Keep reading for today’s look at #OpenGov news, events and analysis including Congressional travel, African corruption, and an open government start up.

National News

• Members of Congress regularly travel the world on taxpayer funded “fact finding” trips, called CODELs. You can take a look at who traveled during the 4th quarter of 2013 and how much it cost. (Roll Call)
• A new poll shows one thing most Americans can agree on: the need to get money out of politics. Perhaps in response to the growing influence of big money over the past few years, the poll found that 90% think it is very or somewhat important. (Politico)

International News

• African countries have been taking small steps towards greater transparency, but more needs to be done to curb Africa’s $38 billion loss through trade mispricing and other opaque issues. (Africa Progress Panel)
• Hong Kong’s Census and Statistics Department is analyzing big stocks of data to help government make better decisions. (Future Gov)

State and Local News

• A New York City Councilmember is pushing new legislation that would boost disclosure in local campaign ads. (JD Supra)
• OpenGov is a new startup that takes city data that is technically open, but not particularly useful to the common man and turns it into charts and other visualizations. The country has already signed up 60 cities. (re/code)

Events Today

• Overcoming Obstacles in Acquisition Reform. Committee on Armed Services. Wed. 2/12. 10:00 am – 1:00 pm. 2118 Rayburn House Office Building.

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