Report: Stacey Abrams’ Business Received Special Treatment, Government Program Protected Private Investment

An investigation by the Government Accountability Institute (GAI), supported by documents retrieved by FOIA requests, has found that then Georgia House member Stacey Abrams received special treatment related to a government loan program that benefited her private investment in a company she helped start.

On October 7, 2021, the financial technology company Now Corp. (previously NOWaccount) co-founded by Stacey Abrams in 2010, secured $29 million in financing and an equity investment from Brigade Capital Management LP and Virgo Investment Group.

This was a significant milestone given the fact in 2013 NOWaccount had approximately $100,000 in annual revenue.

Less than two months after this announcement, on December 1, 2021, Abrams announced she would run for Georgia governor, setting up a possible rematch with Georgia GOP Gov. Brian Kemp.

And in March 2022, Abrams filed a financial disclosure form which indicated her net worth was $3.17 million, a substantial increase from the net worth of $109,000 when she first ran for governor four years ago.

While most media reports attribute Abrams significant increases in net-worth to speeches and advances for book projects, her investment in Now Corp. has received little attention.  Abrams herself has previously claimed that she “walled myself off” from company operations. However, documents indicate she was an integral part of the plan to use the federal program to benefit NOW.

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Billionaire Responsible For Sketchy Clinton-Flint Program Has A Few Skeletons In His Closet

by Chris White   The wealthy Democratic money-man, who financed a program former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton created to help Flint, is doing well in his campaign for Illinois governor — but records show he has a history of using black people as political pawns. Federal law enforcement officials captured phone conversations between billionaire J.B Pritzker and former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich in secret wiretaps as they investigated the latter for political corruption. Most of the nearly 10-year-old discussion revolved around debating which black state politician Blagojevich should use to replace then-outgoing Sen. Barack Obama. The 2008 conversation, unsealed in May 2017, is likely to become a topic of conversation as Pritzker’s campaign for governor shifts into overdrive. He currently has an 18 point lead in the polls over incumbent Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, according to a Victory Research poll conducted in April. But the conversations are damning — as was his role in a sketchy Flint jobs program Clinton spearheaded during the 2016 presidential election. During one conversation, Pritzker gave the now-disgraced former governor a new name as a potential senate pick to replace Obama, who had to resign his position after winning the 2008 presidential election. Their discussion entailed hashing…

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Commentary: Politicians Are Well Aware of the Harms of the Minimum Wage

by Jairaj Devadiga   Recently, I came across a rather interesting news report. Republican lawmakers in the US are proposing that the minimum salary firms must pay to their foreign workers, arriving on H1-B visas, be raised from $60,000 to $90,000. This move was backed by large corporations such as Facebook, Microsoft, and Oracle as well as by unions. Edging Out the Competition Why are unions and large corporations supporting this measure? Did American workers suddenly decide to show solidarity with their Asian brethren? Did the CEOs of Microsoft, Facebook, and other large corporations deeply introspect and decide to be compassionate towards the less fortunate foreign workers? Not at all. Large corporations such as Microsoft and Facebook would like to get rid of competition. Their smaller competitors cannot afford to pay the kind of enormous salaries that Microsoft and Facebook do. Therefore, they hire cheaper workers from India. It is also a good deal for the Indian software engineers since even small firms in the US tend to pay better than firms in Bangalore. By raising the minimum salary requirement, Microsoft, Facebook, and others wish to raise the labor costs of their competitors. While labor would also become more expensive…

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Commentary: Why Are Senate Republicans Funneling Millions to Radical Left-Wing Groups?

By Richard McCarty   In 1978, the US Labor Department created an occupational safety and health training grant program, which is now called the Susan Harwood Training Grant Program. In recent years, the Labor Department has awarded roughly $10 million a year in Harwood grants. The money is distributed to public colleges and universities, business groups, unions, and nonprofits. Of course, a number of these organizations neither deserve nor need taxpayer money. In President Trump’s first budget, he proposed defunding the program, and the House spending bill which covers the Department of Labor eliminated funding for the grants. Unfortunately, the Senate Appropriations Committee version of the bill allocated over $10.5 million for the grants. If they were eliminated, would the Harwood grants be missed? With the lousy record of so many government-funded training programs, it is fair to question the effectiveness of the training provided as part of the Harwood grants program. It should also be noted that some of the training classes that taxpayers have been funding only last 30 minutes to an hour. But even if the classes do meet a need, there are plenty of other sources of funding. Businesses and business groups should be fully capable of paying for their own training programs given the…

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