President Barack Obama’s White House has interfered with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests over the release of communications with a dozen federal agencies, according to a lawsuit filed on Monday by Cause of Action, a government watchdog organization.
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Read More… from Watchdog group sues the “most transparent administration in history”
State Treasurer Josh Mandel has been on a personal mission over the last few weeks, visiting organizations across Ohio in an attempt to garner support for H.B. 175, which, if passed, would place "Ohio's checkbook" online, making it accessible to all.
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Read More… from Ohio Treasurer looks to gain suppor for state checkbook transparency
The pulpit is calling. It’s time do a little preaching. The subject isn’t fresh. The spin is different. The old sermon is about FOI. The new message is about FYI. For your information, FOI stands for Freedom of Information. Hopefully, that is not new information. For your information, FOI is information for you.
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Read More… from COLUMN: ‘We’ need a grassroots push in SC to get the FOI ‘Act’ together
The Environmental Protection Agency’s public release of farmers’ and ranchers’ personal information violates basic tenets of federal law, the American Farm Bureau Federation told a Minnesota federal court late Friday.
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The New York Press Club is publicly criticizing Gov. Chris Christie and his staff for blacklisting New Jersey Watchdog. The journalists’ organization “expresses its outrage over the Christie administration’s apparent ‘blacklisting’ of New Jersey Watchdog, in an effort to prevent the news outlet from receiving press advisories and official announcements from the governor’s office,” Press Club President Larry Seary said.
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Read More… from New York Press Club blasts Gov. Christie’s blacklist tactic
Seven years ago, the Office of Management and Budget launched USASpending.gov to let the public easily track how their tax dollars were spent on contracts, grants, loans and other spending. It was supposed to be a big win for open government. Except when the Government Accountability Office checked to see how well it tracked spending in 2012, it found the site to be less than useless.
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Read More… from Editorial: Transparency on Government Spending Fails By An Astonishing $619 Billion
The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, FOG, today filed an Inspection of Public Records Act request asking for the investigation report prepared for the Albuquerque Public School Board about former Superintendent Winston Brooks. Last Friday, Brooks and APS entered into a settlement agreement in which Brooks resigned in return for a $350,000 payment by APS.
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A new study puts the Beehive State near the top when it comes to making government data accessible. The Center for Data Innovation gave Utah a score of 8, which is the highest possible, for its open data policies.
From Roll Call: "Here’s why the report thinks having both a detailed open data policy and open data portals that provide data in machine-readable formats and through a single location are important:
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Read More… from Utah Scores High for Government Data Transparency
One of the ways to improve government is to make it easier for taxpayers to see how money flows through the system. It's often called transparency. The office of Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka has taken another step in that direction in announcing a new mobile application called Illinois Pays.
The app is free and can be downloaded at the Apple and Google Play stores.
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Read More… from Editorial: Illinois Pays app another step toward more transparency
