Government

• U.S. CTO lauds application of healthcare data: US CTO Todd Park, a keynote speaker at the third annual Health Datapalooza, praised the “ecosystem” of healthcare data-based applications as being “out of control.” This sentiment was echoed by Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, who spoke at the same event. (FedScoop)

State and Local

• State campaign financing tends to be less than transparent: Only six states scored above a C+ on the State Integrity Investigation’s political financing category. Wyoming, the state ranked last, imposes no limits on individual–even lobbyist–donations in state elections, and there is no agency monitoring this process. (State Integrity Blog)

• Colorado launches new and improved data website: The new site, data.colorado.gov, not only provides numerous options for data visualization but also provides bulk data for app development. (GovTech)

International

• European giants seek to decrease EU transparency: Countries such as the UK, France, and Germany are pushing to amend a EU transparency policy that would make it more difficult for the public to access documents, among other things. (Access Info Europe)

• Transparency group wins Rwandan good governance award: Transparency International Rwanda received an award from the Rwandan Governance Board for implementing a suggestion box system in local government offices as a means of communicating problems in their local government. (allAfrica)

Campaign Finance

• Walker scores victory in Wisconsin with help from outside spending: Walker defeated Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in a recall challenge that set a new gubernatorial voter turnout record. Walker had a 7-1 fundraising advantage and a nearly 20-1 advantage in outside spending. (iWatch News)

• Did outside spending actually influence Wisconsin voters?: An exit poll stated that 88% of voters had already decided before May for whom they were voting, suggesting that the outsider-funded ads that flooded television networks, radio stations, and telephone lines had little to no impact on most voters. (Washington Post Politics)

• Tobacco giants’ giant contributions hidden on website: A self-described “partial list” of donors to the coalition “Californians Against Out-of-Control Taxes & Spending” that spent over $45 million to successfully repeal California’s Proposition 29, which would have implemented an extra tax on cigarettes to fund cancer research and smoking reduction programs, did not include two donors that accounted for over two-thirds of the money given: tobacco companies Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds. (Republic Report)