High Cost of Slush

In a St. Charles, Mo. court last week, Union Electric Co. of Mo. (a subsidiary of North American Co.) was found guilty of trying to buy the election of candidates opposed to a municipal power plant—one of the uses to which it put a $580,000 political slush fund discovered by SEC two years ago. The penalty: a $175,000 fine, with the company’s charter to be forfeited if it ever tinkers with politics again.