National News
- Agencies may be holding out on the National Archives and Records Administration, according to a new GAO report. NARA is trying to find out where all Federal agencies store their physical records, but hasn't received responses from a number of agencies. The report criticized NARA for relying on agency provided data and not doing their own legwork. (Fierce Government)
- In other NARA news, the agency recently decided that high-level administration officials can continue to use private email addresses to conduct government business on the condition that they agree to preserve the records and turn them over the the Archives at some point. The accounts also must comply with Federal record keeping rules and be available under the FOIA. (Washington Post)
- Officials from USAID and the State Department are venting their frustration with the watchdog appointed to ensure that their operations in Afghanistan are not mismanaged and wasteful. Unfortunately for them John Sopko, appointed as special inspector general for Afghan reconstruction last year, has found numerous examples of both. (New York Times)
- Despite the appearance that our political system is drowning in money, many GOP outside spending groups aren't happy with their fundraising pace ahead of the 2014 elections. The GOP has high hopes of taking control of the entire legislative branch, but right now they're having trouble convincing their wealthy benefactors to kick in huge sums following the party's frustrating performance in 2012. (POLITICO)
- A new poll of the impending Kentucky Senate bloodbath shows that Mitch McConnell might be vulnerable for his strong support of massive, opaque political spending. His Democratic opponent, Alison Lundergan Grimes, has strong fundraising appeal and might be able to use McConnell's own rules against him. (Washington Post)
- Officials and civil society groups are working in Afghanistan with the goal of using technology to enhance transparency and participation in the country's electoral process. With a Presidential election scheduled for next April, now is the time to make improvements and boost the public's confidence in the system. (NDI Democracy Works)
- Certain factors, like the civil society participation, concrete goals, and independent monitoring mechanisms, make the OGP stand out. However, it is still an imperfect process as recent independent reports have pointed out. Among the issues raised are the ease with which countries can join, the lack of real consultations between government and civil society, and minimal or weak commitments. (Open Knowledge Blog)
- Open Twin Cities issued an open data questionnaire to candidates for Minneapolis' City Council and Mayor. Candidates have until October 1 to complete the form, which is intended to highlight open data as an important issue and identify where candidates stand. (Open Twin Cities)
- Meanwhile in the Twin Cities, the Minneapolis Police Department pulled their excel crime data reports shortly after the MinnPost launched a crime app that makes use of the data. The Police Department cited accuracy concerns with the editable spreadsheets and used the flimsy excuse that they still release information in PDF format. (MinnPost)
- The Chicago City Council took a controversial vote yesterday to eliminate their gun registry. Gun owners in the city will no longer be required to register their weapons or obtain a permit, although they will have to apply for a license if they want to conceal that they are packing heat in public. (Washington Post)
Donors flooded state level PACs with big checks
If you think the $6 billion spent during the last election cycle on federal races was a lot, consider this: Another $1.4 billion that up until now was nearly impossible to total up on a national level flowed into campaigns through political committees that don't report to the Federal Election Commission because they operate only at the state level.
That's more than the $1.2 billion traditional PACs--the kind that give directly to candidates--collected at the federal level. And it reflects giving in just 23 states, those included in a new Sunlight Foundation analysis of data compiled ...
Missouri just the latest state to test limits of gun law nullification
One day after Colorado voters ousted two state senators over their support for gun control, Missouri lawmakers are debating whether to try to make federal gun control measures illegal in their state. In a special legislative session opening today, opponents of gun control in the Show-Me State are vowing to override Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon's veto of a bill that would effectively nullify federal gun control measures.
The law would make it illegal for state employee to enforce them. Nixon (pictured right) called it unconstitutional when he vetoed the measure in July.
As Sunlight first reported in March, the ...
