More Info on Financial Disclosures: Clinton, McCain, Romney All Rolling in Cash

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We blogged a while back about the financial disclosures of many of the candidates, noting that some folks — including Romney, McCain, and Clinton — were granted extensions in filing their paperwork. We now have more information.

Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton have assets valued from $10 million to $50 million (the massive window is a product of FEC rules) with the former president raking in speaking fees of more than $10 million in just the last year. The bulging bank account comes after the pair left the White House with millions in debt from legal fees. Two days ago I hit Senator Clinton pretty hard for being the “Big Money” candidate in the Democratic primary, so it’s worth noting that she’s made a bid for some financial transparency — along with Bill, she has liquidated a family trust worth between $5 million and $25 million that had investments in oil and pharmaceutical companies, military contractors, Wal-Mart, and FOX News parent company News Corp. The cost of avoiding future conflicts of interest (and being hit for investing in decidedly non-progressive entities) is substantial, because of capital gains taxes the Clintons will have to pay.

Elsewhere, filings showed that the McCain family has $24.3 million in assets, almost all held by Cindy McCain and the McCain children. Cindy McCain controls an Anheuser-Busch distributorship in Arizona that is said to be among the largest in the nation.

And former Bain executive Mitt Romney is worth the most out of the bunch, with assets totaling $190 million to $250 million. Yahtzee!

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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