webodec3ARCHIVEPreview
Open in TheBrain

LEAD PB BAK

BAK ESTB 5 26

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primary 10/18 WI corp person

NO MERRI

see toxin and EJ; this is a category for lead in general

also involves Simmons, see sep

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mark kelly lead school testimony 5 26

The Trump administration gave out free passes to pollute to every company that requested one—including a copper smelter in Arizona spewing lead and arsenic into the air just one mile from an elementary school. | EDF Action

GGL 5 26

[### Trump administration aims to roll back limits on toxic ...

The Hill

https://thehill.com › policy › energy-environment › epa...](https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/epa-toxic-wastewater-coal-fired-power-plants/)

22 hours ago — It is the latest step that President Donald Trump's administration has taken to pull back regulations on coal mining and coal-fired power and ...Read more

AI Overview

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is facing intense scrutiny over policies that roll back federal limits on toxic heavy metals like arsenic, lead, and mercury from industrial polluters.

U.S. Senate (.gov) +3

Controversial Actions and Impact:

Sierra Club +2

Earthjustice +3

U.S. Senate (.gov) +1

Criticism and Responses:

Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan (.gov)

Earthjustice +2

:{:{}:

Lee Zeldin Intends to Allow More Heavy Metals ... - Sierra Club}:}:

Jun 30, 2025 — Lee Zeldin's proposal to allow coal companies to dump more heavy metals into our waterways defies all common sense.

Sierra Club

McClellan and Tonko Send Letter to Administrator Zeldin Urging ...

Jul 23, 2025 — McClellan and Tonko Send Letter to Administrator Zeldin Urging EPA to Retract Proposal to Weaken Pollution Standards * “It is the ...

Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan (.gov)

WATCH: In Senate EPW Hearing, Kelly Presses EPA on Lead ...

Apr 29, 2026 — Sen. Kelly shows EPA Administrator Zeldin how close the hazardous lead and arsenic smelter is to an elementary school during an EP...

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HILL

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency moved Thursday to roll back limits that require coal-fired power plants to prevent the release of toxic heavy metals into streams and rivers through polluted groundwater, saying a three-year-old rule is unduly costly for the energy industry at a time when energy demand is spiking.

It is the latest step that President Donald Trump’s administration has taken to pull back regulations on coal mining and coal-fired power and empower fossil fuels as a primary energy source to feed the rapid growth of artificial intelligence data centers.

In its proposed rule, the EPA said a 2024 rule under President Joe Biden misjudged the effectiveness and cost of the regulation, and had the effect of shutting down coal-fired power plants at a time when energy demand is spiking.

Changing the rule is critical to making electricity more affordable and reliable, while advancing the economy, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement.

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ink 4 25

In a new book, American Poison: A Deadly Invention and the Woman Who Battled for Environmental Justice, environmental scientist and author Daniel Stone explores the battle for regulation through the lens of the century-long fight to remove lead from gasoline — and in the process explores how public health began and how American business elites built the reputation-laundering philanthropic machine that let them conceal their involvement in creating our biggest problems behind a facade of combatting other problems via charitable donations — familiar territory for anyone who’s read Winners Take All.

Stone tells the intertwined stories of Alice Hamilton, the crusading doctor who pioneered occupational health in the 1920s, the engineer Thomas Midgley, Jr., who developed leaded gasoline, Robert A. Kehoe, who defended Midgely’s innovations against Hamilton’s efforts, and Charles F. Kettering, the founder of Delco and research chief at General Motors, who put Midgley’s ideas into action — but is today remembered by most as the founder of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

We talked to Stone about the origins of public health and environmental regulation, the long battle between innovators and capital and regulators and the public, how American society continues — against all evidence — to privatize gains and socialize costs, and what people dedicated to building a safer world can and need to do as we come to the end of an era of environmental regulation.

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820 ewg

AUGUST 21, 2020

The California State Senate Appropriations Committee defeated a bill that would reduce the amount of lead leached from faucets and fixtures to no more than 1 microgram of lead – five times less lead than faucets are designed to leach today. A.B. 2060, authored by Assemblymember Chris Holden (D-Pasadena), was meant to ensure that schools and child care centers could purchase these fixtures beginning next year.

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Flint, Newark and a generation of children at risk: These are the economics of racism and neglect

Bob Hennelly / SalonAugust 18, 2019

The images of long lines of residents in Flint, Michigan, and Newark, New Jersey, lining up for bottled water because their city water was contaminated with brain-damaging lead resembled what we once…

Flint, Newark and a generation of children at risk: These are the economics of racism and neglect

Written by Bob Hennelly / Salon August 18, 2019

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The images of long lines of residents in Flint, Michigan, and Newark, New Jersey, lining up for bottled water because their city water was contaminated with brain-damaging lead resembled what we once would have expected to see only in a National Geographic photo spread from a “developing nation.”

And yet in 2019 in Donald Trump’s America, Flint and Newark are not outliers.

From coast to coast, from border to border, the threat of lead contamination is most pronounced in poor communities of color — with potentially devastating consequences for infants and children.

The Center for Disease Control warns that even a slight elevation of lead levels in the blood can reduce IQs, stunt development and lead to behavioral problems.

In an academic white paper titled the “Racial Ecology of Lead Poisoning” Harvard researchers Robert Sampson and Alix Winter studied “the toxic inequality in Chicago neighborhoods from 1995 until 2013”:

Yet as the crisis in Flint, Michigan, revealed, there is a major health scourge that has not been subjected to the same analytic scrutiny at the neighborhood level as other health indicators — lead poisoning. Unlike longstanding health concerns, it was not until relatively recently that a sizable body of research built up and converged in concluding that lead is a major neurotoxin that impairs cognitive, physical, and behavioral functioning, even at relatively low levels.

Sampson and Winter flagged a National Research Council from the late 1990s, which asserted, “Science and society have been remarkably slow to recognize and respond to the full range of harm associated with lead exposure.”

Lead can be found in water, in the air and in the earth. Pathways to lead exposure include lead paint in aging and often abandoned housing stock, which proliferated after the 2008 Wall Street mortgage heist particularly in poor and predominantly black communities like Newark and Flint.

Another source can be traced to the vast tracts of America’s industrial wastelands left behind with reckless abandon by multinationals on their way to their next “host” community

As Reuters reported in May of 2016, after the Flint water scandal broke, in the United States there were “nearly 3,000 areas with recently recorded lead poisoning rates at least double those in Flint during the peak of that city’s contamination crisis. … And more than 1,100 of these communities had a rate of elevated blood tests at least four times higher.”

Reuters’ map of the lead scourge extended “from Warren, Pennsylvania, a town on the Allegheny River where 36 percent of children tested had high lead levels, to a zip code on Goat Island, Texas, where a quarter of tests showed poisoning. In some pockets of Baltimore, Cleveland and Philadelphia, where lead poisoning has spanned generations, the rate of elevated tests over the last decade was 40-50 percent.”

That report was based on the granular analysis of the data generated by neighborhood by neighborhood lead testing complied by state health departments and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As recently reported in the journal Health Affairs, “there is no safe level of lead in the blood. The effect of lead poisoning on major bodily systems is permanent, and no amount of clinical or public health intervention can reverse it.”

The journal continued, “For this reason, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has consistently recommended the adoption of health-based policies that require the identification of lead hazards before a child is exposed to them.”

This contaminated landscape is what you get when capital isn’t held accountable and is given free range to take flight for its next temporary roost, leaving its toxic detritus behind.

For decades across the country, even as our water supply systems have continued to deteriorate and schools have crumbled, government at all levels gave away billions in tax incentives and subsidies to corporations.

