Lobbying-related stories from this week's National Journal: (subscription)

Climate Competition Heats Up: In this week's cover story, Margie Kriz Hobson takes a look at the energy industry advocates jockeying to have a hand in shaping the Senate's version of climate change legislation.

Retail Marriage Ends At The Altar: Bara Vaida takes a look at why the planned marriage of the National Retail Federation and the Retail Industry Leaders Association may have fallen apart.

The 'V' Commerce Lobby: The vending machine industry has hired its first full-time D.C. lobbyist, writes Neil Munro.

From The K Street Corridor: Democratic strategists David Di Martino and Michael Meehan leave BGR Group to launch their new firm, Blue Line Strategic Communications; The American Beverage Institute and Mothers Against Drunk Drivers are in a dust up over the propriety of President Obama's 'beer summit' with erstwhile antagonists professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. of Harvard and police Sgt. James Crowley of Cambridge, Mass.

From Inside Washington: Disco diva Gloria Gaynor swung by Capitol Hill on Tuesday to lobby for legislation that would require AM and FM radio stations to pay performers for airing their work. At a reception following a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, she belted out her 1979 hit "I Will Survive"--and noted that despite the song's decades of popularity, she has never made a cent from its airplay.

From the People section: Michael Wilson begins as national director for the liberal lobbying group Americans for Democratic Action this week. Most recently, he was a chief lobbyist for the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union; Mike Smith's new public-affairs firm aims to find the intersection between politics and social media. Smith did press and advance on the Obama presidential campaign, and he was communications director of the brief presidential bid of Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va.; the Nuclear Threat Initiative hired Mark Kitchens as its chief communications officer. The former Clinton administration official was most recently at AARP.