Continue readingToday in #OpenGov 9/11/2013
National News
- NASA's CIO for IT, Dr. Sasi Pillay, dug into the topics of open innovation and crowdsourcing during a discussion with FedScoopTV. (FedScoop)
- In a sign of just how dirty the word has become, the American League of Lobbyists is thinking about dropping the "lobbyists" from its name. Presumably they'll come up with something better than The American League of People Who Get Paid Well to Convince Their Former Bosses to Support Their Current Bosses. (The Hill)
- A lobbyist appears to have crossed a line yesterday while trying to protect a client from Congressional pressure. Members of the House Oversight Committee, who held a hearing on agency transparency yesterday, revealed an email one of its members received from a lobbyist explicitly asking them to avoid questioning Jonathan Silver, former head of the Energy Department's loan program office. (The Hill)
- The Israel Lobby, in the form of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, is planning an all out push to convince congress to go along with President Obama's plan to bomb Syria. The groups is sending 300 of its members to Capitol Hill today. (New York Times)
- Chuck Schumer (D-NY) had trouble getting a quorum for a vote by the Senate Rules Committee that he chairs yesterday. A vote had been scheduled on President Obama's two nominees for the Federal Election Commission, but other lawmakers on the panel were presumably busy with other things like Syria. Schumer said a vote is still imminent, assuming he can round up a few of his colleagues. (Public Integrity)
- Open government information is increasingly being used to compare localities around the world on a wide range of topics, but a general lack of standardized data could make it harder to make full and robust comparisons. (Open Knowledge Blog)
- Costa Rica joined the OGP in January 2012 and took its time working out a National Action Plan, presented in April 2013. According to their national OGP coordinator their priority was strong collaboration and consultation with civil society groups. (Open Government Partnership)
- Buffalo, NY is trying to do big things with small data. City employees worked together to pull together a variety of data sources to help them identify neighborhoods that needed attention. They realized that looking at more than six months worth of data was both overwhelming and unnecessary. (Information Week)
- Politicians in Wisconisn are attempting to restrict public access to a popular database of court records, despite heavy opposition from media groups, landlords, and the state court system itself. The site includes information about civil and criminal cases filed in the state and is accessed 3 to 5 million times per day. (NFOIC)
- Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi sure is dedicated to her campaign schedule. She asked for an execution to be delayed, because apparently she takes the part of her job description that says she has to watch prisoners be put to death very seriously, in order to accommodate a fundraiser for her reelection campaign. (POLITICO)
Hey, Tumblr: It’s Party Time!
The business of following the money just got a little more social -- and a lot more fun.
Five years into its award-winning Political Party Time project, the Sunlight Foundation is excited to announce a new, GIF-tastic Tumblr presence for the popular website.
NYC Democratic mayoral hopefuls spend big in last minute ad push
The Democratic primary for New York City's mayoral election this Tuesday marks the end of a long, colorful chapter in municipal campaigning -- replete with sexual misconduct, name calling and of course big time spending.
The Big Apple's system of public campaign finance adds extra juice to candidates' fundraising forays -- the city provides matching funds for all contributions up to $175 with $6 in matching funds -- and candidates need every penny they can get their hands on in the city's high-dollar media market. FCC filings compiled by Sunlight's Political Ad Sleuth show that New Yorkers were bombarded ...
Continue readingWho’s giving how much in Colorado gun recall? Who knows?
DENVER -- Amidst reports of a torrent of some $3.5 million in spending, much of it from out of state, on today's recall elections for two Colorado state senators who voted in favor of stronger gun control laws, it appears all but certain that the actual tab will be much, much more. That's because of the big black hole even intrepid journalists fall in when trying to put together solid numbers on how much is being spent here.
A number of major spenders in the race are not required to report their contributors or expenditures to the Colorado ...
Continue readingThe Landscape of Municipal Crime Data
Every community deals with the presence of crime. This is evident in the daily police report logs shared through newspapers, community news websites, on TV, and through many other media outlets. The number of places sharing this information serves as a testament to not only the volume of information created from crime, but also to the public demand for this information. People want to know about crime to better understand what's happening in their neighborhoods -- the places they or their families live, work, and play.
In the era of open data and online access to media and government sources, there appears to be a proliferation of crime information: How that data is shared from the original source, however, varies widely. Many municipalities use some kind of mapping service to share information with the public about where various kinds of incidents are occurring, while others focus on aggregate information posted online either in static tables or PDF reports. These variations show not just different understandings of how to share information about crime with the public, but also different understandings of what information about crime is useful to the public.
There are whole fields of study devoted to tracking and evaluating crime, but these complexities do not bar us from focusing attention on how this valuable data is collected and shared -- and how the systems for those processes can be improved.
Continue readingToday in #OpenGov 9/10/2013
National News Uber, the car-for-hire company that has been upsetting taxi commissions across the country, is jumping into the national... View Article
Continue readingAnnouncing Sunlight’s Open Data Guidelines for Procurement
Since we started our new research initiative around procurement in March, we've spent months doing research into policies and data availability relating to procurement at all levels of government, as well as interviewing all kinds of people on the subject. Today we're excited to launch the culmination of our efforts so far, as well as an extension of Sunlight's previous work on our Open Data Policy: The Open Data Guidelines for Procurement.
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