Here's a recap of Public Campaign and Public Campaign Action Fund's (PCAF) work from March 26 through April 13, 2012.

• "We interupt this broadcast of Sesame Street for a negative ad from Karl Rove." That's now a very real possibility. Yesterday, by a 2-1 vote, a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said the Federal Communications Commission violated the First Amendment's free speech clause by blocking public broadcasters from running political and public issue ads. "Turdblossom" (Rove's nickname) might sound like a character on Sesame Street, but if this ruling holds, he, and his super PAC (along with others) will find their way on to public television. And today we launched a campaign urging the FCC to fix the rule to keep attack ads off of PBS.
  

• Remember the good ol' days when transparency was a good thing...Late last month, the Senate Rules Committee held a hearing on the 2012 DISCLOSE Act. Despite past support for transparency, language like “chilling speech” and “silencing political opponents” has been used by many opponents. My, how times have changed for some. But not all. At that hearing, Fair Elections Now Act Senate sponsor, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) spoke up for transparency, and made a plea for Fair Elections.

• The only thing more disgusting than the so-called "pink slime" is the big money interests who have been pushing it into our kids' food. The pink slime, produced by Beef Products, Inc., has made its way into school cafeterias and fast food restaurants thanks to the big money behind it.

• On Wednesday, April 4th, Public Campaign President Nick Nyhart appeared with League of Women Voters President Elisabeth MacNamara and Lisa Tyson, director of the Long Island Progressive Coalition for "Occupy Democracy: What we can do about money in politics." The event took place on Long Island and drew a great crowd.

• A politician keeps his word (not a typo). Earlier this month, Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) made good on a pledge he made with Senate opponent Elizabeth Warren to curtail big outside spending in their Senate race when he hand-delivered a $35,545 check to the Autism Consortium in Boston.

• Ripped from the pages of The Onion! Not quite, but it sure sounds like a joke. Try not to laugh, but citing a lack of influence in Congress, bankers have formed a new super PAC: Friends of Traditional Banking.

• It's not exactly David vs. Goliath, but it's close. President Obama plans to fight back against the expected huge spending by Republican super PACs, by outing those big money special interests and billionaires who are behind the negative ad's.

• Big happenings in New York for Fair Elections! The campaign to fight big money corruption in Albany with Fair Elections has had a very busy few weeks. From town hall meetings to press conferences, actions have taken place in all corners of the state. And just yesterday, there was a front page story in the New York Times on the campaign.

As always, be sure to keep up with all the latest news on money-in-politics. Here's a link to our daily clips.