Keep reading for today’s look at #OpenGov news, events, and analysis, including divergent super PAC strategies for Democrats and Republicans in 2014, arrests of police officers on a corruption investigation in Turkey, and plenty of state and local news.

National News

• Democratic Party leadership has largely excluded independent super PACs from its 2014 strategy. Whereas the Dems have chosen to funnel campaign funds to individual candidates through the aspirationally-named Senate Majority PAC, the Republicans have allowed a much wider pool of PACs to flourish. (National Journal)
• The Federal Communications Commission received a record-breaking 1 million comments on its proposed net neutrality rules in the five-month comment period that ended on Friday. Historical analysis shows, however, that large comment volume ultimately has little to do with rulemaking outcome, and industry comments still have substantial sway over the process. (NPR)
• As the President and First Lady head into yet another week of star-studded fundraisers, the Washington Post takes a look at the history of celebrity-assisted fundraising efforts through the ages. Hobnobbing with Hollywood has long been a Beltway pastime, and the lucrative nature of these relationships makes their disappearance unlikely. (Washington Post)
• Proposed defense budget cuts would close the Conflict Records Research Center (CRRC) at the National Defense University (NDU) by the end of the year. The CRRC holds many internal records from al-Qaeda and from Saddam Hussein’s regime, and its closure would transfer record holdings to the National Archives and Records Administration, which does not plan to release the documents for another twenty-five years. (Foreign Policy)

International News

• Turkey detained more than sixty of its police officers for spying on senior government officials. The arrests targeted security chiefs involved in a corruption probe concerning cases of bribery in Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s cabinet, and come about a month before Turkey’s first direct presidential elections, a race that Erdogan is favored to win. (Wall Street Journal)
• Jakarta governor Joko Widodo was named the winner in Indonesia’s much-contested presidential election. Widodo’s opponent, retired army general Prabowo Subianto, withdrew from the contest while continuing to claim that the elections had been rigged. (New York Times)
• The British government is drawing criticism over its appointment of Sir Philip Dilley to head the country’s Environmental Agency. Dilley, a business advisor to Prime Minister David Cameron, has extensive ties to corporations interested in opening Britain’s shale gas resources to hydraulic fracturing. (The Guardian)

State and Local News

• The United States Supreme Court denied a request for a stay of execution for Arizona’s death-row inmate Joseph Wood. Wood’s lawyers had filed for a preliminary injunction, arguing that the state should disclose the qualifications of the executioners and origins of the drugs to be used in the execution. Wood will be executed on Wednesday morning. (AZ Central)
• Embattled Senator Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) has elected to sidestep the Democratic Party’s troubled state party apparatus in her re-election bid this year, preferring instead to work with the Democratic Party of Wake County. (New York Times)
• Delaware governor Jack Markell signed a suite of eight campaign finance reform bills into law yesterday. While the legislation instituted campaign whistleblower protections and online lobbying disclosures, the bills fell short of the needed changes to combat what some have called a “pay-to-play” political culture. (Delaware Online)

Events Today

• The DISCLOSE Act (S.2516) and the Need for Expanded Public Disclosure of Funds Raised and Spent to Influence Federal Elections Senate Committee on Rules and Administration. Wed., 7/23. 10:00 AM. Room 301, Senate Russell Office Building, Washington, D.C.
• The Social Impact of Open Data (featuring Sunlight’s National Policy Manager, Emily Shaw). Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. Wed., 7/23. 12:00 PM. 1101 K Street NW 610A, Washington, D.C.
• A More Efficient and Effective Government: The National Technical Information Service. Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, Subcommittee on Financial and Contracting Oversight. Wed., 7/23. 2:30 PM. SD-342. Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C.

Events Tomorrow

• Licensed to Lie: Exposing Corruption in the Department of Justice. Cato Institute. Thurs., 7/24. 12:00 PM. Hayek Auditorium, 1000 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, D.C.

Do you want to track transparency news? You can follow the progress of relevant bills, court cases, and regulations using Scout. You can also get Today in #OpenGov sent directly to your preferred news reader. If you would like suggest an event, please email mrumsey@sunlightfoundation.com by 7 am on the Monday prior to the event.