Sunlight Foundation

Today's look at open government news includes the firestorm of headlines sparked by President Trump's comments to the New York Times, new research on open data's impact in the developing world, how one reporter boosted accountability in Georgia by opening data on their own, the return of pork-barrel spending in Washington, and much more. 

Forbes and ProPublica have found details on 6 of the Trump Organizations 39 ongoing hotel deals around the country. Now, they "are asking local journalists and interested citizens to help find and ferret out the facts out on the remaining 33 deals. It’s important to know who the president’s family is in business with since it’s possible that Trump’s business interests could conflict with his day job of representing the American people." Read on for more on that important story, plus the rest of today's open government news from Washington, around the United States, and across the globe. 

It turns out that there were visitor logs at Mar-a-Lago after all. Read on for that discovery and other open government stories, including a Latin American anti-corruption wave, calls for more transparency at ICE, and more. 

Yesterday, Hilary Niles shared the details behind our Trump Conflicts of Interest Project, "a resource the Sunlight Foundation has built with the public and the press." We're looking to keep updating the database and making it more useful, but for that we need your help. Read the post on the Sunlight Foundation blog to learn more and get involved.  Read on for more on Trump's conflicts, plus all of the latest open government news from Washington, DC and the rest of the United States. 

In today's edition, we reaffirm our commitment to Net Neutrality, the Trump administration makes claims about their transparency that they probably can't back up, Brazil continues to deal with corruption issues, and politicians are preparing for a number of big money gubernatorial races next year. 

Read on for the latest on revelations around Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with a Russian lawyer, plus the rest of the day's open government news from around the world including a key resignation at the State Department, a push for surveillance reforms, an open records win in New Jersey, and more.

In today's look at open government news from around Washington, the United States, and the globe we focus on the lack of transparency in healthcare negotiations on the hill, the President's "voter fraud" commission, Pennsylvania's police body camera program, and much more. 

Good morning from Washington, where we're seeing the familiar news cycle of morning tweets from President Donald J. Trump about today's headlines.  In a statement on Twitter, presumably responding to a story in The Hill reporting that former FBI Director's memoranda describing his meetings with Trump contained classified information, the president said "James Comey leaked CLASSIFIED INFORMATION to the media. That is so illegal!"  We expect to learn more about what was "so illegal" – or not – in the first months of the Trump administration in the months ahead. Read on for news from over the weekend, including our take on that story, more reporting conflicts, the Congressional war on expertise, an NYPD attempt to block a surveillance transparency law, and much more.

In today's edition, we dig into what Walter Shaub's resignation means for the Office of Government Ethics, explain why official communications need to be preserved, and think about how data can really be leveraged to make a difference. Read on for all that and much more. 

Read on for today's roundup of open government news including the latest on President Trump's war with the media, top tips to win your FOIA appeal, evidence based approaches to fighting the opioid epidemic, and much more.