This week I have highlights from Georgia, Missouri, Michigan, Maryland, and am introducing Earmark Corner.

Georgia’s Tondee’s Tavern, went to a Senate Town Hall meeting and taped the answers. This is a great example of how bloggers are ensuring that local events are covered.

Missouri’s Turner Report, highlights state Senator Kevin Engler (Farmington) bill that would ban public officials from accepting meals, beverages, tickets to sporting events, and other forms of entertainment from lobbyists. This is a big lobbying reform bill, and Local Sunlight will be keeping tabs on its progress.

Right Michigan has an interview with State Representative Brian Cally (Portland). Blogger Nick asks him a few questions, including:

Anything else you’d like to discuss or address with the bloggers at Right Michigan

Open government is good government. Perhaps the biggest weakness in state government today is that much of the decision making process is not open to public scrutiny. Take the budget debate for example. Many of the details on line item spending are kept secret, even from the legislature who is charged with approval of the budgets. I’ll bet the budget would be balanced without tax increases if every single line item of state government spending was published on www.michigan.gov.

Kudos to Rep. Cally for being open to the bloggers and good government.

Maryland’s Annapolis Politics talks about County Executive John R. Leopold. Apparently, Mr. Leopold supported a bill to allow a developer to build a golf course. This developer just happened to hosted a fundraiser for Mr. Leopold and raised tens of thousands of dollars for his campaign four days before Mr. Leopold publicly said he supported the golf course. It makes appreciate MAPLight.org a whole lot more.

Bloggers love/hate earmarks. My travels through the blogosphere have led me to find a lot of attention given to earmarks. So in order to keep Local Sunlight by being swallowed by earmark highlights I am introducing Earmark Corner. Gather the kids around the fire and lets see some earmarking from Kentucky, North Carolina, and New Mexico.

Kentucky’s The Rural Democrat, highlights Rep. Hal Rogers $90 million in federal funds for a proposed highway. This and the drip pans Rep. Rogers is having a pork attack.

Over in North Carolina at BlueNC Drama Queen wrote about how Rep. Patrick McHenry who hates earmarks but didn’t think it was hypocritical to ask for 3.5 million in them.

New Mexico FBIHOP’s LP highlights Sen. Pete Domenici’s 25 billions “gift” to nuclear power companies in the omnibus energy bill.

That’s all I have for this week. Thanks local bloggers. Keep the Sunlight shining!

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This week I have highlights from Utah, New Mexico, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Arkansas.

In Utah, Jen’s Green Journal discusses the undeclared conflict of interest for State Reps. Mike Noel and Aaron Tilton. Reps. Noel and Tilton are both on the Public Utilities and Technology Committee and the Public Utilities and Technology Interim Committee (apparently these are two different committees). The conflict of interest is that these committees are considering a motion that would approve building a nuclear reactor in Utah. The conflict is spelled out at Deseret Morning News “Rep. Tilton is an owner of Transition Power Development, a private equity group that has signed an agreement to secure water rights for a nuclear power plant. If approved by water regulators, the plant’s enormous water demands would be supplied by the Kane County Water Conservancy District, whose executive director is Rep. Mike Noel.” In other words these two lawmakers would benefit from the building of a nuclear reactor and should probably declare a conflict of interest.

New Mexico Politics with Joe Monahan talks about how since Sen. Domenici, announced his retirement the Senate Ethics Committee has decided not to go to the next stage of the investigation into his involvement in the US Attorney General scandal.

South Dakota Politics blog has been talking about the farm bill recently and more specifically the $1.1 billion in subsidies that went to 172,801 dead people between 1999 through 2005. The discussion went into depth about whether these farmers were vampires or zombies. You be the judge.

In Tennessee, Nashville City Blogs talks about whether part of the comprehensive state ethics bill is constitutional. Attorney General Bob Cooper says that the section regarding the political activities of family members of the Registry of Election Finance is unconstitutional. The current law prohibits them from participating in campaign activities, running for office, and lobbying. AG Cooper said that these bans are too harsh since these activities don’t really convey a conflict of interest with the Registry of Election Finance.

In Arkansas, The Citizens Journal blog talks about how some Arkansas officials are being sued by two reporters for violating the state’s Freedom of Information Act by withholding information about which government computers were used to edit entries on Wikipedia. The complaint asks the officials to reveal what computers were being used to edit Wikipedia entries on Republican presidential candidates. It is an interesting case of Web 2.0 technology and how it affects transparency and FOIA.

That’s all I got this week. Thank local bloggers for shining the Sunlight.

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I have been keeping track of local blogs that do a great job of informing people about what is happening in Congress, state level, and local level politics. These blogs provide valuable information which I highlight each week to bring you news of transparency from around the country. Here is this week’s update on Sunlight in the states.

In Missouri, the Turner Report discusses the Democratic nomination of Michele Kratky to a Missouri House seat. The strange part is that she is being nominated to replace her husband, Fred Kratky. Why you ask? Mr. Kratky is leaving his state house seat to be a lobbyist for the St. Louis Association of Realtors. What is the problem? Mrs. Kratky just happens to be a lobbyist for the St. Louis Association of Realtors. What a strange game of musical chairs.

New Mexico’s Mario Burgos cites a poll in the Albuquerque Journal saying that 88% of Democrats support stricter ethics laws. He goes on to discuss that morality and ethics can’t be legislated but can only come about by voting out the corrupt. While Mr. Burgos makes an interesting point I ask him to go further and actually ask voters to start keeping elected officials accountable. In order to change a corrupt political culture you have to keep tabs on those who are in charge by gathering and monitoring information about them. This allows citizens to ensure their elected officials uphold a high standard of ethics instead of voting them out after the fact.

Virginia has lost a transparency in government advocate to retirement. Bacon’s Rebellion does a short profile on Mr. Frosty Landon’s retirement. Among his accomplishments, he helped launch the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, which actively defends the Freedom of Information Act. I have to say I don’t know Mr. Landon, but he definitely seems like a Sunlight kind of guy.

DemocracySpace.org has a great post on public officials that blog. Specifically of note is Nils Ribi, a city councilor in the state of Idaho, who live blogged coverage of a recent fire in the area to communicate to residents news updates, recent photos of the fire, and other important information to keep people safe.

In Illinois, 11^th Dem at Prairie State Blue talks about how Congressman Weller (R-11) is under investigation for not properly reporting his involvement in Nicaraguan land deals.

That’s all I can do this week. Keep letting the sunlight shine on local bloggers.

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I just can’t quite give it up.

Even on vacation, a story about disclosure catches my eye, In the New Mexican on Saturday, it’s noted that the Santa Fe City Council wants earlier and more complete campaign finance disclosure. If the Santa Fe City Council adopts recommendations made earlier this week by the city Ethics and Campaign Review Board, candidates would have to report earlier than ever before. Many believe it would help educate the early voters. And yes, another recommendation adopted by the City Council is to encourage electronic filing.

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