This week I have highlights from Virginia, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey and Alabama.

In Virginia, Bacon’s Rebellion has a great post on the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority asking people to put up YouTube videos about how miserable their commutes are. The NVTA is hoping that the northern Virgina legislators will see them and will create NVTA taxes and fees and enact a statewide transportation plan. The second half of the post asks, since NVTA is a partial state agency, if it is wrong to use state money to lobby for state funds.

Howard County Maryland Blog has an update on the status of legislation that would create a state spending database, the bill just passed the Maryland House and Senate and is waiting for the governor’s signature. Also the Howard County Council has unanimously approved a measure to have a county level spending database created by 2010.

In Missouri, the Turner Report posts about how Gov. Matt Blunt has two siblings that are registered lobbyists in the state of Missouri. I wonder what Thanksgiving dinner is like?

In New Jersey, the Ruins of Trenton has a post on a bill that would allow municipalities and government entities to satisfy public notice requirements for certain announcements by placing the notices online. The bill just passed assembly and is on its way to the state senate. Assemblyman Cryan said it best "With Internet access and usage continually on the rise, it makes good sense to allow the public to access meeting notices and other government documents electronically." I couldn’t agree more, however, newspapers aren’t too happy. Currently all notices have to be posted in newspapers which means government agencies have to buy a a large protion of ad space.

In Alabama, Doc’s Political Parlor has a great post discussing a statement made in the state senate by State Senator Scott Beason. Sen. Beason asked the body if the legislature was “shirking” their duties by having the people vote on laws. Beason said, “It is up to us to look at the issue, study the issue, debate the issue, come up with the best possible legislation for the people of the state - the best we can do. Then it’s up to the people to decide if what we did was right.” The discourse about what the job of the legislature is and how much citizens should participate is definitely more topical now with more participartory tools and the internet. Sunlight has recently encountered this discussion in response to our latest project PublicMarkup.org.

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This week I have highlights from Virginia, New Jersey, Alabama, Hawaii, and Maryland.

In Virginia, Vivian J. Page, highlights the city of Norfolk, VA’s new YouTube channel. The channel has videos about what is going on in the community. This is a great use of available technology to get messages out to the community.

In New Jersey, Blog the Fifth, discusses Rep. Scott Garrett’s new chief of staff, Amy D. Smith. Smith is a Capitol Hill veteran and also a former lobbyist. She lobbied for the firm Bartlett, Bendall, & Kadesh LLC. Makes you wonder about the revolving door and the perception of conflict of interest.

Mooncat at Left in Alabama highlights Follow the Money’s new Legislative Committee Analysis tool. This new tool shows you the top contributors to committee members and who has contributed to the committee as a whole and what industries are giving money.

In Hawaii, Poinography, talks about providing bloggers with legal protection if they grant a source anonymity. Hawaii state house is considering a bill that includes bloggers under shield protections.  However, this bill is not scheduled for a hearing.

Also in Hawaii, iLind.net, got a response from his Sunshine Blogger Request request to Gov. Linda Lingle’s office for emails. Half of the emails requested were provided the other half were withheld under executive privilege. This is a pretty interesting read to see what was learned from this FOI request and to see what the governor considers executive privilege.

Maryland Politics blog has a great post on what Montgomery County’s senators are working on by providing a list of sponsored bills for each state senator. This is a great reminder that people should be checking out their state government sites, as well as, OpenCongress.org to see if the bills their elected officials are championing are being passed and if you agree with them or not.

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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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