Sunlight Foundation

Press Articles & Mentions Archives

Press Articles &Mentions for 2008

• Washington Post - e-Hail To the Chief

  "Fired up, ready to go -- that was the campaign slogan," says a beaming Ernest E. Johnson on a recent Saturday. A real estate agent and longtime Washington activist, the 60-year-old worked the streets and the Internet, networking and organizing to make sure Barack Obama got elected president.

• Examiner Newspapers - Newshounds should stay on Rangel's scent

  Veteran investigative journalist Bill Allison asked an important question not long ago on the Sunlight Foundation blog. After detailing 2008's many revelations of conflicts of interest and other apparent abuses by Rep. Charlie Rangel, the New York Democrat who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, Allison noted that major amounts of time and money were invested by the media organizations that uncovered his unethical behavior. But the media heat seems to have cooled more recently, and Allison observed that "it will be interesting to see how long reporters stick with this."

• Syracuse Post Standard - Walsh often spoke of Syracuse

  Capitolwords.org is a Web site created by the Sunlight Foundation to track the most-used words by members of Congress ...

• Washington Examiner - OpEd: Earmarking funds Moran’s campaigns

  Earmarking tax dollars and tucking them into bills has become commonplace in Congress over the past several years. But most Americans are unaware of how earmarks add to inflation and huge deficits.

• Reuters UK - Word-for-word, Congress big on health, energy

  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The most commonly used words in Congress over the last two years were "health," "energy" and "security," says a website that sifts through Capitol Hill's abundant rhetoric in search of deeper meaning.

• USA TODAY - Bill Clinton discloses foundation donors

  WASHINGTON — Former president Bill Clinton accepted tens of millions of dollars from foreign governments and Democratic donors with corporate and Hollywood ties to help build his non-profit foundation and presidential library, according to a list of contributors made public for the first time Thursday.

• National Journal - Pay and Play

  Now that's convenience. It turns out that the most popular spots for D.C. political fundraisers are all helpfully located near the Capitol. The Sunlight Foundation and its Party Time project gathered 2,117 invitations to parties that helped finance campaign committees and leadership PACs in 2008 and sorted them by locale. No. 1 is the National Republican Club of Capitol Hill, which hosted 248 parties. Johnny's Half Shell comes in second, and third is the National Democratic Club. Other hot spots in the top 10: Bistro Bis, Tortilla Coast, Sonoma Restaurant and Wine Bar, the Monocle, and a Capitol Hill townhouse owned by lobbyist Timothy Rupli. Members can easily run "from a fundraising event where they're collecting checks from lobbyists with a stake in an issue straight to the House or Senate floor to vote about that very subject," said Nancy Watzman, director of the Party Time project. "It shows how blatant it all is."

• Congressional Quarterly Weekly - Now, to Bridge a Deep Partisan Divide

  The message of Barack Obama's presidential campaign was simple. Tired of the knee-jerk partisanship that has broken Washington and made it impossible to solve big problems? Vote for a grown-up who can break the cycle.

• Salt Lake Tribune - Chaffetz joins ranks of Twittering politicians

  Rep.-elect Jason Chaffetz is bypassing the traditional media filter to talk directly to the people of Utah. He just has to keep it shor

• CNET News - Congress scores low grade on Net communication

  Attempts by Congress and grassroots advocacy groups to employ different technologies to communicate with each other have done more harm than good, a new report says.

• Mercury News - Obama team shifts from online campaigning to more accessible government

  WASHINGTON — Pushing for greater openness and participation in government, Barack Obama and his team are making the leap from Internet campaigning to Internet governing. Their goal: a series of new online ventures to make his presidency more accessible.

• Politico - Where's transparency of Podesta group?

  Barack Obama’s transition has set a high standard for transparency, putting the details of its contributors online sooner than required, and even demanding that former President Bill Clinton reveal the 200,000-plus donors to his personal foundation.

• The Front Page Magazine - Dashed Hopes

  Throughout his presidential campaign, Barack Obama vowed to “free the executive branch from special interest influence” and pledged that none of his appointees would be “permitted to work on regulations or contracts directly and substantially related to their prior employer for two years.” Obama’s own ethics rules, moreover, bar lobbyists from working on his transition team in areas in which they have exerted any influence during the previous year. But at least one nominee has managed to evade the president-elect’s promised scrutiny of lobbyists: Tom Daschle, Obama’s current health care policy adviser and his nominee as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

• Washington Post - You Mean We Can Talk Back?

  Sometimes, the change is enough to make your head spin. This is one of those moments.

• Congressional Quarterly Weekly - Cover Story: A Dome Under Lock and Key

  In early August 2007, as the House moved rapidly to pass legislation modifying the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act before its summer recess, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle seemed uncertain about the details of the bill they were debating. There had been intense negotiations with the White House, and only a handful of House members had been briefed on the details of the bill.

• Cox News Service - Obama White House To Embrace New Web Tools And Reach

  Presidential addresses on YouTube. Online chats with administration officials. And millions of energized Barack Obama backers ready for the next e-mail or text message calling them to action.

• Sunday Times - Political life shouldn’t be a family affair

  We all despise nepotism, but don’t we just love a dynasty? We are intrigued by the fatal glamour of political clans like the Kennedys and Bhuttos, the cascading wealth of Windsors and Rothschilds, the artistic talent gliding through generations of Waughs or Renoirs. Even the random trashiness of our celebrity culture cannot escape — why else did Carol Thatcher become queen of the jungle a few years ago?

• Newsweek - Obama harnessed the grass-roots power of the Web to get elected. How will he use that power now?

  Barack Obama is the first major politician who really "gets" the Internet. Sure, Howard Dean used the Web to raise money. But Obama used it to build an army. And now, that army of digital kids expects to stick around and help him govern. Crowd-sourced online brainstorming sessions? Web sites where regular folks hash out policy ideas and vote yea or nay online? A new government computer infrastructure that lets people get a look into the workings of Washington, including where the money flows and how decisions get made? Yes to all those and more. "This was not just an election—this was a social movement," says Don Tapscott, author of "Grown Up Digital," which chronicles the lives of 20-somethings raised on computers and the Web. "I'm convinced," Tapscott says, "that we're in the early days of fundamental change in the nature of democracy itself."

• New York Times - A Rewired Bully Pulpit: Big, Bold and Unproven

  Roughly 10 million of Barack Obama’s closest friends and supporters began opening their e-mail in-boxes last Tuesday to find a message from his campaign manager, David Plouffe, labeled “Where we go from here.” In it, Mr. Plouffe asked backers to “help shape the future of this movement” by clicking to an online survey, which in turn asked them to rank four priorities in order of importance.

• DC Examiner - Obama Should Use Technology to Bring About Real Change

  The history of the American experiment has seen a constant struggle for fundamental change and reinvention. President-elect Obama ran on change, and now faces high expectations for a radical transformation in how the public relates to the presidency.

• Linux News - By the People: Citizen Involvement the Open Source Way

  Everything's going open source Rackspace is the expert when it comes to delivering Windows and Linux hosting solutions. Click here to learn more. Latest News about open source nowadays. Why not government?

• Roll Call - Op-ed: Is It Too Much to Ask Congress to Read Bills Before Voting?

  When Members of Congress moved to bail out Wall Street, they settled on a tried and true, “old school” legislative tactic: Don’t give anyone a chance to read the bill. Negotiations were done in secret, staffers were forced to leave their BlackBerrys at the door and the bill was dropped less than 24 hours before a vote was held.

• Marketplace - Early lessons for Dems in fundraising

  Steve Chiotakis: The election's over, time to think now about swearing in. But before the officiating starts, incoming Democrats are at this very moment learning the value of money in politics. Congressmen John Dingell is co-hosting a fundraiser for the freshmen today. Here's Marketplace's Nancy Marshall Genzer.

• St. Louis Times Dispatch - Obama reaches out to the young with first weekly YouTube talk

  President-elect Barack Obama delivered the weekly Democratic address on YouTube on Saturday, speaking not just on radio but — a presidential first — in an Internet video as well.

• Federal News Radio - Goverment Transparency

  John Wonderlich, Program Director of the Sunlight Foundation, speaks with Federal News Radio about Sunlight's open letter to the incoming Obama administration and government transparency

• Washington Post - Role of Federal Tech Czar to Be Defined by Obama

  The most talked-about tech job in government is one that never before existed.

• The Washington Post - The YouTube Presidency

  Today, President-elect Obama will record the weekly Democratic address not just on radio but also on video -- a first. The address, typically four minutes long, will be turned into a YouTube video and posted on Obama's transition site, Change.gov, once the radio address is made public on Saturday morning.

• ABC News - Government Rescue Spending: Clear or Cloudy?

  How much will the AIG bailout ultimately cost? What are the banks applying for the government's $250 billion capital purchase plan? Who is the Federal Reserve lending to and how can taxpayers be assured they'll get their money back?

• McClatchy News - How will President Obama wield his vast Internet army?

  WASHINGTON — A powerful new lobbying force is coming to town: Barack Obama's triumphant army of 3.1 million Internet-linked donors and volunteers.

• Roll Call - Scandalized Lawmakers Face Voters

  While there’s never a shortage of scandal on Capitol Hill — the sins of lawmakers exposed in recent months range from secret love children to unpaid taxes — misdeeds in the 110th Congress just aren’t generating a commotion this cycle.

