New Jersey has long been a breeding ground for political corruption, and most of it is perfectly legal. Public officials accept favors from lobbyists, give paid positions to relatives, and rig the electoral process to favor their cronies in a system where campaign money is used to buy government results. Such unethical behavior is known as “soft corruption,” and former New Jersey legislator William E. Schluter has been fighting it for the past fifty years. In this searing personal narrative, the former state senator recounts his fight to expose and reform these acts of government misconduct. Not afraid to cite specific cases of soft corruption in New Jersey politics, he paints a vivid portrait of public servants who care more about political power and personal gain than the public good. By recounting events that he witnessed firsthand in the Garden State, he provides dramatic illustrations of ills that afflict American politics nationwide. As he identifies five main forms of soft corruption, Schluter diagnoses the state government’s ethical malaise, and offers concrete policy suggestions for how it might be cured. Not simply a dive through the muck of New Jersey politics, Soft Corruption is an important first step to reforming our nation’s political system, a book that will inspire readers to demand that our elected officials can and must do better. Visit: www.softcorruption.com (http://www.softcorruption.com)

For thirty years starting in the mid-1970s, the byline of Jim Dooley appeared on riveting investigative stories of organized crime and political corruption that headlined the front page of Honolulu’s morning daily. In Sunny Skies, Shady Characters, James Dooley revisits highlights of his career as a hard-hitting investigative reporter for the Honolulu Advertiser and, in later years, for KITV television and the online Hawaii Reporter. His lively backstories on how he chased these high-profile scandals make fascinating reading, while providing an insider’s look at the business of journalism and the craft of investigative reporting. Dooley’s first assignment as an investigative journalist involved the city housing project of Kukui Plaza, which introduced him to the “pay to play” method of awarding government contracts to obliging consultants. In later stories, he scrutinized bloody struggles over illicit gambling revenue, the murder of a city prosecutor’s son, local syndicate ties to the Teamsters Union, and the dealings of Bishop Estate. His groundbreaking coverage of the forays by yakuza into Hawaii and the continental United States were the first of its kind in American journalism. As Dooley pursued stories from the underside of island society, names of respected public figures and those of violent criminals filled his notebook: entertainer Don Ho, U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye, Governors George Ariyoshi and Ben Cayetano, Mayor Frank Fasi, and notorious felons Henry Huihui, Nappy Pulawa, and Ronnie Ching. Woven throughout is the name of Big Island rancher Larry Mehau—was he the “godfather of organized crime” in Hawaii as alleged by the FBI, or simply an ex-cop who befriended power brokers in the course of doing business for his security guard firm? The book includes a timeline of Mehau’s activities to allow readers to judge for themselves.

Boycotts and Dixie Chicks introduces the concept of 'creative political participation', collective political actions which do not use traditional methods and which are innovative, collaborative and creative in character. Andrew S. McFarland discusses creative participation on issues concerning the environment, political corruption, consumer rights, and transnational issues. He draws on specific examples including anti-corruption demonstrations in contemporary rural China, community action in 1890s Wisconsin, consumer boycotts of Shell Oil, ExxonMobil, the Nestle Corporation, and the Dixie Chicks music group, the 'colour revolutions' and transnational fair trade and transparency activism. Written in an engaging, everyday language and using a wide variety of sources and case studies, Boycotts and Dixie Chicks is highly recommended for students of alternative social and political movements and sociology.

