They say that the federal Fish Passage Center, created by the Northwest Power Planning Council to monitor fish counts and water flows on the Columbia and Snake, has documented a direct correlation between higher flows and salmon survival.

CNN: River watch: Is Columbia tapped out?

In 2011 the Transgender Law Center successfully pushed for passage of legislation ending surgery as a requirement to obtain a new birth certificate in California.

BBC: Transgender Americans take on New York

One carpet, the size of a prayer rug, lay in the center of the tiled floor as if concealing an imperfection or some secret passage.

NEWYORKER: Naima

In 1986, in one of his last crusades as cofounder and chief of the Center for Law in the Public Interest, he played a key role in pushing passage of the whistleblower law, which made it easier to prove wrongdoing and lifted informants' payoff to as much as 30% of the booty.

FORBES: The Enforcer