• Aspen Times - Letter to the Editor: Information is empowering

  Dear Editor: Disclosure of the campaign contributions that fund our political candidates is the bedrock of our system of making politicians more open and honest. As some Aspenites note in your article “Internet donation information makes some Aspenites uneasy,” (Oct. 30) the availability of this information has improved dramatically thanks to the Internet.

• Bloomberg News - U.S. Chamber Focuses on Congress, Bows Out of Presidential Race

  Former ``Sopranos'' television star Vincent Curatola has a new role: Helping the U.S. Chamber of Commerce try to stop Senate Democrats from winning a 60-vote supermajority.

• Agence France-Presse - A web guide to the US election

  WASHINGTON -- The following are some of the most popular and useful resources on the web about the US election campaign:

• Chronicle Philanthropy - The Politics of Giving: Employees of Big Nonprofit Groups Give Mostly to Democrats

  Janet Marcotte, executive director of YWCA Tucson has contributed $4,600, the maximum amount allowed by law, to help Sen. Barack Obama become president. She also attended the Democratic National Convention as a volunteer and traveled to New Mexico to help drum up support for the Illinois senator.

• Bill Moyer Journal PBS - Can Washington Change?

  Bill Moyers Journal notes the Sunlight Foundation's good work this past weekend in an discussion on the pervasive nature of money in politics with Public Citizen's Joan B. Claybrook and Common Cause's Bob Edgar.

• Clarion-Ledger - Miss. congressmen agreed often on financial services legislation

  The financial meltdown threatening Americans' livelihoods has prompted finger-pointing by Republican and Democratic members of Congress over whom is to blame.

• Next Gov - Campaign advisers say CIO job should be a career position

  Federal technology chiefs should be career civil servants, not political appointees, representatives of both presidential campaigns said during a forum at the Executive Leadership Conference in Williamsburg, Va., on Tuesday.

• Clarion Ledger - Earmarks key issue in race

  In a Senate campaign with few differences on key issues, one stands out: Sen. Roger Wicker and his rival, former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, have opposing views when it comes to ways of obtaining federal money.

• National Journal Congress Daily - 527s Stuck In Port As Other Organizations Jump Into Fray

  If 2004 was the year of the 527 advocacy organization, 2008 will not produce a sequel. Although this year's "Swift Boat" attacks didn't quite connect, that doesn't mean the money disappeared. It just found new outlets.

• Women Wear Daily - Palin's Fashion-Gate

  At least someone is shopping: the Republicans and Sarah Palin.

• Wall Street Journal - EBay Founder's Philanthropic Firm to Donate More

  The billionaire founder of eBay Inc., Pierre Omidyar, is expanding his philanthropic investment firm, as some of the biggest private foundations continue to weather the growing economic turmoil.

• Washington Times - Lawmakers in safe seats raise huge sums

  If you believe the polls, plenty of lawmakers are in jeopardy of losing their seats on Election Day. But some of the biggest raisers of campaign cash are the members of Congress whose re-elections are considered a safe bet.

• Raleigh News & Observer - Column: Anti-Obama ads with Tar Heel ties

  RALEIGH - It is virtually impossible to keep up with all the advocacy groups weighing in on this election, running ads for and against candidates for governor, president and Congress. The names of the groups in the database at the Federal Elections Commission read like a list of vague, focus-group words designed to say nothing.

• Capitol News Connection - Power Breakfast

  Sunlight Foundation's Communication Director Gabriela Schneider runs downs a few surprises in the word of day according to Capitol Words with Capitol News Connection. The Power Breakfast segment aired this morning on WAMU 88.5 in DC

• The Providence Journal - Finance world big backer of Senator Reed

  WASHINGTON –– Sen. Jack Reed, a key supporting player in this month’s launch of a $700-billion rescue of the financial system, has taken a large fraction of his multimillion-dollar reelection fund from people in banking, securities, real estate and insurance — the industries with the biggest direct stake in the historic federal intervention.

• Media General - Cantor’s Mortgage Background Figured into Bailout Bill

  WASHINGTON-Rep. Eric I. Cantor's personal ties to the mortgage industry helped him play a leading role in this month's congressional debate over the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street.

• Roll Call - Heard on the Hill: This Campaign Supporter Doesn’t Sleep. He Waits.

  The Tweet Goes On ... and On. More than three dozen tech-savvy Members are now regular users of Twitter, the popular micro-blogging network that allows users to send live, first-person updates on the most mundane of their daily happenings to friends and (for Members, anyway) supporters.

• Epochh Times - Challenge to Candidates: Support Greater Transparency

  In an effort to make government more accountable, a Montreal-based organization is challenging candidates running in the federal election to take the “I Believe in Open” pledge.

• Current TV - Chris Walla DNC Blogs

  Sunlight's Communication Director Gabriela Schneider gets a quick second with Chris Walla,from the Death Cab for Cutie, on Current TV during their coverage of DNC's Big Tent.

• Medill News Service - Bailout bill’s stealthy authorship potentially problematic

  WASHINGTON – Throughout consideration of Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson’s original bailout plan, many congressmen chided regulators, including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Reserve, for allowing certain sectors of the market to run amok with little oversight and insufficient public disclosure.

• Business Week - Bailout Outrage Races Across the Web

  Arun Gupta was enraged as he learned the details of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's plan to fix the U.S. banking system with $700 billion in taxpayer funds. The 43-year-old copy editor and freelance journalist, who publishes his own alternative newspaper, The Indypendent, needed to channel his angst but couldn't find a live protest to attend. So on Sept. 22, he sent an e-mail to some politically active friends in New York. Within days, they'd planned a protest against the bailout in New York and at 80 other locations in the U.S. on Sept. 25.

• Wired - Bailout Agreement Hits the Net -Is This Transparency?

  The White House and congressional leaders agreed to the details of the $700 billion government bailout of financial institutions late Sunday afternoon and they promptly released the bill on the internet.

• Pittsburgh Post Gazette - Shock therapy

  The last time President Bush got a blank check from Congress, the United States invaded Iraq on bad intelligence with no game plan. No wonder the country is wary of handing his administration $700 billion in taxpayer-financed loan guarantees to fix the mess that its own love affair with deregulation helped create.

• Las Vegas Sun - What we can expect — and whom to blame: In Washington

  Washington — As home values tank and retirement funds disappear, it’s hard not to want to find someone to blame. As in so many cases, the sins of omission can cause just as much problem as the ones actually committed, a fact that is apparent from a cursory review of the legislative record leading up to the current economic troubles.

• The Lexington Herald-Leader - Pricey, private Davis events with finance industry fill war chest

  As the financial system began to collapse this year, U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis, R-Hebron, collected tens of thousands of dollars in campaign funds from the lobbyists, executives and political action committees of affected companies, including Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley.

• The Reno Gazette-Journal - Heller gets donations during luncheon hosted by financial services industry

  U.S. Rep. Dean Heller, R-Carson City, benefited from a $500-a-plate fundraising luncheon hosted by the financial services industry earlier this month, according to a non-profit organization focused on government transparency.

• CNN Lou Dobbs - The Big Bailout

  Sunlight Foundation's Senior Fellow Bill Allison on CNN's Lou Dobbs talking about the finance industries influence on Congress.

• CNN Lou Dobbs - Buying Influence

  Sunlight Foundation Senior Fellow Bill Allison is on CNN's Lou Dobbs talking about the financial industry buying influence in Congress.

• USA Today - Lobbyists in feeding frenzy

  WASHINGTON — The financial services industry, which has spent billions on lobbying and campaign contributions over the last decade, is scrambling to make its case for a proposed $700 billion bailout plan amid deep public skepticism.

• CNET - Tech activist takes on governments over copyrighted laws

  SEBASTOPOL, Calif.--From a corner of a nondescript office building at the edge of wine country, Carl Malamud is masterminding an electronic guerrilla war against governments across the nation. Most geeks tend to be a bit obsessive, and Malamud is no exception. He's devoted his life to liberating laws, regulations, court cases, and the other myriad detritus that governments produce daily, but often lock up in proprietary databases or allow for-profit companies to sell for princely sums.

• The Washington Times - Financial lobbyists wooed negotiators

  Key House members weighing a $700 billion Wall Street bailout have filled their campaign coffers this year at more than 250 fundraising parties hosted by financial-sector lobbyists, including a beer tasting and a Washington Redskins game, according to a watchdog group.

• Wired - Advocates Demand Congress Put Bailout Details on Internet

  The prospect of a gargantuan $700 billion Wall Street bailout agreement presents a prime opportunity for Congress, and in particular the presidential candidates, to live up to their promises of using the internet to free themselves of undue influence.

• Business Week - Bailout Outrage Races Across the Web

  Arun Gupta was enraged as he learned the details of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's plan to fix the U.S. banking system with $700 billion in taxpayer funds. The 43-year-old copy editor and freelance journalist, who publishes his own alternative newspaper, The Indypendent, needed to channel his angst but couldn't find a live protest to attend. So on Sept. 22, he sent an e-mail to some politically active friends in New York. Within days, they'd planned a protest against the bailout in New York and at 80 other locations in the U.S. on Sept. 25.

