What does a former offshore energy company employee and a church Minister have in common? Aside from being members of... View Article
Continue readingTell Congress to open up
Making sure that people can get information about what our government is doing is the heart of what we do... View Article
Continue readingDemocratic joint super PAC is a first
Just when you thought you had the shadowy world of super PACs figured out, here comes a new twist: Three big Democratic super PACs -- formed to support President Barack Obama, and House and Senate Democrats -- are banding together to form the first ever joint fundraising super PAC.
The three, which registered their joint committee with the Federal Election Commission last week, are among the largest super PACs, in terms of contributions to their committees. They've raised a combined $10 million for the 2012 election so far. But that figure looks less impressive when compared with the haul of some ...
Continue readingOpen States: 50!
Three years ago at PyCon 2009, we had the first PyCon Open Government Hackathon. Our big project was Open States (then the 50 State Project). The goal was to begin scraping state legislatures' websites in the hope of providing a common format for bill metadata across all 50 states.
Today, as we kick off the 4th Annual Open Government Hackathon at PyCon we're extraordinarily happy to announce one of the most significant milestones in the history of Open States: as of today, all 50 states (as well as DC and Puerto Rico) are now supported via our API and bulk downloads. This makes Open States the first and only completely open, completely free resource for accessing legislative information in a uniform format across all 50 states.
This is a proud day for all of us here and for everyone who has contributed to the project. Over the past three years Open States has grown to be much more than we'd envisioned and a great deal of that is due to great suggestions, contributions, and uses by the entire Open States Community. It is no coincidence that Open States has become Sunlight's most contributed-to open source project; we needed the community to make this project happen, and over 40 of you have answered the call.
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 3/12/2012
Policy Fellow Matt Rumsey wrote this post. Happy Sunshine Week! Here is your first look at transparency-related news items, congressional... View Article
Continue readingFollow State Legislatures with the New Open States iOS App
Today the Sunlight Foundation launches our Open States iPhone and iPad app that puts the inner-workings of state legislatures in the palm of your hand.
Continue readingFEC Chills Debate on Post-Citizens United Transparency
The Federal Election Commission is the supposed enforcer of the nation’s campaign finance and disclosure laws. But, with commissioners evenly... View Article
Continue readingSunshine Week Round up: A look at state-based events
Established in 2005, Sunshine Week is a national initiative that focuses on educating the public about the dangers of excessive... View Article
Continue readingThe News Without Transparency: Super PAC Donations Used as Campaign Weapon
Last month Politico reported that corporate contributions to a super PAC set up to support Democratic U.S. Rep. Howard Berman... View Article
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 3/9/2012
Policy Fellow Matt Rumsey wrote this post. Here is the week’s last look at transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings,... View Article
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