Every February 2nd, optimists around the country turn to a furry little rodent in Western Pennyslvania, hoping that this year... View Article
Continue readingThe Local Open Government Directive
Introducing the Local Open Government Directive, a model based on the federal Open Government Directive modified to help local governments bring about openness and transparency. Over the last month, representatives from Colorado Smart Communities, CityCamp, Code for America, , the Sunlight Foundation and many other activists have been working together to create this document.
Continue readingLobbying Laws Need to Capture All Who Lobby
Sunlight’s new Lobbyist Registration Tracker is a great new tool to let users track who is lobbying about what issues.... View Article
Continue readingSunlight Weekly Round-up: Commissioners Reject Code of Ethics Proposal
Since we started this aggregation of blog posts, different bloggers have expressed interest in sharing their thoughts on issues revolving around transparency and accountability in government. We continue to support this interest. I am particularly excited about furthering the transparency blogging platform and this is why I am inviting other transparency bloggers to join Transparency bloggers - our Sunlight Foundation Google group. For now, we understand that openness is an issue for both sides - as Amy Laff illustrates. But tracking transparency can be a challenge especially in cases such as North Carolina's government officials who rejected a proposal for a revised Code of Ethics.
Continue readingSunlight Blogger Round-up: Utah Transparency Report Card
The quest for "Sunshine" is not a one time venture. Indeed the summary of the blog posts below shows that the journey may begin with citizens questioning the activities of public officials as is the case with Hawaii's Ryan Kawailani Ozawa who probes the state's selective publication of government employee salaries. But it certainly does not end at initiating ways to boost transparency even with innovative tools such as websites. Instead, we see that constant evaluation and assessment of these tools provide room for improvement and help us determine what worked and what didn't just as Utah's transparency report demonstrates.
Continue readingSunlight Blogger Round-up: Judgeship Applications to be disclosed
Carol Geiger, Steve Hall and Kathy Posner all have one thing in common. To see their government held accountable and ... View Article
Continue readingSunlight Blogger Round-up: New Ethics Website
As the nation draws closer to mid-term elections, citizens are continuing to keep a watchful eye on government transparency. Some... View Article
Continue readingTake Transparency Offline…and into Your Mailbox
Election season is in high gear, as you’ve no doubt noticed. With it comes the normal barrage of ads, phone... View Article
Continue readingAsk the question about transparency that you’ve always wanted
Ever get tired of hearing pundits ask softball questions to politicians? Or finally hear a really great question, only to have it answered in a few TV friendly, pre-packaged bullet points that don’t tell you anything you didn’t already know? Thanks to the work of our friends at Personal Democracy Forum, we don’t have to accept this one way channel of communication. With 10Questions.com, every American can be a part of the conversation with those running for office this election season.
Continue readingStatelight: Transparency in a Box, Pt. 3
As we set the stage for advocating on local and state transparency issues and highlight some policies issues of note,... View Article
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