National News

• Patriot Majority, a union-backed liberal “nonprofit”, spent more than $23 million on politics last year. Despite touting themselves as a grassroots group, most of their money came from large donations, including one $6 million gift. (Public Integrity)
• Agencies are starting to tout their efforts to comply with President Obama’s open data Executive Order. The Department of Transportation has more than 2,000 data sets on data.gov, although they didn’t all translate to the agency’s compliance with Project Open Data. (Executive Gov)

International News

• Want to learn more about the Extractives Industry Transparency Initiative? Check out this podcast detailing the initiative, some of the challenges it faces, and POGO’s involvement in it. (POGO)
• As part of efforts to combat financial crimes in their country, France recently launched a new Central Office Against Corruption, Financial and Fiscal Offenses. (The FCPA Blog)

State and Local News

• A state lawmaker in Ohio is pushing a new initiative designed to make it easier for citizens to find and understand information about state and local government. The DataOhio Initiative is a series of bills that promote open standards in state and local data. (ThisWeek Ohio)
• Recent revelations suggest that the city of Ottawa waffled between an open data competition and a traditional contractor to build their new smart phone traffic app. They eventually chose the contractor, who charged $95,000 for a disappointing product. (Tech President)

Events Tomorrow

• Knowledge and Power: The information theory of capitalism and how it is revolutionizing our world. Cato Institute. 12:00 pm. Cato Institute, Hayek Auditorium, 1000 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20001.

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