SR in Orlando Sentinel: “Schools rated on record response”

For Sunshine Review’s Back-to-School initiative, we sent information requests to Florida school districts, asking for lobbying information. You can now find our prescription for more open government on the Orlando Sentinel: School districts should enact policies to ensure all new records are stored electronically and are searchable. These policies would open formerly obscure school business documents, such as contracts with vendors and check registers, to public scrutiny. In this way, our government would partner with its citizens, rather than act as an obstacle. For the whole story, click here.

Where will we get news?

Regardless of what different people try to tell the American public about what is and isn’t news, and about how information should or shouldn’t be received, it’s clear that people will get information no matter what stands in their way. People don’t care if their local paper goes under. Why should they? Time and time again, experience has shown us that the investigative spirit of news reporting continues in whatever way it can.

For example, those who don’t consider Fox News “news” would still have found it a useful resource for the Van Jones debacle. Fox was the only major news organization to report on the former environmental adivisor’s inflamatory statements, which was ignored by such traditional media giants as The New York Times, The Washington Post and CBS.

Another reason to not despair about the news is that blogs can handle it. It was the blog BigGovernment.com that broke the story about ACORN corruption. Even before that, before blogs were on the radar as a threat to traditional news outlets, blogs were being used to correct the news. It was through blogs that documents presented by CBS anchor Dan Rather that allegedly showed President Bush had evaded the draft were shown to be forgeries.

Obviously, there isn’t a shortage of news. And where the traditional media has faltered, new media has prevailed. Print media is in trouble; The President has declared that the Fox News Network is “talk radio”, and he hasn’t been not the only one to have expressed concerns about the proliferation of news on blogs.

Still, we’ve got it better than ever.

Pennsylvania steps up transparency grade

Pennsylvania shot up ten slots nationally for their county transparency rating. This past winter the state had a overall 29 percent transparency grade, according to Sunshine Review. Now, it holds the 14th slot with a 37.3 percent transparency grade. This is large part due to the enactment Pennsylvania’s Right to Know Law in January of 2009. Since that time 69 percent of the counties have posted how to file public record request and all of them have a website.

Still, it must be noted, there is room for improvement. A 17 percent increase still holds the counties at a solid “D” transparency grade. Let’s keep the ball rolling.

Columbus Day and the Triumph of Individualism

Some legitimate criticisms exist about celebrating Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Americas. However, there is much to his story that is worth celebrating.

First, Columbus became educated. He began setting down the work that would lead to his voyage to the Americas by opening a map shop for sailors. He first got his idea to reach the Indies after reading a book written by Marco Polo.

Columbus was motivated by profit. His main motivation for reaching the Indies was getting jewels and spices. He was persistent. After asking the King of Portugal to fund his trip, Columbus turned to the Spanish monarchy, who after refusing once, finally granted him three ships, a crew, and money.

And then came the hard part: Columbus and his crew had to be brave. The men working on his ships believed that monsters existed in the oceans; some thought the world was flat and that their ships would fall off the end of the earth. They even faced an active volcano!

It is worth noting that while the Spanish royals funded his trip and that his crew was invaluable to the adventure, it was Columbus’s tenacity and planning that made the voyage more than just a wild fantasy. It wasn’t the government who spearheaded the effort to learn more about our world (and make a buck doing it), it was an individual.

For these reasons, Columbus Day is a day of celebrating bravery, vision, and individualism. Columbus’s triumph is proof that, unhindered, individuals are capable of great things.

Transparency in the health insurance debate

Recently, the focus of discussion on the health insurance debate has come to include matters of transparency: are officials sharing their information with us?

Kentucky Republican Senator Jim Bunning has introduced a resolution that would require that all legislation in the Senate to be publicly available 72 hours before the legislation is up for consideration. A few senators have jumped on to support the effort.

Discussing transparency is one thing, but delivering on these promises is quite another. Obama and the senators pushing for transparency should not be allowed to bask in the glory that comes with supporting a good issue, while avoiding the consequences of not providing reform. There are a few things working against this effort. To begin with, transparency isn’t the most scandalous of headlines, so it’s a surprise that it’s a matter of discussion in the first place.

Another potential obstacle comes from critics of Bunning’s resolution who say too much information would confuse the average citizen.

Unfortunately, some are just focused on blaming the president for not delivering on transparency promises. This is a valid criticism. Still, the importance of transparency has less to do with taking down a particular politician, and more to do with empowering taxpayers. Transparency is important, regardless of who is in power or what the ends of transparency will be, because citizens are powerless without information on what the goings-on are in governments. The last check-and-balance on the government is watchful citizens demanding accountability.

Sunshine Review Survey Winner!

Kristinpedia, here. I’m pleased to announce the winner of the Sunshine Review’s Survey Contest is Alan Barr. He came to Sunshine Review looking to find out if Marion County, WV posted information on permits and zoning (they didn’t) and ended up browsing the site for an hour. Barrs says the more government transparency the better and that it serves as the best “disinfectant” for corrupt government.

Congratulations Alan and thanks to everyone who filled out the survey.

American Majority making gains in Dallas, TX

The Dallas Morning News covered Drew Ryun’s recent American Majority training in Dallas, Texas, where forty-five activists received training on how to become effective soldiers for the conservative movement. In the article, Drew noted we are in the midst of an “ideological revolution” where people have “awakened to the fact that something is wrong.”

Interested in training? Follow American Majority on Twitter, check out a podcast, or become a friend on Facebook.

The Sam Adams Alliance continues to be proud of serving as the sponsoring organization for American Majority.

Chicago’s Olympic failure is a win for taxpayers

Many in Chicago are breathing a sigh of relief. Chicago’s bid for the Olympics fell flat, as the city was eliminated in the first round of deliberations.

While some see it as a missed opportunity, Chicagoans see it as justice served.

To begin with, President Obama’s lobbying on Chicago’s behalf for the Olympics at Chicago bothered many. The saw his efforts as poor prioritizing by the president, and now see it as a waste of time.

Taxpayers, annoyed with Chicago as it is, also saw that winning the bid to host the Olympics would have been a reward for Chicago’s corruption.

To top it all off, members of Mayor Daley’s Chicago Olympic Bid Team were making as much as $300,000. All at the taxpayer’s expense.

It’s no wonder that no one took Daley’s message seriously that Chicago taxpayers wouldn’t be burdened by the games.

So while Chicago may have lost the bid for the Olympics, Chicago taxpayers are calling it a win.

What’s next for wikis

In Wikipedia’s infancy, it arrogantly dubbed itself the “Google Killer.” Everyone laughed, until it became one of the ten most popular sites in the world; effectively conquering the infamous Google Algorithm. Now, Wikipedia may be on a suicidal mission to destroy the open source chaos that made it great. How? Bureaucracy.

It’s no surprise Google is waiting to pick up Wikipedia’s remains. Oh, it’s tried before and failed. Anyone remember Knol? However, Google Wave embodies all the chaos Wikipedians thrive on while lacking the complicated interface Mediawiki employs. With the first introduction to Google Wave released this week it will be interesting to see how it works as a content management system.

Personally, I’m willing to bet that if Mediawiki refuses to adapt that Google Wave will become the next open source encyclopedia. Technologies may come and go, but open source content creation is here to stay.