Even as the National Resources Council and the Newark Education Workers Caucus were warning officials about Newark’s water and its dangerously elevated lead levels, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, both identified as progressive Democrats, were offering Amazon $7 billion in incentives to locate in the Brick City.

“New Jersey is open for business, and now more than ever, Newark is the clear choice as the next presence for Amazon corporate offices,” said Murphy. “Amazon now has the opportunity to join in Newark’s story of a city on the rise.”

“Given the city and state’s assets — a strong talent pipeline, a diverse tech base, unmatched infrastructure and a highly accessible location — we are well poised to accommodate” the giant online retailer, Baraka told Barron’s.

That $7 billion offered by one medium-size state to one company would be about 20 percent of the $35 billion it would take to replace all the lead water pipes in the entire nation.

While we debate the issue of reparations for African Americans, as a consequence of the historic crime against humanity of the slavery and Jim Crow eras, we continue to ignore the economics of neglect that threaten the lives of millions of children of color today.

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https://www.ecowatch.com/east-chicago-lead-crisis-2638802111.html

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https://www.jsonline.com/story/opinion/contributors/2018/09/23/secret-cash-helped-those-who-rewrote-state-law-block-lead-claims/1405053002

no lnx

Secret cash helped those who rewrote Wisconsin law to block claims of lead-poisoned kids

ONE ADVOCATE CALLS WISCONSIN THE ‘DARKEST OF DARK MONEY STATES’ AS MILLIONS FLOW INTO RACES FOR GOVERNOR, LEGISLATURE AND STATE SUPREME COURT

Pawan Naidu

Sept. 23, 2018

At age 2, Yasmine Clark was lead-poisoned so severely that she had to be hospitalized for emergency chelation treatment to cleanse her blood of life-threatening levels of the heavy metal.

At age 5, Yasmine was again diagnosed with lead poisoning. She suffered significant brain damage. Her IQ declined. She developed attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

So, in 2006, at age 5, Yasmine became a plaintiff in a Milwaukee County lawsuit filed against multiple paint companies, including National Lead, now called NL Industries, which had made lead paint like that found in the rental homes where she was raised in Milwaukee.

She was among about 170 Wisconsin children named as plaintiffs in lawsuits against the paint companies. The suits sought compensation for medical expenses and other damages for what their attorneys said were severe and permanent injuries from ingesting lead-tainted paint chips.

While these children had compelling personal stories, NL Industries had something even more powerful on its side: Republican politicians facing recall elections in 2011 and 2012 who secretly benefitted from $750,000 contributed by NL’s owner, Harold Simmons, to an “independent” political group.

At the request of NL’s lobbyist, Republicans inserted a handful of words into the 2013-15 state budget that sought to halt such lead-paint lawsuits, including the one filed by Yasmine, according to a memo obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy, a left-leaning watchdog organization that exposes corruption in government.

The politicians’ effort — ultimately blocked by judges — demonstrates the power of secret contributions to reshape state law while the public is kept in the dark.

Contributions up, citizens alarmed

The flow of cash to outside groups seeking to influence Wisconsin elections has widened since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision held that corporations could not be barred from making so-called independent expenditures. The court declared that corporations have the same First Amendment free speech rights as do people.

George Penn, a volunteer withSouth Central Wisconsin United to Amend, presents to the group at the Sequoya Library in Madison on April 10. The nonpartisan citizens group meets twice a month to discuss ways to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision that loosened restrictions on campaign contributions.

(Photo: Coburn Dukehart, Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism)

In 2015, the Wisconsin Supreme Court threw out a state-led John Doe investigation into coordination between Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign, Club for Growth and other “issue ad” groups by overturning a state law that prohibited such coordination. The four conservative members of the court who ordered an end to the investigation had themselves been beneficiaries of an estimated $8 million in outside spending by the same political groups under scrutiny in the Walker investigation.

Later that year, the Wisconsin Legislature passed a law that allows corporations to donate to political parties and legislative campaign committees.The law overturned a corporate contribution ban that had been in place since 1905. Republicans said the change gave corporations parity with labor unions, which could contribute to political parties and which traditionally supported Democrats.

The loosening of Wisconsin’s rules comes as a large majority of the American public is concerned about the influence of money in politics. A nationwide poll released in June by the bipartisan Democracy Project found that 77% of respondents agreed that “the laws enacted by our national government these days mostly reflect what powerful special interests and their lobbyists want.”

Activists, alarmed by the rise of corporate influence on politicians and the electoral process, are fighting back.

United to Amend, a nonpartisan national campaign active in Wisconsin, aims to get local and state governments to endorse changing the U.S. Constitution to counteract the effects of Citizens United. And several states, including Arizona, Colorado, Massachusetts, Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota, have or are working toward measures on the November ballot that seek to further regulate campaign spending.

Four powerful words

The Guardian news organization, citing leaked documents from the Wisconsin John Doe investigation, found that lead executive Simmons had made donations totaling $750,000 to Wisconsin Club for Growth between April 2011 and January 2012. The spending was used to beat back recall elections against Walker and Republican senators sparked by passage of the controversial Act 10 collective bargaining law.

Lead poisoning of children has largely been tied to contact with old, peeling paint. Here, a Milwaukee rental home is investigated for lead in a 2015 inspection. Language was inserted into the 2013-15 state budget at the request of a paint industry lobbyist whose client had secretly given $750,000 to a group seeking to help Gov. Scott Walker and Senate Republicans recalled in 2011 and 2012. The budget language sought to block lawsuits filed on behalf of lead-poisoned children, but that move ultimately failed.Photo taken Nov. 23, 2015.

In 2013, four words were inserted into an omnibus budget motion passed in the early morning hours by the Republican-run Joint Finance Committee.

Those words, “whenever filed or accused,” effectively halted the claims of Yasmine and the other 170 or so lead-poisoned children by retroactively exempting NL Industries and the other lead-paint manufacturers from liability.

In the memo obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, documented the request by NL lobbyist Eric Petersen to insert the language into the budget.

Milwaukee attorney Peter Earle represents plaintiffs

Milwaukee attorney Peter Earle represents plaintiffs suing paint companies for lead poisoning. Four words inserted into the 2013-15 state budget at the request of a paint industry lobbyist sought to block the plaintiffs from pursuing claims against the industry, but two judges ruled the move could not block the lawsuits, allowing them to proceed.

(Photo: Kevin Harnack, Wisconsin Law Journal)

Attorney Peter Earle, who represented Yasmine in the lead-paint case, said the language inserted into the 2013-15 budget was “obscure and last-minute,” and added “without notice, sponsors or a public hearing.”

“It was done because of greed,” the Milwaukee attorney said. “Politicians chose the interests of their donors and corporate special interest groups over the rights of innocent children.”

The secretive budget move was short-lived, however. Milwaukee County Circuit Judge David Hansher found that Yasmine had the right to bring her lawsuit, a decision that was upheld on appeal.

“The sole inquiry before the court is whether it is constitutional for the Legislature to deprive innocent and injured plaintiffs of their vested right to pursue claims against manufacturers and sellers of white lead carbonate,” Hansher wrote. “In this Court's view, it is not.”

In 2017, Hansher granted a motion filed by Earle to dismiss the case with the option of re-filing it at a later time. Earle said he cannot discuss the reasons for the dismissal.

‘Darkest of dark money states’

Wisconsin and Florida are the only two states in the nation that have legalized coordination between candidates and outside special interest groups that engage in “issue advocacy,” according to Daniel Weiner, senior counsel at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice,which aims to reform, revitalize and defend democracy and justice.

