Sunlight Foundation

Press Articles & Mentions Archives

September 2007

• LA Daily News - Earmarks: Mum's the word

  Congress' Golden State members are among the growing chorus calling for more transparency in the federal budget process - but some insist on keeping their own requests for pet projects shrouded in secrecy.

• Las Vegas Sun - Ensign: Mystery senator not me

  Sen. John Ensign not only threw himself into a long-running battle over campaign finance this week, he also has taken a star role in a whodunnit Washington mystery.

• Las Vegas SUN - Campaign funding watchdogs suspicious as Ensign steps in

  In the final days before elections, out of nowhere some candidates get infusions of cash. They blast ads, tar their opponents and go on to win.

• Great Falls Tribune - State delegation leads way to federal transparency

  Transparency is a buzzword heard around the halls of power for the past couple of years, though exactly what it means surely varies with the user.

• The Hill - Ensign scrambles to explain objections to disclosure bill

  Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) found himself in a tough position Tuesday as he tried to explain why there had been a secret hold on popular bill aimed at forcing candidates for the Senate to disclose their campaign-finance reports electronically.

• Roll Call - Mystery Still Surrounds Senate Filing Hold

  Despite the entry of Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) into the controversy over who is blocking a bipartisan Senate campaign finance bill, Democrats and government watchdogs said Tuesday that they are still nonplussed as to who is holding up the measure and why.

• The Billings Gazette - Gazette Opinion: A united front for openness

  We applaud this now-unanimous, three-out-of-three commitment to open government.

• Newsday.com - Did nursing home company buy Schumer's help?

  Faced with a crisis over complaints about its treatment of Filipino nurses, Long Island nursing home group SentosaCare turned for help last year to a friendly politician it had supported in the past -- Sen. Charles Schumer.

• The Associated Press State & Local Wire - Montana delegates first to post schedules online

  Montana's congressional delegation has become the first in the nation to post their schedules on the Internet, earning praise from advocates of open government.

• The Hill - Seeing no downside, more lawmakers reveal details of their work schedules

  Do you know where your congressman is? Until recently, few aside from staffers could have answered ³yes.² But under increased pressure from watchdogs and the public, more lawmakers are disclosing with whom they¹re meeting, as well as when and where.

• Roll Call - 'Hotlined' Bills Spark Concern

  Senate conservatives are upset that the leaders of both parties in the chamber have in recent years increasingly used a practice known as “hotlining” bills — previously used to quickly move noncontroversial bills or simple procedural motions — to pass complex and often costly legislation, in some cases with little or no public debate.
  

• The Chicago Tribune - Board complicates Weller asset claim

  Without fanfare, the wife of Rep. Jerry Weller (R-Ill.) formed a not-for-profit corporation this summer dedicated to helping children in her native Guatemala.

• The Courier-Journal - Election 2008: Will it be about the past, the future - or both?

  Not to belabor the point, since many others have made it, but Sen. Mitch McConnell seems to be taking his re-election challenge especially seriously.

• The Baltimore Examiner - GPS technology gets to the ‘route’ of the problem

  BALTIMORE - Technology is a wonderful thing when it works.

• The Washington Post - Pet Projects' Veil Is Only Partly Lifted

  Rep. Rahm Emanuel was extremely proud when the House passed a major spending bill early this year that contained not a single special-interest project. "This is an earmark-free bill," the Illinois Democrat jubilantly declared on Feb. 1.