Jason Grumet argues that there's a dark side to sunlight. But transparency is necessary for accountable government; in fact, it's hard-wired into the American democracy.
Continue readingWill the real political advertiser please stand up?
Sunlight's argument, summarized and simplified, is that if someone dresses up as Batman, he/she shouldn't get to claim Batman is the one spamming attack ads. Swap out Batman for super PAC, and you've got the drift.
Continue readingRecovery.gov, now less useful!
Entity information served as the beating heart of Recovery.gov. Unfortunately, that information is no longer available thanks to the government's reliance on proprietary DUNS numbers.
Continue readingStakeholder perspectives heard at DATA Act town hall
Last Friday, the Sunlight Foundation participated in a "data transparency town hall" hosted by the Treasury Department to hear from stakeholders on DATA Act implementation. Our comments are posted here.
Continue readingOfficials in Ferguson have set up barriers to information about the Michael Brown case
Open records requesters are being charged hefty fees in Missouri to get their hands on records that could reveal more about how the local and state government operated during one of their most sensitive times.
Continue readingMoney, politics and scandal in New Zealand’s election
Not normally on the world’s political radar, the recent parliamentary election in New Zealand put the small island nation on par with far more populous democratic countries — and not in a good way.
Continue readingSnap Shot Hungary: The connection between messy political funding and the rise of the illiberal state
Recent radicalization of Hungarian politics can partly be traced back to the country's messy political funding regime, and might be a warning sign that transparent political funding is a necessary condition for a healthy political ecosystem.
Continue readingSign the letter: Open U.S. state legislative data!
As a way to help spread the word about the significance of open legislative data, we've circulated a letter to ask U.S. state legislatures to make several important datasets available online and in open, structured form.
Continue readingSunlight, opengov groups call on legislatures around the globe to embrace open data
Sunlight is thrilled to celebrate Global Legislative Openness Week, calling for increased legislative transparency and parliamentary open data around the globe.
Continue readingHouse moves to restrict open data on corporate financial statements
Last night the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5405 which, among other things, would exempt more than half of public companies in the U.S. from reporting their financial statements as open data.
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