljsid-2=\"\">switched a corrosion control chemical</a> to a cheaper alternative, without the required state approval, and miscalculation related to chemicals used potentially led to a crisis that soon followed.":1,"#In recent years, Veolia has faced lawsuits in <a ljsid-1=\"\">Buffalo</a>, where residents sued the corporation and the city for violating constitutional rights by depriving customers of fluoridated drinking water, and in <a ljsid-3=\"\">Southwest San Diego County</a>, where residents sued Veolia for alleged improper wastewater treatment. But some of the worst cases include:":1,"#The particular dynamics of Flint’s story are unique to the city, but its experience of the private water industry is not unusual. In fact, other communities in the U.S. and around the world have similarly faced the dangerous consequences of private water schemes.":1,"#Veolia’s track record: Private water schemes impact communities from Pittsburgh to Gabon":1,"#And Nayyirah’s right: the financial compensation does not make up for Veolia’s failure to sound the alarm about Flint’s water. Though the settlement amount may seem significant, Veolia is actually paying a meager amount – only about 0.1% of the <a ljsid-1=\"\">nearly $50 billion</a> in revenue that it raked from its business across the globe last year. Without accounting for attorneys’ fees, this settlement would amount to about $2,000 per claimant from the corporation. Veolia also refused any legal admission of wrongdoing, noting in a press release that “[t]his final settlement is in no way an admission of responsibility…” This means there’s hardly anything barring it from doing the same to other communities.":1,"#Reflecting on the outcome of the lawsuits, Nayyirah Shariff, Executive Director of Flint Rising, <a ljsid-1=\"\">put it succinctly</a>: “The fact that our community members could force Veolia to settle is a testament to their determination and the strength of their case. However, this settlement cannot undo Veolia’s abuses in Flint.”":1,"#For years, Flint residents have sued the <a ljsid-1=\"\">government</a> and <a ljsid-3=\"\">corporate</a> actors that played a role in this crisis. And Flint Rising, a local grassroots group, has called for <a ljsid-5=\"\">federal action</a> to advocate for infrastructure funding and updated environmental regulations, organized in solidarity with other <a ljsid-7=\"\">communities</a> facing water injustices, and connected the dots between Veolia’s actions in Flint to <a ljsid-9=\"\">Pittsburgh</a>, <a ljsid-11=\"\">Nigeria</a>, and beyond.":1,"#But what does this mean for Flint residents and other communities impacted by Veolia?":1,"#Eleven years on, the legal battles have started to come to a close. In February 2025, Veolia announced a <a ljsid-1=\"\">settlement</a> with about 26,000 Flint residents for $53 million. In exchange, the state agreed to drop its separate case against Veolia.":1,"#By Anahad O’Connor, The New York Times. The sugar industry paid scientists in the 1960s to play down the link between sugar and heart disease and promote saturated fat as the culprit instead, newly released historical documents show. The internal sugar industry documents, recently discovered by a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, and published Monday ...":1,"#The New York Times: How the sugar industry shifted blame to fat - Corporate Accountability":1,"#In-depth reference and news articles about Cholesterol.":1,"#In-depth reference and news articles about Carbohydrates.":1,"#In-depth reference and news articles about Coronary heart disease.":1,"#The editorial.":1,"#In-depth reference and news articles about Dental cavities.":1,"#In-depth reference and news articles about Obesity.":1,"#Times article.":1,"#The article.":1,"#JAMA article.":1,"#In-depth reference and news articles about Fat.":1,"#Photo credit: iStock":1,"#“By today’s standards, they behaved very badly,” he said.":1,"#After the review was published, the debate about sugar and heart disease died down, while low-fat diets gained the endorsement of many health authorities, Dr. Glantz said.":1,"#“Let me assure you this is quite what we had in mind, and we look forward to its appearance in print,” Mr. Hickson wrote.":1,"#As they worked on their review, the Harvard researchers shared and discussed early drafts with Mr. Hickson, who responded that he was pleased with what they were writing. The Harvard scientists had dismissed the data on sugar as weak and given far more credence to the data implicating saturated fat.":1,"#Harvard’s Dr. Hegsted reassured the sugar executives. “We are well aware of your particular interest,” he wrote, “and will cover this as well as we can.”":1,"#In 1965, Mr. Hickson enlisted the Harvard researchers to write a review that would debunk the anti-sugar studies. He paid them a total of $6,500, the equivalent of $49,000 today. Mr. Hickson selected the papers for them to review and made it clear he wanted the result to favor sugar.":1,"#Mr. Hickson proposed countering the alarming findings on sugar with industry-funded research. “Then we can publish the data and refute our detractors,” he wrote.":1,"#At the time, studies had begun pointing to a relationship between high-sugar diets and the country’s high rates of heart disease. At the same time, other scientists, including the prominent Minnesota physiologist Ancel Keys, were investigating a competing theory that it was saturated fat and dietary <a ljsid-1=\"\">cholesterol</a> that posed the biggest risk for heart disease.":1,"#The documents show that in 1964, John Hickson, a top sugar industry executive, discussed a plan with others in the industry to shift public opinion “through our research and information and legislative programs.”":1,"#The JAMA Internal Medicine paper relied on thousands of pages of correspondence and other documents that Cristin E. Kearns, a postdoctoral fellow at U.C.S.F., discovered in archives at Harvard, the University of Illinois and other libraries.":1,"#Dr. Willett said the researchers had limited data to assess the relative risks of sugar and fat. “Given the data that we have today, we have shown the refined <a ljsid-1=\"\">carbohydrates</a> and especially sugar-sweetened beverages are risk factors for cardiovascular disease, but that the type of dietary fat is also very important,” he said.":1,"#Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of the nutrition department