Contributions to “issue ads,” which often support or oppose candidates without using words including “vote for” or “vote against,” are not required to be reported to the Wisconsin Ethics Commission.

David Buerger, staff counsel at the ethics commission, said the state now bans coordination only involving “express advocacy” — communication that specifically calls for the election or defeat of a candidate.

In a 2015 move that further obscures the influence of money on politics, Wisconsin’s Legislature on a party-line vote eliminated the requirement that candidates list the employers of their donors, removing a key detail behind publicly reported campaign contributions.

In the same bill, lawmakers legalized unlimited contributions to political parties and legislative campaign committees,except for corporations and groups such as labor unions, which can contribute up to $12,000 a year.

Madison attorney Mike Wittenwyler is a campaign finance

Madison attorney Mike Wittenwyler is a campaign finance law specialist. Polls show most Americans are concerned about loosening restrictions on campaign contributions, but Wittenwyler agrees with court decisions that have found spending on elections to be a free-speech right. "I want to live in a society where everyone is allowed to speak without any government oppression of what you're going to hear." Wittenwyler appears here on Wisconsin Public Television explaining coordination in campaign finance law in 2014.

(Photo: Wisconsin Public Television)

Mike Wittenwyler, a Madison attorney who specializes in campaign finance issues and who has represented outside political groups, said the law changes were “long overdue.” The last major rewrite was in the 1970s, he said, prior to several key court decisions that clarified the limits and rights of donors and candidates.

A Marquette Law School poll found that most citizens of Wisconsin disagreed with the Legislature’s 2015 decision to remove contribution limits on state political parties. In a poll, 61% of respondents said they opposed unlimited contributions, while 13% supported them. Another 25% said they had not heard enough on the issue.

Taken together, these changes have made Wisconsin the “darkest of dark money states,” said Jay Heck, executive director of the Common Cause in Wisconsin, which promotes clean, open and responsive state government.

Matt Rothschild, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, another good government group, offers a similar assessment. “Wisconsin,” he said, “is open for bribery.”

Matt Rothschild, executive director of the Wisconsin

Matt Rothschild, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, speaks at Maps Madness: Voters vs. Politicians, a rally organized by the Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition on March 7, 2018. Rothschild has called the secretive process used by Republicans in the Legislature in 2011 a “grotesque” deprivation of people’s “First Amendment rights to speak and be heard.”

(Photo: Cameron Smith, Wisconsin Center for Investigati)

Weiner said secret campaign contributions can come from interests on the left or the right, especially in state elections.

“On the state level, we see a lot more ‘Company X wants a mining concession,’ or something like that,” Weiner said. “And they put a lot of dark money in to basically influence legislative officials to get what they want.”

That is not just an idle example. Documents briefly unsealed during the John Doe investigation show that Gogebic Taconite secretly donated $700,000 to Wisconsin Club for Growth during the recalls in 2011 and 2012. The next year, in 2013, Walker signed the bill loosening mining restrictions — a bill that Senate Majority Leader Fitzgerald acknowledged in a video was written by the company seeking to build a controversial mine in northern Wisconsin. After several years, the company abandoned the project as not feasible.

People vs. Citizens United

Some advocates for stricter campaign finance laws feel that the only way to blunt such corporate influence over the political system is with a constitutional amendment to override the Citizens United decision.

Wisconsin United to Amend is mobilizing people to sign a petition and to convince city councils and town and village boards to vote on resolutions calling for this constitutional amendment.

The campaign’s messages are: “Money is not speech” and “Corporations are not people.” Currently, more than 130 local governments in Wisconsin and 19 state legislatures have passed the resolution.

“More and more people are understanding … these politicians cannot fix it, because they are bought by those who don’t want to fix it,” said George Penn, a representative from South Central Wisconsin United to Amend.

Many on the left see the Citizens United decision as a stab at the heart of democracy. Wittenwyler takes the opposite view. He believes the decision expands free speech rights.

“Everyone should be able to speak and you shouldn’t make arbitrary decisions based on how an entity may or may not be established,” Wittenwyler said. “I want to live in a society where everyone is allowed to speak without any government oppression of what you’re going to hear.”

Voter John Tyler, speaking outside his Lake Mills polling station during the Aug. 14 primary election, said corporations have too much influence in our democracy.

“How is the regular person supposed to stand up and be counted compared to corporations that give millions of dollars and influence policy and have the legislatures just do what they wanted?” Tyler asked.

Eric Blumreich, a Green Bay resident who participated in Wisconsin Public Radio’s Beyond the Ballot series, agreed. But he believes voters still have some leverage.

“The 2016 presidential election was decided by razor-thin victories for (President) Trump in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania,” Blumreich said in an email. “In my opinion, this indicates that your vote counts in Wisconsin and that vote is perhaps the best indicator … when it comes to political power and having a voice.”

Dee J. Hall contributed to this story, which was produced as part of an investigative reporting class in the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication under the direction Hall, the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism’s managing editor.

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https://www.ecowatch.com/lead-testing-of-school-drinking-water-2587872426.html

More Than a Third of Schools Tested Have ‘Elevated Levels’ of Lead in Drinking Water

A troubling new report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that more than a third of the nation's schools that tested their water for lead found "elevated levels" of the neurotoxin. But despite heightened concern in recent years about lead in drinking water, more than 40 percent of schools surveyed conducted no lead testing in 2016.

According to the GAO's nationwide survey, roughly 43 percent of school districts, serving 35 million students, tested for lead in 2016. Of the districts that tested, 37 percent found lead at levels above the threshold the districts set for taking remedial action. All the districts that found elevated levels reported taking steps to lower lead, such as installing filters, replacing old water fountains, and providing students and employees with bottled water.

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[http://www.alternet.org/animal-rights/critically-endangered-california-condors-oregons-hunters-may-pose-gravest-threat For Critically Endangered California Condors, Oregon's Hunters May Pose the Gravest Threat] 9/17 see [https://ic.ucsc.edu/college8core/c8wiki/index.php/Category:Wildlife#Specific_Species Wildlife].

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http://www.alternet.org/environment/trump-administration-just-fine-poisoning-americas-iconic-bald-eagles

guard Uk art'l

... Blue Mountain Wildlife Center in Oregon, which has treated a series of eagles suffering from lead poisoning. “They eat things that have been shot, whether it’s big game like deer or elk or coyotes or ground squirrels,” said Lynn Tompkins of the center.

Lead is a deadly toxin—one we’ve known about for ages—and it’s killing eagles around the nation. It’s well documented that it’s been the number one source of human-caused mortality for the endangered California condor. Yet, even though our government and the private sector have worked to get lead out of a range of products—removing it from gasoline, paint, and our water supply—it’s still widely used in modern wildlife management.

Scientists call lead ammunition the “greatest, largely unregulated source of lead knowingly discharged into the environment in the United States.” Because bullets often shatter into fragments upon impact, lead makes its way into the food chain as animals feed off carcasses left in the field by hunters.

The toll is staggering—between 10 and 20 million birds and other animals from more than 130 species die each year from lead poisoning. The real shame is that it’s wholly preventable. Lead alternatives are widespread. Comparably-priced copper and steel ammunition outperform lead and do not keep killing days, weeks, and months after leaving the gun. Hunters who use it say they like it, in terms of the ballistic properties.

In January, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced a new policy to phase out the use of lead ammo and fishing tackle on more than 150 million acres of national wildlife refuges and other agency lands and waterways.

The new Interior Secretary, Ryan Zinke, nullified that policy on his first day.

