By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer Jim Kuhnhenn, Associated Press Writer  – 41 mins ago

WASHINGTON – A deep-pocketed alliance with ties to top Republicans Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie is pumping more than $4 million into key Senate races in a single week of advertising, a crucial infusion to counter a surge in Democratic Party spending as Election Day draws near.

The new wave of ads by Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies and its affiliate, American Crossroads, comes during the final, most intense weeks of the congressional campaign. The money, together with that of other groups aligned with the GOP, represents a new beachhead in this year’s less regulated world of money and politics.

For the two Crossroads groups, the new spending means they have poured nearly $14 million into fiercely competitive Senate races in eight states — Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Colorado and Washington — since August.

Overall spending this year in House and Senate races by candidates, outside groups and the political parties had reached $220 million as of mid-September, according to a Wesleyan University analysis of ad data from Kantar Media/CMAG. Most was by candidates, but nearly one-fifth came from interest groups, a vast majority favoring Republicans.

Crossroads’ efforts are among the most prominent examples in the increased political activity by tax-exempt nonprofit groups, illustrating new terrain in campaign finance. A landmark Supreme Court case, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, opened the way early this year for corporations and unions to spend money in elections. New FEC guidelines and lower court rulings have also contributed to a more freewheeling environment.

As a result, the Internal Revenue Service has come under increasing pressure from Democrats to act against conservative or GOP-allied groups, placing the tax agency in an awkward position of being dragged into a political fight that it can’t possibly address until well after the Nov. 2 elections are over.

On Tuesday, two organizations that advocate for tougher campaign finance rules filed a complaint with the IRS asking it to investigate the tax-exempt status of Crossroads GPS.

“If we are correct, then tax laws are being abused to hide donors,” Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer said in an interview.

Together, Crossroads GPS and American Crossroads have raised $32 million this year. American Crossroads, created as a political organization under a separate section of the tax code, has to disclose its donors. But Crossroads GPS, formed as a tax-exempt group, does not. Crossroads spokesman Jonathan Collegio said the group has carefully followed laws governing such corporations.

The new ads by Crossroads GPS target Senate races in Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Washington state. The biggest spending is more than a $1 million in Florida assailing Gov. Charlie Crist, the former Republican who is running for the Senate as an independent. American Crossroads is airing ads in Nevada and Colorado.

The ads differ slightly. American Crossroads ads make a more direct appeal to voters to oppose Democrats; Crossroads GPS tell viewers to contact candidates to tell them they oppose their stand on issues. The difference is significant because Crossroads, as a tax-exempt organization, could argue it is airing issue ads and does not directly intervene in an election.

Every election cycle uncovers a new trend or loophole that is exploited by either party in hopes of gaining an advantage. Much of the activity taking place this year occurred to a lesser extent before. But campaign finance lawyers contend the Citizens United decision made it easier for corporations to agree to give to groups involved in politics.

“It reduced a sort of psychological barrier that may have been holding back some corporate money,” said Marcus Owens, a lawyer and former head of the IRS division overseeing tax-exempt organizations.

Under the tax code, those organizations have the right to conduct political campaign activity as long as it is not the primary mission of the group. According to the IRS, what constitutes political activity is determined by the “facts and circumstances” of each case.

Last week, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Democrat Max Baucus of Montana, called on the IRS to investigate all tax-exempt groups involved in political activity. In recent weeks, President Barack Obama and top White House aides have also denounced the rise of conservative nonprofit groups that have been airing ads against Democrats in House and Senate battlegrounds.

In August, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee asked the IRS look into Americans for Prosperity Foundation, founded by billionaire conservative David Koch.

“It’s obvious they have had a planned attack from the highest levels of the White House,” said Cleta Mitchell, a campaign finance lawyer who has represented a number of conservative groups. “You have Democrats in office seeking to use the IRS to punish their political enemies.”

Crossroads spokesman Collegio called the complaint against his organization baseless, and said it was filed by a partisan group that “files baseless complaints for its living.”

“Liberal groups spent more than $400 million in undisclosed campaign money in 2008 alone, with nary a peep of protest from any of these groups,” he said.

Democracy 21 and the Campaign Legal Center have long called for tougher rules on campaign money and have filed Federal Election Commission complaints against groups allied with both parties. The Campaign Legal Center’s president and general counsel is Trevor Potter, who was the top lawyer for Republican Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign.