A blistering exposé of the National Rifle Association, revealing its people, power, corruption, and ongoing downfall, from acclaimed NPR investigative reporter Tim Mak “Tenacious, careful and incisive.”—Jonathan Swan • “Deeply and meticulously reported, colorfully and precisely written.”—Olivia Nuzzi • “Nonstop revelations are told with gripping detail and intimate insider knowledge.”—David Frum • “Fantastic.”—Chris Hayes The NRA once compelled respect—even fear—from Republicans and Democrats alike. Once a grassroots club dedicated to gun safety, the NRA ballooned into a powerful lobbyist organization that maintained an iron hold on gun legislation in America. This influential nonprofit raised millions in small fees from members across the country, which funded hidden, lavish lifestyles of designer suits, private jets and yachts, martini lunches and Champagne dinners—while the group manipulated legislators and flirted with a Russian spy. Yet in 2012, the NRA’s grip on Washington began to loosen in the wake of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary. Facing nationwide outrage, NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre gave a speech claiming the solution was not fewer guns, but more guns, in schools. The group’s rhetoric only escalated from there, a misstep that sparked a backlash and invited the scrutiny of the government. Unveiled here for the first time ever are surprising, revelatory details spotlighting decades of poor leadership and mismanagement by LaPierre; the NRA’s long association with marketing firm Ackerman-McQueen; NRA executives’ 2015 trip to Moscow, a by-invitation affair packed with meetings with Russian government officials, diplomats, and oligarchs seeking influence in American politics; as well as the power struggle between LaPierre and former NRA president Oliver North that fractured the organization. Misfire is the result of a four-year investigation by journalist Tim Mak, who scoured thousands of pages of never-before-publicized documents and cultivated dozens of confidential sources inside the NRA's orbit to paint a vivid picture of the gun group's rampant corruption and slow decline, marking a sea change in the battle over gun rights and control in America.

The social contract that has underpinned growth and political stability in the Western world since World War II has broken down. Houses, health care and higher education have become unaffordable to a majority of people, while the burden of unregulated monopolies, globalization and uncontrolled immigration has fallen disproportionately on the lower and middle classes. Wrapped in political correctness, an increasingly out of touch Western elite continues catering to special interests and fails to grasp the urgency for change. Populist movements harnessing public anger appear unable to propose and implement effective solutions. The last financial crisis was bad enough. But the next crisis will spread deeper and wider. And yet we stand economically, politically and most of all intellectually unprepared. This book is the story of how we have arrived at the brink of disaster and how we can move away from the win-lose policies of recent decades to restore much-needed balance.

In the 1940s, Rutgers was a small liberal arts college for men. Today, it is a major public research university, a member of the Big Ten and of the prestigious Association of American Universities. In Rutgers since 1945, historian Paul G. E. Clemens chronicles this remarkable transition, with emphasis on the eras from the cold war, to the student protests of the 1960s and 1970s, to the growth of political identity on campus, and to the increasing commitment to big-time athletics, all just a few of the innumerable newsworthy elements that have driven Rutgers’s evolution. After exploring major events in Rutgers’s history from World War II to the present, Clemens moves to specific themes, including athletics, popular culture, student life, and campus dissent. Other chapters provide snapshots of campus life and activism, the school’s growing strength as a research institution, the impact of Title IX on opportunities for women student athletes, and the school’s public presence as reflected in its longstanding institutions. Rutgers since 1945 also features an illustrated architectural analysis, written by art historian Carla Yanni, of residence halls, which house more students than at any other college in the nation. Throughout the volume, Clemens aims to be balanced, but he does not shy away from mentioning the many conflicts, crises, and tensions that have shaped the university. While the book focuses largely on the New Brunswick campus, attention is paid to the Camden and Newark campuses as well. Frequently broadening the lens, Clemens contextualizes the events at Rutgers in relation to American higher education overall, explaining which developments are unique and which are part of larger trends. In celebration of the university’s 250th anniversary, Rutgers since 1945 tells the story of the contemporary changes that have shaped one of the most ethnically diverse universities in the country. Table of Contents 1 Becoming a State University: The Presidencies of Robert Clothier, Lewis Webster Jones, and Mason Gross 2 Rutgers Becomes a Research University: The Presidency of Edward J. Bloustein 3 Negotiating Excellence: The Presidencies of Francis L. Lawrence and Richard L. McCormick 4 Student Life 5 Residence Hall Architecture at Rutgers: Quadrangles, High-Rises, and the Changing Shape of Student Life, by Carla Yanni 6 Student Protest 7 Research at Rutgers 8 A Place Called Rutgers: Glee Club, Student Newspaper, Libraries, University Press, Art Galleries 9 Women’s Basketball 10 Athletic Policy 11 Epilogue