2Day in #OpenGov 9/17/2012

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NEWS ROUNDUP:

Government

  • Safety Data First: The White House hosted the first “Safety Datapalooza” on Friday, looking at ways that freely-available government data can be utilized to improve safety for the public. Featured innovations came from the private, nonprofit, and academic sectors. (Fed Scoop)
  • STOCK stopped: A federal judge issued a temporary preliminary injunction that would stop the STOCK Act from being enforced until the end of October. Executive branch employees have objected to certain reporting requirements in the law. (Washington Post)
  • Free national voter file: NationBuilder is releasing API and limited bulk data access to a nationwide voter file with more than 170 million records, for free. U.S. voter records are often poorly managed and hard to use, forcing campaigns and other organizations to spend large sums to make the data worth it. (Tech President)
Campaign Finance
  • Commission on electoral integrity wants better campaign finance restrictions: A group of former world leaders, academics, and Nobel Prize winners released a report last week that found many elections lack integrity. They singled out campaign financing as one of the major issues keeping elections from being fair and functional. (Trust Law)
  • House Dems target campaign finance: House Democrats are planning to introduce two bills intended to push public funding for elections and respond to the unlimited money flooding campaigns. The bills include proposals to match small contributions with public funds, provide public funds to candidates facing attacks from outside interest groups, and restrict how candidates can work with interest groups. (Washington Post)
State and Local
  • Wisconsin lawmakers hide ALEC ties: Following the public attention shed on the American Legislative Exchange Council over the past several months many lawmakers are looking to hide their ties to the group. In Wisconsin, state lawmakers are actively and legally deleting email exchanges with the group, taking advantage of loopholes in the state’s access to information laws. (Common Cause Blog)
  • L.A. Campaign Finance Reforms: The Los Angeles, CA City Council approved campaign finance reforms that would raise contribution limits, put geographic restrictions on public matching funds, and increase the overall availability of public matching funds. (Lobby Comply)
  • Public financing program stopped in West Virginia: The West Virginia State Supreme Court struck down their state’s public financing pilot program. The program, which gave additional public funds to candidates whose privately-funded opponents spent more than a certain amount, was similar to those already struck down in Arizona and Nebraska. (Lobby Comply)

RELEVANT BILLS INTRODUCED:

  • None

HAPPENING THIS WEEK 9/17-9/21:

Hearings

Events

JOB OPPORTUNITIES:

  • None.

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