Here is Tuesday's take on transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events. News Roundup:
Campaign Finance
- Most Republican presidential candidates have declined to disclose the identities of their bundlers. (Yahoo/AP)
- At least four Cabinet secretaries have signaled their willingness to participate in activities aimed at helping Democratic super PACs raise money. (iWatch News)
- The Obama administration's 2013 budget proposal does not include a previously considered plan to require contractors to disclose political contributions when submitting contract bids. (Federal Computer Week)
- Civic Commons, created to foster the use of open-source technology in government, will become part of Code for America. Civic Commons work helping governments build open software that can be shared among jurisdictions will be discontinued. (Tech President)
- The Open Source Digital Voting Foundation is working to make election software more open and secure. (Gov Fresh)
International
- India is the first major democratic country to request that internet companies institute sweeping content filtering policies. Google, Facebook Twitter, and other companies are slated to present plans for filtering "offensive content" by February 21. (Global Voices)
- Brazil, a co-chair of the OGP, is scheduled to host a meeting of more than 50 participating countries in April. But, they have struggled to secure broad citizen participation in their own OGP plans. (Observing Brazil)
2Day in #OpenGov 2/13/2012
Here is the week's first look at transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events. News Roundup:
Campaign Finance
- A major donor to the Rick Santorum supporting Red, White, and Blue Fund, Wyoming Millionaire Foster Friess, was at CPAC last week to introduce the former Senator. (National Journal)
- Editorial: The DISCLOSE Act is desperately needed. (New York Times)
- The New Hampshire Legislature passed a law to make open data and open source software included by default in the state's procurement process. (Tech President)
- A former legislative adviser at the Department of Health and Human Services is joining Group Health Cooperative as its director of federal government relations. In addition to HHS, Madeline Otto has previously worked as a legislative assistant to Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL). (National Journal)
- The Aerospace Industries Association hired their new vice president of acquisition policy from the House Appropriations Committee. William Greenwalt has deep government procurement experience. (Federal Computer Week)
International
- After a year of high profile anti-corruption protests, a new report shows that state-owned companies have made progress becoming more open. (Transparency International)
- Iran appears to be instituting an internet blackout in advance of protests planned for Tuesday. (Global Voices)
- America Speaks and Global Voices are hosting a webinar to explore how Open Government Partnership countries can more effectively engage with their citizens while developing their OGP Action Plans. (Global Integrity)
2Day in #OpenGov 2/10/2012
Here is the week's last look at transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events. News Roundup:
Government
- Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL) is under investigation by the Office of Congressional Ethics for possible insider trading violations. (Washington Post)
- The House Administration Committee and the Library of Congress are trying to make it easier to find live video streams of house committee hearings. They created one centralized site to hold all relevant links. (ICT Parliament)
International
- A 2006 court case in Chile paved the way for access to public information laws throughout Latin America. Currently, 14 of the regions 19 countries have laws on the books, more than any other developing region in the world. (Open Society Blog)
- Brazil requested an injunction from Twitter to stop users from tweeting about police roadblocks, radar traps, and drunk-driving checkpoints. It appears to be the first time that a country has taken Twitter up on its plans to allow censorship of tweets that might break local laws. (Yahoo/AP)
State and Local
- The office of the New York City Comptroller currently provides comprehensive, daily updates on almost every check issued by the city. Now, they revamping their website and preparing to release the source code under an open-source license. (Tech President)
- The Washington, DC Attorney General ruled that a proposed ballot initiative to ban corporate donations to city candidates is eligible to move forward. Initiative organizers will have to gather 22,000 signatures to gain ballot access. (Washington Post)
2Day in #OpenGov 2/9/2012
Here is Thursday's look at transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events. News Roundup:
Campaign Finance
- Senator John Tester (D-MT) took a cue from Senate candidates in Massachusetts and publicly challenged his Republican opponent, Rep. Denny Rehberg, to sign a pledge publicly rejecting TV and radio ads from third-party groups. (Politico)
- Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) endorsed Mitt Romney in advance of the Michigan Republican primary. The same morning, Upton had a fundraiser hosted by Romney's campaign lawyer Ben Ginsberg. (Republic Report)
- The U.S. Chamber of Commerce jumped into the 2012 House and Senate elections. The Chamber will spend $10 million to advertise in eight Senate and 12 House races. (National Journal)