• The Indianapolis Star - Financial industry fuels campaigns

  WASHINGTON -- The hundreds of millions of dollars the financial industry has spent on campaign donations and lobbying contributed to the industry crisis that taxpayers are now being asked to fix, according to government watchdog groups. "The inability of Congress to break through the wall of money built by the financial services industry in order to directly help struggling families in this country is striking," said Common Cause President Bob Edgar.

• The Washington Post - Wall Street Scrutinized for Fraud Fat Paychecks

  The FBI's decision to investigate criminal wrongdoing at four troubled financial firms at the center of the market's dramatic shakeup represents one of the bureau's largest undertakings in years, a potentially more daunting task than the five-years-long investigation into Enron. Federal officials announced that they will probe Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and American International Group Inc., bringing to 26 the number of financial institutions under scrutiny, The Post's Carrie Johnson reports. (CNN reports that Countrywide Financial is part of the investigation, too.)

• TheHill.com - Transparency, accountability lessons reach beyond Wall St

  A recent Zogby poll shows 82 percent of Americans in favor of a ban on campaign contributions from lobbyists or representatives from the financial or national security industries. And with good reason. Over the past decade, the financial services, insurance and real estate industries contributed $1.6 billion to federal political campaigns. Those same industries spent $2.3 billion on lobbying Washington over the same time period. These billions of dollars acted as bait for some of the lawmakers who voted to deregulate the industry. Many of them now work on K Street, lobbying for the very companies they once freed from the oversight they now seek.

• Politico - Online activists rise against the bailout

  Washington has been consumed for the past week with the meltdown on Wall Street and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s proposed $700 billion bailout bill, and if you were only watching the broadcast media, you might think his side was winning. After all, Paulson dominated the Sunday morning talk shows, and the administration’s representatives, from Vice President Cheney on down, were swarming Capitol Hill urging swift passage on Paulson’s terms.

• The Minnesota Independent - The great bailout of ‘08 must-reads of the week

  Every hour of every day brings reams of fresh news reports and commentaries on the Wall Street crisis and the competing bailout proposals wending their way through Congress, but that doesn’t mean you can learn anything from most of them. David Cay Johnston, the great NYT reporter and author (Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super-Rich and Cheat Everybody Else; Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense and Stick You With the Bill) who has done more to illuminate the flim-flammery at the heart of the US tax code and Wall Street’s post-Reagan machinations, offered this warning to journalists yesterday:

• CNN - Biden, Obama helped keep ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ alive

  DEWEY BEACH, Delaware (CNN) — Although Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden routinely mocks his Republican counterpart, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, for her onetime support of the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere,” Biden and his running mate voted to keep the project alive twice.

• New York Times - Editorial: Just Click Send

  We suspect that most Senate Republicans know how to use a computer and all of the other devices of the electronic age. Which means there is no excuse — except a desire to slow the public’s right to know — for their ongoing efforts to block electronic filing of their reports on campaign donations.

• Wired - jacksonville skyline

  The Web is a haven of messy democracy. (Want to see voter engagement and healthy debate? Read any Digg comment thread.) But the ideal of transparency and participation hasn't yet infiltrated another messy democracy — the US government. That insight led Ellen Miller to cofound the Sunlight Foundation in 2006. The goal was to tap some of the Net's best-known thinkers in order to make Washington as user-friendly as a Google API. Miller, who previously headed the Center for Responsive Politics, has enlisted the likes of Esther Dyson, Lawrence Lessig, and Craig Newmark to serve as advisers. "Washington politicians like the firewall they have erected," Miller says. "They will have to be dragged into the 21st century." The next president could do the pulling — if he adopts the Internet's values of openness. Miller shares some of her current projects along with grander ideas she hopes the next president will support.

• CNN - Biden, Obama helped keep ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ alive

  DEWEY BEACH, Delaware (CNN) — Although Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden routinely mocks his Republican counterpart, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, for her onetime support of the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere,” Biden and his running mate voted to keep the project alive twice.

• Wired - The 2008 Smart List: 15 People the Next President Should Listen To

  The Web is a haven of messy democracy. (Want to see voter engagement and healthy debate? Read any Digg comment thread.) But the ideal of transparency and participation hasn't yet infiltrated another messy democracy — the US government. That insight led Ellen Miller to cofound the Sunlight Foundation in 2006. The goal was to tap some of the Net's best-known thinkers in order to make Washington as user-friendly as a Google API. Miller, who previously headed the Center for Responsive Politics, has enlisted the likes of Esther Dyson, Lawrence Lessig, and Craig Newmark to serve as advisers. "Washington politicians like the firewall they have erected," Miller says. "They will have to be dragged into the 21st century." The next president could do the pulling — if he adopts the Internet's values of openness. Miller shares some of her current projects along with grander ideas she hopes the next president will support.

• Conde Nast Portfolio.com - The Audacity of Hype

  Barack Obama was on a roll. Before a cheering crowd in Springfield, Missouri, this summer, the Democratic presidential nominee let loose with a barrage on Washington lobbyists: “So one of the things that we’ve got to do is not just change the health-care system, but we’ve also got to change our political system. And that’s why I don’t take PAC money. I don’t take money from federal registered lobbyists, because I want to answer to you when I’m in the White House. I don’t want to answer to all these fat-cat lobbyists!”

• Denver Post - Op-Ed:Partying on at the political conventions

  This was supposed to be the year of the un-party at the Democratic and Republican political conventions. A new ethics law passed in 2007 prohibited the excesses of the past by prohibiting lobbyists from feting a specific lawmaker. Then Gustav blew in, making GOP lobbyist bashes appear unseemly and prompting Sen. John McCain to call on organizers to turn them into fundraisers for hurricane victims.

• USA Today - Biden hires lobbyist to advise Senate run

  WASHINGTON — As Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama targets his Republican rival Sen. John McCain for hiring former lobbyists to work on his campaign, a key member of Obama's campaign is paying a Washington lobbyist for legal advice: his running mate, Sen. Joe Biden.

• Daily Progress (Virgina) - Energy focus of 5th race

  The two candidates vying for Virginia’s 5th District seat in Congress agree on one thing: the United States must free itself from its addiction to foreign oil.

• National Journal - Earmarks: A Wonky Villain Goes Mainstream

  When budget hawk Steve Ellis was preparing for a network news interview four years ago, his hosts warned him to stay away from an obscure, inside-the-Beltway term that they said their audience would never understand: earmark.

• Florida Times Union - Federal government: From the keyboard

  Keeping close tabs on local members of Congress isn't the exercise in frustration it used to be for the public, thanks to the Internet.

• Naples News - Parties party on in Denver, Twin Cities

  The parties were present in Denver and Minneapolis during the past two weeks.

• New West - Singing the Blues with Sen. Baucus at a Big-Dollar Political Bash

  So this is how I happened to stand in front of a stage in a nightclub in downtown Denver during the Democratic National Convention while Sen. Max Baucus belted out a rendition of Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues.”

• Inland Valley Bulletin - City OKs Baca welcome signs

  In what some might consider an unusual gesture of support, Rialto will spend $3,750 to adorn city welcome signs with an additional sign declaring the city as the home of Rep. Joe Baca, D-San Bernardino.

• Colorado Independent - Conventions highlight gaps in ethics laws

  It was one of the chief vows of the Democratic Party as it took control of both congressional chambers in 2007: to sever the cozy relationships between lobbyists and lawmakers brought to light by the Jack Abramoff scandals.

• Politico - Lobbying watchdogs on prowl at conventions

  Having tracked the intersection of money and politics from afar for years, Sheila Krumholz and Massie Ritsch slipped under the radar to watch the action up close at the two national party conventions.

• Sunday Times - Politicians are using the internet to harness your bright ideas

  When Janet Murrells tried to get some potholes repaired a few months ago, she drove into the dead end of bureaucracy. Telephones rang unanswered. Pillars turned to posts. Nobody seemed willing to take any action about the gaping holes in the road in Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, not far from where she lives.

• Wall Street Journal - Party Police Crash the Convention

  ST. PAUL, Minn. -- When most people show up at private parties and events here, the goal is to get past the velvet rope. For Nancy Watzman, half the fun is being booted.

• Dallas Morning News - AT&T has had big presences at both political conventions

  ST. PAUL, Minn. – AT&T's lobbying strategy at this summer's Democratic and Republican conventions? More bars in more places.

• Washington Times - Derided lobbyists continue to party

  They've long been derided in public by John McCain as part of what's wrong in Washington. And during prime time of the Republican convention, some were even singled out for being "corrupt." But that hasn't kept special interest lobbyists and their corporate patrons from carrying on their normal business this week in the shadows of the Republican Party event, where they are hosting many of the 200 parties and receptions in the Twin Cities.

• Pioneer Press - Party crasher sets out to expose big-money schmoozing

  The drinks were free, but more importantly, so were the mini-doughnuts.

• Roll Call - Party Vetters Say Questions Never End

  For the past several months, ethics lawyers have faced a flurry of queries as companies, lobbyists and nonprofits have grappled with the new ethics rules ahead of the national conventions.

• CQ Politics - Convention Watchdogs Sniffing Around Lobbyist Parties

  Nancy Watzman approached the velvet rope outside Brit’s Pub and Eating Establishment in Minneapolis. But her name wasn’t on the list to attend a reception for the Georgia delegation, and the bouncer turned her away politely from what was described as a private party.

