Rep. Charlie Rangel today confirmed my statement from yesterday that he doesn’t give a damn about congressional ethics. While entering... View Article
Continue readingBlogher-ites question politicians
Last weekend more than 2,400 women bloggers descended on New York City for the annual Blogher conference. That was eight... View Article
Continue readingCity of Bell and the Case for Grassroots Transparency
I’m proud to present this independent research project by our summer intern Mike Liu. Mike looked at his home state... View Article
Continue readingStatelight: Transparency in a Box, Pt. 1
I’m excited to announce a new project from Public Equals Online and the Sunlight Foundation: Over the next few weeks and months, we’ll be developing - in large part through public blog posts such as this one - a curriculum, or guide, on how to do state level organizing and advocacy around transparency and open government.
Continue readingIn wake of court rulings, new political groups intervene in primaries
When Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet fended off a tough primary challenge from former State House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, he got a little bit of help from a new kind of political player, which spent $50,000 to make phone calls promoting the incumbent, according to a report filed with the Federal Election Commission.
The League of Conservation Voters Victory Fund--a group that registered under a designation created by the FEC in late July called an Independent Expenditure Committee--paid for the phone calls.
The sole purpose of independent expenditure committees is to make independent expenditures – place ads, make phone calls or ...
Continue readingHow Rangel defended Rosty
Former Rep. Dan Rostenkowski died today at the age of 82. Rostenkowski was a powerful committee chair, head of the... View Article
Continue readingNew Stakes for Government Reform
The White House is characterizing their failure to replace Ethics Czar Norm Eisen as an upgrade. If they wanted to... View Article
Continue readingCharlie Rangel is full of it
If you haven’t caught Rep. Charlie Rangel’s rambling rant–the one where he went the full Traficant–you really should. In it... View Article
Continue readingA Principled Look at Open Data
From Moses to James Madison to David Letterman, important ideas come in lists of ten, as do these principles for... View Article
Continue readingStates of Transparency: Alaska
The Open Government
Directive encouraged states to put valuable government data online. In this series we're reviewing each state's efforts in this direction.
This week: Alaska
Website: http://fin.admin.state.ak.us/dof/checkbook_online/reports.jsp
During her 2008 vice presidential bid, Sarah Palin touted Alaska's so-called "Checkbook Online" as a model of transparency. It's a great way to find out how the state is spending its money, but the site offers few other features. We can't find out how much cash state employees bring home because in Alaska, unlike in several other states ...
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