statehouseRichard Simon form the Los Angeles Times looks at how local and state governments are “lobbying up” in an effort to land federal funds to help with budgets that have been decimated in the current economic downturn.  According to the watchdog group Center for Responsive Politics, state and local governments spent over $41 million in the first half of 2009 on lobbying firms. This represents more than they spent in all of 2001.

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