Action: the Charter/Time-Warner merger, and ethics for Pennsylvania public figures.

Word on the street is that the FCC plans to approve the Charter/Time-Warner merger, the one that would make Charter almost as big as Comcast and thus give those two corporations nearly 80 percent of the cable market in America. Higher prices, job destruction, lousy service, less competition -- apparently none of these things, which always happen when media corporations consolidate, have persuaded the FCC to take action. Now, this won't necessarily be the end of the matter -- you may recall that the Justice Department, not the FCC (then run by Julius Genachowski, so glad to be rid of him, still can't quite believe he was outclassed by his Bush-appointed predecessor and his big telecom lobbyist successor), stopped the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile merger back in 2011, merely by suing in federal court to block it. Still, I'd rather not let it come to that, even if the Justice Department chooses to oppose this proposed merger as well. So No More Mergers still helps you call the FCC and tell them to reject the proposed Charter/Time-Warner merger.

Meanwhile, closer to home, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has lately proposed an ethics reform package consisting of campaign contribution limits, a gift ban for public officials, heightened disclosure of their outside income, and an end to pay-to-play arrangements for state contracts. If that doesn't sound like a big deal to you, read that first item again: "campaign contribution limits." That's right, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania doesn't have them, at all, which makes us virtually unique in America. And this notion of a public official's "outside income" might not go down so well in, say, Alabama, where the law prevents public officials from receiving any income from private sources. And Pennsylvania is also one of 10 states that doesn't limit gifts to public officials. It may be called a "gift," but no one gives a public servant one without expecting something in return. Hence Common Cause helps you tell your PA state legislator to pass strong ethics legislation in Pennsylvania.