Meta Withdraws $25 Million From Its Midterms Push; The New York Times, October 16, 2026

 Theodore Schleifer, The New York Times; Meta Withdraws $25 Million From Its Midterms Push

The company outlined a $65 million budget last year when it embarked on an effort to elect state politicians friendly to the A.I. industry.

"Meta’s effort to shape the midterm elections has quietly become $25 million smaller.

About a year ago, the Silicon Valley company announced an ambitious effort to elect state politicians who are friendly to the artificial intelligence industry, eventually outlining a $65 million budget for the operation. The subtext, heard loud and clear in states debating A.I. legislation, like California, Illinois and Texas: Meta’s political team was watching, and to be feared.

But this summer, with no announcement, Meta received $25 million of that cash back from political groups it had funded, according to filings made public this week. That made the company’s campaign budget about 40 percent smaller than at the outset."

Disney lobbies Congress to change copyright laws; The Highlander, University of California Riverside, February 12, 2019

Robert Gold, University of California Riverside; Disney lobbies Congress to change copyright laws

"Copyright law is a tedious topic but it affects people in their daily lives."

Why drugmakers aren’t sweating the next wave of patent losses; Bloomberg News via News Chief, July 10, 2017

Bloomberg News via News Chief; Why drugmakers aren’t sweating the next wave of patent losses

"Drugmakers plunged off a patent cliff earlier this decade, losing billions in sales as lucrative branded drugs lost exclusivity. An expensive lobbying effort aimed at preventing a repeat is paying off.

The loss of a series of key patents for cholesterol fighters and other widely used medicines cost big-name drug companies about $82 billion in sales between 2011 and 2013, according to life-sciences data company Evaluate Ltd., forcing large-scale job cuts and a wave of deals to make up for lost revenue...

By the time lawmakers passed a path to market for biosimilars as part of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, the industry had assured that competition would come much more slowly, making the resulting sales decline look less like a precipice and more like a gentle hill."