My prediction for the final half-season of Breaking Bad: Walter White becomes a Republican operative. Scary, right? Plus this one is ripped from the headlines:

The boxes landed in the office of Montana investigators in March 2011.

Found in a meth house in Colorado, they were somewhat of a mystery, holding files on 23 conservative candidates in state races in Montana. They were filled with candidate surveys and mailers that said they were paid for by campaigns, and fliers and bank records from outside spending groups. One folder was labeled “Montana $ Bomb.” 

The documents pointed to one outside group pulling the candidates’ strings: a social welfare nonprofit called Western Tradition Partnership, or WTP [Frontline/ProPublica]

“Montana $ Bomb” takes on a whole new meaning on premises that could literally explode at any minute. 

The documents suggest that the Western Tradition Partnership (now the American Tradition Partnership), a tax-exempt non-profit, may have illegally coordinated with political campaigns in 2008 and 2010. WTP is also famous for mounting a successful lawsuit to abolish Montana’s ban on corporate political spending and extend the provisions of Citizens United to state politics. 

[Photo credit: bjhale, Creative Commons.]

• Walmart is being sued by temporary workers who say the retailer forced them to arrive for work early, stay late, and work through lunch in violation of wage and hour laws.
• Housekeepers at Hyatt hotels have filed a complaint with the NLRB about the digital tracking system their employer uses to monitor their productivity. Each cleaner carries an iPod touch that tells her which room to clean. To add insult to injury, the software’s signature graphic is a tail-wagging pooch. “We do run around like dogs, but still, we’re not dogs,” said cleaner Cathy Youngblood.
• The FDA tried to investigate compounding pharmacies before tainted steroids infected hundreds of people with meningitis, but lobbyists for the compounding pharmacy industry stonewalled FDA investigators. 
• Past Sidney winner Duff Wilson and reporting partner Adam Kerlin continue Reuters’ coverage of the obesity crisis, exposing how the food and beverage industry pays for seats at the global health policy table.

[Photo credit: Wandermule, Creative Commons.]

Why are so many professional sports leagues locked out this year? Dave Zirin of The Nation explains:

I’m sure this must seem like a wild coincidence: four lockouts in fourteen months, affecting three of the four major professional sports leagues of this country. What are the odds? Actually, they’re very good. This is not merely a case of four sets of labor negotiations that have tragically broken down. This is a conscious, industry-wide strategy. A law firm called Proskauer Rose is now representing management in all four major men’s sports leagues, the first time in history one firm has been hired to play such a unified role. In practice, this has meant that in four sets of negotiations with four very different economic issues at play, we get the same results: lockouts and a stack of union complaints with the National Labor Relations Board. It’s been great for owners and awful for players, fans, stadium workers and tax payers.

Proskauer Rose partner Howard Ganz represents the NBA and Major League Baseball, and fellow-partner Bob Batterman has led negotiations for the NFL and the NHL. As Sports Business Daily reported,“Batterman and Ganz provide advice on strategy, as well as on issues that can emerge during talks, such as the legality of using replacement players.”

He continues: “Perhaps it’s time we start viewing sports leagues less like family fun and more along the lines of highly scrutinized institutions such as BP, Chevron, and ExxonMobil.” Perhaps? That’s the understatement of the year. It’s high time we subjected sports leagues to the same scrutiny as other multi-billion-dollar enterprises.

• Hillman Prize-winner Tim Noah argues that the best way to reverse rising income inequality is to revive the labor movement. 
• Hot & Crusty bakery workers rally to keep their union.
• Archaeologists are scanning the grounds of a shuttered Florida school for juvenile delinquents, hoping to locate the bodies of boys who were beaten to death at the school over the years.
• A federal court strikes down a key provision of the Defense of Marriage Act. What does this mean for marriage equality?
• A recruiter for the Arizona National Guard is accused of leading “bum hunts” in which homeless people were shot with paintball guns.
• A powerful story from YNet News about a special battered women’s facility in Israel that provides both shelter and legal assistance for observant Jews.

[Photo credit: Wander Mule, Creative Commons.]