Zinke talked about process and involving key stakeholders. We have no objections to that, but the science of the issue isn’t in dispute. Lead kills wildlife. And in terms of the technology and affordability of alternatives, they exist. Sometimes, you just have to bite the bullet and make a change.

As I write this, the EPA has announced its plans to spend $100 million to get the lead out of Flint, Michigan’s water supply. Getting it out of the country’s ammunition supply won’t cost the federal government a dime, and is therefore far easier to achieve. We as a nation should get on with the transition away from lead. Gulliver reminds us of what’s at stake.

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http://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/09/13144/top-ten-emails-john-doe-document-leak

On September 14, the Guardian newspaper which published the Snowden revelation, published a massive set of documents from the Scott Walker dark money probe know as the "John Doe" investigation. We highly recommend the lengthy expose on secret money and backroom deals, which you can access here. If you don't have time to read all 1,500 emails and documents in the cache, our staff has picked out some of the most illuminating.

At the heart of the matter are three men. Scott Walker,RJ Johnson (whosimultaneously worked for Walker and the dark money machine Wisconsin Club for Growth, say prosecutors) and Keith Gilkeswho was Walker'schief of staff in 2011 and his campaign manager in 2012. Prosecutors were investigating whether campaign money was channeled through a purportedly "independent group" in order to circumvent state and federal rules that set limits on political contributions and require them to be publicly revealed, explains the Guardian.

1. National Club for Growth's David Keating questions RJ Johnson of Wisconsin Club for Growth, who becomes Walker's top campaign advisory shortly after this email, about the legality of his activities way back in 2009 prior to Walker's run for Governor in 2010. (2012-08-14-Exhibits-01-100-PT1, p.25)

2. Nick Ayers of Republican Governors Association outlines a coordinated "battle plan" to Gov. Walker and Reince Priebus at an early date March 2011. RGA would go on to spend a whopping $9.5 million on the recall as an "independent" expenditure group. (2012-08-14-Exhibits-01-100-PT1, p.28)

3. RJ Johnson, gives talking points to Gov. Walker that boast about the success of the coordinated efforts in the 2011 recalls. No talk of "issues" here, just bare-knuckled politics. (2012-08-14-Exhibits-01-100-PT1, p.55)

4. Scott Walker talks to Karl Rove. "Bottom Line: RJ helps keeps in place a team that is wildly successful in Wisconsin. We are running 9 recall elections and it would be like 9 congressional markets in every market in the state and twin cities." (Key-Misc-Set-One, p.16)

5. RJ Johnson talks to Keith Gilkes, Walker campaign manager, and Gov. Walker about why they need to keep activities of the 3rd party groups under their command. (2012-08-14-Exhibits-01-100-PT1, p.2)

6. Fundraiser Kate Donor explains the strategy of locking down commitments from a host of supposedly "independent" groups like the Koch Brothers Americans for Prosperity to Keith Gilkes, RJ Johnson and Gov. Walker. (Fundraising-Coordination, p.14)

7. Keith Gilkes forwards "oppo" opposition research on controversial potential donors, including Harold Simmons, Dallas-based CEO of a lead pigment company, to Gov. Walker. After this exchange, some checks from these givers are sent to Wisconsin Club for Growth where they will remain secret and not be publicly disclosed as a campaign contribution to Walker. (2012-08-14-Exhibits-01-100-PT1, p.61)

8.Harold Simmons, NL Industries/CONTRAN, scheduled contact with Walker plus his personal and corporate checks. (2012-08-14-Exhibits-01-100-PT2, p.127; Corporate-Checks-Sanitized, p.5-6)

9. Affidavit of Wisconsin Club for Growth director Eric O'Keefe who explains its all about "liberty and fiscal responsibility" not winning elections. (WICFG-Quash-Aff)

  1. Jay Rosser, a representative of T. Boone Pickens, email to RJ Johnson and Kate Doner. Interestingly, declines to give: "we recognize the opportunity to give anonymously, but frankly that is just not our style." (Fundraising-Coordination, p.4) It is likely that not all the people mentioned in these documents gave secretly to Walker.

Campaign Finance

Corporations

Democracy

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But a moral question continues to hang in the air. If, as Kennedy put it, even the appearance of quid quo pro must be avoided to uphold trust in democracy, does the light shone on the modern American way of staging elections by the John Doe files leaked to the Guardian give cause for public concern?

The lead paint mystery

The strange case of lead paint might help answer that question. Lead, as theterrible events of Flint, Michigan,have shown, is a potent poison that can seriously impair the intellectual ability of young children. The Flint health crisis was caused by contaminated water, but another peril to public health is the presence of the toxin in household paint before 1978, when it was banned in the US.

The John Doe files reveal that the billionaire owner of NL Industries, one of America's leading producers of lead used in paint until the ban, secretly donated $750,000 to Wisconsin Club for Growth at a time when Walker and his fellow Republican senators were fighting their recall elections. Also in the same time-frame, the Republican-controlled senate passed, and Walker signed into law, legal changes that attempted to grant effective immunity to lead manufacturers from any compensation claims for lead paint poisoning.

Since the laws were passed, the federal courts have stepped in and overturned keyelements of them, leaving NL Industries – or National Lead Company as it was once known – still facing many legal challenges. But the point remains: had the new provisions been allowed to stand, they had the potential to save the company and others like it millions of dollars in damages.

Lawyers working on the lawsuits argue that at stake were the rights of hundreds of children from poor urban areas whose lives were devastated by lead poisoning inhaled from paint when they were growing up. “These children were perfectly innocent. They entered life with all the gifts and health that God gave them and were devastated by this neurotoxin,” said Peter Earle, the principal attorney on 171 cases that are currently ongoing against NL Industries and other former manufacturers of lead paint.

The owner of NL Industries, Harold Simmons, made the undisclosedpayments to WCfG in three tranches between April 2011 and January 2012, precisely when the GOP senators and then Walker were facing a fight-to-the-death at the ballot box.

Simmons, who died a year after Walker won his recall election, was a prominent funder of rightwing causes who, along with Donald Trump, was reprimanded by the Federal Election Commission in the 1990s for exceeding legal limits of political campaign contributions. He bankrolled with $3m the notorious Swift Boat smear campaign against John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election that erroneously questioned the current secretary of state's Vietnam war record.

Republicans in the Wisconsin legislature made an initial attempt to change the law on the liability of lead paint producers shortly after Walker became governor. As the name implied, Act 2 was one of his opening gambits that he rammed through the legislature in less than a month after he came to office in January 2011.

One of Act 2's key provisions was to tighten tort law to make it much more difficult for lead victims to sue. Under its terms, anyone injured by lead paint who wanted to issue a new lawsuit had to prove that the company they were taking on was responsible for making the specific paint that was on their walls at the time they inhaled the toxin – a practically impossible task given the number of different manufacturers and the layer-upon-layer of paint on the walls of old houses.

The measure in effect granted immunity to NL Industries and other lead producers from any new claims for compensation.

Less than three months after the law was enacted, Simmons arranged for the first and largest check – of $500,000 – to be paid directly from Contran Corporation, his business empire, to Wisconsin Club for Growth. It landed at the time that the six senators were in their recall battles.

Later that year, Walker's interest in soliciting more money from Simmons for use in his own personal recall election is made plain in an email among the John Doe files dated 14 November 2011. It was written by Keith Gilkes, Walker's then senior campaign adviser.