• ABC World News Tonight with Charles Gibson - Money Trail: He's Baaaack! Tom DeLay Hailed as GOP Hero

  Sunlight's Executive Director Ellen Miller questions why we are seeing the reappearance of former Texas Rep.Tom Delay on ABC World News Tonight with Charles Gibson. The Brian Ross Investigative Team caught Delay-poster child of the most recent area of corruption and scandal rubbing elbows with guests at Republican National Convention events.

• Kojo Nnamdi Show - "Tweet" Wars in National Politics

  Gabriela Schneider, Communication Director at the Sunlight Foundation, talks about Let Our Congress on Kojo Nnamdi Show on NPR's WAMU 88.5. Let Our Congress Tweet is campaign to tell Congress join us where we are talking, sharing and networking-online.

• NPR Day 2 Day - Party Time at the Political Conventions

  Party Time Project's Nancy Watzman talks on NPR's Day to Day about the loopholes The Honest Leadership and Open Government Act prohibits that allow parties sponsored by deep pockeys at this year's conventions.

• ABC News - Money Trail: Tom DeLay Hailed as GOP Hero at Fundraiser

  Sunlight's Executive Director Ellen Miller questions why we are seeing the reappearance of former Texas Rep.Tom Delay on ABC World News Tonight with Charles Gibson. The Brian Ross Investigative Team caught Delay-poster child of the most recent area of corruption and scandal rubbing elbows with guests at Republican National Convention events.

• Wall Street Journal - Corporate Spending in Denver Mirrors Broader Shift to Democrats

  DENVER -- For the past decade, corporations have showered Republicans with money and attention. But this week's Democratic convention shows how much things have changed.

• USA Today - Despite storm, parties continue in St. Paul

  ST. PAUL — Beneath the carved wooden ceilings of old-time rail cars, convention delegates snacked on crab-salad sandwiches and chocolate-filled tarts Monday afternoon, all courtesy of railway giant Union Pacific.

• Washington Times - GOP gets its party on in St. Paul

  Technically, it's the politics that will draw 45,000 or so people to Minneapolis and St. Paul next week for the Republican National Convention - the big speeches, the platform, the pep rally for the fall campaign.

• The Brian Lehrer Show - DNC Coverage: Hour 2

  Nancy Watzman, Party Time Project's director, sits down with WNYC's The Brian Lehrer Show to " ..dish the details about the premiere Democratic fetes" at this year's DNC convention.

• Roll Call - She Snags the Invites But Not the Parties

  Nancy Watzman will be attending as many parties as she can at the Democratic and Republican conventions, but she’s not going for the good times. She’ll be keeping track of who’s feting whom and blogging about what she sees — provided she gets into the parties, of course.

• Associated Press - AT&T has high profile presence at Dem convention

  DENVER (AP) — AT&T is not just a phone call away at the Democratic National Convention.

• Washington Times - Lobbyists bend ears on issues in swanky settings

  DENVER | Inside a chandeliered ballroom of the Ritz Carlton hotel here Tuesday morning, Rep. Henry A. Waxman talked to a lawyer for Medtronic about an issue the big medical device company has been pushing in Congress.

• Houston Chronicle - Interest groups join the party with top Dems

  DENVER — The oil industry has arrived. Entergy, TXU, CenterPoint and Luminant are among the Texas electric utilities planting their flags here, too, through their national industry associations.

• Congressional Quarterly Politics - Fundraising Loopholes Allow Lobbyists to “Honor” Lawmakers at the Conventions

  The Democratic and Republican national conventions have long been the targets of big spending by corporations and interest groups looking to grab a piece of the political action. But they are also a rich target of opportunity for elected officials and candidates looking to pad their campaign wallets. And thanks to a loophole in the 2007 lobbying and ethics law, they also provide a channel for lobbyists to host fundraising events for individual lawmakers.

• Los Angeles Times - New ethics rules won't spoil Democratic convention parties

  WASHINGTON -- In time-honored fashion, members of Congress attending the Democratic National Convention in Denver will find a social calendar crammed with glitzy parties and lavish entertainment, all courtesy of those tireless friends of the powerful: Washington lobbyists.

• USA Today - Loopholes let lawmakers live large

  The chance to sip cocktails with actress Ashley Judd, dance to the beat of the Black Eyed Peas or listen to Willie Nelson croon country tunes. All this and more await members of Congress at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

• Congressional Quarterly - Watchdogs Monitor Party Circuit

  Lobbyists beware: Watchdog groups are making the rounds to monitor convention-goers’ compliance with new ethics rules and call attention to events where corporate sponsors wine and dine members of Congress and their aides.

• Arizona Republic - Conventions lure corporate lobbyists

  Now that the presidential candidate is determined long before each party's national convention, the events have lost most of the drama that used to rivet the delegates.

• Reuters - Business puts the party in party conventions

  Corporate America is lavishing parties on Democrats and Republicans at their presidential nominating conventions, defying promises by lawmakers to "drain the swamp" of special-interest influence in government.

• The Hill - Watchdogs turn into party-crashers, out on the hunt for ethics violations

  Members of Congress and their staffs should be aware: The ethics police are out in force in Denver, and they’re watching you.

• Computerworld - Following political conventions the Web 2.0 way

  In 2004, the Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC) provided official press credentials to about 30 bloggers to cover the party's convention.

• WAMU - The Parties' Parties

  Party Time project director Nancy Watzman sits down with Kojo Nnamdi Show in Denver to discuss who is paying for parties what lobbyists are hoping to get for their mone at this year's DNC convention in Denver.

• Bloomberg News - AT&T, Visa Plan Parties With Lawmakers at Political Conventions

  New ethics rules barring lavish parties for individual members of Congress at the national political conventions won't stop AT&T Inc. and other influence- seekers from throwing big bashes so they can rub shoulders with lawmakers at this year's gatherings.

• Bloomberg News - Biden's Son Employed in Profession Obama Disdains: Lobbying

  Barack Obama's speech announcing his running mate Joe Biden singled out the Delaware senator's son who is headed for Iraq. Obama didn't mention the profession of Biden's other son, who lobbied for two drug companies and five universities.

• Denver Post - Bashes work around rules

  The parties will rage on through the early hours of the Democratic National Convention despite new federal and state checks on lobbyist influence that have hosts dialing up ethics lawyers before event planners.

• Las Vegas Sun - Complexities of schmoozing

  Washington — Here’s an interesting question causing much hand-wringing as the Republican and Democratic political conventions near: How much food can a lobbyist feed a member of Congress on the end of a toothpick and not violate new ethics rules that ban free meals?

• Associated Press - Conventions blend money, parties, ethics rules

  Barack Obama and John McCain have burnished images as politicians who keep special interests at arms' length, yet there won't be much stiff-arming at their nominating conventions.

• McClatchy - Valley Democrats, Republicans gear up for conventions

  WASHINGTON — San Joaquin Valley politicos will be partying with a purpose at the upcoming presidential conventions.

• The Washington Post - That's Entertainment -- or Is It?

  Former Virginia governor Mark Warner (D) is running for a Senate seat and is the keynote speaker at next week's Democratic National Convention in Denver. He also has another distinction. According to Real Time Investigations, Warner has received $206,556 from lobbyists since the beginning of the year, making him the top recipient of money contributed directly by lobbyists to congressional campaigns in 2008.

• The New York Times - Ethics Thicket for Convention Parties Crimps Events

  National party conventions are known as much for their nonstop partying as they are for their politics — a time for lobbyists, politicians and corporate executives to gather at lavish receptions and elegant dinners.

• The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) - Political conventions: Lawmakers' ethics rules full of loopholes

  WASHINGTON -- When the politically inclined refer to their respective parties in the next two weeks, they really do mean party -- as in soiree, late-night bash, cocktail reception and shindig.

• San Francisco Chronicle - Lobbyist parties for lawmakers bend rules

  Congress, pledging to clean up Washington's culture of corruption, approved a rule last year to end the practice of lobbyists or their clients throwing lavish events honoring lawmakers at the parties' national conventions.

• NY Sun - 370 Parties scheduled duirng conventions

  The nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation reports that at least 370 parties are scheduled during the presidential nominating conventions — shindigs sponsored by such high-profile companies as Bank of America, Eli Lilly, AT&T, and Anheuser-Busch. The watchdog group said the Democratic conclave in Denver will feature a late-night party at the Loft sponsored by USTelecom, among others, and a luncheon organized by financial services companies. The Republicans in Minneapolis-St. Paul will sport a reception co-sponsored by the National Association of Broadcasters and hospitality suites courtesy of Honeywell and Citigroup, among others.

• National Journal - Ethics Loophole Lets Members Party On

  It's not news that each year, the national party conventions become less about substance and more about eating, drinking, schmoozing and partying.

• The Washington Post - In a Harsh Climate for Lobbyists, the Forecast Calls for . . . More Lobbyists

  To hear the presidential candidates talk, you'd think that lobbyists were about to be exiled from the capital city.

• The Examiner - Commentary Brightest Ideas of the Week

  The details: Since the seminar on financial literacy is being sponsored by 21 financial institutions, including Bank of America, which owns Countrywide, which gave preferential loans to Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd and Sen. Kent Conrad, Bill Allison says the two lawmakers should be happy to attend.

