Peter Overby
Peter Overby has covered Washington power, money, and influence since a foresighted NPR editor created the beat in 1994.
Overby has covered scandals involving House Speaker Newt Gingrich, President Bill Clinton, lobbyist Jack Abramoff and others. He tracked the rise of campaign finance regulation as Congress passed campaign finance reform laws, and the rise of deregulation as Citizens United and other Supreme Court decisions rolled those laws back.
During President Trump's first year in office, Overby was on a team of NPR journalists covering conflicts of interest sparked by the Trump family business. He did some of the early investigations of dark money, dissecting a money network that influenced a Michigan judicial election in 2013, and — working with the Center for Investigative Reporting — surfacing below-the-radar attack groups in the 2008 presidential election.
In 2009, Overby co-reported Dollar Politics, a multimedia series on lawmakers, lobbyists and money as the Senate debated the Affordable Care Act. The series received an award for excellence from the Capitol Hill-based Radio and Television Correspondents Association. Earlier, he won an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton for his coverage of the 2000 elections and 2001 Senate debate on campaign finance reform.
Prior to NPR, Overby was an editor/reporter for Common Cause Magazine, where he shared an Investigative Reporters and Editors award. He worked on daily newspapers for 10 years, and has freelanced for publications ranging from Utne Reader and the Congressional Quarterly Guide To Congress to the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post.
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The Clinton Foundation, a big organization that has led to big political headaches for Bill and Hillary Clinton, plans to spin off its international work if Hillary is elected president.
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The foundation would give up its most recognizable parts, including its major global health and wellness programs. -
In a vision described as "Winning The Global Competition," the GOP nominee is proposing three tax brackets and would limit taxes on all forms of business income as well as end the estate tax.
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Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine accepted $160,000 worth of free travel and gifts while serving as governor and lieutenant governor of Virginia. It was all legal and disclosed. NPR explores if it is still a campaign issue.
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Two-thirds of the groups that faced extra scrutiny from the IRS were conservative. But the agency also closely examined applications for tax-exempt status from liberal and nonpartisan groups. -
The Democracy Spring coalition of progressive groups called on legislators to replace caps on campaign donations, fix the Voting Rights Act and end gerrymandering. At least 400 were arrested. -
More than 1,000 participants have pledged to let themselves be arrested when the protests start next Monday in Washington, D.C. -
Donations linked to the oil and gas industries equal two-tenths of 1 percent of Clinton's overall fundraising. -
A fundraiser for the pro-Bush superPAC Right to Rise USA blasted the campaign strategy in an NPR interview. Now, he's accused of having an ax to grind against Bush's campaign manager.
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It was a point of agreement between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders at their last debate. It's also supported by some Republican contenders. But that doesn't mean it'll happen easily.