The email was sent just one day before opponents of the governor formally triggered the recall procedure, putting Walker's job on the line. Gilkes rehearsed the names of several wealthy donors to hit up for donations, singling out Simmons and“SheldonAldenhouse”, presumably a garbling of the name of Sheldon Adelson, the Las Vegas casino magnate who laterdonated$200,000 to bolster Walker's recall chances.

The Gilkes memo sets out for Walker some of the “red flags” associated with Simmonsand other potential corporate donors “so you are aware of what you might need to defend in terms of contributions from donors when these are disclosed”. He warnsWalker that Simmons had a controversial track record for reportedly dumping toxic waste in Texas. Gilkes pointed to an article by Dallas Magazine in which the billionaire was dubbed “Dallas' most evil genius”. The memo also notes that Simmons avoided having to pay millions of dollars in damages to pay for medical treatment for child victims of lead poisoning in Wisconsin's largest city Milwaukee after an appeals court cleared NL Industries of causing a public nuisance and dismissed a lawsuit brought by the city for $52.6m.

The leaked John Doe files do not record what conclusion Walker and his chief adviser reached about Simmons when they discussed him as a potential donor. What the documents do reveal is that only a month later, a second corporate check from Contran Corporation for $100,000 was sent to WCfG.

The third and final check from Simmons for $150,000, also made out to WCfG, was cut the following month from his own personal account.

At this point, the Wisconsin legislature and Governor Walker made a renewed pitch to change the law to the benefit of NL Industries and other historic manufacturers of lead paint. They had already passed Act 2, but that only covered new claims, leaving the company still facing a mountain of lawsuits that were already ongoing.

So the legislators had another go. In the same month as the third check landed, senate Republicans introduced a bill that would make the effective immunity for former lead paint manufacturers retroactive, thereby scuppering all existing lawsuits.

That attempt failed to pass the Wisconsin legislature. But even then the Republican group did not give up. In 2013, after all the recall elections had been fought and won, partly with the benefit of Harold Simmons' support, the legislators tried one more time to pass a bill making the immunity retroactive.

They did so with a great deal of encouragement from NL Industries. Earle, the lawyer acting for victims, has discovered under freedom of information laws that the firm employed a professional lobbyists for 330 hours, at a cost of $172,500, to persuade the Wisconsin legislature to pass the retroactive immunity bill.

Another Foia document shows that NL Industries' lobbyist directly suggested to the Republican leader in the state senate the language that should be added to existing law to make the effective immunity retroactive. The lobbyist encouraged the Republicans to write four words into an amendment that would apply the new immunity protections to all negligence lawsuits “whenever filed or accrued”.

Two months later GOP senators slipped into a budget bill an amendment that contained the same four words proposed by NL Industries: “whenever filed or accrued”. The amendment was introduced after midnight just before the bill was finalized. It can be found by anyone who looks hard enough on page 548 of a 603-page bill that Scott Walker duly signed into law.

NL Industries used the amendment to press for dismissal of the negligence lawsuits it was facing. But the move failed. A federal appeals court stepped in and ruled that such a retroactive granting of corporate immunity was a violation of the US constitution.

It is perhaps worth asking what it would have meant for the victims had the amendment stood. Victims like Yasmine Clark, one of the plaintiffs. She suffered such severe poisoning from lead inhaled from residential paint in her home in Milwaukee that she was hospitalized twice, when she was two years old and again when she was five.

When she was at rock bottom, Clark was found to have a lead level in her blood of 48 micrograms per deciliter and had to undergo chelation therapy to remove the toxins. To give a sense of what that meant, doctors in Flint, Michigan, sounded the alarm after children were found to have levels above 5 micrograms per deciliter from polluted water supplies – about one-tenth of Clark's concentration.

Clark's negligence suit, and 170 other cases like hers, are still ongoing against NL Industries and other former manufacturers of lead pigment paint. “They haven't been able to shut me down,” Earle said.

“Yasmine is a victim of egregiously vindictive behavior by these corporations,” the lawyer said. “The idea of freedom in the US is that no matter how poor you are you have the opportunity to surmount those disadvantages, and these lead companies took that opportunity away from her.”

As for Scott Walker, Earle said: “The governor has chosen to ignore the children and instead fought tooth and nail for the corporations that did this. I don't have words to describe that conduct.”

Scott Walker's campaign did not respond to Guardian questions relating to its relationship with NL Industries. NL Industries itself, and Contran Corporation, did not respond to numerous invitations to comment.

As researchers pore over the Guardian's leaked John Doe files, seeking light amid the darkness of today's political process, they may ponder the lead paint mystery. There is no evidence that Wisconsin Republicans led by Scott Walker attempted to change the law as a favor in return for Simmons' $750,000 donation that had helped some of them win their own elections and stay in office. No charges have ever been brought.

But is there even the slightest appearance of quid pro quo? And if potentially there is, should that be a matter that the American people care about? Give the last words to Donald Trump, the presidential nominee of Scott Walker's Grand Old Party: “When you give to them, they do whatever the hell you want them to do.”

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http://ecowatch.com/2016/06/02/cities-cheated-lead-tests-flint/

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3 Toxins Found in the Cord Blood of Every One of the 10 Newborns TestedNational media outlets, public health officials and Congress have all focused recently on lead contamination in drinking water. The tainted water in Flint, Michigan, Newark, New Jersey and many other communities around the country poses a serious, potentially lifelong public health threat to millions.

Most of us encounter chemicals that can cause brain damage, cancer and other serious health problems in a place critical to human development—the mother’s womb. Most of us encounter chemicals that can cause brain damage, cancer and other serious health problems in a place critical to human development—the mother’s womb. But industrial pollution in people happens long before they take their first sip of water. Most of us encounter chemicals that can cause brain damage, cancer and other serious health problems in a place critical to human development—the mother’s womb.

In 2009, Environmental Working Group (EWG) conducted a pioneering study testing the umbilical cord blood of 10 babies for toxic chemicals. In all, the tests found more than 230 industrial pollutants across the 10 samples. Among those that were in the cord blood of every one of the 10 newborns were lead, mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). 4/16

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http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/02/flint-lead-poisoning-america-toxic-crisis

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[http://www.alternet.org/environment/lax-regulatory-enforcement-leaves-thousands-risk-lead-poisoning-california Lax Regulatory Enforcement Leaves Thousands at Risk of Lead Poisoning in California] 11/15.

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fedsoc

http://www.fed-soc.org/publications/detail/the-rise-and-fall-of-lead-paint-litigation-in-ohio

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Environmental management

NL Industries, originally named National Lead Industries, Inc. has been involved in numerous lawsuits brought by the U.S. Department of Justice to force the company to pay funds into the Superfund to clean up contaminated sites at various sites around the country such as Granite City, Illinois,[36] and Depew, New York.[37]

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/03/lead-paint-lawsuit-california-tobacco-industry_n_3696533.html?view=print&comm_ref=false

A lawsuit in California that seeks some $1 billion from former lead paint manufacturers is far from the first attempt to hold the industry liable for decades of poisoning children and leaving lingering contamination.

But experts such as Richard Rabin -- who directed a lead poisoning registry at the Massachusetts Department of Labor for over 20 years -- think the case just might be the first to finally succeed, marking the end of a long losing streak.

"My ideal hope is something along the lines of what happened with tobacco," said Rabin, who initiated the inaugural trial against the lead paint industry more than 25 years ago.

"It's gone on and on and on," he said of lead litigation, even as research uncovering lead's dangers, "keeps coming and coming."

After fending off lawsuits since the 1950s, the tables eventually turned on big tobacco, forcing the industry to pay out hundreds of billions of dollars in the late 1990s. At that point, it had become common knowledge that the industry was well aware of the addictive qualities and the health hazards of their products.

