Day 3! Today's blog I'm thankful for is Missouri's Turner Report who's investigating has been a Local Sunlight staple. The author Randy Turner, a former  journalist, covers Missouri politics and is not afraid to do some digging.  For example, this week there is a post on who in the Missouri legislature gets the most gifts from lobbyists.

Turner does a great job digging into influence, money in politics and just general shadiness that shows up in Missouri from time to time.  One of my favorite stories is from the first time I highlighted the blog:

In Missouri, the Turner Report discusses the Democratic nomination of Michele Kratky to a Missouri House seat. The strange part is that she is being nominated to replace her husband, Fred Kratky. Why you ask? Mr. Kratky is leaving his state house seat to be a lobbyist for the St. Louis Association of Realtors. What is the problem? Mrs. Kratky just happens to be a lobbyist for the St. Louis Association of Realtors. What a strange game of musical chairs.

Every week I climb into the depths of the local political blogosphere to find the Sunlight. I use this series to highlight local blogs that do a great job of covering local, state, and congressional political news.  This week I have highlights from Oklahoma, Missouri and Hawaii.

In Oklahoma, Batesline has a quick post about the city of  Tulsa’s charter being in PDF form on their Web site.  This wasn't alright for Beau McElhattan who made a hyperlinked HTML version of the charter and city policies and procedures.  I think everyone knows how Sunlight feels about PDFs.  Which is why I think someone taking the initiative to turn a PDF into a HTML linked document is fantastic!  It shows that this measure really isn't hard and cities and town can do it easily if they ask someone who knows how.

In Missouri, The Turner Report has a post highlighting the relationship between bills introduced and campaign contributions given.  The Senate President Pro Tem Charlie Shields represents a district with casino interests, in turn, he receives a great deal of campaign donations from casinos, then he introduces pro casino legislation.  There isn't anything wrong with this, in fact it makes sense, however Turner Report makes a good point.  This information should be public and not just for Shields but for all elected officials.  There isn't anything necessarily wrong with pressing legislation that an interest from district wants, but it shouldn't be hidden.

In Hawaii, Ian Lind has a post on the University of Hawaii Board of Regents possible violations of Sunshine Laws.  Apparently Hawaii’s Sunshine laws are very specific regarding closed to the public meetings.  If a public entity has a closed to public meeting they must have a schedule, detailing everything that will be discussed, available before hand.  However, the UH Board of Regents had a meeting and discussed a topic that was not on the schedule.  The Board is open to some repercussions, but this is clearly a case where the law is clear and there should be consequences.

Every week I climb into the depths of the local political blogosphere to find the Sunlight. I use this series to highlight local blogs that do a great job of covering local, state, and congressional political news. This week I have highlights from  Missouri, Maryland, Louisiana, Arizona, and Minnesota

In Missouri, The Turner Report has a post about an earmark the Center for Public Integrity reported on obtained by Rep.  Roy Blunt.  Blunt got a 4 million earmark for EaglePicher a client of his former chief of staff Gregg Hartley. Clearly there is some revolving door can't be stopped.

In Maryland, Brian Griffiths has a post about the earmarks Sen. Mikulski has been getting for her top campaign contributors. She has gotten $42.1 million total for three companies Northrop Grumman, Thales Communications, and L-3 Communications who also have been giving her a generous campaign contributions over the years.

In Louisiana, We Could Be Famous has a post about Louisiana's Ethics Review Board trying to dodge a disclosure requirement. Government organizations who spend more than $10,000 a year have to file financial disclosure forms. However, the Ethics Review Board requested an exemption to disclosing and was granted the request. If the ethics board gets a pass I wonder what other agencies get one too?

AZ Central has a post about the city of Surprise, Arizona's  proposals to build public trust had a few financial mishaps recently and so the city decided to clean up its image. They want to hire an outside auditor to review the books; they will be creating a searchable Web site of city spending. The interesting part of the spending Web site will be that they will update the site when the checks are written not later.  I look forward to seeing the site.

Bluestem Prairie goes looking for stimulus spending. There has been a good deal of research into what the problems of tracking the money given to states has been. There is apparently no one state or federal agency that maintains a comprehensive public list of projects and no one central clearing house for everything. Recovery spending and its affects are hard to determine.  This makes judging Recovery's affectiveness impossible.

Every week I climb into the depths of the local political blogosphere to find the Sunlight. I use this series to highlight local blogs that do a great job of covering local, state, and congressional political news. This week I have highlights from Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada  and Texas.

Maryland Politics Watch has a list of where to find the earmark requests for Maryland's congressional delegation. The lawmakers from Maryland have requested over$1 billion in earmarks appropriations combined. I wonder if the links go to their transportation earmarks too.

Mississippi's Yall Politics has a post detailing what FedEx has spent on lobbying and how much they have given to former senator Trent Lott's lobbying firm. Apparently FedEx has been lobbying on the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act and the part of the bill that deals with making workers organize with the  International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

In Missouri, Turner Report has a revolving door post about a former state Sen. John Loudon who is returning to the state capitol has a lobbyist.  One of his first clients just happens to be a firm that is run by his wife.

Nevada's Desert Beacon has a great post about the lobbying money around health care.  Blue Cross and Blue Shield apparently spent $1.8 million to date.  With that kind of money floating around there have definitely been a lot of parties happening around health care.

Texas Watchdog has a post highlighting a story about a state Rep. Wayne Christian who apparently wrote an amendment to a bill that would allow only the area of around his beach front property to be developed on.  Apparently in Texas it is illegal to build on public beaches, however, Rep. Christian felt a exemption should be allowed.