National News

• The government is officially shut down and the closure will effect a wide range of government websites from the vital to the frivolous but fun. (Washington Post)
• The effects of the government shut down will spread all the way to K street. With Federal employees and Congressional staff stuck at home, lobbyists, already frustrated with the lack of work getting done by the 113th Congress, will have even less to influence. (POLITICO)
• The shut down might also slow down the party circuit in Washington. In the hours before the shut down numerous fundraisers were still scheduled, but now that the doors of government have been locked fundraisers and candidates are looking to push back or cancel their events. (POLITICO)
• The Federal Election Commission hasn't been able to do much work recently given the deadlock on the body, but with the shut down it will truly stop. The agency, with the exception of its politically appointed commissioners, will see all of its employees furloughed. (Public Integrity)

• The Vice President of the European Parliament spoke out against proposed reforms to lobbying transparency rules in the body. Rainer Wieland claimed that reforms could present a serious administrative burden and limit the institution's work.  (EurActive)
• While Argentina does not yet have a Freedom of Information law, three civil society organizations have collaborated on a portal to post the asset disclosures of public servants and elected officials online. (Open Knowledge Blog)

• The Texas Attorney General ruled that a member of the state legislature has to release records related to her communication with the American Legislative Exchange Council. The records were sought by the Wisconsin based Center for Media and Democracy. (FOI Foundation Texas)
• Oakland , California is continuing its trek towards a citywide open data policy. The city council published a proposed policy that could get a vote as soon as October 15. (Govfresh)

National News

• Big data gets bigger every day, but for the government to make the best use of its growing stores of information data governance structures need to be put in place. (Federal Computer Week)
• A new analysis of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which Congressional Republicans have long hated and recently vowed again to destroy, finds that the agency has made strides in its first three years, but its best actions happened in a transparent, iterative manner. (Government Executive)
• There are more women serving in the halls of Congress than ever, but women haven't changed the amount of money they've given to political causes all that much over the past 25 years. (Open Secrets)
• Early next month the Supreme Court is set to hear the latest attack on campaign finance regulation. McCutcheon vs. FEC deals with limits on the overall level of contributions that individuals can spread around to various federal candidates. (National Journal)
• Newly declassified documents show that the NSA spied on prominent American critics of the war in Vietnam, including Martin Luther King, Jr., and two powerful member's of Congress Sen. Frank Church (D-Id) and Rep. Howard Baker (R-TN). (Georgetown Security Law Brief)

• The UK's Independent Reporting Mechanism has a new report out about Britain's first OGP National Action Plan. The timing is appropriate, as the country is prepping its second NAP, to be revealed next month at the OGP meeting in London. (Open Government Partnership)
• The Somali central bank signed a lobbying contract with the Podesta group as corruption allegations swirled around it earlier this month. Abdusalam Omer resigned as head of the bank a week after signing the deal, but claimed his resignation had nothing to do with the allegations. (The Hill)

• The National Association of Manufacturers is building itself a new arm. The new legal center will help its members when they want to lobby on the local, state, and federal levels. (POLITICO)

National News

• Big data is having some big impacts on government according to this piece, which highlights three. Data is helping to enhance security and prevent fraud, it is improving service delivery and emergency response, and finally data is democratizing information access. (Federal Computer Week)
• Jim Messina, one of President Obama's right hand men, was named to the board of directors of LanzaTech, a green energy firm that recently snagged millions in federal contracts and has financial backing from a major Obama donor. In addition to serving in a top White House job and running Obama's reelection campaign, Messina heads up Organizing for Action. (The Washington Times)
• The House Ethics Committee is about to lose its staff director. Dan Schwager, who has served in the position since 2011 and overseen investigations into the actions of several high profile members of Congress, is expected to step down by the end of the year. (POLITICO)
• Many public companies are being proactive about the reporting the money that they spend on politics, with firms from the pharmaceutical, IT, chemical, health, and defense industries ranking highest in a new survey. It's not all good news those, plenty of companies still refuse to share any information. (Public Integrity)

