Two years ago we held an Open Government Sprint at PyCon 2009. We had never hosted an event like that before, and had no idea what to expect. To our amazement we ended up with one of the largest groups of any of the sprint projects, completely filling our room for the first few days. Approximately 30 people attended and kicked off what has now become the Open State Project.
Next week, we'll be heading to PyCon and hosting an Open Government Hackathon for the third year in a row. The primary focus will again be the Open State Project but our space is open to everyone interested in government data. If you have a project you'd like to hack on let us know and I'll be sure to mention your project when I plug the sprint. If you aren't attending PyCon but happen to be near Atlanta you're welcome to join too, the Hackathon is free and open to the public (March 14th-16th @ the Hyatt Regency in downtown Atlanta).
Additionally, I'm going to be presenting a poster on the technical aspects of the Open State Project on Sunday. I'll be around to talk about the project itself but also web scraping and opening government data in general, so if you're at PyCon stop by during the poster session Sunday morning and say hi.
Continue readingSunrise (3/2/11)
CHRIS DODD TAKES LEADING LOBBYING ROLE —Hollywood Reporter: “Former Democrat Senator Christopher Dodd has been named chairman and CEO of... View Article
Continue readingHow Revolving Door Rules Apply to Hollywood’s New Top Lobbyist
Despite vowing not to become a lobbyist after retiring from a long Senate career Chris Dodd officially became Hollywood’s top... View Article
Continue readingBernanke is positive about economy, despite poor markets
The Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke, said he believes the economy will continue to grow this year despite high unemployment rates, weak job growth and an “exceptionally weak housing sector”.
In the Fed's Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to Congress, Bernanke highlighted the positive direction the economy has taken citing as evidence the real GDP's return to where it was before the financial crisis occurred.
In today’s hearing conducted by the Senate Banking Committee, the focus seemed to be on the Fed’s decision to buy securities issued by the Department of Treasury and the effectiveness of that ...
Continue readingRove Announces Crossroads Fundraising Target
According to the Wall Street Journal: Two conservative groups founded last year with the help of Republicans Karl Rove and... View Article
Continue readingSCOTUS: Corporations Not People (at least with respect to one FOIA provision)
Today the Supreme Court handed down a decision in FCC v. AT&T (decision here [PDF]) in which the Court decided... View Article
Continue readingKoch lobbied on consumer protection database recently defunded in the House
In mid-February, freshman Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kansas, whose top campaign donor is Koch Industries, proposed a successful amendment in an appropriations bill to defund a new public product safety database recently soft-launched by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Two years ago, when the bill was being debated, Koch lobbied on this specific issue, citing the "consumer reporting database provision" in legislation that passed that year.
In addition, the congressman's chief of staff, Mark Chenoweth, worked formerly both for Koch Industries and as chief legal counsel for Anne Northup, a Republican CPSC commissioner who has opposed the new database ...
Continue readingWashington’s Lobbying Fix — Panel Discussion on March 14
(cross-posted from transparencycaucus.org) The Advisory Committee on Transparency will host a panel discussion on lobbying reform, entitled “Washington’s Lobbying Fix,”... View Article
Continue readingPew Study Confirms Importance of Sunlight’s Work
A study of three cities released today by the Pew’s Internet & American Life Project and the Monitor Institute finds that... View Article
Continue readingUS Consulting Group Working For Libya Did Not Register As Foreign Agent
“Monitor is not a lobbying group.” That was the assertion in one of a series of memos between The Monitor... View Article
Continue reading
