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2Day in #OpenGov 9/22/2011

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Policy Fellow Matt Rumsey wrote this post.

Here's Thursday's look at transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events. News Roundup: Super Committee
  • Members of the Super Committee are facing a lobbying blitz as they scramble to fulfill their mandate. (New York Times)
Lobbying
  • Rick Perry's former chief of staff, Mike Toomey, has earned more than $17 million from his lobbying practice over the past decade. Through the same period, Toomey's lobbying clients have given more than $5 million to Perry's political campaigns. (Washington Post)
  • BP's PAC had taken a break from political donations in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon spill. In March they quietly started giving again. Fred Upton (R-Mich) is the only politician who has returned a donation since.  (Politico)
  • Unsurprisingly, K Street is not happy with new lobbying rules proposed by the Office of Government Ethics. Trade groups are worried that the new regulations will prevent government employees from attending trade shows and conferences. (Politico)
Revolving Door
  • Formerly senior counsel to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, James Wrathall, will join Sullivan & Worcester LLP as counsel. (National Journal)
  • Representative Pete Sessions' (R-TX) legislative director, Keagan Lenihan, will leave his post on Friday. He will start as McKesson Specialty Health's federal government relations director on October 3. (National Journal)
Ethics
  • Nevada Republicans have filed an ethics complaint against Representative Shelley Berkley (D-NV) alleging that she used her office to promote legislation and intervene with federal regulators to help her husband's company and enrich her family. Rep. Berkley is currently running for a Senate seat in Nevada. (New York Times)
State and Local
  • The Philadelphia Board of Ethics has approved regulations to define lobbying activity and require lobbyists to register and report spending. The rules will likely go into effect in November. (Lobby Comply)
International
  • Despite more stringent rules instituted by the government after the events of Arab Spring, Saudi Arabian journalists and bloggers are hopeful for the future of open reporting in the country. New technologies have made it more difficult for authorities to stop the spread of information. (Yahoo/Reuters)

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Law professors push for corporations to disclose political spending

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With corporate political spending--some of it secret--expected to explode in the 2012 election cycle, a group of law professors is petitioning the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to make a formal policy requiring corporations to disclose such expenditures to shareholders and the public.

“Disclosure of corporate political spending is necessary not only because shareholders are interested in receiving such information, but also because such information is necessary for corporate accountability and oversight mechanisms to work,” reads the petition, which is headed by Lucian A. Bebchuk of Harvard Law School and Robert J. Jackson, Jr of Columbia Law School ...

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2Day in #OpenGov 9/21/2011

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Policy Fellow Matt Rumsey wrote this post. Celebrate the week's halfway point with Wednesday's  look at transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events. News Roundup: Revolving Door

  • The Hill has a roundup of recent moves. Notably, Dutko Grayling has hired Joanne Zurcher, a former aid to Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), and Jeff Anders, who worked for the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions before becoming a lobbyist for PhRMA. (The Hill)
  • Tom Strickland, former chief of staff to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who was intimately involved with the Deepwater Horizon spill, will join WilmerHale, a firm defending BP. Strickland claims that his work will not involve BP. (National Journal)
Campaign Finance
  • Representatives John Conyers (D-MI) and Donna Edwards (D-MD) have proposed legislation that would effectively overturn the Citizens United decision. The measure would amend the constitution and permit Congress and the states to limit corporate political spending. (The Hill)
  • Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has donated $5 million to her campaign. The donation comes after revelations that a former campaign treasurer to Feinstein and many other California Democrats had committed massive acts of fraud. (Politico)
Lobbying
  • After finding themselves closely linked with the President Obama, Google has been working hard to build ties with the Republican party. Meanwhile, in a sign that neither party trusts them too far, Google faces the Senate Judiciary Committee antitrust subcommittee today. (Politico)
Government
  • The Project on Government Oversight is enthusiastic about President Obama's Open Government Partnership speech and the new U.S. National Plan on Transparency. The plan utilizes many of POGO's suggestions. (POGO)
  • The Energy Department's home weatherization program has been rife with waste, fraud, and abuse according to the department's Inspector General. (Yahoo/Daily Caller)
Ethics
  • The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will be investigating wireless start up LightSquared. The investigation is a response to allegations that LightSquared used donations to the Democratic Party in a concerted effort to influence the White House. (Yahoo/Daily Caller)
  • Watchdog group Citizens For Responsibility and Ethics in Washington have released their 7th annual report on the "most corrupt" members of congress. The group hopes the report will bring focus to the highly politicized ethics enforcement process. (The Hill)
State and Local
  • Chicago has launched City Hall in Your Community, a new website that tracks the movements of Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Users can view pictures of the mayor and find information about why he was visiting specific sites. (GovTech)

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Fourth “Supercommittee” Meeting to Review Tax Code

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Thursday morning the Super Committee will convene for the fourth time since its creation in response to the debt crisis over the summer. The committee, officially named the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, conducted a breakfast meeting behind closed doors Sept. 15, despite the insistence of transparency by government watchdog groups and fellow legislators. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., released a statement expressing his disappointment regarding the private breakfast.

