An unprecedented leak of millions of documents has revealed how some of the world's most powerful figures hide their wealth from taxation and public scrutiny.

Leaked documents expose a plan by Edelman for TransCanada to launch an "aggressive" American-style PR campaign to get controversial tar sands oil to refineries in eastern Canada for export.

There are always winners and losers in free trade. The winners are the one percent -- the wealthy at the top. The losers are the ninety-nine percent -- the rest of us. The latest free trade deal that is now being rushed by President Obama through Congress is known as the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).

In 2010, Gordon Lafer sat across the table from Assistant US Trade Representative Barbara Weisel, who was responsible for negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the mega-regional free-trade treaty among Vietnam, Malaysia, and ten other Pacific Rim countries that President Barack Obama's administration wants to conclude in the coming weeks.

-- By Katie Lorenze

Gun Owners of America (GOA) has declared immigration reform a gun issue, warning that under the "scamnesty bill" currently in the U.S. Senate, "you can say buh bye to your guns and buh bye to the rest of your freedom."

-- By Katie Lorenze

With immigration reform advancing through Congress, an anti-immigrant network funded by a small group of right-wing foundations is trying to kill reform by pressuring moderate Republicans and appealing to the party's xenophobic wing. The groups could stymie efforts by some Republicans to appeal to the country's growing Latino population by moving to the center on immigration.

by Sara Jerving and Mary Bottari

In a new lawsuit against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), big energy extractors are pushing for carte blanche in their interactions with foreign governments, making it harder to track whether their deals are padding the coffers of dictators, warlords, or crony capitalists. TheUnited States Chamber of Commerce,American Petroleum Institute, theIndependent Petroleum Association of America, and the National Foreign Trade Councilfiled a lawsuit on October 10, 2012 againsta new SEC rule, which requires U.S. oil, mining and gas companies to formally disclose payments made to foreign governments as part of their annual SEC reporting.

At a time when the gap between the ultra-rich and the rest of us is reaching historic heights across the globe,at least $21 trillion (with a "t") in unreported private financial wealth was recently discovered sitting in secret tax havens.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) issued afinal ruling today against the U.S.country-of-origin labeling (COOL) law. This popular pro-consumer policy, which informs shoppers where meat and other foods were raised or grown, enjoys the support of93% of Americans, according to a 2010 Consumers Union poll. Now Congress must gut or change the law to avoid the application of punitive trade sanctions.

Democracy is on the rocks in the West African nation of Senegal, where the streets have been the scene of violent clashes between police and protesters over a controversial presidential election. The riots, which have engulfed the nation over the past few weeks, erupted in response to incumbent President Abdoulaye Wade's quest for a third term -- which his opponents deem unconstitutional.