at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, said that academic conflict-of-interest rules had changed significantly since the 1960s, but that the industry papers were a reminder of “why research should be supported by public funding rather than depending on industry funding.”":1,"#“I think it’s appalling,” she said. “You just never see examples that are this blatant.”":1,"#Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University, wrote an <a ljsid-1=\"\">editorial accompanying the new paper</a> in which she said the documents provided “compelling evidence” that the sugar industry had initiated research “expressly to exonerate sugar as a major risk factor for <a ljsid-3=\"\">coronary heart disease</a>.”":1,"#Dr. Hegsted used his research to influence the government’s dietary recommendations, which emphasized saturated fat as a driver of heart disease while largely characterizing sugar as empty calories linked to <a ljsid-1=\"\">tooth decay</a>. Today, the saturated fat warnings remain a cornerstone of the government’s dietary guidelines, though in recent years the American Heart Association, the World Health Organization and other health authorities have also begun to warn that too much added sugar may increase cardiovascular disease risk.":1,"#“It was a very smart thing the sugar industry did, because review papers, especially if you get them published in a very prominent journal, tend to shape the overall scientific discussion,” he said.":1,"#The revelations are important because the debate about the relative harms of sugar and saturated fat continues today, Dr. Glantz said. For many decades, health officials encouraged Americans to reduce their fat intake, which led many people to consume low-fat, high-sugar foods that some experts now blame for fueling the obesity crisis.":1,"#The industry “should have exercised greater transparency in all of its research activities,” the Sugar Association statement said. Even so, it defended industry-funded research as playing an important and informative role in scientific debate. It said that several decades of research had concluded that sugar “does not have a unique role in heart disease.”":1,"#In a statement responding to the JAMA journal report, the Sugar Association said that the 1967 review was published at a time when medical journals did not typically require researchers to disclose funding sources. The New England Journal of Medicine did not begin to require financial disclosures until 1984.":1,"#The Harvard scientists and the sugar executives with whom they collaborated are no longer alive. One of the scientists who was paid by the sugar industry was D. Mark Hegsted, who went on to become the head of nutrition at the United States Department of Agriculture, where in 1977 he helped draft the forerunner to the federal government’s dietary guidelines. Another was Dr. Fredrick J. Stare, the chairman of Harvard’s nutrition department.":1,"#Last year, <a ljsid-1=\"\">an article in The New York Times</a> revealed that Coca-Cola, the world’s largest producer of sugary beverages, had provided millions of dollars in funding to researchers who sought to play down the link between sugary drinks and <a ljsid-3=\"\">obesity</a>. In June, The Associated Press reported that candy makers were funding studies that claimed that children who eat candy tend to weigh less than those who do not.":1,"#Even though the influence-peddling revealed in the documents dates back nearly 50 years, more recent reports show that the food industry has continued to influence nutrition science.":1,"#The documents show that a trade group called the Sugar Research Foundation, known today as the Sugar Association, paid three Harvard scientists the equivalent of about $50,000 in today’s dollars to publish a 1967 review of research on sugar, fat and heart disease. The studies used in the review were handpicked by the sugar group, and <a ljsid-1=\"\">the article</a>, which was published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, minimized the link between sugar and heart health and cast aspersions on the role of saturated fat.":1,"#“They were able to derail the discussion about sugar for decades,” said Stanton Glantz, a professor of medicine at U.C.S.F. and an author of the JAMA Internal Medicine paper.":1,"#The internal sugar industry documents, recently discovered by a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, and <a ljsid-1=\"\">published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine</a>, suggest that five decades of research into the role of nutrition and heart disease, including many of today’s dietary recommendations, may have been largely shaped by the sugar industry.":1,"#The sugar industry paid scientists in the 1960s to play down the link between sugar and heart disease and promote <a ljsid-1=\"\">saturated fat</a> as the culprit instead, newly released historical documents show.":1,"#By Anahad O’Connor, <a ljsid-1=\"\">The New York Times</a>.":1,"#The New York Times: How the sugar industry shifted blame to fat":1,"#September 12, 2017":1,"#(241 characters remaining)":1,"#(242 characters remaining)":1,"#Lockheed Martin Ends DEI Programs":1,"#Trump Meets with Defense Executives":1,"#Trump, Zyn, and RFK Jr. on Nicotine":1,"#Philip Morris Lobbying to Stop WHO Attack on Vapes":1,"#Fossil Fuel Donors Contributed $19 Million to Trump's Inaugural Fund":1,"#UN Expert: Business Deals Fuel Gaza Campaign":1,"#Corporate DEI Strategies":1,"#Wells Fargo Departs Climate Banking Group":1,"#Richmond, California, and Chevron Oil":1,"#Elon Musk, Doge, Privacy Data Breach":1,"#1. Vote for one":1,"#Trump Administration and EPA Prison Company Donations":1,"#Doge and USDA Farmers Data":1,"#Trump Administration Defense Review":1,"#Lockheed Martin Earnings Report":1,"#Activists":1,"#Trump Effect on Lockheed and NATO Spending":1,"#Defense Jobs as Political Props":1,"#Wells Fargo's Push to Privatize USPS":1,"#CDC Closing Office on Smoking Health":1,"#Trump and Big Oil Executives' Alleged Deal Explained":1,"#Chevron Donating to Trump's Inaugural Committee":1,"#CoreCivic and Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill":1,"#Elon Musk, Doge, and Government Chaos":1,"#Tobacco Giant Philip Morris Accused of Manipulating Science":1,"#Private Prison Behemoth Maxes Out to Trump":1,"#The Vehicle Suddenly Accelerated with Our Baby in It":1,"#Lockheed Martin's $1M Inauguration Donation":1,"#Pharma and Trump Inauguration":1},"version":7239}]