Our Sunlight Foundation colleague, Lee Drutman, has written elsewhere about the amount of dark money -- political donations that come without donors attached -- flowing into this year's campaign. But what about the conduits? As the Senate debates the DISCLOSE Act this week, a measure that would take modest steps towards adding a little transparency back into the campaign finance system, it's worth taking a look at the entities that are taking advantage of the loopholes that allow them to avoid disclosing -- sometimes just donors, sometimes just about everything.
The groups run the gamut from long established organizations with a ...
Continue readingRep. Blake Farenthold deletes tweets from Slovakia
Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, deleted tweets he sent over the weekend detailing various stops in Slovakia, and his office is refusing to say why he's there or whether he's on official travel or vacation.
Continue readingFireworks light up the political landscape
In the spirit of Independence Day, we decided to explore the lobbying and legislature surrounding the fireworks industry. Wading through the myriad regulations that govern the use of pyrotechnics from state to state, we identified several major fireworks companies and followed their purse strings. Turns out everything's political, even the bangs and zooms with which we celebrate our nation's birthday.
Currently pending in Congress: A measure introduced by two lawmakers from Michigan -- a rust-belt state whose representatives are more often outspoken avocates of domestic manufacturers -- that would temporarily suspend duties for imported consumer and commercial fireworks. Translation: it ...
Continue readingCould the United Nations squelch freedom on the Internet?
Activists expressed concern this week that several United Nations proposals to regulate the Internet would undermine freedom and give too much control over the World Wide Web.
Proposals to centralize Internet regulation will be discussed at the two upcoming U.N. winter conferences -- the Internet Governance Forum in November and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) meeting in December.
But panelists at “Clear and Present Danger: Attempts to Change Internet Governance and Implications for Press Freedom,” a National Endowment for Democracy forum in Washington argued for maintaining a more decentralized Internet.
“We see the potential to shift Internet governance away from ...
Continue readingHouse members delete tweets echoing Supreme mistweet
The general mayhem following mistaken all-too-instant analyses of Thursday's nearly 200-page Supreme Court package of opinions on the health care law included several members of Congress eating their words – or tweets, rather – according to Sunlight Foundation’s Politwoops.
“Individual Mandate ruled unconstitutional. Let Freedom Ring,” posted Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Fla., in an immediate response to news stories that erroneously indicated that the high court had overturned health care law. Ross deleted the inaccurate tweet, moments later, when it became clear that two networks often watched in congressional offices -- CNN and Fox -- had blown the call. Gannett News Service has ...
Continue readingSunlight Live: Video stream with real time data as House panel grills EPA chief
(Updated: 9:56 a.m. June 28: The House science panel has postponed this hearing, and so our Sunlight Live blog is postponed too. We'll let you know as soon as we can reschedule.)
Fracking is likely to be at the center of Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson's first appearance before the House Science, Space and Technology Committee on Thursday, which we'll be covering that day beginning at 10 a.m. on Sunlight Live, a tool that allows us to provide a video stream of the proceedings along with real time data and commentary.
Music giant Universal and EMI owner lavish contributions on Senate anti-trust panel
(Clarification: This story has been updated to more accurately reflect the timing of Citigroup's donations)
At least half of the members of the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, which Thursday will hold a hearing on Universal Music Group’s proposed merger with EMI music, have received contributions from the two music giants or from rival firm, Warner Music.
In the months leading up to and following last November's announcement of proposed merger -- which must win approval from both the U.S. government and the European Union -- the record companies and their corporate ownwers have made a stream of contributions ...
Continue readingScouting expedition: How Sunlight’s newest tool can make you a better watchdog
Got an issue you care about? A bill you need to track? Can't afford to hire your own team of lobbyists? No problem.
Sunlight Foundation's newest tool, Scout, allows you to keep tabs on Congress, the federal government's regulators and (drum roll, please) all 50 state legislatures at once. It's as easy as entering a search term and pushing a button. Want to keep tabs on future activities? Just enter your email address and Scout will send you alerts every time your term is mentioned in Congress, state legislation or the Federal Register. There's a ...
Continue readingLegacy media bankrolling campaigns of SOPA cosponsors
Traditional big media firms have contributed more than $5 million to the sponsors of the Stop Online Piracy Act, with California Democratic Reps. Howard Berman and Adam Schiff as the top recipients.
The bill, known as SOPA, would strengthen and extend the penalties for online copyright violations, and could force websites hosting pirated content to come down or prevent search engines from sending users their way. Legacy media companies stand to benefit if there's less unlawful movement of their content on the web, like pirated movies and songs for download.
Some of the nation's top tech companies — Facebook ...
Sunlight Live team to cover GOP national security debate
The Republican Presidential candidates will meet this Tuesday in the nation’s capital to debate national security, just as they did in South Carolina just two weeks ago. Tuesday's debate will be hosted by CNN and sponsored by the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute and the Sunlight Live team will cover it.
Over the course of October and November, Herman Cain, the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, saw a peak in his poll numbers. During the week of Oct. 21, Cain polled at 26 percent, but has since been slipping. The one-time poll leader is now ...
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