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Stimulus Watch
Here is something pretty amazing: a site built by volunteers designed to help citizens find, discuss and rate those projects that are candidates for funding by federal grant programs once the stimulus bill passes. Stimulus Watch.
Stimulus Watch is based on the U.S. Conference of Mayors' catalog of projects. The mayors' report was issued to give Congress an estimate of how much it should appropriate for the various federal programs that will in turn disburse the funds to localities. The question now is, which of the mayors' proposed 10,000+ projects will the Obama agencies fund? Which are the critical ones? Although funding decisions are often done by formula, President Obama has promised to invest the stimulus money wisely, and not on projects with a low return. That is where our site comes in. It will gather local knowledge about these projects and will help keep the administration accountable about which projects they fund. Once funded I hope the site can keep local officials accountable on spending the money. Citizens can use the site to easily find their localities and projects with which they may be familiar. They can also search by keyword.You can browse projects for your city or state, search for projects by keyword, etc. Continue reading
Smithsonian formally adopts new FOIA-like policy
The Smithsonian Institution is not subject to FOIA but has been using a policy for releasing records modeled on FOIA since November. On Monday the Institution formally adopted a new policy for responding to records requests, bowing to pressure from the Senate and open government groups.
- Smithsonian formally adopts new FOIA-like policy, Hannah Bergman, The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, January 27, 2009.
"When considering requests for Smithsonian information, the Smithsonian will apply a presumption of disclosure. It will be the policy of the Smithsonian to disclose information unless this Directive clearly provides otherwise, except where disclosure would be harmful to an interest protected by an exemption. Where release would not be harmful to the Smithsonian or to an interest protected by an exemption, the Smithsonian may choose to release information that falls within an existing exemption."But...
"Smithsonian trade secrets and Smithsonian commercial or financial information directly related to the Smithsonian’s revenue-generating activities, including fund-raising and development activities, and where release of the information would be likely to cause the Smithsonian substantial competitive harm or impair its ability to carry out its charitable and educational mission by raising private funds."Continue reading
Sunshine Week Nationwide Snapshot of Government Records Online
Nationwide Snapshot of Government Records Online Is Focus for Sunshine Week Transparency Project, January 27, 2009, Debra Gersh Hernandez, Coordinator, Sunshine Week.
Sunshine Week's government transparency project for 2009 is enlisting journalists, educators and students, openness advocates and others to develop a snapshot of public records that states make available on their Web sites. The information collected will be distilled into a nationwide report released for Sunshine Week, which runs March 15-21. ..."This year's Sunshine Week project is among our most ambitious and most interesting, as we are highlighting what is becoming an essential part of an informed democracy: easy access to information," commented Charles Davis, NFOIC executive director. "The Internet can be a great force for democratic participation, but only if governments embrace transparency and move to put more information online." Categories for the survey include death certificates, nursing home and child care inspection reports, financial audits, bridge inspection and safety reports, school test data and inspection records, consumer complaints against businesses, and environmental citations. The worksheet is on the Sunshine Week Web site, and anyone is welcome to utilize it for their localized reports.Continue reading
Breaking Government News
"The General Services Administration announced that it has delivered on a promise to use Web 2.0 technology to give citizens electronic access to government information. The USA.gov Web site now is offering a governmentwide news feed service and a gallery of gadget applications.... "Additions to the USA.gov Web site include the Government News Aggregator, which is designed to use RSS feeds to deliver news and information from across the federal government." -- Feds' Web site gets Web 2.0 makeover, By Sharon Gaudin, Computer World, January 27, 2009.
- Breaking Government News, USA.gov. "Breaking news from the U.S. government."
- Government Gadget Gallery. USA.gov. "You can embed these gadgets in personalized home pages, blogs, and other sites."
Bush War on Terror Memos
ProPublica has a very nice page listing Bush Administration memos that dealt with the "War on Terror." The list is annotated and has links to those that are public and lists those that are still secret.
- The Missing Memos, by Dan Nguyen and Christopher Weaver, ProPublica, January 28, 2009.
The Bush administration’s "war on terror"—including its controversial policies on detentions, interrogations and warrantless wiretapping—was all underpinned by legal memoranda. While some of those memos have been released (primarily as a result of ACLU lawsuits), the former administration chose to keep many others secret, citing security and confidentiality concerns. The decision to release them now lies with President Obama. To help inform the debate—and inject an extra dose of accountability—we’re posting a list of the relevant memos, both public and secret.Continue reading
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