• Ghanaian deputy finance minister Cassiel Ato Forson spoke in favor of stronger and more transparent public financial management systems at a workshop devoted to pushing the topic forward in West Africa. Official's cited the global economic crisis and its continuing fallout as reasons to explore more transparent financial systems.  (Ghana Business News)
• Thailand is taking inspiration from I Paid a Bribe for their new corruption portal. The new website, launched by the Office of the Auditor General, allows citizens to report bribery and other corruption that they encounter. (Future Gov)

National News

• After taking some time off 7-Eleven, the convenience store chain known for helping cure the munchies at all hours of the day or night, is re-opening its corporate PAC. Recently, the chain has been interested in immigration reform and attempting to become eligible for the SNAP program. (Roll Call)
• After some delay, the Senate approved President Obama's two recent nominees to the FEC. Republican Lee Goodman and Democrat Ann Ravel were approved by unanimous consent and will join the board shortly. (Public Integrity)
• Aneesh Chopra, the first ever US CTO, argued that APIs are the wave towards open data in the future. After an unsuccesful run for public office, Chopra recently joined up with Apigee, an API manegment and strategy company. (Government Technology)

• China is planning to lift its restrictive internet rules, including its ban on Facebook, but only within the Shanghai Free-Trade Zone.  (SCMP)
• A new report looks at fledgling FOI laws in emerging democracies, identifying a number of ways that existing FOI legislation can be improved. (NDI Democracy Works)
• Before his speech at the UN yesterday President Obama spoke at a roundtable on ways that Civil Society can be supported around the world. He argued that the future of democracy depends on support for NGO and citizen involvement in public affairs. (POLITICO)

• The Center for Urban Science and Progress, a new research center launched in downtown Brooklyn, aims to become the world's authority on "urban informatics." It is housed within New York University and takes advantage of private funding from IBM, Microsoft, Cisco, and more. (The Atlantic Cities)
• New York kept rolling out open data news this week. Yesterday it was the Big Apple releasing their Open Data Compliance Plan, which was a requirement of the 2012 open data law and outlined a timeline for release of more than 400 data-sets through 2018. The release is surely impressive, but some noted important data sets that weren't mentioned. (Tech President)

National News

• Last week, the Department of Defense made headlines for lacking a functioning fax machine with which to accept FOIA requests. This week, the machine appears to have been replaced, despite initial estimates by the DoD that it would have to wait until the new fiscal year to get its FOIA process back up and running. (The Verge)
• A top FCC staffer is heading to lobbing behemoth Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. Gregory Guice, who most recently led the FCC's legislative affairs shop and has been with the regulator for more than a decade, will join the number 2 lobbying firm in D.C., likely working with telecom clients like AT&T, Cox, and more. (The Hill)
• The party fundraising committees reported their most recent results last week and the results were a mixed bag. The RNC continues to out-raise the DNC by handy margins, while on the Congressional side the DCCC and DSCC pulled in more than their Republican counterparts. (POLITICO, POLITICO, Roll Call)
• It has become relatively common knowledge that President's like to reward big donors and bundlers with cushy ambasadorial gigs, but this handy map makes it clear just how wide-spread the practice is under Obama. (Public Integrity)

• Code for America Brigades have been springing up across America for some time, and now they are making the trip across the ocean. The local civic hacking program will expand internationally with groups in Ireland, Japan, and Poland. (Code for America)
• There is no shortage of parliamentary monitoring organizations in Africa as this list, complete with links and other information, makes clear. (Indigo Trust)
• Six years ago civil society groups in Palestine nearly passed an access to information law. This year they are giving it another go with a new report and push for the Palestinian Authority to institute a law. (Transparency International)

• As Mayor Michael Bloomberg runs out the clock on his time at the helm of New York troubling news is emerging about his records retention policies. The city is only planning to save emails from a small number of agencies to ward off against future litigation. No decision has been made about emails from the NYPD, FDNY, and Department of Education. (DNA Info)
• In more New York News, Governor Andrew Cuomo appointed three special advisors to push forward on the state's open data initiatives. Andrew Nicklin, former R&D director at New York's IT department will lead Open NY. James Hendler, who was an advisor on data.gov, will work on the open.ny.gov platform. He will be joined by Theresa Pardo, director of the Center for Technology in Government at the University of Albany. (Tech President)

