Finding legislative information on Honolulu's city council website is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Hawaii Open Data's Burt Lum explored how the website can be better.
Continue readingNew Year’s resolution for nonprofits and organizations: use more data
Ten opengov resolutions to help jump start 2014! Expand your work horizons with a healthy diet of data and mental exercise using new or overlooked tools.
Continue readingGet paid to learn: Apply for a summer Google Journalism fellowship at Sunlight!
Join our team of seasoned reporters and talented developers to follow political money wherever it flows in an election year. Apply to work at Sunlight this summer on a Google Journalism fellowship.
Continue readingFollow the gun money with Sunlight tools
How we did this guns series, and how you can follow the money too using Sunlight's tools.
Continue readingOn gun control, states are where the action is
While their efforts to win new federal gun regulations stalled out this year, gun control advocates did win some victories in big states.
Continue readingWhat’s Under the Hood of Google’s New Civic Information Offering
Exciting news for anyone working on open government technology: Google's Civic Information API now includes representative data! The API was already a great source of electoral information. Now it can help connect people to the politicians who represent them.
Continue readingHappy Birthday Louis Brandeis, Muse of Sunlight!
Today is the 157th anniversary of the birth of Louis Brandeis, a trailblazing advocate for civil liberties, individual rights and, yes, sunlight.
For us, it's a day to celebrate and take stock of our mission, for Brandeis is our inspiration: The Sunlight Foundation takes its name from one of his most famous observations.
Make a Louis Brandeis birthday donation to Sunlight!
Complete Local Legislative Data
When we talk about providing a transparent and legible legislative process, the first step is identifying all the moving parts that contribute to the passing of law. In Washington, D.C., this means not just following the city council, but also following D.C.’s Advisory Neighborhood Commissions, or ANCs, the hyperlocal government entities that advise the city council on community issues. Although the District’s city government structure is uniquely granular, it serves as an excellent model for understanding what a complete legislative data framework should consist of.
Continue readingIn new battleground over toxic reform, American Chemistry Council targets the states
This is a special report from The Center for Public Integerity, a member -- like the Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group -- of the Investigative News Network.
HARTFORD, Conn. — In the bare-knuckle war over toxic chemicals, the fight between industry and activists has shifted noticeably from Washington, D.C., to state venues such as the golden-domed Capitol that rises over Hartford like a lordly manse.
What happened this year in Hartford shows how industry — fueled by the American Chemistry Council, a $100 million a year advocacy group glittered with Fortune 500 partners — is flexing its muscles from statehouse to statehouse to beat back ...
Continue readingUse Sunlight Tools to track civil rights issues
As the nation focuses on the 50th anniversary of the historic March for Jobs and Freedom that culminated with Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech, we decided to look at the subject of civil rights through the prism of some Sunlight tools:
It's a party affair. According to searches on our Capitol Words tool, which allows users to search text on the Congressional Record, Democrats talk more often about voting rights than Republicans do. Dems also own “Martin Luther King,” “redistricting,” “voter registration,” “civil rights” “Jim Crow,” “Selma,” and “March on Washington.” Republicans talk about ...
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