Bridget Todd is stepping in for Scott Stadum, who will return to Tools for Transparency next week. SoundCloud wants to... View Article
Continue readingObama Admin PR Flacks Blocking the Public’s Right to Know
Are the PR flacks of the Obama administration against government transparency? If not, then why have some instituted media policies... View Article
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 9/29/2011
Here is Thursday's look at the week's transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events. News Roundup:
- Republican Presidential candidates are trying to lower expectations for reporting their third quarter fundraising totals to the FEC in advance of the October 15 deadline. (Washington Post)
- Super PACs supporting presidential candidates don't appear to be struggling. A PAC backing Mitt Romney raised $20 million between January and June, and a new PAC supporting Rick Perry hopes to spend more than $50 million to elect the Texas Governor. (National Journal)
- Campaign watchdogs have asked the IRS to investigate the tax-exempt status of 4 politically engaged groups connected to Super PACs. They claim that the groups use their status to avoid disclosing the identities of major political donors. (National Journal)
- Experts, including the Sunlight Foundation's Daniel Schuman, agree that it is difficult to measure the performance of E-Gov programs using regular metrics. However, they disagree on what this should mean for E-Gov funding levels, which are slated to be cut drastically. (Federal Computer Week)
- The San Bernardino County, CA Board of Supervisors has approved a measure to limit donations to local campaigns. (Lobby Comply)
- The National Association of Government Webmasters has singled out three municipal websites for their high level of achievement in web design and development. (govfresh)
Congressional Transparency Caucus Roundtable Thursday, October 6
An open discussion of past, present and future transparency initiatives Please join the Congressional Transparency Caucus for a roundtable event... View Article
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 9/28/2011
Here is Wednesday's look at the week's transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events. News Roundup:
- The Super Committee has taken a turn towards the opaque, holding closed door meetings on back-to-back days. Members and staff have been tight lipped on the direction of discussion and the committee has no public meetings scheduled. (Politico) Sunlight Foundation Policy Director John Wonderlich shares his views here.
- Freshman Republicans, most of whom ran on a vehemently anti-establishment platform, are quickly learning the ways of Washington fundraising. House freshman have at least 100 fundraisers scheduled around town over the next two months. (Politico)
- Opinion: Candidate Super PAC's should never be considered independent, are inherently corrupt, and should be shut down according to this opinion piece. (Politico)
- The House Small Business Committee is harnessing the power of the internet to better carry out their mission. The forum aims to connect the committee with small business owners who can't travel to Washington to share their views. (Federal Computer Week)
- The State Department and USAID are working to make their data more useful and usable. They are promoting data visualization projects and trying to draw in new data from the 24 federal agencies that are involved in foreign assistance projects. (nextgov)
- Eric Cantor's (R-VA) senior policy adviser, Shimmy Stein, is leaving the Hill to join Blank Rome Government Relations as a principal. He will focus on tax, trade, financial services, and defense issues. (Roll Call)
- The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning has been using audience response technology at meetings and hearings to collect data on citizen priorities. The technology allows participants to provide feedback and vote on issues during meetings and helps the agency quickly analyze the data. (GovTech)
- Oklahoma's online Medicaid benefits portal has been a resounding success. Nearly 40% of applicants were using the portal within two months of its launch and it is projected to save the state $22 million over 5 years. (GovTech)
Super Committee in the Shadows
Roll Call, and now Politico, have important stories about the super committee meeting in secret. It’s becoming clear that the... View Article
Continue readingBank fees are up, but disclosure is sorely lacking
As banks continue to raise their fees for consumer accounts, and free checking appears to be going the way of the dodo, banks have a decidedly spotty record on clearly disclosing these fees to their customers--even though they are required to do so by law.
A survey out this week from the site BankRate.com says virtually every way a bank can charge money is up. Sixty percent more noninterest accounts carry fees and balance requirements than they did last year. ATM fees are at an all-time high for the seventh consecutive year. Maintenance fees for checking accounts have increased ...
Continue readingGAO Progress Report for E-Gov Fund
The Government Accountability Office concluded that major projects funded through the E-Gov Fund “could potentially lead to benefits including cost... View Article
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 9/27/2011
- The Federal Government's 62 Inspector Generals are well worth the money. According to a new report by the GAO, they save the government $18 for every $1 spent on them. (POGO)
- Meanwhile, the E-Gov fund received mixed reviews from a new GAO report. Many of the problems came about when the programs funding was cut for FY2011 (Federal Computer Week)
- The Office of Personnel Management is preparing to release a new version of its USAJobs website. The upgraded system aims to provide a more user friendly, retail oriented experience for job seekers. (Government Executive)
- The Head of the Justice Department's public affairs office, Matthew Miller, who has also worked for Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and the House Democratic Caucus will leave government to become a partner at consultancy firm Vianovo. (National Journal)
- A group of 200 business executives has called on corporations to be more transparent about their political activities. They had harsh words for the Citizens United decision, and urged Congress to pass new disclosure laws. (Politico)
- Facebook has filed papers to launch a PAC. They will be joining Google and Microsoft, among other technology companies, with robust political funding operations. (techPresident)
- Two Supervisors from San Bernardino County, CA plan to introduce a campaign finance law at the Board of Supervisor's next meeting. The law would impose and enforce limits on contributions to county elections. (Lobby Comply)
House Revamps Floor Feed
Yesterday, the House of Representatives massively improved its feed of live updates from the House floor. The House Clerk has been hosting a live floor feed for a long time, but this update breaks out related bills and votes more cleanly, adds times down to the second for each update, and drastically cleans up the HTML of the page.
But most wonderfully, the cleaner HTML doesn't really matter, because they also turned on a live XML feed.
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