- There are currently 12 vacant Inspector General positions across the federal government. Where Are All the Watchdogs tracks the vacancies and provides information on the necessity of IGs. (POGO)
- Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a complaint against Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY) over allegations that he accepted illegal campaign contributions. The story first came to light as part of a New York Times report. (The Hill)
International
- Users of the Chinese microblogging service Weibos who are located in Beijing are being required to post under their real names or be banned from the service. (Yahoo/Digital Trends)
- South Korean prosecutors indicted a freedom-of-speech activist for retweeting messages from an official North Korean government twitter account. The activist claimed his actions were meant as satire. (Global Voices)
2Day in #OpenGov 2/8/2012
Here is Wednesday's look at transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events. News Roundup:
Government
- Conference committees, meant to reconcile differences between House and Senate bills, have proved less and less useful in recent years. More often deals are being cut behind closed doors and away from public scrutiny. (Washington Times)
- A new report found that, despite an earmark moratorium, a number of lawmakers directed tax dollars to a variety of programs that benefit their family members and areas near where they own property. (Washington Post)
- An amendment to the STOCK act will require political intelligence professionals to register under the lobbying disclosure law. But, they will not be subject to a cooling off period if they leave the Hill to work for a political intelligence firm. (National Journal)
- Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) hired Blue State Digital's client manager and senior communications strategist, Alex Kellner, to be her new digital director. (Tech President)
International
- Mzalendo is a transparency website dedicated to monitoring the Parliament of Kenya. It has been around for several years, but recently undertook a major overhaul. (My Society)
- Ghana's president, up for reelection this year, is facing a massive corruption scandal that has already led to the resignation of two cabinet ministers. (Sahara Reporters)
2Day in #OpenGov 2/7/2012
Here is Tuesday's take on transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events. News Roundup:
Campaign Finance
- More than a third of advertising related to the presidential race has come from nonprofit groups that can keep their donors secret. (Washington Post)
- Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA), the chair of the House Armed Services Committee, regularly raises money from the defense industry. This year the industry found another member of his family to court, donating more than $19,000 to his wife Patricia, who is running for a seat in the California Legislature. (Republic Report)
- Former Senator Russ Feingold (D-Minn) a longtime advocate of campaign finance reform, came out strongly against President Obama's decision to promote the super PAC supporting him. (Politico)
- The Department of Energy recently launched a new web portal. They have run into some problems with data access and are still migrating some of their information. Additionally, the DOE has large amounts of information that they do not release to the public. (POGO)
- Federal CTO Aneesh Chopra covered a wide range of topics, including SOPA and open government, in his first major interview since announcing that he will step down. Wednesday is his last day as CTO. (The Atlantic)
International
- Russia is in the process of becoming a full party to the OECD's Anti-Bribery Convention. Bribery has been a problem in Russia for some time. (Transparency International)
2Day in #OpenGov 2/6/2012
Here is the week's first look at transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events. News Roundup:
Campaign Finance
- Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, expressed his concern over the potential influence of outside spending on Congressional elections this year. (National Journal)
- Two new super PACs were registered last week, both opposed to the growing influence of money in politics. Citizens Against Super PACs intends to raise money and run ads to educate the public about super PACs and support candidates who support a constitutional amendment limiting or banning the groups. (Washington Times)
- Football related organizations have been spending record amounts on lobbying as Congress has stepped up its oversight of the game over the past few years. (Politico)
- Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA) is losing his top health aide to the revolving door. Tyler Thompson is leaving Isakson for the health care practice at the Bockorny Group. (National Journal)
International
- Regards Citoyens, a French organization promoting open data, is holding an international conference on opening legislative data. The event will take place July 6-7 in Paris and feature the unveiling of a new legislative evolution monitoring tool. (Open Knowledge Foundation)
- A survey is being conducted, in preparation for the release of the World e-Parliament Report 2012, to measure progress of e-parliament and recent technological developments. (ICT Parliament)
- Following a regime change in 2011, many Tunisian politicians are turning to twitter and other social media to connect with citizens. (Global Voices)
2Day in #OpenGov 2/1/2012
Here is Wednesday's look at transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events. News Roundup:
