National News

• John Paul Farmer, the man behind the unique Presidential Innovations Fellows program, is leaving the White House after three years. The program brings entrepreneurs and technologists into the White House to work on short term, high impact projects. (Fedscoop)
• Edward Snowden has been given an award by a group of former intelligence officials and whistleblowers. The group gives the Sam Adams Award every year to a like minded individual that exhibits “integrity in intelligence.” (POLITICO)
• The Obama administration is trying to defend itself after a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists released a report slamming it for being afraid of the press, taking extreme measures to prevent links, and generally having a chilling effect on journalism. (POLITICO)
• A new repository, Perma CC, aims to ensure that sites linked in scholarly works and legal documents have a permanent and persistent home on the internet. Recent studies have revealed link rot to be a significant problem as legal writing and scholarly research moves into the digital age. (ars technica)

International News

• Policymakers met in Africa last week to discuss the need to crack down on corruption that funnels hundreds of billions of dollars out of the continent. (Financial Transparency Coalition)
• A unique alliance has come together to oppose a lobbying reform bill currently working its way through the UK parliament. Labor unions, professional lobbyists, and constitutional reform groups are all highly critical of the bill and have come together to oppose it in the house of Lords. (The Independent UK)
• The Egyptian government is turning to high profile K street names in an effort to convince the US to reopen the recently shut off aid flow to the embattled country. Egypt hired the Glover Park Group after more than a year without counsel on K street. (The Hill)

State and Local News

• Oakland, California is seeking a new Chief Information Officer, presumably to help them compete with San Francisco and keep up recent open gov and technological improvements. (GovFresh)

Events

• Democracy in Mexico: Political reform and the vote of Mexicans abroad. Woodrow Wilson Center. Tues. 10/15. 9:00 – 10:30 am. 1300 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20004.
• Dangerous Liasons: Political finance and organized crime in Latin America. Brookings. Tues. 10/15. 3:00 – 4:30 pm. Brookings Institution, Saul/Zikha Rooms, 1775 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington, DC 20036.
• Big Data Keynote Speaker Series: Data mining + public opinion. Young Professionals in Foreign Policy. Tues. 10/15. 6:30 pm. George Washington University, Funger Hall 108, 2201 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20037.
• Obama and the Press. New America. Thurs. 10/17. 2:00 – 3:30 pm. New America Foundation, 1899 L Street NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20036.
• Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative Update and Feedback Call. Project on Government Oversight. Fri. 10/18. 12:00 – 1:30 pm. POGO, Conference Room, 1100 G Street NW, Suite 500, Washington DC.

Do you want to track transparency news? You can view our feed on our Netvibes page and follow the progress of relevant bills on our Scout page. You can also get 2Day in #OpenGov sent directly to your preferred news reader!