In 1987, with nearly a century of documented dangers accumulated on childhood lead poisoning, a lawsuit -- spurred by Rabin -- was filed on behalf of a Boston girl exposed to lead paint as a toddler.

"I want to be a lawyer, but I don't think I can do the studying,'' Monica Santiago told The New York Times in 1988, then 15 years old. ''In school they teach me, but I forget. The kids call me dumb. Sometimes when I do homework I cry and rip it up. Sometimes I get mad or sad and don't know why. My tears fall fast.''

Rabin said the paint companies prevailed based largely on technicalities and not merit, as they have in a series of similar cases since.

In the most recent trial, completing its third week Friday, 10 California cities and counties brought suit against representatives of five lead paint companies. The representatives say the favorable court decisions up to this point were the right ones, because the companies have never been in the wrong.

The paint industry has funded no-strings-attached research on the effects of lead and adopted voluntary standards years before federal regulations were put in place.

"We don't deny documents show the companies were aware of the risks to workers in their plants in 1900, due to incredibly high exposures to lead," said Tim Hardy, an attorney for NL Industries Inc. (formerly the National Lead Co.), makers of Dutch Boy paints and defendants in the trial. "That's a very different thing from knowing how much lead is coming from where and might be a problem to children today."

Industry representatives also brushed off common criticisms that the Dutch Boy mascot, who debuted in 1907 in National Lead Co's advertisements, kids' paint books and other materials, was targeted at children.

"There are lots of ads going back to the early 20th century using children in various poses -- Campbell's soup, all sorts of products," Hardy said. "That was just a mode of advertising."

"It's rather absurd to think that companies would market to children -- children don't make paint purchasing decisions," added Bonnie J. Campbell, a representative of the defendants. "The books were so that kids could have something to do while parents pick out paint colors."

Of note, a Dutch Boy ad in 1918 recommended that paint merchants "cater to the children," and remember that "the children of today are the grown-ups of tomorrow."

David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz, authors of the new book Lead Wars, compare the marketing strategy to that of tobacco's kid-friendly cartoon icon, Joe Camel. They also note that the lead paint and tobacco industries hired the same public relations firm -- Hill and Knowlton, in 1943 and 1953, respectively -- to help instill doubt about health hazards, garner positive media attention and keep litigation at bay.

"It was clear that for decades the lead industry had looked on childhood lead poisoning as a public relations problem, not a public health crisis," Rosner and Markowitz wrote.

Critics of the lead paint industry suggest the companies enlist similar strategies today.

Perry Gottesfeld, a member of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention, testified in the California court. Gottesfeld recalled how a representative for Sherwin-Williams Co. -- another defendant in the case -- refused to disclose her industry connectionduring a January 2012 public hearing in which the representative objected to federal guidelines that would further protect children from lead poisoning.

Dale Leibach, another spokesperson for the defendants, told HuffPost that the attorney was upfront that she advised clients on issues related to lead exposure and effects.

The CDC advisory panel ended up recommending that the threshold level of concern for lead in a child's blood be cut in half, from 10 micrograms per deciliter of blood to 5. Yet the agency still warns that no level of lead exposure is safe.

"There is ongoing harm down to the lowest measurable levels," Bruce Lanphear, a researcher at Simon Frasier University in British Columbia and expert witness for the plaintiffs, said during the first week of the trial in California. He referenced the heavy metal's effects on puberty, behavior and intellect, including his research that found an increase in lead in the blood from less than one to 10 microgram deciliter was associated with a roughly six-point drop in IQ.

In an interview with HuffPost earlier this year, Lanphear described another study in which he found exposure to both lead and tobacco can magnify their individual effects on the risk of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Still, the defendants argue that the proposed remedy of stripping the toxic heavy metal remaining on millions of residences throughout California goes too far. If simply kept intact, they note, lead paint poses no risks.

Paul Mushak, a toxicologist with expertise in lead paint, testified during week one of the trial that even homes with "intact surfaces" have hazardous levels of toxic dust due to the friction from opening and closing windows and doors.

Dr. Cyrus Rangan, director of toxics epidemiology in Los Angeles County, another witness for the plaintiffs, added that he's seen poisoning cases where the child was exposed to hazardous dust from windows despite no other visible deterioration in the home.

Disagreement also abounds as to when dangers of lead dust were known by the lead paint industry. Most attention in the early 20th century was directed at sweet-tasting lead paint chips, the source of exposure for Monica Santiago, the plaintiff in the '80s lawsuit. Dust's dangers, industry representatives told HuffPost, were not known until more recently.

In Lead Wars, however, Rosner and Markowitz highlight a 1913 report from Dr. Alice Hamilton, a well-respected physician, which stated that "the danger from the use of lead paints comes from paint dust in the air and from paint smeared on the hands which may be carried into the mouth with food or tobacco."

And critics suggest that lead paint makers and tobacco companies have used similar tactics when faced with growing evidence that their respective products' are harmful to health.

As public anxiety over the health risks of smoking began to rise in the 1940s and 1950s, for example, tobacco ad campaigns began featuring physicians to assure consumers of the safety of cigarettes.

"More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette," read a 1946 ad from the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. The M and D of the first two words were highlighted in red.

A Dutch Boy paint advertisement from 1927 shows a baby smudging a wall, under the title "Finger Prints." Not only is a lead-painted wall easy to clean, suggested the ad, but it's also safe for young children -- despite the fact that a baby's hands often end up in their mouth.

Then there was the grinning Dutch Boy himself, which Rabin recalled as "ubiquitous" when he was a young boy.

The logo, modeled after a 9-year-old Irish boy, carried a paint can in one hand and a brush lathered with leaded liquid in the other.

"I didn't put it all together and realize what they were doing until years later," Rabin said. "Then I was just outraged."

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Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) is a Washington-based association of Republican Attorneys General. The association was created due to "concerns arising out of the industry-wide lawsuits that seek to promote public policy changes via the courthouse rather than the statehouse," and out of a desire to stop those with "a wish list for future mass state lawsuits-car rental companies, pharmaceutical firms, makers of lead paint and gun manufacturers."[1]

RAGA receives funding from major corporations, which can be considered a conflict of interest since some these corporations have, or are, suspected of criminal wrong-doing. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include:

"Since RAGA's creation in 1999, Simmons' two main holding companies, Contran and Valhi, have contributed $350,000 to the Republican PAC that launders RAGA's money, the Republican National State Elections Committee. RNSEC received another $211,000 since RAGA's creation from other companies that are defendants in the Rhode Island [lead paint] suit. This includes $201,000 from ARCO (and ARCO chairman emeritus Lodwrick Cook) and $10,000 from DuPont."And,"[John] Cornyn's position is even more worth watching because a leading defendant in Rhode Island's lawsuit is NL Industries, which is controlled by Dallas corporate raider Harold Simmons. Simmons is a major donor to Republican PACs and candidates. He gave $90,000 to George W. Bush's two gubernatorial campaigns and has given Cornyn $31,000 since 1998." [5]

In a two day fundraiser session back in the Spring of 2000 in Austin Texas, Karl :{Rove, George W. Bush's chief strategist, was featured. [6]}:

The primary method of contributing money to RAGA is to become a member. Membership costs from $5,000 to $25,000, with increasing levels of access to attorneys general depending on the donation amount.

Unfortunately, knowing the full details of the contributions RAGA receives is very difficult since all money received by RAGA is passed to the Republican National Committee without any public links, especially money received from direct solicitation by attorneys general.

