The scratchy image above is the page 35 of British MP Jim Murphy's Additional Costs Allowance from 2007/2008. Item 5 on the list is a shave mirror for £17. Whether that is a legitimate expense to pass along to ...Read More
The Stimulus Bill, formally known as American Investment and Recovery Act of 2009, is 1,1000 pages long. It was made available in its final form on February 12 at 10:45pm. About 13 hours later, the report was brought up for ...Read More
We have posted previously about the excitement drawn from following a state legislator while voting on the house floor during a weekend session as deadlines loomed. Since then, we've been made aware of this section of SourceWatch - Your ...Read More
Beginning days after President Obama took office, calls for government transparency are everywhere (I realize Mr. Obama did not invent transparency and that there were watchdog groups and transparency advocates before, but things surely have intensified in the last ...Read More
Much like the recent trend toward organic foods, it is becomming as hip to be transparent as it is to Twitter. In a poll conducted earlier this year by the Coalition for an Accountable Recovery, almost 80% of Americans believed ...Read More
On Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi moved to make Representatives' expenses available online. This is a welcomed step in the direction of transparency. Government watchdog Sunlight Foundation called for the release of these electronic documents more than 1 year ago at publicmarkup.org. With ...Read More
The release of the human genome sequence via the Human Genome Project is said to have led to the creation of 500 new drugs currently waiting for approval by the FDA. President Obama had models like this one in mind ...Read More
Thousands of people may not want to know that I had a burger for dinner tonight, and it was pretty good. And they probably do not really want to know what I'm doing right now. So why would they want ...Read More
The National Acadamy of Public Administration has hosted an online, week long open dialogue here. The goal? Solicit recommendations to answer this question: How can we strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness by making government more transparent, participatory, and ...Read More
Chicago Aldermen Scott Waguespack (32nd Ward) and Manny Flores (1st Ward), have sponsored an ordinance that requires the TIF information be posted online. The TIF Sunshine Ordinance passed the Chicago City Council 48-0 on 4/21/2009. Tax Increment Finance districts, or TIFs, ...Read More