Campaign finance lawyers said using the IRS to tackle questions of political money may prove difficult. Owens pointed out that, with extensions, a corporation formed in 2010 would not have to file a return with the IRS until as late as November 2011 — “Long after the election and quite possibly long after the organization went out of business.”

“The IRS mechanism,” he added, “is designed to collect taxes, not regulate political campaigns.”

Lawrence Noble, a former FEC general counsel, said regulating tax-exempt organizations represents a small fraction of IRS activities. What’s more, he added, “People get very nervous about the IRS getting involved in politics.”

By CHRIS WILLIAMS, Associated Press Writer Chris Williams, Associated Press Writer   – 2 hrs 39 mins ago

MINNEAPOLIS – More than 12,000 nurses walked off the job Thursday for a one-day strike at 14 Minnesota hospitals, a show of force being watched by many across the country as a test of how fiercely a new national nurses’ union can flex its muscle.

Nurses say they are being asked to care for too many patients at a time, and strict ratios are necessary to protect patient safety. The hospitals, all in the Minneapolis area, counter patients are safe and that the walkout is a headline-grabbing stunt to build membership and clout for the fledgling union.

About the same number of nurses had wanted a simultaneous strike in California over the same issues, but were blocked temporarily earlier this week by a San Francisco judge.

Labor experts say unlike other unions that might shy away from striking during a recession, nurses have certain job security because they are in demand and can’t be outsourced.

“Auto plants can be moved overseas, but it’s a lot harder to move health care treatment overseas,” said Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the liberal Economic Policy Institute.

Vanderbilt University nursing professor Peter Buerhaus also noted a looming nurse shortage caused by aging baby boomers, increasing demand when about a third of today’s nurses are expected to retire in the next 10 years.

“Where are we going to get all these nurses?” he said. “We’re running out.”

The Minnesota nurses walked off the job at 7 a.m. and onto picket lines at several sites. At Abbott Northwestern Hospital near downtown Minneapolis, one nurse serenaded several hundred others by playing “Amazing Grace” on bagpipes. Passing motorists honked horns, and red T-shirted nurses waved signs that read, “We care. For you” and “RNs protecting patients.”

Sue Stamness, a cardiology nurse at Abbott for 24 years, said patient safety was the nurses’ top concern.

“Nobody is listening to what we are saying,” Stamness said.

Though called the largest nurses’ strike in U.S. history by both the union and the hospitals, the effects were minimal. But they came at a cost: Hospitals hired 2,800 replacement nurses, called in extra non-unionized staff, reduced patient levels and some hospitals rescheduled elective surgeries.

Web advertisements from two large staffing agencies — Healthsource Global Staffing and U.S Nursing — said they were offering replacement nurses between $1,600 and $2,224 for one day of work and one day of orientation.

Dr. Penny Wheeler, chief clinical officer at Allina Hospitals and Clinics, said there were no reports of problems at any of the 14 hospitals. Wheeler said those hospitals would begin recalling their regular nurses Friday.

The Minnesota and California negotiations are the largest since the National Nurses United union formed in December. The union quickly adopted an aggressive slate of national negotiating principles, with a top goal of getting strict staffing ratios in each member local’s contract.

It’s an approach the California Nurses Association successfully lobbied into California law, beginning in 2004. The CNA, one of the founding members of the NNU, claims the number of licensed nurses in the state increased by 40 percent since it passed.

In just six months, the union’s simple message that more nurses means better patient care has found favor with stressed-out nurses frustrated with local representation or not previously unionized.

Bob Stalley, a nurse at the University of Chicago Medical Center, was among 1,130 nurses who voted last month to leave the Illinois Nurses Association for the NNU. He said nurses liked the NNU’s insistence of limits on the number of patients assigned to a single nurse — and its willingness to strike. The NNU has said it may try to reopen a labor contract signed in April.

The NNU cites research showing more nurses have meant fewer medical errors in California hospitals — and thus lowered medical costs. The Twin Cities hospitals dispute those claims and point to other research indicating strict ratios aren’t as successful. And they say the ratios wouldn’t give them the flexibility they need and would add unsustainable annual costs.

Several NNU leaders were in Minneapolis on Thursday touring picket lines.