Internal fundraising documents obtained by The Washington Post show that Republican state attorneys general were asked to solicit contributions from corporations and trade groups subject to lawsuits and regulations by their states. The companies solicited include Shell Oil, Brown & Williamson, Pfizer Inc., MasterCard Inc., Eli Lilly and Co., Anheuser-Busch Cos., Citigroup Inc., Amway Corp., U.S. Steel Corp., Nextel Communications Inc., General Motors, and Microsoft Corp. The documents state that company officials would be allowed to meet, participate in conference calls, and socialize with the attorneys general.

Attorneys general mentioned in the documents include John Cornyn, who was the State Attorney General of Texas before being elected to the Senate in 2002; Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor, founder of RAGA and pending President Bush federal appellate court nominee; former Virginia Attorney General Mark Earley; Delaware Attorney General Jane Brady; former South Carolina Attorney General Charlie Condon; and former Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery. [7]

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NL_Industries

NL Industries (NYSE: NL), the former National Lead Company is lead smelting company now based in Houston, Texas. National Lead was one of the 12 original stocks included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average at the time of its creation on May 26, 1896.[1]

History

It began business in Philadelphia in 1772. The name National Lead Company was used since 1891 after a series of mergers. During World War II, National Lead (later NL) entered the consumer market for titanium paints, creating a product line under the name Dutch Boy. Dutch Boy paints competed with other brands that contained mineral products supplied by National Lead. National Lead Company changed its name to NL Industries in 1971. The company headquarters is in Houston, Texas.[2] Dutch Boy was sold off in 1976 to paint company Sherwin-Williams.

References

  1. "History of the Dow", The Motley Fool, May 29, 1996. Accessed October 24, 2011.
  2. "National Lead Company". Harvard University. Retrieved 2011-10-24. "The National Lead Company, now known as NL Industries, began business in Philadelphia in 1772. Several lead manufacturers banded together and incorporated as the National Lead Company in 1891. The company has been well known for its white-lead paints, sold since 1907 under the Dutch Boy label. Over the twentieth century, the company has produced many other products, including titanium dioxide paint, atomic bomb elements, and ball-bearing slides. ..."

External links

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Judy P LAT bush2 3 noms nixed

Wehrum, a former lawyer for the chemical, utility and auto industries, was counsel to the EPA's air office when controversy erupted over the agency's new standard for power-plant mercuryemissions. The mercury rule contained paragraphs lifted verbatim from a memo by Latham & Watkins, Wehrum's former law firm, which represented utility companies affected by the rule.

The agency's inspector general denounced the effort, saying it relied on industry input over science.

Wehrum has acknowledged it was he who forwarded the language to EPA subordinates writing the rule.

"The concern was that there was collusion," Wehrum said in an interview. "I categorically deny that."

In late 2005, Wehrum became acting air administrator, a promotion that expires July 7. Bush's appointment would keep him in the job.

Wehrum's decisions continue to generate controversy among the EPA's independent science advisory panels and career staff.

Responding to a request from battery manufacturers, Wehrum's office proposed in December to discontinue maximum limits for lead in the air, noting that levels nationally had plunged since the phase-out of leaded gasoline.

An advisory committee of 22 outside scientists is attacking that plan.

Recent scientific evidence has shown that even lower levels can be harmful, particularly to children. The current standard is "totally inadequate" and should be "lowered substantially," said the panel's chairwoman, respiratory biochemist Rogene Henderson.

Panel members also complained that the EPA's air office did not explore other options and had not fully analyzed the health risks.

After Henderson raised those concerns with Wehrum, he agreed to order additional research and allow the scientists to review it before deciding on lead levels.

But critics are wary: The EPA air office, under Wehrum and his predecessor, has promised to revisit rules on mercury and formaldehyde if new evidence emerges -- yet despite subsequent studies showing that the agency understated the risks of both substances, it has not revisited the rules.

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History:

NL Industries, Inc. is one of America's largest manufacturers of titanium dioxide pigments, which are used to brighten and add opacity to paints, plastics, paper, textile dyes, and ceramic glazes. The company also produces rheological additives, which control the flow and leveling properties of paints, inks, greases, sealants, adhesives, and cosmetics. Having undergone several reorganizations during its history, as technological developments dictated changes in its markets, NL Industries came under the control of entrepeneur Harold Simmons in the late 1980s.

The history of NL Industries may be traced to 1891, when 25 lead mining and smelting operations, unable to compete with larger manufacturers by themselves, teamed up to form a general holding company called the National Lead Company. The parent organization ensured that each member company's resources were efficiently employed while effectively eliminating competition between the affiliates.

National Lead was primarily a mining company consisting of several dozen lead pits. The company quickly became one of the country's largest producers of bulk refined white and red lead and lead oxides, which it sold almost exclusively to foundries and paint manufacturers. During this time, white and red leads were commonly used in paint, providing a durable and inexpensivecovering considered necessary for preserving wooden structures. When mixed with linseed oil, white lead helped the paint mixture hold other pigments; red leads proved the least expensive paints and became commonly used on barns and railroad structures.

National Lead marked several years of steady growth, and, because of its size and the constant demand for lead by paint companies, it withstood the commodity gluts and financial panics that destroyed its smaller competitors. The most serious challenge to the company's survival occurred during the Great Depression of the early 1930s, when most consumers could not afford paint, and demand for lead plummeted.

During this time, National Lead prepared to diversify, using whatever capital it could spare to invest in the rights to titanium mines. Titanium was discovered to have applications as a pigment, producing brighter whites and a clearer base for other pigments than was possible with lead. Moreover, titanium dioxide had applications in the manufacture of paper, denture material, ceramics, and even whitewall tires. National Lead set up a brokerage operation for the new product, becoming the country's largest supplier of the mineral. Thus, by 1934, when the national economy began to recover, National Lead was able to withstand declines in demand for lead and was prepared to take advantage of growth in the titanium market.

By 1939, National Lead had regained earnings stability. The following year, as the country began a modest armament program to meet the growing threat from Germany, titanium paints were increasingly used in upgrading military installations. At the onset of World War II in 1941, titanium was found valuable in strengthening steel and other metal alloys, and the company's chief product came under government control. Since National Lead remained a supplier rather than a mining operation, sales stalled. Neverthless, at the end of the war, National Lead emerged as the leading dealer in titanium ores. Industrial uses of titanium increased, particularly in equipment for drilling oil wells, die castings, and metal bearings for the railroad and other industries. During this time, National Lead also entered the consumer market for titanium paints, creating a product line under the name Dutch Boy. Dutch Boy paints competed with other brands that contained mineral products supplied by National Lead.

In 1950, in order to strengthen and protect its leading position in the titanium ores market, National Lead entered into a partnership with Allegheny Ludlum Steel. Called the Titanium Metals Corporation of America, this joint venture developed new applications for titanium alloys, produced various grades of the product, and marketed both raw titanium and zinc alloys made with the mineral.

By the 1950s, National Lead supplied roughly 40 percent of the nation's titanium. Alloys made from the metal were used in aircraft, which were produced in tremendous numbers during the Korean War. When aircraft production was scaled back in the late 1950s, sales of titanium were buoyed by demand in the production of missiles and other weapons. Acquisitions during this time included Doehler-Jarvis, a die cast company acquired in 1953, and the R-N Corporation, acquired in 1957.

National Lead decided to widen the scope of its operations to include products useful in drilling for petroleum in the 1960s. The company's line of new products included muds--the lubricants used in drilling operations&mdash well as the alloys, drill bits, and other assemblies used in burrowing through thousands of feet of earth in search of oil deposits. As a result, National Lead became a competitor of oilfield equipment suppliers like Schlumberger and Halliburton. Moreover, through the Titanium Metals Corporation, National Lead secured access to vast mineral reserves in the United States and Norway, and the company initiated its own mining operations. Thus, National Lead became involved in every aspect of the titanium industry: mining, refining, finishing and, in the case of Dutch Boy, retailing.

