In lawsuits, rallies and lobbying in the State Legislature, they argue that economically disadvantaged residents, already struggling, should not be saddled with additional problems.
But several high-ranking government officials said the study, debate and lobbying in the tight circle of decision-makers has intensified, and Israel has taken steps to shore up the home front and prepare its citizens.
Since the pope announced his resignation last week, Italian newspapers have been full of rumors about conspiracies, secret reports and lobbies in the Vatican that they say pushed the pope to abdicate.
An analysis by The Huffington Post found that labor unions spent more than $1.7 billion on politics and lobbying in the 2012 election cycle.
In what we're sure is a completely unrelated coincidence, Lockheed Martin, the defense contractor receiving billions of taxpayer dollars to build the F-35, spent more than $28 million on political contributions and lobbying in the last election cycle alone.
As CCA's presence in California has grown, the company has significantly boosted its spending on political campaigns and lobbying in the state, a HuffPost analysis of campaign finance data found.
"We always got the same party line here," Mr. White, who has continued to visit and lobby in Israel, said the other day in Jerusalem.
On April 27th, he even offered the Senate some new sops to the oil-and-gas lobby in the name of "energy independence".
And now negotiations have stalled, despite three years of planning and lobbying in Albany and Washington, the officials and executives said.
They may try to capture some regulators in the government and lobby legislators in the parliament to seek rent and influence industrial policies in their favor.
