The Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources is currently holding a hearing into responses to the Gulf oil spill... View Article
Continue readingOrszag: Government Behind the IT Times
This is a pretty important speech from OMB Director Peter Orszag. I suggest reading the whole thing, but here’s a... View Article
Continue readingCitizens United: South Dakota’s response
The Supreme Court’s decision in the Citizens United v. FEC case has rendered 24 state 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 endless 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 readingCitizens United: Arizona’s response
The Supreme Court’s decision in the Citizens United v. FEC case has rendered 24 state 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 endless 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 readingCoast guard database makes oil spill penalties nearly impossible to track
The U.S. government has investigated potentially thousands of BP leaks, spills and other incidents but the information is stored in a Coast Guard database that keeps key details such as investigative findings and penalties out of the public’s reach.
More than 8,000 incident reports about BP’s U.S. spills, emissions, and leaks of oil and chemicals have been filed with the National Response Center during the past decade. They range from minor clumsiness such as a tipped drum of jet fuel to the deadly April 21 explosion on BP’s Gulf of Mexico rig. The center ...
Labor, Enviro Groups Use Arkansas Senate Primary As Citizens United Testing Ground
The Arkansas Senate primary between Sen. Blanche Lincoln and Lt. Gov. Bill Halter is acting as a testing ground for... View Article
Continue readingAccountability, Better Services, and Economic Opportunity
An open government built on open data is worth fighting for because, through it, we will achieve three exceptionally valuable results for society: Accountability, Better Services and Economic Opportunity.
Continue readingCenter for Public Integrity: Coast Guard logs contradict White House Deepwater timeline
From our colleagues at the Center for Public Integrity:
The Coast Guard grasped the potential threat of a catastrophic spill within hours of the April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, estimating that 8,000 barrels a day of crude oil could possibly gush out of the well in the event of a complete blowout, according to Coast Guard logs.Continue reading
The logs, obtained by the Center for Public Integrity and shared with The New York Times, provide a detailed account of the early days of the BP disaster and identify events that were omitted from the White House ...
Matching bundlers to fundraisers
Here at the Reporting Group, we’ve always wanted to tie the fundraising invitations in our Party Time database to actual donations reported to the Federal Election Commission by a politician or a political action committee--to be able to show a donor gave money to a politician at a certain event.
It’s nearly impossible, and there's a number of reasons we can't--not least of which is that dates in FEC records don't necessarily correspond to the day a contribution was given. (See here for an explanation.) Even when there's a disclosure intended to shed light ...
In House and Senate, appropriators got most contributions from earmark recipients
The Center for Responsive Politics and Taxpayers for Common Sense -- two of our favorite organizations -- have released their comprehensive earmark and influence database for fiscal year 2010 requests.
Among House members, Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., a member of the Appropriations Committee, tops the list of members who have gotten campaign contributions from earmark recipients (complete breakdown here). Interesting to note that Moran's top donor so far, Mantech International, got a $2 million earmark from the Northern Virginia congressman.
In the Senate, Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel K. Inouye received the most contributions from earmark beneficiaries. Inouye secured earmarks for his ...
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