• Pioneer Press - Pssst ... There's a great party across the river

  The motto for the unofficial state haircut — the mullet — is "Business in the front, party in the back." A similar theme may be developing for the 2008 Republican National Convention:

• Orlando Sentinel - Campaign 2008

  Despite ethics legislation banning lobbyist-funded parties for individual lawmakers, the upcoming national political conventions will offer hundreds of such events that will allow lobbyists to mingle with the folks they lobby, according to a watchdog group. The Washington-based Sunlight Foundation, as part of its "Party Time" project, on Thursday released a list of 370 parties and events -- many of them corporate sponsored -- to be held during both parties' conventions.

• Forbes.com - Party On, Governor!

  Washington, D.C. -Governors are always hot shots at national political conventions, but maybe even more so this year: New lobbying rules passed by Congress in 2007 don't apply to state and local officials--just federal lawmakers.

• Congressional Quarterly - Party Poopers?

  The Sunlight Foundation just took the fun out of one of the Capital Beltway’s most anticipated presidential election year parlor games.

• Federal Computer Week - Twitter takes flight in Congress

  A growing number of lawmakers are using Twitter, a popular social-networking tool, to communicate with their constituents, according to research by government transparency advocates.

• Minnesota Independent - At least 370 parties planned for national conventions

  There will be no shortage of parties when the Republican National Convention comes to town in September. According to a report released today by the Sunlight Foundation, there are at least 370 private galas planned for the conventions in St. Paul and Denver. The list, compiled by Washington lobbying firm Quinn Gillespie & Associates, presently includes 75 bashes slated for the Twin Cities.

• St. Louis Post Dispatch - Earmarks remain an issue in Congress

  WASHINGTON — It's spending season in Washington, as lawmakers lard up on projects and roll out press releases touting their success in snagging earmarks for their home states.

• The New York Times - Lobbyist Reports Show $181,000 for McCain

  WASHINGTON — Registered lobbyists have donated large amounts of money to Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign, even as he denounces their profession. But Democratic candidates for Congress have also raised prodigious sums from lobbyists, outdoing the Republicans, according to reports filed for the first time under a new ethics law.

• San Antonio Express - Editorial: Earmark disclosure should be required

  In the fight against wasteful earmarks in federal spending, information is the most effective weapon.

• Frederick News Post - Editoral: Bad form

  One of the things the Nixon-era Watergate Scandal bequeathed us — specifically, to our public officials — was the Ethics in Government Act.

• Roll Call - What, Not Where Should Govern Internet Postings

  On June 24, Rep. Mike Capuano (D-Mass.) sent a letter to House Administration Chairman Robert Brady (D-Pa.) urging the committee to update its guidelines governing Member Web sites. While Capuano’s proposal improved the status quo, it ignores the current practice by House Members.

• CNN - Congress wades through 'tweets'

  WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Forget the stamps, I will text you. That's what a handful of congressmen seeking to communicate with voters in real time are telling constituents.

• Glenn Post Star - Editoral: Congressional earmarks posted on Sunlight Foundation Web site

  Congressional earmarks, those pork barrel projects that pad the federal budget, had long been a big secret to most taxpayers. That’s because members of Congress didn’t like to let the general public know who was influencing them.

• Orange County Register - Congressman has financial stake in O.C. tollway

  One of Congress' strongest supporters of the Foothill tollway's controversial southern extension steered taxpayer money to and lobbied for the project while holding a financial interest in a connected tollway.

• The Examiner - Commentary - There they go again, stifling free speech

  Congressman Michael Capuano probably means well – and Big Government enthusiasts always try to sound like they really do – but I've never met the man, so I don't know for sure.

• Politico - McCain takes lead in transparency race

  John McCain today fired the latest round in his battle with Barack Obama over campaign finance transparency.

• The New York Times - In House, Tweets Fly Over Web Plan

  It began with a twitter from one of Capitol Hill's best-known technophiles.

• Congress Daily - Rules Panel’s Foray Into Online Video A Bit More Collegial

  The Senate Rules Committee will soon consider a proposal that would modify the chamber’s Internet usage rules in an effort to clarify the circumstances under which members are allowed to place videos on external Web sites.

• Roll Call - Teaching Can Pay Off

  Most part-time university professors are paid quite modestly, but that rule does not appear to apply to some Members of Congress who dabble in academia.

• Roll Call - Congress Fails When It Comes to Disclosure

  Every year on June 15 (unless given an extension), lawmakers release disclosure reports revealing their personal finances for the public to inspect. This year, in the wake of revelations that two Senators received preferential loan treatment from lender Countrywide Financial, the release of these reports highlights the failures inherent in the personal financial disclosures requirements.

• Time Magazine - The Citizen Watchdogs of Web 2.0

  From John Edwards' haircut to Hillary Clinton's tear, Web videos have played a well-publicized role in generating buzz about this year's presidential candidates. As influential as those viral clips may be, though, a broader role is arising for so-called voter-generated content. Civic-minded techies are increasingly bringing Web 2.0 to political activism, developing new watchdog tools that open up congressional machinery for ordinary citizens to scrutinize and critique.

• The Daily Journal (NJ) - N.J. earmarks target military bases, hospitals

  WASHINGTON -- New Jersey House members have inserted $53 million worth of special projects called "earmarks" for military bases, hospitals and universities in bills that would set the spending levels or lay out funding priorities for 2009.

• The NY Times - Watchdogs Ask: What About the Bundlers?

  Prominent campaign finance watchdog groups have written letters to Senators Barack Obama and John McCain asking them to reveal more about their bundlers -- those wealthy, well-connected people who are adept at bringing in campaign cash from others.

• Orlando Sentinel - Campaign finance

  Eight political-watchdog groups Wednesday asked Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama to disclose more about the fundraising for their presidential campaigns, including new details about the fundraisers who "bundle" tens of thousands of dollars. "For those to whom much private money has been contributed, much is required," the groups wrote, noting that spending on this year's election already has topped $1 billion -- a record for this point in the campaign. The groups making the request are the Campaign Finance Institute, the Center for Responsive Politics, Common Cause, Democracy 21, the League of Women Voters of the United States, Public Citizen, the Sunlight Foundation and U.S. PIRG.

• PC Magazine - Think Past the Internet ATM

  Barak Obama's decision to refuse public financing for his presidential campaign has been seen as a sign of shrewd political pragmatism and also as an act of utter hypocrisy. But everyone seems to agree on his reasoning: The Internet made him do it. Taking public financing would limit Obama's ability to use the Internet for fund-raising, which he is very, very good at. Even now, his close-to-$300 million war chest is hefty enough to make even the richest of red-state Republicans green with envy. To be an effective president, however, Obama will have to do more with the Internet than just use it to raise money. He'll need to govern with it.

• Roll Call - Heard on the Hill

  The Sunlight Foundation, the nonprofit group that advocates for a more open Congress, launched www.capitolwords.org last week, an easy-to-read Web site that posts the single word most frequently mentioned in Congress the day before.

• Associated Press - Groups ask greater disclosure from McCain, Obama

  WASHINGTON (AP) — Eight political watchdog groups on Wednesday asked Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama to disclose more about the fundraising for their presidential campaigns, including new details about those fundraisers who "bundle" tens of thousands of dollars.

• Albany Times Union - A good example

  As she runs for her second term, Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-Greenport, is sure to be asked by voters, and her Republican opponent, what she has done for her district during her first two years in office. Her best answer might also include what she has not done: She's not taking money from those seeking what are known in Washington as "earmarks," or government funds designated for special interests. Instead, she's returned some $14,000 in contributions.

• Infomation Week - Web Sites Push For More Transparency and Accessibility In Government

  One unemployment bill before the U.S. Congress has generated more than 17,000 comments, thanks to one of many sites using technology to increase transparency, accountability, and participation in government.

• Roll Call - Veteran Ethics Aide Heads to Firm

  Longtime Congressional staffer Rob Walker has moved from the Senate Ethics Committee to the Wiley Rein law firm.

• San Antonio Express - Editorial: Public outrage fails to halt lavish spending on pork

  Pork is an easy enemy.

• KQED The Forum - Lobbying and Politics

  Ellen Miller interviewed on KQED's the Forum about the DNC , candiates and lawmakers.

• Southern Illinois - Editoral: Public needs more information on 'pork'

  THE ISSUE: Despite a 2006 Republican to Democrat power shift in the U.S. Congress and subsequent earmark reforms, the practice of lawmakers adding pet projects and contracts to legislation carried a price tag of nearly $15 billion this year. OUR OPINION: Earmarks, or pork, can create essential public works projects and needed jobs, but the process should be as public as possible.

• Chicago Sun Times - Obama closes primary season by opening up

  WASHINGTON -- When Barack Obama travels to New York for two big-dollar events in private homes tonight, the campaign will allow coverage by a print pool reporter. Obama for the first time is opening all his fund-raising events -- in private homes and public places -- to a press pool as he seeks to draw a contrast between himself and John McCain when it comes to ethics and transparency.

• Springfield News - Earmarks help benefactors' re-election bids

  WASHINGTON — When TPI Composites showed off the new armored vehicle it helped build at its growing Ohio factory in Springfield last year, company officials invited U.S. Rep. David L. Hobson as a special guest, hailing his crucial support for using the company's material in a lightweight Humvee for the Army.

