I spent most of this week in San Francisco for Google I/O. While Google I/O doesn't have a whole lot to do with open government, we do enough Android development in the service of open government that it seemed worth my attendance.
In the end, Google I/O was a mixed bag, offering nice goodies and announcements, but at the cost of tightly crowded sessions and what felt like an embarrassment of riches.
Continue readingNew York Times Calls for an Expansion of the Definition of Lobbying
In the most recent, and possibly most repugnant, turn of the revolving door, FCC commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker will join... View Article
Continue readingCampaign disclosure foe James Bopp forms Super PAC
Attorney James Bopp, who's a key architect of the legal battle that's led to a flood of outside spending in elections, has registered a new independent expenditure only committee with the Federal Election Commission called the Republican Super PAC Inc.
The filing, which is signed by Bopp and lists him as treasurer, was dated May 11, 2011.
Bopp represented and then worked as a legal adviser to Citizens United, the political committee that was the plaintiff in the 2010 Supreme Court case that found that corporations could spend unlimited money on independent expenditures to influence elections. He was ...
Continue readingSunrise (5/13/11)
ETHICS COMMITTEE: ENSIGN BROKE LAWS —NYT: “Senator John Ensign’s top aide warned him in 2008 that his office might be... View Article
Continue readingForeign Lobbying Discussion on CSPAN’s Washington Journal
Today’s Washington Journal focused on foreign lobbying and the role that former government officials and K Street firms play in... View Article
Continue readingFreshman lawmaker works to repeal transparency effort in Dodd-Frank
Last week members of the Capital Markets Subcommittee forwarded legislation to repeal a portion of Dodd-Frank that requires big banks to disclose income information for all of its employees onto the full Committee on Financial Services for consideration.
The Burdensome Data Collection Relief Act, H.R. 1062 was introduced in March, 2011 and has a long way to go. But if the Act passes it will repeal Section 953 b of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which is meant to increase transparency by forcing banks to disclose the median income for its employees.
According to members ...
Continue readingMexican government hires lobbyists, lawyer to help nationals facing capital punishment
The Mexican consulate in Tuscon hired Arizona-based lawyer Gregory Kuykendall for legal service and advice for Mexican nationals charged with crimes that could lead to a death sentence and for those already sentenced, recently filed disclosures under the Foreign Agents Registration Act filing show.
Kuykendall is the director of the Mexican Capital Legal Assistance program, established by the Mexican government in September 1999 to provide guidance and assistance for the legal defense of their nationals in capital cases. The Mexican government has paid $3.5 million for this program for a period between June 2010 and May 2011.
According to ...
TCamp: Looking Back and Looking Forward
It’s never too early to get nostalgic. Here at Sunlight HQ, we’re still buzzing about the incredible time we had... View Article
Continue readingClearspending for Contracting? Not Until Our Overdue FOIA Request Is Fulfilled
Last fall, we conducted a data quality analysis of the grants data present in USASpending.gov. We called the project [Clearspending](http://sunlightfoundation.com/clearspending).... View Article
Continue readingOversight Hearing on Obama Executive Order on Contracting Money: Liveblog
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is holding a hearing at 1:30 on the Obama Administration’s draft Executive Order... View Article
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