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Every day, the federal government releases vast amounts of useful information about every aspect of our nation and how government works. This public information has a deep impact on almost every aspect of American life. Some of it can be used to hold our elected officials accountable for their actions, or have a profound effect on health, economic development and commerce. The problem is, much of this government information is too often hard to find, difficult to understand, expensive to obtain in useful formats, and available in only a few locations.
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Here’s an issue the United States Senate had no trouble mustering a filibuster-proof majority for: earmarks.
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Sunshine Week is an important event in newsrooms around the country, including the Star-Tribune's. But it should be just as noteworthy to every American, since it focuses on the public's right to know.
The week, which officially ends Saturday, is an initiative that's been spearheaded by the American Society of News Editors since 2005. Its goal is to educate the public about the importance of open government and the dangers of excessive and unnecessary secrecy.
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Halfway through Sunshine Week, we're getting some positive news and some not-so-positive news about the public's right to know.
Let's start with the most pressing news, which happens to be negative. Really negative.
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Those with an interest in government transparency know that, even in today's broader and more scattered media landscape, newspapers are typically at the forefront of pressing government to keep the books open. This is “Sunshine Week,” a time of year promoted by the American Association of Newspaper Editors to remind Americans what we have a right to know, and it's a good time to underscore the fact that even a small community like Summit County is not immune to breaches in the Freedom of Information Act — as well as what can be maddening examples of information roadblocks both deliberate and unintentional.
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Unless you are among the handful of folks living “off the grid,” government is a big part of your life.
You pay taxes, rely on government to keep the peace and ensure the safety of what you eat, and tolerate everything from Census questionnaires to airport screenings.
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During the presidential campaign of 2008, it was not usual for then-candidate Barack Obama to talk about transparency and the importance of open government.
So it shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise that on his first full day in office, the president issued a memorandum to the heads of all executive departments restoring the original presumption of disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, a reversal from the previous administration.
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The start of the decennial census, noted elsewhere on this page, is a reminder that governments collect a lot of information about almost every aspect of American life -- from basic demographics and health data to details about foreign trade and the activities of lobbyists. Some of this information is proprietary; others of it bear on the national security and can't be widely shared.
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Every day, the federal government releases vast amounts of useful information about every aspect of our nation and how government works. This public information has a deep impact on almost every aspect of American life. Some of it can be used to hold our elected officials accountable for their actions, or have a profound effect on health, economic development and commerce. The problem is, much of this government information is too often hard to find, difficult to understand, expensive to obtain in useful formats, and available in only a few locations.
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This week is Sunshine Week, dedicated to freedom of expression, open meetings, open records and transparency in how the government spends your money.
The Desert Sun will take a long look at the campaign for openness today and share the views of others throughout the week.
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U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock, a Republican who represents a district that stretches from Sacramento to Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada to the Oregon border, has been nothing if not consistent on earmarks, those funds that members of Congress request for specific projects.
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You’ve seen the commercials: U.S. House Bill 4173, already passed in the lower chamber, now headed for the U.S. Senate, is going to lead to another bailout for the fat cats.
Really?
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THERE IS no simple legislative fix to the Supreme Court's unfortunate recent decision allowing corporations to spend money directly advocating the election or defeat of federal candidates. The court's 5-4 decision was grounded in the First Amendment; consequently, the congressional response is inevitably limited. Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) unveiled an important proposal last week designed to address the most fixable aspects of the ruling in time for the 2010 election.
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Rep. Tom McClintock, a Republican who represents the congressional district that stretches from Sacramento to Lake Tahoe and from the Sierra Nevada to the Oregon border, has been nothing if not consistent on earmarks. These are funds that members of Congress request for specific projects. McClintock signed a "no earmarks" pledge in 2008, and he has kept to that.
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Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has opened the floodgates on political spending by corporations and unions, the challenge is to find a way to live with the new law of the land.
State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer seek to do that in separate proposals that at least would force companies to fully disclose how much they spend on elections, and to whose benefit.