• Columbus Dispatch - Editoral: Earmarks don't have to go, but the process must be changed

  Earmark doesn't have to be a dirty word, loaded with connotations of political pork, wasteful spending, cronyism and favoritism.

• Centre Daily Times - Editoral: Letting the sun shine on earmarks and on detainees

  Sunlight is bright today on congressional earmarks, here and across the country, through a special report that examines an entrenched part of Washington culture.

• The Morning Call - Earmarked for profits

  Last year's defense spending bill came with a lucrative gift for Reading-based Fidelity Technologies. Without having to compete, the firm was awarded a $3.2 million Pentagon contract.

• El Paso Times - Earmarking: Pork can bring home the bacon

  Earmarking, the process lawmakers use to add funding for "pet projects" to legislation, draws both fervent praise and severe condemnation.

• Associated Press - AP IMPACT: Pet projects still abound in Congress

  WASHINGTON (AP) -- So much for trimming the pork. The practice of decorating legislation with billions of dollars in pet projects and federal contracts is still thriving on Capitol Hill - despite public outrage that helped flip control of Congress two years ago.

• Open the Goverment.org - Open the Goverment.org's Sunshine Week panel

  Open the Government.org posted online the webcast from Sunshine Week panel we helped organize and participated in March. Sunshine week is initiative to open a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. The Sunlight's panel is the 2nd one.

• Senator Barack Obama Office - Obama and Coburn Introduce Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act of 2008

  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
  CONTACT: Michael Ortiz (Obama), John Hart (Coburn), or Bette Phelan (Carper)
  
  Legislation would expand public information available on USASpending.gov

  WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senators Barack Obama (D-IL) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) today introduced the Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act of 2008 (S.3077), which would expand the information available on USASpending.gov, as well as make the data more accessible and readable. USASpending.gov (aka "Google for Government"), created by the Coburn-Obama Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 and launched in December 2007, makes public information about nearly all Federal grants, contracts, loans and other financial assistance available in a regularly updated, user-friendly, and searchable format.

• ABC World News Tonight - New Ethics Law Still Doesn't Stop Congressional Freebies

  Despite a new ethics law designed to prevent lobbyists from paying for lush vacations for members of Congress, Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, and Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Calif., found a way to get someone else to pay for their travel to one of Hawaii's top resorts, ABC News has found. A full report will air tonight on "World News With Charles Gibson" as part of the ABC News Money Trail series.

• USA Today - Donors among those ruling on Fla., Mich. delegates in limbo

  WASHINGTON - "The Price of Power" is an ongoing series tracking the role of money and business interests in the political process.
  More than a third of the Democratic Party committee charged with deciding the fate of Michigan and Florida delegates have donated to the campaigns of Hillary Rodham Clinton or Barack Obama, a USA TODAY analysis shows.

• Newsweek - Obama’s Lobbyist Connection

  When Illinois utility Commonwealth Edison wanted state lawmakers to back a hefty rate hike two years ago, it took a creative lobbying approach, concocting a new outfit that seemed devoted to the public interest: Consumers Organized for Reliable Electricity, or CORE. CORE ran TV ads warning of a "California-style energy crisis" if the rate increase wasn't approved-but without disclosing the commercials were funded by Commonwealth Edison. The ad campaign provoked a brief uproar when its ties to the utility, which is owned by Exelon Corp., became known. "It's corporate money trying to hoodwink the public," the state's Democratic Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn said. What got scant notice then-but may soon get more scrutiny-is that CORE was the brainchild of ASK Public Strategies, a consulting firm whose senior partner is David Axelrod, now chief strategist for Barack Obama.

  
  

• San Diego Union Tribune - Rich or bankrupt?

  For a perfect example of how weak ethics rules still are for members of Congress and other high-ranking government officials, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's 2007 financial disclosure statement can't be beat.

  
  

• 2theadvocate.com - What they were worth

  Louisiana had three millionaire federal lawmakers in 1996, according to a new analysis by The Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit government watchdog group in Washington.

• Washingtonian - The Insider: Ellen Miller of the Sunlight Foundation

  Ellen Miller has spent decades around Capitol Hill looking at money’s influence on Washington. In the process she founded two groups focused on money and politics: the Center for Responsive Politics—the force behind the campaign-donation-disclosure database OpenSecrets.org—and Public Campaign. Now, as cofounder of the Dupont Circle–based Sunlight Foundation, she works to combine the open-source-technology movement with the open-government movement.

• Investor's Business Daily - It Pays To Be Elected

  It's curious how so many lawmakers enter office with little, yet accumulate tens of millions in assets over the years. Nothing wrong with building wealth, but cashing in while serving the public looks bad.

• The Nation - Good News for Transparency from Alaska's Senate Race

  I'm in Alaska this week--a state famous for both beauty and corruption--and the news here is promising for a movement towards open government. Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, who is running neck-and-neck with Ted Stevens in the race for the US Senate, announced a major ethics pledge this week.

• Conneticut Post - Obama snares most of state's superdelegates

  WASHINGTON - With 50 primaries and caucuses behind him, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama passed a significant milestone Tuesday night when he secured a majority of pledged delegates to this summer's Democratic National Convention. But he still has a way to go to secure the nomination.

  
  

• KSRO 1350 AM radio - Bill Allison discusses Fortune 535 on KSRO AM

  Senior Fellow Bill Allison discusses Sunlight's project, Fortune 535, on KSRO 1350 AM radio.

• LA Times - John McCain advisor Thomas Loeffler steps down over lobbying role

  A top fundraiser and advisor in Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign has resigned, becoming the latest of five aides to leave in recent days as McCain moves to sever ties with lobbyists.

• The New York Sun - Saudi Lobbyist Quits McCain Campaign

  A national co-chairman of Senator McCain's presidential bid, Thomas Loeffler, has quit less than a week after a report in The New York Sun highlighted his work as a registered lobbyist for Saudi Arabia.

• San Diego Union Tribune's SignOn San Diego - Colleagues' net wealth? It's tip money to Darrell Issa

  The Sunlight Foundation has set up an excellent web site where you can see how wealthy your congressman/congresswoman has gotten while in office. How are our locals faring? Be prepared for the maddening fact that lawmakers only have to give ranges for their wealth.

  
  

• Las Vegas Review Journal - '100 semesters' cut Reid's personal wealth

  Unlike many other members of Congress, it appears Sen. Harry Reid actually lost wealth during his past decade in public office.

• Wired - 8 Best: Non-Wikipedia Pedias

  Congresspedia
  "The citizen's encyclopedia on Congress"
  Fourteen members of the US House and Senate are currently under investigation. Know of others who should be? Add 'em!

• http://www.poststar.com/articles/2008/05/18/news/local/13566768.txt - Earmarked for controversy

  Two years ago, area Republican leaders urged voters to return U.S. Rep. John Sweeney to office so he could keep bringing home the bacon.

• O'Reilley Radar - Yochai Benkler, others at Harvard map current and future Internet

  Harvard's world-renowned Berkman Center for Internet & Society is celebrating its tenth anniversary with a conference called Berkman@10. I'll report here on today's sessions, which were organized as a fairly conventional symposium (although as loosely as one could run it with 450 attendees). Tomorrow will be set up as an unconference, where the audience defines most of the topics and self-organizes into small-group discussions.

• Lawerence Journal and World - In the money

  How much money does someone need these days to run for president of the United States?

• Newsday's Spin Cycle - Brookhaven's pork barrel: The wider context

  In Washington, the campaign season has made earmarks all but a dirty word. On the Albany scene, criminal charges are still pending against state Sen. Efrain Gonzalez Jr. involving his member-item spending. At City Hall in Manhattan, oddball budget practices have brought forth the term "slush fund" to apply to money allocated by Council members -- and by Mayor Mike the Maintainer, as reported here.

• Glenn Post Falls - RIGHT TO KNOW: Here comes the sun on the personal wealth in Congress

  The Sunlight Foundation, a non-partisan group dedicated to exposing the influence of big money and politics in Congress, has set up a new Web site to help citizens find out the personal wealth of their representatives in Congress.

   

• Nashville Post's Post Politics Blog - Sunlight Defends Its Reporting That Senator Bob Corker Had A Negative Net Worth

  The Sunlight Foundation defends its calculation of Senator Bob Corker's net worth:

   

• Raleigh News & Observer - Clinton wealth growing fastest

  WASHINGTON - Propelled by her husband's post-White House earnings, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's average net worth soared from red ink to $30.7 million between 2000 and 2006, the fastest financial climb among members of Congress who arrived without assets, a watchdog group reported Tuesday.

• Sacramento Bee - Clinton tops Senate in wealth increase

  WASHINGTON - Propelled by her husband's post-White House earnings, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's net worth soared from red ink to $30.7 million between 2000 and 2006, the fastest financial climb among members of Congress who arrived without assets, a watchdog group said Tuesday

• Charlotte Observer - Report names Congress' richest, poorest

  WASHINGTON --Hillary Clinton's average net worth, adjusted for inflation, grew from negative $6 million to $30.7 million between 2000 and 2006, the fastest financial climb in recent years for any member of Congress who started out with no assets, a political watchdog group reported Tuesday.

• Appeal Democrat - Herger's wealth about $12.2 million

  WASHINGTON - Rep. Wally Herger is the 43rd wealthiest member of Congress, according to a study released Tuesday.

