Keep reading for today’s look at #OpenGov news, events and analysis including a notable retirement at the GSA, a right to information law in Paraguay, and cleaning up corruption in Mexico. 

National News

• Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is betraying a bit of the independent status he enjoyed as the head of the Big Apple. The Billionaire recently sent $2.5 million to the Senate Majority PAC, a super PAC working to support Democrats. (Roll Call)
• The GSA executive that blew the whistle on excessive conference spending early in 2012 is stepping down this year. Susan Brita, the whistleblowing Deputy Administrator, made it a few years longer than several officials involved in the scandal, including the then head of the agency, who were forced out shortly after the story broke. (Government Executive)
• Opinion: The Justice Department’s recent victory in the DC Circuit allowing the agency to keep Office of Legal Counsel opinions related to an FBI plan to collect phone and financial records without subpoena or court order is merely the latest strike against President Obama’s initial commitment to transparency. (New York Times)

International News

• 20 years after Paraguay instituted a constitution guaranteeing citizens a right to public information the country is on the verge of passing a law that would allow citizens to exercise that right. (Opening Parliament)
• The Philippine Bureau of Customs is trying to move itself past its history of corruption with a transparency portal that aims to list products that are imported into the country. (Future Gov)

State and Local News

• The Mexican municipality of Tlajomulco de Zuniga has made great strides over the past four years to decrease local corruption. In 2009 the city held the inauspicious title of most corrupt municipality in a country that is not always considered very ethical. Thanks to some innovative projects, including a participatory budgeting program, the city is shedding that label and cleaning up its act. (Tech President)

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