At the last open meeting, Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Director, Doug Elmendorf administered a dose of reality to members when answering their questions. Elmendorf stated that in order for the CBO ...

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Civic Hacking Quarterly: Fall 2011

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There's a lot going on in the world of open government and open data. And it's tough to keep up. Once a quarter, we'll do our best to round up all the events and challenges going on that the Sunlight Labs community may be interested in.

Events

  • Hack4Reno, September and October, Reno. The biggest little city in the world is hosting a series of events in the next month designed to build up a community of civic hackers, then caps it off with a 24 hour hackathon on October 15.
  • Hacks/Hackers at ONA 11, Sep. 22, Boston. A day of hacking as the Online News Association's annual conference kicks off.
  • Code 4 Country, Sep. 24-25, Washington, D.C. and Moscow: The first collaborative codeathon between Russia and the U.S. The D.C. event is taking place at American University, and the Moscow event at the offices of Russia's largest search engine, Yandex, located on Leo Tolstoy Street.
  • BmoreSmart Meets City Hall, Sep. 27, Baltimore. The Baltimore startup community meets with the City of Baltimore's CIO to discuss city government, technology, and citizen engagement.
  • Hack the Map, Oct. 2, Phoenix. Part of WhereCampPHX, this hackathon is focusing on geo apps.
  • Apps for SEPTA, Oct. 8-9, Philadelphia. The Philly area's transit system has recently released GTFS data and a real-time bus and trolley API. Time to let a thousand apps bloom.
  • Data Without Borders Kickoff, Oct. 14-16, New York City. This nascent organization kicks off with this event pairing NGOs with data hackers. More events are planned for London, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.
  • Open Government Data Camp, Oct. 20-21, Warsaw. The Open Knowledge Foundation is hosting two days of talks, code sprints, and workshops in Poland's capital. Sunlight will be there, and we've pitched in $5,000 to support travel bursaries for US attendees.
  • OpenDataPhilly's OpenDataRace, through Oct. 28. The open data community in Philly is seeking input from city non-profits on data sets not currently available that would be useful to their work. Then, OpenDataPhilly will work with the City of Philadelphia to make that data available.
  • OpenAccessPhilly Forum, Oct. 28. A forum to discover what the City of Philadelphia and its citizens are doing at the intersection of civic innovation, participation, and technology.
  • Education Hack Day, Nov. 12-13, Baltimore. Developers and designers will get together at the Digital Harbor High School to build apps based on ideas from local teachers. Current project ideas include a parent-teacher conference scheduler using a web and phone interface, and a homework notifier, via email, voice, or SMS, for parents.

Challenges

Just Passed

If we've missed something going on through the end of the year, let us know in the comments. If you're planning an event for 2012, send Luigi a quick note.

OpenLexington

Each edition of Civic Hacking Quarterly will close by featuring a local civic hacking group. To kick things off, we're highlighting OpenLexington. Based in Kentucky, the group reminds us that civic hackers are not just found in big cities. In addition to a full website, OpenLexington has a presence on Github, Twitter, and Google Groups. Founder Chase Southard has recently been added to an Open Data workgroup inside the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, with plans of a data catalog launch in the near future. The next OpenLexington meetup is scheduled for October 27 at 7 p.m. 

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2Day in #OpenGov 9/20/2011

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Policy Fellow Matt Rumsey wrote this post. Here's Tuesday's look at transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events. News Roundup: Open Government Partnership

  • The global Open Government Partnership will launch today in New York. President Obama and 7 other heads of state will announce their action plans for promoting open government at the UN. Follow along with a liveblog. (O'Reilly Radar)
  • Google is hosting The Power of Open: A Global Discussion at their New York offices as part of the launch. The event will be streamed live. (techPresident)
  • The UK may tie future international aid funding to transparency measures. The plan, which British officials will present as part of their commitment to the Open Government Partnership, would withhold aid from countries that fail to detail how international funds are spent. (Yahoo/AP)
Government
  • Late last week the White House released a status report on its open government initiative. The report attempts to counter criticism while touting the Obama administration's progress on its transparency goals. (nextgov) Proposed budget cuts could provide serious setbacks to government transparency efforts, however. (iwatchnews)
Lobbying
  • The retail industry is planning to beef up its lobbying operations in Washington. The National Retail Federation has upped its budget by $10 million and hired new government relations and communications staff to bolster their efforts. (WSJ $)
Ethics
  • The Republican National Lawyers Association has filed an ethics complaint against Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), chair of the Democratic National Committee. The complaint was filed in response to a video released by the DNC last week that the RNLA believes violated House ethics rules. (Yahoo/Daily Caller)
State and Local
  • Philadelphia has partnered with private firms, not-for-profits, universities, and other partners on Open Data Philly. The website, operated through a public-private partnership, is part of a wider effort to release municipal data-sets in open, developer friendly formats. (govfresh)
International
  • Six independent filmmakers with ties to the BBC have been detained in Iran. According to Iranian state television the filmmakers were arrested for providing BBC Persian with negative news reports about Iran and its government. (Yahoo/AP)

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