Campaign Finance
- Barack Obama has relied heavily on bundlers to pull in huge donations for his reelection campaign. Notable new bundlers in the most recent FEC filings are a one-time chief of staff to former President Clinton and "Desperate Housewives" star Eva Longoria. (Washington Times)
- New analysis shows that Stephen Colbert's focus on super PACs have had a real effect on his audience. Search traffic spikes whenever Colbert mentions the groups on his show. Meanwhile, his own super PAC raised over $1 million in 2011. (Washington Post)
- Some major Democratic super PACs and nonprofits reported raising over $19 million last year. This figure puts them far behind the top Republican groups. (iWatch News)
Government
- Federal investigators found that the Air Force illegally retaliated against four whistleblowers who revealed misconduct at the Dover Air Force Base mortuary. The U.S. Office of Special Counsel recommended disciplinary action against three officials accused of retaliation. (Politico)
- Data.gov has seen mixed results with its launch. Some agencies actively post new data sets in machine-readable formats on a regular basis. But, others have lagged behind in making their data accessible. (Government Executive)
- The British government is testing a new web platform. Gov.UK is open source, mobile friendly, and open for feedback. (O'Reilly Radar)
2Day in #OpenGov 1/31/2012
Here is Tuesday's take on transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events. News Roundup:
Campaign Finance
- CREDO Mobile, which donates some of its revenue to progressive causes and supports efforts to repeal Citizens United, launched a super PAC to target 10 Tea Party affiliated lawmakers. (National Journal)
- A study by the Wesleyan Media Project found that outside spending on political ads is up 1,600 % in the Republican primary over the same point in 2008. The surge is contributed, in large part, to the rise of super PACs. (Politico)
- Lobbying and communications firm Venn Squared Communications is holding a cocktail celebration for Sen. Al Franken's (D-Minn) new Chief of Staff. Franken's previous Chief of Staff left for a job with energy company Solazyme, a major client of Venn Squared. (Roll Call $)
- A former special assistant to the president and director of Cabinet communications, Tom Gavin, is leaving the White House to join the Information Technology Industry Council as their vice president for external affairs. (The Hill)
Government
- The Senate voted 93-2 to move forward with debate on the STOCK act. The act is intended to prevent members of Congress from participating in insider trading. (Politico)
- The announcement that U.S. CTO Aneesh Chopra have caused some to worry about the future of the open data movement within the federal government and others to argue that more emphasis should be placed on using data to make government services and operations cheaper and more efficient. (Government Technology)
- 15 members of Germany's Pirate Party, who won seats elections in Berlin last year, are receiving renewed attention following the shutdown of file sharing site Megaupload. The party consists of open-source advocates who hope to create a more transparent government and use online systems to enhance democracy. (Miller-McCune)
2Day in #OpenGov 1/30/2012
Here is the week's first look at transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events. News Roundup:
Campaign Finance
- Democratic politicians have assaulted Republicans over their use of "unlimited secret money" in recent days. At the same time, the party has been working to build their infrastructure to compete with Republicans in the unlimited money race. (Politico)
- So far this election cycle super PACs have been most well known for their negative ad attacks. But, they are beginning to participate in other activities including phone banking, field organizing, polling, and other operations more closely associated with traditional campaigns. Not all candidates are happy about this. (Politico)
- Senator John McCain, a longtime champion of stronger campaign finance rules, attacked the Supreme Court and guaranteed that the influx of unlimited, barely regulated money would lead to scandal. (National Journal)
- A new report found that at least 5 former lawmakers have collected lobbying fees from organizations that they secured earmarks for while in office. (CREW)
- The Obama campaign is sticking to its policy of not accepting donations from registered lobbyists by returning five checks totaling $2,250. The Center for Responsive Politics first shed light on the donations. (The Hill)
- Retired General James Cartwright, who was previously America's second-highest ranking military officer, is joining the board of directors at Raytheon, a major defense contractor. (POGO)
International
- Ethiopian journalist and blogger, Eskinder Nega, has been detained by authorities at least 7 times in the past twenty years. Most recently in September 2011, when he was jailed for publishing a column calling for the government to respect freedom of speech and assembly. (Committee to Protect Journalists)
- Twitter's announcement that they could censor tweets in specific nations where the content might break laws was met with outrage from many around the globe. But, one country, Thailand, has come out in support of the policy. Thailand has blocked more than 1,156 websites for "anti-monarchy" content since December. (AP/Yahoo)
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