PRWatch. org is a sister site of CMD's ALECexposed. org ( a clearinghouse for information about bills and news about ALEC ), SourceWatch. org ( a specialized wiki that includes original research on corporations, policymakers, and policies, especially on environmental and economic issues ), BanksterUSA. org ( a website devoted to analysis of the financial crisis and Wall Street reform proposals ), and FoodRightsNetwork. org ( which is focused on information about the use of sewage sludge on crops ).

The American Legislative Exchange Council ( ALEC ) is a 501 ( c )( 3 ) American organization composed of conservative legislators, businesses and foundations which produces model legislation for state legislatures and promotes free-market and conservative ideas.

ALEC provides a forum for corporations, foundations and legislators to collaborate on " model bills "— draft legislation which provide examples of language that can be adopted in actual bills.

Journalist John Nichols opined in The Nation that the Koch brothers have provided funding to ALEC for " decades " in a " savage assault on democracy ".

Karla Jones, a taskforce director for ALEC, told participants at a meeting that proposed laws in Canada, the UK and Australia would prohibit branding of tobacco products.

" ALEC wrote to the Australian government stating that US legislators opposed the requirements for plain packaging.

In 2003, a conservative Texas legislative reform group, the American Legislative Exchange Council ( ALEC ), proposed the " Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act " which defined an " animal rights or ecological terrorist organization " as " two or more persons organized for the purpose of supporting any politically motivated activity intended to obstruct or deter any person from participating in an activity involving animals or an activity involving natural resources.

Kiffmeyer is also the current state chairwoman for the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council ( ALEC ) and serves as the only board member of the Minnesota Voter's Alliance, a political group that lobbied for the Minnesota voter ID bill which Kiffmeyer authored in the Minnesota House of Representatives.

* On state economic competitiveness, ALEC has published, Rich States, Poor States, now in its fourth edition.

National Public Radio, NPR, has aired several programs about ALEC and its influence in the drafting of legislation, most dealing with allegations of lack of transparency.

On July 21, 2011, Terry Gross interviewed Louisiana Representative Noble Ellington, then the national chairman of ALEC, about the role of the group's corporate members in drafting legislation and ALEC policy ( prior to the leaking of its internal bill library ) of not revealing the names of its members or of the legislators who attend its conferences.

The American Legislative Exchange Council ( ALEC ) identifies Thompson in the form of one of its success stories, being important to the organization in its formative years.

The New York Times wrote that " special interests effectively turn ALEC ’ s lawmaker members into stealth lobbyists, providing them with talking points, signaling how they should vote, and collaborating on bills affecting hundreds of issues like school vouchers and tobacco taxes.

ALEC currently has more than 2, 000 legislative members representing all 50 states, amounting to nearly one-third of all sitting legislators, as well as more than 85 members of Congress and 14 sitting or former governors who are considered " alumni ".

ALEC also claims approximately 300 corporate, foundation, and other private-sector members.

ALEC By-Laws specify that, "... full membership shall be open to persons dedicated to the preservation of individual liberty, basic American values and institutions, productive free enterprise, and limited representative government, who support the purposes of ALEC, and who serve, or formerly serve, as members of a state or territorial legislature, the United States Congress, or similar bodies outside the United States.

In addition to the staff and members, ALEC has a board of scholars that advises and alerts the staff and members to upcoming issues.

Since 2011, it has also produced news stories about the American Legislative Exchange Council as part of CMD's ALEC Exposed investigation and about Wisconsin's policy controversies, as CMD is located in the state's capital.

ALEC has produced model legislation on issues such as reducing corporate regulation and taxation, tightening voter identification rules, streamlining environmental protections, and promoting gun rights.

ALEC also serves as a networking tool among state legislators, allowing them to research the handling and " best practices " of policy in other states.

ALEC responded by denying that it engaged in lobbying, and arguing that liberal groups were attacking ALEC because " they don't have a comparable group that is as effective as ALEC in enacting policies into law.

In a special report on ALEC, Bill Moyers summarized it as " an organization hiding in plain sight, yet one of the most influential and powerful in American politics.

ALEC first came into being in Chicago as the " Conservative Caucus of State Legislators ", a project initiated by Mark Rhoads, an assistant to an Illinois state senator.

In 1975, under the auspices of the American Conservative Union, ALEC registered as a federal non-profit agency.

Henry Hyde, who later became a U. S. Congressman, and Lou Barnett, who later became National Political Director of Ronald Reagan's Political Action Committee, also helped to found ALEC.

The chairmanship of ALEC is a rotating position, with a new legislator appointed to the position each year.

The current chair of ALEC is David Frizzell, a member of the Indiana House of Representatives.

The College also publishes each year The Report Of The Treasurer and a monthly newsletter entitled Carleton College Comments.

and it publishes Sum And Substance, a monthly newsletter, which reports the system's activities to the staffs and trustees of member libraries.

EuropeAxess Media, in liaison with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Gibraltar, also publishes a monthly magazine: Upon This Rock

It also publishes the monthly Lundagård magazine.

The Institute for Business Cycle Analysis publishes a monthly consumer demand survey known as US Consumer Demand Indices.

The ISM publishes the monthly publication Inside Supply Management, which includes the purchasing surveys Manufacturing ISM Report On Business and the Non-Manufacturing ISM Report on Business, which debuted June 1998.

It manages the Pine Mountain Patrol, publishes a monthly newspaper, the Condor and keeps up various trails used for hiking and cross-country skiing.

The electronic Sarasota News Leader, founded in 2012, is a weekly, however it publishes breaking news daily ; Creative Loafing is published monthly.

Durant's KLBC publishes a monthly entertainment guide, The KLBC Buzz.

The Jerusalem Post also publishes a monthly magazine titled Ivrit.

It maintains a web site and discussion forum, publishes ( at irregular intervals ) an amateur magazine called Shangri L ' Affaires, and hosts the collations of a weekly amateur press association, APA-L, as well as its own official monthly publication, De Profundis, named for the club motto, De Profundis ad Astra (" From the Depths to the Stars ").

In addition to the monthly newsletter and daily updated global news archive, the CTBUH publishes a quarterly CTBUH Journal.

The Community operates its own telecom company, electric utility, industrial park and healthcare clinic, and publishes a monthly newspaper.

Besides the daily newspaper, the company also publishes the weekly Jugan Chosun, the monthly Wolgan San ( lit.

Among other things, Spiegel Verlag now publishes the monthly Manager Magazin.

Scripps publishes explorations now an award-winning monthly e-magazine of ocean and earth science.

It publishes the daily Hochi Shimbun, a sport-specific daily newspaper, as well as weekly and monthly magazines and books.

A 2006 New Yorker magazine article described Critical Mass ' activity in New York City as " monthly political-protest rides ", and characterized Critical Mass as a part of a social movement ; and the UK e-zine Urban75, which advertises as well as publishes photographs of the Critical Mass event in London, describes this as " the monthly protest by cyclists reclaiming the streets of London.

PCE publishes Mundo Obrero ( Workers World ) monthly.

* September 4, 1995 Stan Flack publishes the first monthly issue of MacCentral using DOCMaker.

The Anarchist Federation publishes the theoretical journal Organise !, as well as a monthly newsletter, Resistance and two series of pamphlets ; Anarchist Communist Editions and Stormy Petrel.

The institute also publishes a monthly e-newsletter titled KGP Konnexion for alumni.

The Mata Amritanandamayi Math also publishes Matruvani, a monthly spiritual magazine, as well as Immortal Bliss, a quarterly.