National News

• Ceasars' Casino needs to get its PAC money right, according to FEC auditors. The auditors found that the PAC had under-reported its receipts by over $150,000 and its expenditures by more than $90,000 over a two year period. (Roll Call)
• Journalists and free-press advocates are keeping up the pressure on the White House a week after close to 40 news outlets filed a formal complaint over the Obama Administration's policy limiting access to photographers. (Washington Times)

• The Spanish Senate approved a "transparency" law last week, despite widespread opposition from civil society groups and political organizations who argued that the bill ignored international standards for right to information laws. (Access Info)
• Austria and Bosnia have joined the growing ranks of countries making budget information available online. Austria's recently launched system covers all of the country's 2,356 municipalities while Bosnia's aims to help citizens understand the tax system and how funds are spread across the government. (International Budget Partnership)
• The Speaker of the British House of Commons is setting up a Commission on Digital Democracy to explore ways to further modernize parliament and government more broadly. (Global Center for ICT in Parliament)

• The Iowa Public Information Board is up and running, but it might be heading backwards when it comes to ensuring government transparency. The board has already made a series of decisions that hinder journalists and members of the public. (Columbia Journalism Review)
• New York's Moreland Commission, set up to investigate corruption in the state, is set to issue its report next week. In the meantime, the New York Public Interest Research group urged the commission to consider a series of campaign finance reforms. (Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

Programming note: Today in #OpenGov, and its author, will be taking the rest of the week off. Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving! National News

• The House Chief Administrative Officer, Dan Strodel, is retiring after 28 years on Capitol Hill. Before being tapped to run the office that supports more than 10,000 members, staff, and employees, Strodel was a senior adviser to the House Committee on Administration. A replacement is expected to be named soon. (Roll Call)
• Today in cogitative dissonance, the Laborers' International Union of North America PAC chipped in $150,000 to the Defending Main Street Super PAC. Defending Main Street is a right leaning group started by former Rep. Steven LaTourette (R), that hopes to defend more moderate Republicans. (Roll Call)
• Happy Holidays from the FEC, a reminder that campaigns and committees who intend to send out more than 500 holiday greetings need to disclose the organization behind the card. (Roll Call)

• The Tunisian Ministry of Finance took an important step while presenting their budget proposal to the National Constituent Assembly, the country's interim legislative body. In addition to the official submission, they released an overview document to the wider public. (International Budget Partnership)
• Qingdao, one of China's major cities, just launched an open government platform that targets citizen services and information to help residents navigate city life. (Future Gov)

• Sierra Madre, California turned to OpenGov.com, a silicon valley start up, to institute a more open budget. The new system allows city employees and citizens to dig deeper into the budget. (Sierra Madre Weekly)
• A number of bills are floating around the Massachusetts state house that would institute a number of reforms to state public records laws. The bills would lower costs, make it easier to download electronic records, and streamline the process. (Lowell Sun)

National News

• Republican Representative Tom Petri (WI) introduced a bill that purports to encourage more individuals to give small amounts to political campaigns. The Citizens Involvement in Campaigns (CIVIC) Act would restore tax credits and deductions for small donations that were in place between 1972 and 1986. (Roll Call)
• The FEC declined to grant the Tea Party Leadership Fund an exemption from disclosure that they have in the past given to small, leftist political parties. Commissioners opposing the request suggested that the Socialist Workers Party, and other similar groups given the exemption, were niche parties with small donor bases ripe for harassment, while the Tea Party Leadership Fund is a member of a nationally recognized movement with a wide base of support. (POLITICO)

• Japan has an open data policy in place. But according to an Open Knowledge Foundation Index the country is lagging behind many of their first world counterparts. (Global Voices)

• There was good and bad news to be had at an oversight hearing on the implementation of New York City's oepn data law earlier this week. The city has been a leader on open data issues, but technologists, advocates, and city councilors have found frustration in the available data and timelines set by agencies for releasing more. (Tech President)

National News

• The House quietly passed a campaign finance bill earlier this week. The bill extends the FEC's authority to hand out administrative penalties to campaign committees when they are late filing, or simply fail to file, their campaign reports.(Roll Call)
• After 8 years as chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke argued that he has made significant progress towards opening up the traditionally closed institution during his tenure. Making the Fed more transparent was one of Bernanke's original goals. (National Journal)
• Marc Smith put together a massive map of open government communities on Twitter. He analyzed tweets mentioning opengov and broke them down based on location, communities, and more. (E Pluribus Unum)

