Albuquerque’s open data initiative has received good reviews. Why? The city's been focusing on the concept of return on investment.
Continue readingTexas bill the latest revolving door measure to flounder
Revolving door safeguards are meant to ensure that policymakers are acting in their constituents' best interests — not their future employers'. But legislation to support this idea has floundered recently.
Continue readingSunshine and shadows: Statehouses tackle open records laws in 2015
The 2016 state legislative sessions have already witnessed a host of important actions, with legislators across the country considering measures to increase and decrease governmental transparency.
Continue readingNew Mexico water commission votes to divert Gila River despite open meetings complaints
A New Mexico water commission yesterday decided to go forward with a plan to divert thousands of acre-feet of water from the Gila River, despite complaints by activists that it violated open meetings laws.
Continue readingEnvironmentalists charge violations of New Mexico open meetings and records laws in plan to divert Gila River
A former official with a New Mexico water commission is accusing his old organization of violating the state's open meeting laws.
Continue readingCongressman has close ties to “independent” groups in New Mexico
A nonprofit and super PAC run by the former campaign manager of Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., and funded by campaign donors, are making their presence felt — running ads in a municipal election and fighting a proposed endangered species regulation.
Continue readingHow ex-Det. Guy Bowers became the biggest campaign donor of all
One of the most prolific donors to political candidates running for federal office has no idea that’s his status.
Guy Bowers, a 66-year-old ex-detective who says he owes his fortune to an inheritance and some savvy investing, is not your typical corporate executive often associated with fattening politicians’ campaign accounts.
Yet Bowers was such an enthusiastic donor that he tops a list of perhaps hundreds who appear to have broken a campaign finance law that caps the total amount of money individuals can give federal political candidates and committees in the course of a two-year election cycle. For 2011 ...
NRA gives more than $2 million to support politicians in Texas, New Mexico
During the past two decades, the National Rifle Association has contributed more than $2 million to support politicians in New Mexico and Texas, where the nation's latest outbreaks of gun violence occurred this week.
Both are among the majority of states that provide broad protections for gunowners privacy, according to information compiled by the Sunlight Foundation.
MORE: For data on the gun debate, see the Sunlight Foundation's resource page.
Data pulled from Influence Explorer, a Sunlight Foundation database that tabulates federal campaign contributions from the Center for Responsive Politics and state contributions from the National Institute of Money ...
Continue readingSunlight Weekly Roundup: Citizen journalist removed from public meeting
In Georgia, Cumming Mayor Ford Gravitt removed citizen journalist Nydia Tisdale from a recent public meeting. Georgia Attorney General Sam... View Article
Continue readingSunlight Weekly Roundup: Lack of campaign finance disclosure “leads to the appearance of it being inappropriate”
In DC, Advisory Neighborhood Commissions (ANCs) must provide the DC Auditor with quarterly financial reports. The DC Auditor audits financial... View Article
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