In the 2014 elections, 31,976 donors — equal to roughly one percent of one percent of the total population of the United States — accounted for an astounding $1.18 billion in disclosed political contributions at the federal level.
Continue readingThe benefits of data in criminal justice: Improving policing
Police are increasingly using data in order to reduce crime. One of the most high-profile uses of data in this area has been in the law enforcement approach known as “predictive policing” — the results, however, have been mixed.
Continue readingRecent court decision supports better open data on America’s nonprofits
A recent court decision landed a victory in the long running effort to open up better data on America’s nonprofits.
Continue readingOne critical transparency flaw in the new USA FREEDOM Act
The supposed steps forward in the new USA FREEDOM Act aren't nearly enough to justify supporting it.
Continue reading[Event] Who watches the watchers: How much surveillance transparency is enough?
Join the Advisory Committee on Transparency on May 8 for a Capitol Hill event discussing the disconnect between what the public believes the intelligence community is doing — and what it's actually doing. Plus, it's free to attend.
Continue readingSunlight Labs’ highlights from PyCon 2015
This month, a few members of Sunlight Labs continued our tradition of attending the always-exciting annual conference of North American Python developers: PyCon 2015. Here are the biggest highlights and takeaways from our trip.
Continue readingOpenGov Voices: Moving the food system forward with open data
Opening up usable data in the agriculture and nutrition sectors is critical to moving forward. Advocating to make this change happen is at the heart of the Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition initiative.
Continue readingDeletes of the Week: Why one politician deletes tweets on purpose
Most members of Congress don't like to talk about their deleted tweets, but there's one member who explains deletions before I even ask.
Continue readingIt’s not just Bill Shuster: We need better lobbying disclosure
While the Shuster-Rubino story tells us much about Shuster, there’s a much wider world of information on lobbying that needs to be disclosed.
Continue readingWhich federal agencies haven’t released public indexes of their data?
While most agencies were able to quickly provide a public listing of all their datasets, several appear to be struggling with the release requirement — keeping the public in the dark about what information they truly hold.
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