• A Brazilian state, Minas Gerais, decided to help out their entire country with a new tool, DataViva, that should help government employees, citizens, and the private sector make more sense of big government data. (Tech President)
• Want to learn about open budgets around the world? Check out the International Budget Partnership's new OBS Data Explorer! The explorer lets users explore results to the IBP's Open Budget Survey. (International Budget Partnership)

• Honolulu Hawaii is moving to expand state open data rules to their city. The Honolulu City Council unanimously passed an open data bill and sent it on to the Mayor. (CivSource)

National News

• Members of Congress are happy to share a little help with their friends, other members of Congress. Even in this non-election year, Leadership PACs have raked in $18 million and doled out nearly $12 million to other politicians. (Roll Call)
• Don't call me a Lobbyist, from this moment forward I am a Government Relations Professional! I'm just following the lead of the group-formerly known as the American League of Lobbyists, which voted to rename itself the Association of Government Relations Professionals. (Public Integrity)

• The Philippines has launched a portal aimed at opening up foreign aid information. This portal could be come vital as the country attempts to rebuild after being slammed by a devastating typhoon last week. (Future Gov)

• The New York City Council is slated to hold an oversight hearing to investigate the Big Apple's open data law. It's set to go at 1:00 pm tomorrow. (The New York City Council)
• More news out of New York City comes in the form of an exploration of the City's efforts to review and analyze regulations before they become law. (Data-Smart City Solutions)

• Strengthening government oversight: Examining the roles and effectiveness of oversight positions within the Federal workforce. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. 2:30 pm. Subcommittee on Efficiency and Effectiveness of Federal Programs and the Federal Workforce. 342, Dirksen Senate Office Building.

National News

• A group of 80 law professors are calling on President Obama to open up the Trans-Pacific Partnership process. In the wake of recent major leaks, they argue that the closed negotiation process is not working. (Tech Dirt)
• The cable industry's major trade association the National Cable and Telecommunications Association dipped its toes into the dark money game in 2012, spreading relatively small donations around to a number of groups that spent huge amounts to oppose President Obama. (Public Integrity)
• The House Ethics Committee has ended its investigation into trips to Taiwan taken by Reps. Peter Roskam and Bill Owens. Owens, whose trip was closely tied with a lobbying group, had already paid back the cost of his trip. (POLITICO)

• The Open Data Institute has signed an agreement with South Korea's National Information Society Agency to pursue collaboration in open data. (FutureGov)
• Interested in learning how the money flows through the Nigerian extractives industry? You'll have a chance on December 7, when the Open Knowledge Foundation hosts a webinar on the topic. (Open Knowledge Blog)

• Orange County, California has experienced a number of dog bite incidents in recent months and is considering displaying their data on an interactive map in an attempt to combat the problem. (Government Technology)
• Democrats are often seen as being opposed to campaign finance deregulation in the wake of the Citizens United decision. But, last year Unions and other left leaning groups used it to their advantage, specifically successfully targeting state elections. (Roll Call, Public Integrity)

National News

• A group of major tech companies have been asking the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) for the right to release more specific details on government data requests. The companies want to have public oral arguments in front of the court, a request that the government isn't so happy about. Government representatives have asked that only they be allowed to argue in front of a judge, and to do it in secret to boot. (ars technica)
• Penny Pritzker, the new Secretary of Commerce, counts data among her top priorities. The successful business woman understands how open government data can help entrepreneurs and plans to put her energy behind ensuring that the Commerce department continues to open up. (fedscoop)
• The infamous Koch brothers spent a whopping $122 million on the 2012 election through their "nonprofit", Americans for Prosperity. That's more than the group had spent between 2004 and 2011 combined. (Public Integrity)

• Australia is making some changes to its open data portal, most notably switching to an open source platform in July. Since the change more than half of the portals data sets have disappeared, but there doesn't appear to be anything nefarious at play. Site administrators are simply cleaning up dead links and removing junk datasets. (Tech President)
• A data set full of voting records from the UN General Assembly since 1946 is being used to show off some beautiful visualizations that can help show off parliamentary data. (Opening Parliament)
• The Russian Minister of Communications and Mass Communications indicated that his country would be making more data related to government contracting available to the public. (E Pluribus Unum)

• The Michigan Secretary of State has proposed a rule that would broaden disclosure requirements for political ads. The rule would require ad sponsors to file formal reports and meet all other disclosure rules. (Roll Call)