  
  

• The Press Democrat - Woolsey's wealth surges, mirroring trend in Congress

  Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, has come a long way financially from her days as a single mother on welfare in the late 1960s, with a net worth of $681,511 in 2006, a watchdog group reported.
  
  Woolsey's average net worth has more than quadrupled in the last 11 years, rising from $119,675 in 1995, according to the nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation.
  
  In comparison, the average American family's average worth has increased 31 percent from 1995 to 2006, the group said.
  
  Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, had a 5 percent increase in net worth from $1.7 million in 1998 to $1.8 million in 2006.
  
  But Thompson, a former state legislator and vineyard owner, and Woolsey, a former Petaluma city councilwoman and personnel agency owner, are comparative paupers among their 535 peers on Capitol Hill, many of them multi-millionaires whose fortunes have recently soared.
  
  Two Californians, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), are the wealthiest federal lawmakers.
  
  Harman, married to Harman International chairman Sidney Harman, had a worth of $409 million in 2006, up $168 million, or 70 percent, from $241 million in 2000.
  
  Issa, who built a fortune in the electronics industry, ranks second at $337 million in 2006, but his gain of $210 million, or 165 percent since 2000 was the largest in Congress.
  
  The Sunlight Foundation posted on its Web site the first-ever comparison of the House and Senate members' latest available net worth with their earlier disclosure statements. The forms don't require any explanation for shifts of fortune.
  
  The group also noted that its figures should be taken "with a boulder-sized grain of salt," based on information from Congress' own "seriously flawed" disclosure system Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, has come a long way financially from her days as a single mother on welfare in the late 1960s, with a net worth of $681,511 in 2006, a watchdog group reported.
  
  
  

• Chattanooga Times Free Press - Tennessee: Corker disputed net worth spotlights reporting flaws

  WASHINGTON - Sen. Bob Corker's average net worth plummeted from $78.1 million in 2005 to a negative $1.8 million in 2006, according to a report compiled by the nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation, a government transparency watchdog.

  
  

   

  WASHINGTON - Sen. Bob Corker's average net worth plummeted from $78.1 million in 2005 to a negative $1.8 million in 2006, according to a report compiled by the nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation, a government transparency watchdog.

  Foundation, a government transparency watchdog.

   

• Kansas City Star - Report analyzes lawmakers’ net worth

  WASHINGTON | It almost looks like life on a game show: Some congressional members make millions, while others leave with little more than the experience.

• The Hill, - K Street in Brief

  The Sunlight Foundation , a group dedicated to pulling back the curtain on how government operates, launched a new website that lets voters sneak a peek at how well members of Congress have done for themselves in the past 11 years.

  That's how long personal financial data has been available. Sunlight is putting it online on its new site, Fortune 535 .

  The site also lets viewers compare the net worth of each lawmaker to that of the average American family and will list the wealthiest lawmakers.

  Ellen Miller, executive director of Sunlight, said the information may surprise some people.

  "Even though popular stereotypes tell us that lawmakers are all millionaires and get more wealthy the longer they serve in Congress, we found that every lawmaker profile is different," Miller said in a release.
  
  

• The Miami Herald - How much is that congressman worth?

  The Sunlight Foundation is making it a little easier to find out. The open government advocacy group has launched a new web site Fortune 535 to let constituents see "how much - or how little -" lawmakers' wealth has grown in the last 11 years - the period of time from which lawmakers' personal financial data is available

• Minneapolis Star Tribune - What are they really worth?

  The nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation on Tuesday posted the first analysis of the net worth of the 535 members of Congress. The numbers are in inflation-adjusted 2006 dollars from as far back as 1995 to 2006. Here's a look at lawmakers' rising and falling fortunes

• New York Times - Craig (of the List) Looks Beyond the Web

  Imagine what it might have been like to be Dr. Kleenex. You invent a modern miracle, the cheap paper handkerchief, and suddenly you become the person blamed for America's disposable culture, praised for a more convenient life, or both.

• KRON TV 4 San Francisco - Web 2.0- Sunlight Foundation

  Sunlight labs' Jeremy Carbaugh spoke with San Francisco's local KRON4 TV about Sunlight's online efforts to make Congress more transparency during the Web 2.0 conference last month.

• Dallas Morning News - Unique to '08: Superdelegates, Internet

  AUSTIN - Presidential superdelegates have gone unnoticed by the general public for decades, mostly a blip on the screen of Democratic nominations that are decided long before the 795 party stalwarts enter the picture to cast their largely ceremonial votes.

• Harvard Business Review - Emerging Graphic Tool Gets People Talking

  Executives seeking to engage employees in solving company problems may find hope in the emerging science of visualization, the sophisticated graphing of digital information. Our research has found that the compelling presentation of data through visualization's advanced techniques generates a surprising volume of impassioned conversations. Viewers ask questions, make comments, and suggest theories for why there's a downward trend here or a data cluster there. That level of engagement could foster the kind of grassroots innovation CEOs dream of

• The Hill - Transparency bill worked on in the open

  Public interest groups far and wide want to pull back the curtain on the federal government. To make a point, they are drafting a transparency proposal online and allowing anyone with a computer to take part in the legislative process.

• Netsqaured - Shining a Light on Politics: An Interview with Ellen Miller of The Sunlight Foundation

  You vote, right? But do you use Congresspedia, Wiki The Vote, the SuperDelegate Transparency Project, OpenSecrets.org, FedSpending.org, or PublicMarkup.org to be an informed voter? They are all projects whose creation was facilitated by the Sunlight Foundation to educate citizens and increase transparency in politics.

• Flypmedia - Best Congress Money Can Buy

  Senior fellow, Bill Allison is interviewed by Flyp Media, an online current affairs magazine, for a piece about money's influence in Washington. Bill discusses what changes Congress has made since the Abramoff scandal. Bill's video interview is on page 6.

• Albany Times Union - Gillibrand releases earmarks list

  SARATOGA SPRINGS -- U.S. Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-Greenport, published a list of projects Wednesday she hopes will be paid for by federal tax dollars.

• North Gate Radio KALX 90.7 - The Edible Earmark

  Senior fellow Bill Allison comments on earmarks on USC-Berkeley radio program Norther Gate in a piece about Congresswoman Barbara $250,000 earmark to the Chez Panisse Foundation for its Edible Schoolyard at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School.

   

• Houston Chronicle - City opens books to online scrutiny with new Web site

  Asphalt streets, police cruisers, storm sewers - all obvious examples of how the city spends your tax money.

• Hearing Progressive Voices - John Wonderlich: The Sunlight Foundation

  John Wonderlich is the Program Director for the Sunlight Foundation, a Washington DC-based organization that applies a "let's throw it against the wall and see what sticks" approach to using technology to make government more transparent and accountable. Sunlight is best known for projects like the Punch Clock Campaign, an effort to convince Members of Congress to post their daily schedules online, and Public Markup, a recently-launched experiment on collaboratively edited legislation. John, a former sales manager in Pennsylvania, came to his job at Sunlight via an usual route. His dogged blogging on Daily Kos in the wake of the 2006 Democratic sweep of the House and Senate caught the attention of some on Capitol Hill, which in turn caught the attention of Sunlight. Now settled in Washington, John heads up the Open House Project, an attempt to drag Capitol Hill into the 21st century. John spends his days explaining how setting information free is the key to saving our democracy.

• NPR Talk of the Nation - Online Nation Expects More from Its 'E-Government'

  This week, millions of Americans will check their math and their Internet connections and file their taxes online. Are the Feds doing everything they can to provide e-government tools? In a recent op-ed on Politico.com, Andrew Rasiej and Micah Sifry make the case for why Americans should demand more from government Web sites

• American Public Media Future Tense - From blog to bill

  The Sunlight Foundation, which advocates for more openness in government, is in the middle of writing the Transparency in Government Act of 2008. The proposal seeks to force Congress and the executive branch to make more information available to the public over the Internet - information about contracts, congressional travel, fundraising and more. But the proposal isn't taking a normal course. It's taking shape online, where the public is invited to comment.

• Austin-American Statesman - Public asked to shape open-government bill

  There is nothing unusual about an open-government group advocating new legislation that would shine a light on the secretive ways of Congress and the executive branch.

• Yahoo News - Bill Moyers' Remarks on the Occasion of the 5th Annual Ron Ridenhour Prizes

  Thank you very much, Sissy Farenthold, for those very generous words, spoken like one Texan to another -- extravagantly. Thank you for the spirit of kinship. I could swear that I sensed our good Molly Ivins standing there beside you.

• Austin American-Statesman - Sunlight Foundation’s new tool rivals K Street lobbyists

  The Sunlight Foundation is proposing a bill that would shine the light on the secretive ways that Congress and the executive branch operate.

• Austin American-Statesman - Hutchison lauds earmark recommendations but hides her own requests

  U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, yesterday hailed a series of recommendations from a group of Republicans working to reform the earmarking process. Earmarks are tucked into large spending bills and direct federal agencies to spend money on specific projects in specific locations, and critics say the process allows members of Congress to quietly steer tax dollars to their contributors or favorite lobbyists.

• PC Magazine - The Tech Policy Summit

  Last week I attended the second annual Tech Policy Summit, which is held in the heart of Hollywood just steps away from the Kodak Theatre and Grauman's Chinese Theatre. The Summit has become quite an important event. It's where Silicon Valley and Washington policy wonks get together to discuss the role of government in tech-related issues and try to find common ground when it comes to subjects like copyrights, visas for foreign workers, the digital divide, Internet expansion and adoptions, and others.

