ProPublica's Sebastian Jones notes what for us has been one of the most maddening features of campaign finance data: the dates don't mean very much at all. Campaigns report when they receive money, and political action committees report when they donate it. In theory, those dates should match, but as Jones points out, they don't:
The Federal Election Commission [3] requires politicians to disclose the dates and amounts of contributions they receive in periodic reports. Corporate and special interest political action committees (PACs) are also required to file reports with the FEC, disclosing the money they contribute ...Continue reading
Birds of a Feather: What’s In The “DISCLOSE” Bills
Last week, legislation responding to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision was introduced in Congress. The Senate and House versions... View Article
Continue readingGrab a shovel and help Data Mine dig
From my colleagues at the Center for Public Integrity:
The Data Mine, a project of the Center for Public Integrity and Sunlight Foundation, needs your help to excavate federal data that should be accessible to the public or easier to use. During the past week, Data Mine spotlighted how daily bids for wholesale electricity are kept secret, making it difficult for the public to know if household power prices truly reflect the market, reported on a new lawsuit demanding details about a federal immigration program that helps local police I.D. illegal immigrants for deportation and examined how a new ...
Design for America: good graphic design shouldn’t take a decade
In March, the Senate Finance Committee redesigned their website. It had been languishing with the same design since 2001. Here’s... View Article
Continue readingShelby smells a rat in S. 3217
Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala, doesn't believe the financial reform bill the Senate began debating today will actually regulate the large
financial organizations whose risky actions threatened the entire economy in 2008. Instead, the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee sees the bill as something that will further institutionalize bank bailouts in the future.
Shelby noted that many large financial firms -- like Goldman Sachs and Citigroup -- have expressed support for the legislation.
“(Large financial firms) know that the bill will bring them and Wall Street firms like them under the Federal safety net where they will get preferential treatment ...
DISCLOSE Shines a Bright Light on Corporate Expenditures but Leaves Political Activities in the Shadows
We couldn’t agree more with the name of the bill introduced today by Senator Schumer and Representatives Van Hollen and... View Article
Continue readingConsumer Group: Electricity Price-Gouging Feared Until Bids Made Public
Enron Corp.'s manipulation of the California energy market in 2000 and 2001 is notorious. Electricity bills soared and blackouts affected hundreds of thousands of people as contemptuous traders with Enron, a power wholesaler, delighted in their scheme. Tapes of traders released in 2004 contained infuriating nuggets like this: "Just cut 'em off... They should just bring back f------ horses and carriages, f------ lamps, f------ kerosene lamps."
After investigating the scandal, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) concluded that "supply-demand imbalance, flawed market design and inconsistent rules made possible significant market manipulation," and that many of Enron's trading strategies ...
Continue readingTransparency Caucus Kick-Off Event Today
The 26-member strong Congressional Transparency Caucus will kick off its inaugural event today at 1pm on Capitol Hill. The bi-partisan... View Article
Continue readingNational Data Catalog API
The National Data Catalog went live last week. Now we would like to share a little bit about our API and how it fits into our platform.
The National Data Catalog (NDC) is an open source catalog for government data sets and APIs. Our goal is to have it encompass all data released by or about governments in the United States. This includes federal, state, and local jurisdictions. The NDC will harness the community of users interested in open government data.
Web developers can take a look at our API documentation.
Continue readingOGD: Reviewing EPA’s interactive datasets
The Environmental Protection Agency has been ahead of several other cabinet level agencies when it comes to putting data online. For several years now some of their main datasets are available with interactive features such as maps and in a downloadable format. Now according to EPA’s open government plan, the agency is planning on releasing several new data driven projects by the end of 2010, some of which are already public.
The first, managed by Horizon Systems is a suite geospatial data that compiles the features of several databases related to watershed management. This project part of which which ...
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