Government

• New way of releasing jobs data runs into cries of “no way”: The “media lockup” that occurs when the Labor Department releases monthly job figures is set to become more restrictive (journalists can no longer bring in computers, numbers and data can only come directly from the government), and House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, representatives from news organizations and Wall Street are not happy about it. (National Journal)

State and Local

• HD hearings in local government?: Prompted by the release of a government-marketed video platform, GovTech asked if an investment in high-quality video and powerful means of distribution through social media would be worth it for most local governments. (GovTech)
• Florida group plans state-wide ethics reform: Using data gleaned from the State Integrity Investigation, a Florida non-profit called Integrity Florida has crafted a plan to improve the state’s rating, focusing on ethics enforcement and political financing, among other things. (iWatch News)

International

• Agreement prompts visualizations of global aid data: The International Aid Transparency Initiative, an agreement from the world’s major aid donors on using XML to publish aid information, has already allowed groups to create easy-to-interpret visualizations of the data. (Open Knowledge Foundation)
• New contract for Chinese microblogging giant could make censorship easier: With more than 300 million users, Sina Weibo is by far China’s largest microblogging service. Its new user contract, however, shows that it is stuck between providing a platform for expression and complying with China’s strict censorship laws. (Herdict)
• Corruption slows European recovery?: A report by Transparency International suggests a link between the budget deficits and debt driving the European economic crisis and the lack of lobbying regulations and public access to documents. (Reuters)

Campaign Finance

• New California primary format–and subsequent elections–more vulnerable to outside spending: A primary system in which all candidates run against each other–leaving open the possibility for two candidates from the same party to run against each other in the general election–may lead to nastier, more special-issue-based campaigns in the general elections (since the two candidates are more likely to be ideologically similar) that would allow super PACs to play an even larger role. (iWatch News)