• Salt Lake Tribune - Lawmakers tight-lipped on pet projects

  
  WASHINGTON - Congressional budget leaders are sifting through tens of thousands of requests submitted this week by House members seeking taxpayer money for projects back home.

• CNN - Superdelegate Transparency Project & Congresspedia on CNN

  CNN's Situation Room features a segment Congresspedia's Superdelegate Transparency Project. Abbi Tatton reports how citizen journalists, activists, and bloggers are working together to create a highly detailed tally of Democratic superdelegates.

• Wired - Sunlight Foundation Asks The Public For Ideas On A More Accountable Government

  As has been documented repeatedly, President Bush has run one of the most secretive administrations in recent memory. For their part, members of congress haven't fared so well in public opinion polls either when it comes to openness and accountability. So perhaps it's not surprising that government transparency and accountability have become themes in this year's presidential campaign.

• Austin American-Statesman - Central Texans in Congress push for earmarks, sometimes out of public view

  WASHINGTON - On the last day that members of the U.S. House could request federal funding for projects in their districts next year, they requested so many that the Web site collecting them could not function properly. On the last day that members of the U.S. House could request federal funding for projects in their districts next year, they requested so many that the Web site collecting them could not function properly

• Oregon Public Broadcasting - Walden's Earmark Requests Online, Bend Misses Out

  Greg Walden is Oregon's first member of Congress to put his earmark requests on his web site - $46 million he hopes the federal budget will send to his congressional district. Central Oregon correspondent Ethan Lindsey reports that despite Walden's transparency, the city of Bend will lose out.
  

• Fredrick News Post - Fixing government

  This looks like a worthwhile project for anyone who wants to change the way Congress does business, regardless of party affiliation or ideological leanings: Change-Congress.org.

• The Republican Herald - ‘Ed McMahon Syndrome’? Gilhooley, Holden voice differences over earmarks

  Congressional earmarks have sparked a war of words between U.S. Rep. Tim Holden, D-17, and his likely November opponent, Republican Toni Gilhooley, who claims Holden may have a new, previously unheard of problem, something she called "Ed McMahon Syndrome."

• ABC 7 News San Francisco - Political link to the mortgage crisis

  How much did big corporate money influence politicians, as the sub-prime mortgage industry took off, before the bubble burst? In 2005, homeowners were getting offers every week to refinance their homes or take out a mortgage, with payments that in the fine print, would balloon a few years later. The President and congress were not on top of those shaky mortgage practices. The President was talking up home ownership.

• Seattle Post-Intelligencer - Just Do It

  Speaking of democracy, one key is public information. The administration has been a disaster, but Congress -- despite some improvements -- is not exactly a leader in openness and transparency. A good start would be for Congress to provide as much information on the Internet as a lot of the state legislatures do. The Sunlight Foundation (sunlightfoundation.com) is, among other things, pushing Congress to create one centralized schedule for all committee hearings. Gosh, how 20th century that would be. Sunlight's reform agenda also includes a call for electronic filing of campaign receipts and expenses, which would be released within 24 hours. Congress could do that in time for the next election -- assuming, optimistically, that members wanted to.

• Globe and Mail - There's a whole lot of misbehavin' goin' on

  David Paterson had never expected to become governor of New York. But then Eliot Spitzer got caught having an alleged dalliance with a lady of the evening, and suddenly the affable lieutenant-governor was taking the oath in Albany.

• USA Today - House OKs independent ethics board

  WASHINGTON - An independent ethics board created by the House of Representatives this week is meant to put some teeth into a self-policing process that has been all-but-dormant for years.

• Metro Times - Super duper site

  It's looking more and more likely that Michigan Democrats will hold some sort of second nominating contest so that our state's delegates will be seated at the party's national convention in August, giving us a say in deciding whether it is Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton who gets to square off against John McCain come November.

• XM Radio - Conor Kenny Speaks about SuperDelegate Transparency Project on XM Radio

  Conor Kenny, Managing Editor of Congresspedia, talks to Rebecca Roberts from XM Radio's  POTUS 08 Channel 130 about The SuperDelegate Transparency Project.

• Village Voice - Obama Supporters in Brooklyn Warn the Superdelegates: 'Make Our Votes Count'

  As a registered independent, Crown Heights resident Geoff Johnson didn't have a dog in the fight over the Democratic presidential nomination: "There isn't a Democrat who's left enough for me," he says. A 30-year-old Ph.D. candidate in history, Johnson had confined his political activity mostly to anti-war rallies. But when he heard that 796 "superdelegates"-party leaders and elected officials who have special voting rights at the Democratic National Convention-could swing the vote away from the will of the people, it just seemed wrong. So he dashed off dozens of e-mails to friends and neighbors, urging them to spam U.S. House members Yvette Clarke and Edolphus Towns into voting in line with their districts. Both Congress members had pledged their superdelegate support to Hillary Clinton months before their Brooklyn constituents voted in favor of Barack Obama.

• Washington Examiner - Oink! Oink! Murtha’s porkfest

  Rep. John Murtha is hosting a gala dinner tonight at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Pentagon City for defense industry lobbyists who have received and who hope to receive millions of tax dollars via earmarks sponsored by the Pennsylvania Democrat.

• Roll Call - Ortiz Bet on China Deal

  Rep. Solomon Ortiz (D-Texas) and his chief of staff each invested thousands of dollars in a Chinese telecommunications project in 2005 with a Texas businessman whose company paid nearly $20,000 to fly them to China the year before and later became a donor to Ortiz's campaigns.

• Roll Call - Staffer Financial Disclosures to Go Online

  The Web site that puts the salaries of Congressional aides online is set to launch a feature today that exposes even more information about staffers' money matters: PDF downloads of their financial disclosure forms.

• Daily Herald - Hastert returns to his humble beginnings after historic career

  There's a common theme running through his many political campaigns, tribute dinners, and even Dennis Hastert's own 2004 memoir: Common man, fed by homespun American values and a strong work ethic, makes it big but doesn't forget where he came from.

• Bill Moyers Journal - Mr. Heath Goes to Washington

  BILL MOYERS: Welcome again and this time to our first collaboration with Exposé, the public television team that's gained national acclaim for bringing important investigative stories to television. Tonight our subject is the growing scandal surrounding earmarks. Once upon a time an earmark was just that -- a mark farmers made on the ears of livestock for identification. No longer. An earmark is how politicians fund their pet projects -- including some that reward their pet donors. In this year's spending bills alone Congress has inserted 12,881 earmarks worth over 18 billion dollars. That brought some tough talk from President Bush in his recent state of the union message

• New York Times - Keeping Tabs on the Superdelegates

  The last time the superdelegates really mattered in a Democratic primary was in 1984. One of the big differences between then and now is the Internet. This has allowed the emergence of a whole new political force that did not exist two decades ago. And it means everyone can watch the political alliances shift and, in a sense, everyone can play.

• Wired - Crowdsourcing Puts Crucial Superdelegates Under a Microscope

  In a tight race, the Democratic Party's pick for presidential candidate could be decided by superdelegates -- 795 party insiders who are free to vote for anybody they want at the party's national convention. Candidates lobby for those votes fiercely, in a process that's always unfolded behind the scenes.

• Marketplace - Earmark database is not digital

  New rules allow citizens to track congressional spending easier with a database of this year's earmarks. But Nancy Marshall Genzer reports the data isn't easy to get to -- if you want it, you have to go directly to Capitol Hill.

• Newsday.com - The case of the earmark in Huntington

  When President George Bush called for a future crack down on pork barrel practices of Congress last week, Erik H. Neil of the Heckscher Museum of Art had mixed feelings.

• Indianapolis Star - Swimming upstream in Congress

  Indiana Congressman Mike Pence made national news last week when his name was floated as a suitable vice presidential running mate for Republican John McCain. One obvious credential is the lead role he's played in the attack on congressional earmarks.

• Roll Call - Former Sen. Nickles Deigns to Dine

  The new ethics rules may have barred lawmakers turned lobbyists from the Senate floor, but as former Sen. Don Nickles (R-Okla.) proved last week, they still enjoy bankable access to Republicans' backroom strategy sessions just steps from the chamber.

• National Journal's Technology Daily - Lawmakers favor outside access to legislative data

  The legislative process could become a lot more exciting if lawmakers get their way in freeing the data inside the Library of Congress' legislative Internet database so that independent Web sites can repackage the information.

• The Chronicle of Philanthropy - Seeking Online Exposure

  Washington - When the Sunlight Foundation, an organization here that uses Web technology to expose the workings of Congress, decided it wanted to know how many members of the House of Representatives had used campaign money to hire their spouses, it turned to its phalanx of researchers - the American public.

• The El Paso Times - Look for weasel bonds to become '08 staple

  This city can no more keep from raising your taxes than certain hunters can keep from clubbing helpless baby seals to death every year.

• The Examiner - Commentary - Mark Tapscott: Bloomberg boomlet is old news in Internet age

  WASHINGTON - Nothing but old news will be made next week at the University of Oklahoma when remnants of the last century's New Deal model politics gather to crown themselves with the mantle of an independent third force in the 2008 presidential campaign.