FIRST IN MT: LEFT-WING GROUPS PUSH FOR MERGER PAUSE — More than two dozen progressive advocacy groups, including the American Economic Liberties Project and Color of Change, want House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to put a stop to corporate mergers in the next coronavirus-relief package. Last week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez proposed temporarily pausing merger activity by private equity firms and companies with more than $100 million in revenue while the economy is struggling — an effort to stop big players like Amazon and Google from capitalizing on the crisis by swallowing up smaller rivals. “The economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic should not be an opportunity for dominant corporations and predatory finance to unleash an acquisition free-for-all,” the 27 groups said in the letter. Other signatories include Greenpeace, MoveOn and the Center for Digital Democracy.