More than 50 people braved the winter cold and dark to spend Friday night on the campus of Columbia University brainstorming for a bicoastal datafest that gets underway there and on the campus of Stanford University today.
Participants came from as nearby as down the hall -- some Columbia journalism students were in the room -- and as far away as London, home of Chris Taggart, who is here to show off and recruit assistance for is work at Open Corporates. Also mingling in the crowd, Sunlight Labs director Tom Lee, Jeremy Merrill of Pro Publica, Dante Chinni, founder of Patchwork Nation ...
Continue readingSuper Bowl blues: Safety concerns set off lobbying scrimmage
Updated: Feb. 2
America is settling in for this Super Bowl weekend against an unsettling backdrop of questions about football safety -- an issue that gained traction this week when, in an interview with The New Republic, First Fan Barack Obama raised doubts about whether parents should let their children play the sport.
That presidential play highlights an ongoing scrimmage on Capitol Hill between the helmet-making industry, which opposes federal regulations on the headgear, and interest groups who are pushing for them. The lobbying centers around a bill introduced by Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., in the last Congress that pushed ...
Continue readingOpen Public Access to Court Records, For Aaron #FreePACER #OpenPacer
On Monday, Princeton’s Steve Schultze argued for the right of all Americans to access federal court records online at no... View Article
Continue readingOpenGov Voices: Being average is your superpower
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the guest blogger and those providing comments are theirs alone and do not reflect the opinions of the Sunlight Foundation or any employee thereof. Sunlight Foundation is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information within the guest blog. 
Sandra Moscoso runs the World Bank Finances Program (https://finances.worldbank.org) by day and works on community efforts around education, active transportation, and open government by night. Sandra lives in small, quaint, Washington, DC, where she tries to get a little biking in with her husband and two children. Follow: @sandramoscoso
Last week, on my way home from work, I met a young man raising funds for a charity. He stood outside of a subway station and as part of his pitch, he asked, "if you could have any superpower, what would it be?" I offered the same answer I have been giving my children for years. "I have a superpower. It's reading." I suspect this both annoys and inspires my children. Given that annoying and inspiring are among my favorite parental duties, I rather like this answer.
Since then, a few things have happened that are making me want to revise my response to that young man.
The Sunlight Foundation recently announced its "new major focus" of "local government transparency," and this has me doing a lot of thinking about the work I do within my community and city I live in.
I have come to realize something exciting. It turns out I have another superpower - I'm average.
2Day in #OpenGov 2/1/2013
NEWS ROUNDUP:
- President Obama's decision to turn his campaign into a nonprofit that will accept unlimited corporate cash has drawn some criticism across the political spectrum. ProPublica looked into some of the other money-policy flip-flops Obama has made in the past few years. (ProPublica)
- The House Small Business Committee is aiming to make it easier for companies without lawyers or lobbyists to keep track of federal regulations that might impact them. (Roll Call)
- The Justice Department filed a brief asking the Supreme Court not to allow direct corporate campaign contributions. (Thomson Reuters)
- States and municipalities are increasingly creating positions for chief innovation officers, who are tasked with a wide variety of efforts related to better uses of technology. (GovTech)
- Government use of open source software as an alternative to proprietary software is increasing, and Government Technology explored some of the benefits and challenges of that move. (GovTech)
- Liberal and conservative groups are expressing concerns about the possible effects of proposed ethics reforms in Georgia that would label citizen volunteers as lobbyists, among other things. (Public Integrity)
- A bill has been introduced in Rhode Island that would prohibit lobbyists from making any political contributions to a member of the General Assembly during legislative session. (Lobby Comply Blog)
- A recent poll in Europe found a majority of people surveyed are concerned about the role of lobbyists and want increased transparency in the European Union. (Access Info) Continue reading
What Enron’s political e-mails tell us about corporate lobbying
During its investigation into wrongdoing into Enron, The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission made public almost 500,000 internal company e-mails. These e-mails provide a unique look into the workings of the company, including how the company conducted its political operations. A few years ago, my friend and Georgetown Political Science Professor Daniel J. Hopkins approached me about analyzing what was in these e-mails. The results of our research are now published in the latest issue of Legislative Studies Quarterly, and a copy of our paper, “The Inside View: Using the Enron E-mail Archive to Understand Corporate Political Attention” can be downloaded here. To sum up our findings briefly, the e-mails show Enron’s political operations as very engaged in the narrow details of policy , keeping close tabs on daily developments and devoting considerable resources to agency rulemaking. Meanwhile, we found only sporadic discussion of campaign finance.
Continue readingNRA PAC did not raise much post Sandy Hook
While the National Rifle Association (NRA) has claimed that membership surged in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre in December, there did not appear to be any corresponding flood in contributions to the organization's political action committtee.
During the last weeks of December following the shooting that left 20 children and six adults dead, the NRA Political Victory Fund reported collecting just over $4,000 in itemized donations from individuals, mostly in low amounts from people who had already contributed to the group's warchest during the course of the year. Another $9,600 came in ...
Continue readingTotal 2012 election spending: $7 billion
A new estimate from the Federal Election Commission puts total spending for the 2012 election at more than $7 billion -- $1 billion more than previously thought.
New FEC Chair Ellen Weintraub unveiled the latest estimate of the 2012 campaign's record-shattering cost at the agency's first open meeting of 2013, one that saw the departure of Cynthia Bauerly, one of the three Democratic commissioners. Though campaign spending was expected to break records after the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision that opened the door for unlimited contributions, the latest FEC estimate exceeds earlier expectations.
The FEC processed more ...
Continue readingDocket Wrench: Exposing Trends in Regulatory Comments
Today the Sunlight Foundation unveils Docket Wrench, an online research tool to dig into regulatory comments and uncover patterns among millions of documents.
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 1/31/2013
NEWS ROUNDUP:
- The Office of Congressional Ethics released its 2012 end-of-year report showing it forwarded 13 matters to the House Ethics Committee for review of 32 matters it opened. (Roll Call)
- Two cases before the House Ethics Committee are being held until the panel has its first organizational meeting and can officially begin taking action. (Roll Call)
- The Government Accountability Office issued a report calling for better interagency contracting practices in the federal government. (GovExec)
- The American League of Lobbyists has ended its contract with its lobbying company, which had lobbied on issues such as campaign finance laws and regulations. (Public Integrity)
- The FEC increased contribution limits on individuals for the 2014 election cycle. Individuals will be able to contribute up to $5,200 for a candidate and $32,400 for a national party committee. (Roll Call)
- Democratic members of Congress praised the House Majority PAC in a new video, saying the PAC helped them "fight back" against Republican PACs. (Public Integrity)
- Chris Vein, former deputy CTO of the White House, is settling into his new role as chief innovation officer for Global Information and Communications Technology Development at the World Bank. (GovTech)
- Carl Hoecker, who was inspector general for the U.S. Capitol Police, has been appointed as the Securities and Exchange Commission's inspector general. (ExecutiveGov)
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