NNU Co-President Jean Ross, a veteran Minnesota nurse, said nurses nationwide are facing the same issues as hospitals try to cut costs. She said they are being asked to work faster on sicker patients with less help.

She said if hospitals around the country don’t increase staffing, nurse strikes could become more common. “It is not that this is a tactic that nurses want to employ, it’s what the employers are forcing us into,” she said.

But neither Ross nor other NNU officials could say whether other job actions were imminent outside California and Minnesota.

Representatives of hospital groups in both states claim the national union is bent on provoking a high-profile strike to grow its membership.

“There is a wall being put up by the national nurses union that’s keeping us from settling these contracts,” said Maureen Schriner, spokeswoman for the 14 Minnesota hospitals. NNU Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro said the claim that the Minnesota nurses weren’t in charge of their own strike was “just an insult.”

The hospitals’ last proposal offers pay increases over the three-year contract of zero percent, 1 percent and 2 percent, with other increases for seniority. The union wants increases of 3.5 percent to 4 percent a year. The hospitals also want to cut pension benefits, which the union resists.

Full-time Minnesota nurses are paid an average $79,000 a year, or about $10,000 more than the national average. However, when figuring in that most nurses work part-time, the average Minnesota nurse makes about $62,000 a year, or $38 an hour.

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN, AP Business Writer Michelle Chapman, Ap Business Writer – Thu Apr 22, 1:28 pm ET

NEW YORK – Increased advertising and an earlier Easter drove shoppers to Hershey Co.’s candy in the first quarter, almost doubling its profit.

The maker of Hershey’s Kisses and Reese’s peanut butter cups also boosted its 2010 adjusted earnings and sales growth targets above Wall Street’s expectations Thursday. Its stock rose $2.91, or 6.5 percent, to $47.75 in afternoon trading. The shares touched a new 52-week high of $48.16 earlier.

While industry competitors have concentrated on snapping up other businesses, Hershey has stayed true to aggressively expanding its marketing over the past two years to add sales. The company based in Hershey, Pa. plans to increase its 2010 advertising spending by 35 percent to 40 percent, up from its prior estimate of 25 percent to 30 percent.

While it recently lost out to Kraft Foods Inc. in the bidding for British rival Cadbury PLC, many experts did not view this as bad for Hershey because they feared the acquisition would have unwisely stretched the company’s finances.

Hershey, the nation’s second-largest candy maker, earned $147.4 million, or 64 cents per share, for the period ended April 4. That’s well above its profit of $75.9 million, or 33 cents per share, a year earlier.

Revenue grew 14 percent to $1.41 billion from $1.24 billion. U.S. sales benefited from Easter occurring a week earlier than last year, so more sales came in the first quarter.

In contrast, CEO David West said during a conference call that Valentine’s Day shoppers spent less on candy than they have in previous years.

Hershey’s quarterly revenue improvement also got a jolt from a significant advertising push. The candy maker boosted domestic advertising by 68 percent for core brands such as Kit Kat, Twizzlers and its namesake candy as well as launched new product promotions for Hershey’s Special Dark, Almond Joy and York Pieces. The new products contributed nearly two percentage points to Hershey’s quarterly sales growth.

The first-quarter performance easily surpassed Wall Street’s forecasts, as analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of 47 cents per share on revenue of $1.29 billion.

West said Hershey gained market share for both the quarter and the Easter season and credited strong performances from stalwart brands like Reese’s, Kit Kat and its namesake for pushing retail results higher.

While the candy maker has focused heavily on marketing existing products, it does plan to roll out some new ones this year, with both Hershey’s Drops and Reese’s Mini Minis, expected to debut in December.

Hershey now expects full-year adjusted earnings to rise in the low to mid-teens. Its prior guidance called for a 6 percent to 8 percent rise. The candy maker also anticipates better revenue for 2010, projecting its sales will rise at least 6 percent compared with a previous outlook for 3 percent to 5 percent growth. With 2009 revenue of $5.3 billion, this implies sales of at least $5.62 billion for 2010.

Analysts forecast a full-year profit of $2.33 per share on revenue of $5.5 billion.

Elsewhere, comptetitor Nestle AG reported Thursday that its first-quarter sales rose 4.4 percent on growth in emerging economies. The Swiss-based company, whose brands include Nescafe, Perrier and Haagen Dazs, is the world’s largest food and drink maker.

Source: Yahoo News !