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.

In light of the unfolding scandal involving Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, USA Today ranks the states on their level of corruption with some surprising results. They determine the ranking by comparing the states' public corruption convictions per 100,000 residents from 1998 through 2007. Surprisingly enough, the rating system determined that North Dakota has been the most corrupt state over the past decade. And Illinois, a state who's last governor was convicted in 2006 for corruption and now its current chief executive was arrested Tuesday only ranks as the 18^th most corrupt. USA Today includes an interactive map that tells you for each state the number of convicts over the decade, its population and the per capita convictions.

The paper interviewed the director of the North Dakota Center for the Public Good who gives some context. He said that North Dakotans know their public officials better than many larger states, and as a result are better at rooting out corruption when it occurs. Also, he said the state has encouraged bad government practices in some cases by weakening disclosure laws. Plus, the state does not require candidates for state office to disclose their campaign expenses.