Here are some of the more interesting media mentions of Sunlight and our friends and allies over the past week:

Last Saturday afternoon, C-SPAN broadcast an interview of Ellen Miller, Sunlight's executive director, discussing how the Internet is being used to provide transparency in the workings of government.

The Associated Press used data from the Center for Responsive Politics Chevron Corp. spent more than $12.8 million lobbying the federal government in the first half of this year, in an attempt to influence pending climate-change legislation and taxes targeting oil producers. So far this year, the oil giant has almost matched the $12.9 million they spent lobbying in all of 2008.

The Foreign Lobbying Influence Tracker, the searchable database that allows users to easily follow the money and connect the dots within records of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) database, launched this week. ProPublica and Sunlight teamed up on the project that allows anyone to quickly learn what foreign governments are lobbying whom, how often and about what. Alex Knott with CQ Politics covered the launch and quotes Ellen saying how information contained on the site shows how effective lobbyists can be. "While it brings needed transparency to these filings, it raises the question of what lobbyists for health care, energy and other interests -- who disclose far less information -- are up to in Washington," she said. In this morning's "In the Loop" column, The Washington Post's Al Kamen highlighted the Tracker. "What? You don't have a registered foreign agent working for you?" he asked. "Everyone's got one. Even the Dalai Lama!"

Katherine Mangu-Ward, senior editor of Reason magazine, writing at The Wall Street Journal, penned a column titled "Transparency Chic," where she highlights several efforts by private groups and individuals to pry open government information. "Tech celebs like Craigslist founder Craig Newmark and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales have flocked to the Sunlight Foundation, which uses the Internet to improve meaningful access to government," she wrote.

ABC News' David Wright reported on the health care debate and includes a quote from Bill Allison, Sunlight's senior fellow, about the special interests attempts to influence the health care debate. Bill explained who's working for who: "Insurance companies battling providers. Drug companies battling insurance companies. Hospitals going to war against nursing homes. All kinds of institutions are looking to protect their interests."

McClatchy Newspapers editorialized about how the Obama administration is continuing some of the opaque practices of the Bush administration despite promises to the contrary. They cite Ellen's blog post from last week about the need for the White House to list presidential signing statements on its Web site in an easy-to-find manner as an example. A number of McClatchy papers ran the editorial, including The (Colorado Springs, Colo.) Gazette.

Over the weekend, Charles Savage at The New York Times had an important article on how President Obama's use of signing statements --  written pronouncements sometimes issued by presidents when they sign bills into law --has begun to mirror his predecessor's, creating similar criticism and controversy. (The last president was prolific in the use of signing statements.)

Here's a list along with links to of all of President Obama's signing statements so far. But I didn't find this list on WhiteHouse.gov where I thought it would be...And where it should be! If you go the White House you won't find an explicit listing of the statements. They might be there...they could be in the  97-page list of "Statements and Releases." And the site's search function was of no help. Not good. Not good at all.

We found them however at a site maintained by Joyce Green, a private attorney, who maintains a Web site that lists all the presidential signing statements since 2001. Green built the website for two reasons: (1) to provide free, convenient public access to the signing statements; and (2) to provide an objective, nonpartisan, and reliable research tool for reporters, scholars, lawyers, and anyone who is interested in signing statements. Green's site is mirrored by Pace University Law School, with her permission, and it will eventually take over the materials and Green's Web site soon disappear.

The practice of signing statements has created lots of controversy, such as when a statement proclaims some part of the legislation is unconstitutional and the administration intends to ignore it. President George W. Bush created controversy by issuing numerous signing statements that declared sections of bills unconstitutional.  In July 2006, the American Bar Administration declared that using signing statements to modify the meaning of passed legislation undermined "the rule of law and our constitutional system of separation of powers".

While running for president, now President Obama was critical of Bush's use of the statements and called them an “abuse,” promising to show greater restraint. As Savage wrote at The Times, the Obama administration says the signing statements the president has signed so far, challenging portions of five bills, have been based on mainstream interpretations of the Constitution and echo reservations routinely expressed by presidents of both parties.

That may be all well and good, but our concern is less about the constitutional law issues involved, but on the need for transparency in the process. If the president is refusing to enforce legislation passed by Congress then we have a right to know about it. And the administration should make it easy to find on its Web site. This is a problem easily solved.