National News The MPAA is trying a new strategy to improve their often rocky relationship with the technology industry. The... View Article

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National News

• The famously dysfunctional 113th Congress has been a boon to offices on K street looking to scoop up top level Republican talent growing frustrated with life on Capitol Hill. GOP leadership offices in the House and Senate have lost numerous aides to top level lobbying jobs since the 112th Congress. (POLITICO)
• Despite the Obama White House's often contentious relationship with the press more than 20 prominent journalists have taken jobs with the administration since 2009. There is a long history of journalists revolving into politics and vice versa, but conservatives complain that the practice is more prevalent on the left. (POLITICO)
• Central Intelligence Agency contractors do their fair share of lobbying, but the giant intelligence agency doesn't have any plans to make their disclosures public. The CIA denied a FOIA request by POLITICO, claiming that it could not "confirm nor deny the existence or nonexistence or records," relating to the lobbying efforts of contractors. Federal contractors are supposed to file public OMB form LLLs, but there is sketchy compliance and no system to track them. (POLITICO)

• More than 200 individuals and groups from all sectors are teaming up to promote transparency in Taiwan. The new alliance will promote open data, and has already received a positive reaction from some in government who have agreed to open more data this year. (Tech President)
• Historically in China, officials that take bribes are looked on with more scrutiny than those that offer the bribes in the first place. However, several recent cases indicate that this might be changing as high profile industry officials have been convicted on bribery charges. (The FCPA Blog)
• Following some big procurement scandals in Singapore, the nation's developer of industrial infrastructure Jurong Town Corporation is turning to data analytics in an attempt to screen for irregularities and avoid procurement fraud. (Future Gov)

• A Wisconsin State Senator is mounting a fight against an open records claim that could have a serious impact on the state's open records law. State Sen. Leah Vukmir is countersuing the Center for Media and Democracy, claiming that she can't be sued under the open records law while in office. If successful, Vukmir's suit will allow all state legislators to withhold information from public request. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

National News

• The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, set up to monitor funds distributed as part of the stimulus program launched in 2009, has received accolades for the level of transparency it broad to the massive program. The recovery program was subject to relatively minimal corruption thanks to the board's oversight and the open process. (Federal Computer Week)
• The Koch brothers are taking a new avenue to spend their fortune on political campaigns. Freedom Partners, registered as a 501(c)(6), a designation usually reserved for trade groups like the Chamber of Commerce or American Bar Association, doled out roughly $250 million to conservative groups during 2012. (National Journal)
• A conservative congressman, known for his fiery floor speeches, suggested that House Republicans could defund parts of the executive branch, particularly the Department of Justice, if the Obama administration doesn't become more forthcoming about the various scandals that the GOP is currently investigating. (Government Executive)
• The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has decided to release some previously private court opinion's that justify the government's bulk data collection efforts. The release, more specific details of which have not yet been made available, comes as a result of an ACLU lawsuit. (ars technica)

• The President of Venezuela is asking for special powers to vaccinate Venezuela’s democracy and public sector” against corruption, but real change is unlikely to happen via an executive power grad. Instead, TI suggests that changes need to be made to make all levels of government, especially the executive branch, more open and accountable. (Transparency International)
• (POLITICO)

• San Francisco elected leaders want to bring online, participatory budgeting to their citizens. Right now there's only one problem, figuring out how to actually implement an effective system. (The Verge)
• According to two investigative journalists, the NYPD is more likely to fight a FOI request than any federal agency that secrecy is expected from, including the FBI and NSA. Apparently, the NYPD has a long history of battling the scourge of Freedom of Information laws. (Tech Dirt)
• Opinion: A look back at the past four, open government fueled years, of the Bloomberg administration in New York City and wondered what the next four might look like if New Yorkers elect a mayor who isn't as interested in innovative government and technology. (Tech President)