Sunlight Foundation

Making Government Transparent and Accountable

The Sunlight Foundation uses cutting-edge technology and ideas to make government transparent and accountable. Underlying all of our efforts is a fundamental belief that increased transparency will improve the public's confidence in government

• Local Sunlight

  By Nisha Thompson on 09/28/09 @ 5:13 pm | 0 Comments

  Every week I climb into the depths of the local political blogosphere to find the Sunlight.  I use this series to highlight local blogs that do a great job of covering local, state, and congressional political news.  This week I have highlights from Texas, Michigan, and Maine.

  Texas Watchdog reports on a loophole in Texas personal financial disclosure filings.  Spouses of elected officials do not have to be included in disclosure filings.  Considering that spouses could have considerable wealth and influence, this loophole should be eliminated.  Spouses could have investments that are affected by policy and potential conflicts of interest should be made public.

  In Michigan, Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood highlights an OpenSecrets.org article on donations made to members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee by the insurance industry. Rep. Mike Rogers is on the committee and is the fourth highest beneficiary of donations .  The post notes that even though Rep. Rogers was elected in 2000 he is prominently placed on the insurance industry’s radar.

  In Maine, Union Maine posts about Congresswoman Pingee answers some questions they sent to the Maine congressional delegation.  The blog asked her office a few questions about their health care: “What does it cost? How much do they pay? How much do we pay for them? .”   Rep. Pingee is the only office in Maine that responded to Union Maine’s questions.  The post goes into more information about congressional health care coverage.  It is a great example of how members of Congress can gain points by answering constituent questions.  It really is that easy.

  

• Local Sunlight

  By Nisha Thompson on 06/16/08 @ 3:57 pm | 0 Comments

  This week I have highlights from Alabama, Kentucky, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Oregon.

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• Local Sunlight

  By Nisha Thompson on 12/21/07 @ 2:51 pm | 0 Comments

  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!

  

• Local Sunlight

  By Nisha Thompson on 11/16/07 @ 11:46 am | 0 Comments

  This week I have highlights from Iowa, Michigan, Hawaii, South Dakota, and Texas.

  Blog for Iowa, reports that the Iowan House of Representatives has a WordPress Blog! You can use it to get updates on what is going on in the Iowan house. The blog features audio from the House Chamber, calendar of events, and will also use content from YouTube and Facebook.

  In Michigan, Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood has a great post investigating a few earmarks. The post talks about why a particular earmark is necessary and whether Rep. Rogers is playing both sides of the fence by being against certain earmarks but asking for some as well.

  Hawaii Blog reports that the Hawaii State Legislature is looking for a full time year round blogger. The position comes with full benefits! Today’s your last day to apply!

  In South Dakota, S.D. Watch reports a little transparency reversal. Apparently the State of South Dakota is suing a judge because he will not disclose information about a meeting with defense attorneys.

  In Texas, Big Houston talks about how the city of Houston is posting health inspection information online but isn’t posting all of them until some public pressure made them change their minds. So everyone visit Houston and avoid places that have health violations. I wonder if other cities do this.

  Shine on Sunlighters Shine on!

  

• Local Sunlight

  By Nisha Thompson on 10/10/07 @ 5:02 pm | 0 Comments

  Every week I climb into the depths of the local political blogosphere to find the Sunlight. I use this series to highlight local blogs that do a great job of covering local, state, and Congressional political news. This week I have highlights from Ohio, South Carolina, Michigan, Missouri, and New Jersey.

  In Ohio, the Buckeye State Blog asked what the motivation could be behind Rep. Jean Schmidt’s $100,000 earmark to the John P. Parker Historical Society. It seems they should head over to Earmarkwatch.org and do some investigating.
  

  In South Carolina, SC6 analyses House Bill 2693, Popcorn Lung Bill. While his analysis is interesting, what I find more important is that he is taking the time to look at some of the bills Congress spends time on and evaluating their importance and the motivation behind them in a public place.

  In Missouri, The Turner Report wrote a great post about state senators receiving gifts from lobbyists. The report examines documents from the Missouri Ethics Commission to find out what gifts state senators received from lobbyists.

  Politics NJ questioned why Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli went on vacation with state Senator Joseph Coniglio even though the senator is a target of a federal criminal probe. I’m pretty sure there is a conflict of interest somewhere in there.

  In Michigan, Media Mouse has been monitoring military contracts and they have a great list of contracts awarded to local companies in west Michigan.

  I would like to also point out David Weller’s blog Allthingsreform.org which covers reform activism and government ethics.

  That’s all I have for this week. If you have any tips for me feel free to contact me here.