By 1964, paints, pigments, and oils comprised 38 percent of National Lead's business. Fabricated lead products, primarily used in the automotive industry, provided 23 percent of revenues, and die castings, zinc alloys, and metal forming dies accounted for 17 percent. Oil well drilling materials and bearings used by the railroad industry contributed the remainder. The company's agressive acquisition activity helped achieve this dynamic product line, but by the late 1960s, its increased holdings prompted criticism that the company had spread itself too thin.

By this time, National Lead's subsidiaries included: Morris P. Kirk & Sons and Pioneer Aluminum, companies engaged in the production of aluminum products for the aircraft industry; Baker Castor Oil, a farming operation that raised castor oil used in paint and cosmetics; and Enenco, Inc., a partnership with the National Dairy Products Corp., that produced a line of fatty amines for gelling agents used in paints and water softeners, as well as in the textile, oil, and mining industries.

The diversification of National Lead was strategically intended to consolidate as many applications for its products as possible under one management. However, the plan lead to an unmanageable diversification of its markets, as National Lead supplied products to oil companies, airplane builders, shirt makers, painters, and costmetic companies. Investors lost their enthusiasm for National Lead as its profitability began to slide. Once considered a growth company with glowing management, National Lead was finally seen for what it was: an industrial stock.

As a result, investors lost enthusiasm for the company, and profitability began to decline. The company's chairperson, Joseph Martino, curtailed the acquisition policy, and the decentralized management structure the company had maintained since its inception was reformed. Because it derived more than 60 percent of its income from titanium operations, National Lead became NL Industries on April 15, 1971. The following year, the company reorganized its operations, creating five divisions that oversaw operations in chemicals, metals, industrial specialties, pigments, and fabricated products. The company's paint and magnesium unit, including the Dutch Boy enterprise, and its Lake View Trust Savings Bank subsidiary continued to operate independently, in preparation for a possible spin-off.

Perhaps the greatest changes in NL Industries came after 1972, when Ray C. Adam, a former Mobil Oil executive, joined the company's management team. Well versed in the oilfield equipment business, Adam was convinced that this was the one area in which NL might enjoy faster growth. He began an effort to dispose of NL's non-core operations, maintaining that the company had attempted to be in too many businesses at once and that "the only thing NL didn't make was money." Replacing Martino as CEO in 1974, Adam sold off 38 of NL's 79 subsidiaries, including Dutch Boy, the bank, and a citrus peeling operation. He also sold off the company's magnesium and lead businesses, declaring that NL should stand for "no lead."

The sales yielded more than $400 million, and, with the proceeds, Adam invested heavily in oilfield equipment manufacturing and related services. This proved timely, as the OPEC cartel's 1973 embargo created a worldwide energy crisis that caused oil companies to renew oil exploration on a massive scale.

Central to Adam's strategy was NL's 1976 acquisition of the Rucker Company, a leading manufacturer of oil tools, drill bits, blowout preventers, hydraulic equipment, and drilling muds, for $165 million. Adam retained NL's metals and chemical groups, which provided steady income that could be used for further investment in the petroleum equipment business.

By 1980, the petroleum services division accounted for more than 50 percent of NL Industries' sales and two-thirds of its profits. The chemicals group, which included titanium products, contributed 30 percent of sales, while the metals operation comprised 24 percent of sales. Under Adam, the company had undergone radical transformations; with 5,000 fewer employees, it was seven times more profitable.

In the mid-1980s, Adam was succeeded as CEO by Theodore Rogers, during a slump in the oil industry that severely affected NL's oilfield support business. Failing to downsize quickly, the company's oil division incurred a $324 million operating loss, prompting a rapid undervaluation of the company. This undervaluation--along with the clean-up of NL's debt and streamlining of operations facilitated by Adam--created a tremendous opportunity for a corporate raider.

Harold C. Simmons, a relentlessly inventive takeover artist with a brilliant record of acquiring undervalued companies and turning them around, was aware of an unusual company bylaw dictating that the board not consider more than one tender offer at a time, thereby preventing the company's shares from being put into play (a policy enacted by NL to rebuke an earlier bid by Coniston Partners).Simmons purposely triggered NL's takeover defense mechanism by purchasing 20 percent of the company's shares. Rather than amending its policy to accomodate other investors who might have helped stave off the hostile takeover, NL's board launched its own stock repurchase plan and sought a court enjoinder to prevent Simmons from buying any more shares. To fund the repurchase plan, the board issued tracking stock of the NL's chemical operations which traded separately from NL's common shares.

Simmons defeated NL in court, winning the right to buy a majority of the company's shares, and, after only eight weeks, he emerged with a 51 percent share of NL, as well as a 20 percent share of NL Chemicals. Moreover, he achieved this level of control with an investment of only $250 million, about a third as much as his original tender offer.

The investment vehicle for Simmons' investment in NL was Valhi, Inc., a conglomeration of diverse businesses, such as refined sugar, forest products, hardware products, and fast food chains, that had no obvious synergies with NL. Simmons proposed a merger of Valhi with NL, but was prevented by outside directors from acquiring the 49 percent of the company not already owned by Valhi. Simmons did finally win board approval to spin off the company's oilfield services subsidiary, Baroid Corporation, and redeem the tracking stock of NL's chemical operations. Following the spinoff and redemption, Valhi's ownership in NL was 66 percent. Valhi's control of NL gave Simmons access to about $1 billion in loans for further acquisitions.

NL's operations were subsequently revamped by Simmons and his management team, which included his long-time associate J. Landis Martin, who became president and CEO of NL. NL was divided into two operating divisions, Kronos, which encompassed the titanium dioxide business, and Rheox, which supplied solvent- and water-based rheological additives for paints, inks, lubricants, sealants, adhesives and cosmetics.

In 1993, NL Industries remained an extremely vital player in the titanium and rheological additive markets. The company established a new titanium dioxide pigments plant at Lake Charles, Louisiana--the first such facility to be built in America since 1979. To help pay down the substantial debt incurred to build the facility, NL negotiated the sale of 50 percent of the operation to Imperial Chemical Industries, PLC (ICI) for $200 million. Some analysts suggested that further cooperation between NL and ICI might provide new competitive opportunities for NL's titanium operations in Europe, where much of the Kronos division is headquartered.

Principal Subsidiaries: Rheox, Inc.; Abbey Chemicals, Ltd. (Scotland; 70%); Bentone-Chemie GmbH (Germany; 70%); Kronos, Inc.; Kronos International, Inc. (Germany); Kronos-Titan GmbH (Germany); Kronos Titan A/S (Norway); Kronos Canada, Inc.; Kronos World Services, S.A./N.V. (Belgium); Kronos Europe S.A./N.V. (Belgium/Netherlands); Kronos Louisiana, Inc.; Kronos UK, Ltd.; Societe Industrielle du Titan, S.A. (France; 93%); Titania A/S (Norway).

Further Reading:

Source:International Directory of Company Histories, Vol. 10. St. James Press, 1995.

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substantial compliance

http://www.annualreports.com/HostedData/AnnualReportArchive/v/NYSE_VHI_1999.pdf

chlorine, sulphur

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NL Industries remained an extremely vital player in the titanium and rheological additive markets. The company established a new titanium dioxide pigments plant at Lake Charles, Louisiana-

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