Improved website good start toward more open government

From McCook Gazette:

Announcements by perennial candidates like Don Stenberg are always suspect, but the state treasurer’s release touting Nebraska’s top 10 ranking for providing online access to government spending data could be a game changer, provided taxpayer advocates and proponents of responsible government use it correctly.

The NebraskaSpending.gov website, maintained by Stenberg’s office, received a B+ rating in 2013, up from a D in 2010, a C in 2011 and a B in 2012.

[…]

Read More… from Improved website good start toward more open government

Rock County, Wis., takes streamlined approach to FOIA requests

From Government Technology:

Last year, as word got out about Rep. Paul Ryan running alongside then-presidential candidate Mitt Romney, the clerk’s office in Ryan’s home county, Rock County, Wis., began fielding a variety of open records requests.

When he was officially named Romney’s running mate in August, an influx of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests funneled into the department, right up until the presidential election.

[…]

Read More… from Rock County, Wis., takes streamlined approach to FOIA requests

Lawmakers now reporting financial transactions

From myCentralJersey.com:

WASHINGTON — Members of Congress are now posting their stock transactions online on a regular basis to comply with a law enacted 11 months ago to curtail illegal insider trading by lawmakers and their staffs.

[…]

Read More… from Lawmakers now reporting financial transactions

Online public records access a mixed bag

From Columbia Basin Herald:

MOSES LAKE – Living in a digital age has its benefits. The internet puts the information a user wants virtually at their fingertips. People have immediate access to scores from the latest game, the stock market and the news, among a myriad of other information available on the web.

[…]

Read More… from Online public records access a mixed bag

Data forms the framework, old-fashioned reporting

From Watchdog.org:

Some in the Watchdog.org family might take Earl Glynn for granted having been for so long ably, reliably and genially assisted by him.

Not me.

Rumor has it that over the years, famous novelists, actors, anthropologists and political cartoonists have made pilgrimages to Overland Park, Kan., in efforts to capture the essence of the quintessential data analyst in his natural state, crunching data for Watchdog reporters.

[…]

Read More… from Data forms the framework, old-fashioned reporting