When salmonella outbreaks were discovered last year in peanut butter and
pistachios, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) took action by
posting information about affected products on its web page,
creating a widget where consumers could do look-ups, and providing a
downloadable database of the information--all of which proved tremendously popular. Starting this fall, the public will have access to a similar database containing details about all food, drug, and medical device recalls that occurred throughout the year, according to agency officials.
This database, which will be available to download in xml format, as well as via a ...
Organizations Call on Members of Congress to Support the Earmark Transparency Act
Nearly 30 ideologically diverse organizations joined the Sunlight Foundation on a letter urging Members of Congress to cosponsor the Earmark... View Article
Continue readingFarm credit regulator won’t disclose enforcement actions against banks
As Congress negotiates a final version of financial reform, one group of lenders has already won a blanket carve out from increased bank regulation — the more than 90 banks and associations of the Farm Credit System, a government-sponsored enterprise that dates back to 1916. The system, which has $30.8 billion in capital, includes about 90 agricultural credit associations that are cooperatively owned, plus five wholesale lending banks.
Rural farm lenders didn’t cause the subprime crisis, and their business practices are above board, says Ken Auer, president of the Farm Credit Council, an association that represents Farm Credit System ...
Goodbye Sunlight
It's been just over two years since I first started here at Sunlight, and today's my last day.
Over the past two years, we've done some incredible things together. Through Apps and Design for America contests, our community developed nearly 200 open source applications and visualizations on top of government data, for a total expenditure of about $100,000. We built an army of nearly 2000 developers and designers working to change their government. We launched the first wiki bid on Recovery.gov, and changed the FEC using a collaborative testimony.
Continue readingStories to start the day
1) The NRA will be able to raise up to $87 million in corporate contributions with no disclosure requirement under... View Article
Continue readingPresident Obama’s Oval Office Speech
Full text here.
Continue readingQuest for EPA documents reveal deliberate misclassification by agency staff
For the past four years, as executive director of Citizen Action New Mexico, Dave McCoy has been hounding the local and federal government for documents.
McCoy alleges that Sandia National Laboratory’s Mixed Waste Landfill monitoring wells are mismanaged by the New Mexico Environment Department, and that the public water supply is in danger of contamination.
He requested documents from an EPA regional office that assessed the state’s oversight of the landfill and after getting little information, complained to the EPA’s inspector general. The watchdog concluded in an April report that some officials deliberately failed to document management ...
States of Transparency: Kentucky
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: Kentucky
Website: www.opendoor.ky.gov
While Kentucky has one of the country's most highly rated open government websites, OpenDoor.Ky.Gov, there is still much the state could do to provide more information in friendlier formats to reporters and the public.
The site, launched by Governor Steve Beshear in January 2009, was rated best in the country by USPIRG in its April survey of state government spending sites. It features a ...
Citizens United: West Virginia’s response
The Supreme Court’s decision in the Citizens United v. FEC case has rendered 24 states' election laws unconstitutional. The 5-4 ruling in favor of Citizens United reversed a provision of the McCain-Feingold act that prohibited any electioneering communication—defined as advertising via broadcast, cable or satellite that is paid for by corporations or labor unions. Many states have acted fast to counter corporations’ ability to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections by passing laws that force disclosure of all independent expenditures in near real time. The Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group has decided to report what each of ...
Continue readingDISCLOSE may provide no disclosure for NRA
If one were ranking the most cynical, distasteful moments in inside-the-beltway- machinations, yesterday’s announcement by Democratic leaders in the House... View Article
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