Transparency
Do you want to become a more effective citizen journalist to keep your local government more accountable? If you do, I will be hosting investigative journalism workshops as part of the Kansas City Post-Party Summit to be held this Friday and Saturday May 7-8 in Kansas City. If you are not interested in citizen journalism, [...]
Continue reading about Investigative Journalism Workshops at KC Post-Party Summit on Saturday
In June the Center for Responsive Politics, the organization behind OpenSecrets.org, published an article, Blue Dog Bark Backed by Insurers, which describes how the “Blue Dog” Democrats in the House compare to non-Blue Dog Democrats in their contribution receipts from various health-related sectors. How does Blue Dog Congressman Dennis Moore from Kansas compare to other [...]
Today in a special school board meeting in USD 473 in Chapman, the board voted over a month after the fact to approve the “retention bonuses” given in Chapman on June 30. Today’s vote to give out these checks on June 30th was 4 yes, 2 no, 1 abstention. For additional info: Many questions about [...]
Continue reading about “Retention bonuses” for some Kansas School Teachers?
Members of the Unified School School District 473 Board of Education are likely to hear many questions from patrons at the next USD 473 Board meeting in Chapman on August 10. Chapman USD 473 patrons will have questions about recent bonus checks that total $167,000 and the increases in next year’s budget at a time [...]
A week ago I followed the example of fellow blogger Maggie Thurber from Ohio in submitting a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to my representative in Congress. We wanted to discover the count of calls for and against the “Cap and Trade” bill voted on by our members in Congress on June 26. Both [...]
The U.S. House and Senate approve the spending of taxpayers’ money, but how well do members of Congress manage their own offices? How do House and Senate committees, and leadership spend money as part of their legislative jobs? In the past such information has been a bit difficult to find unless you travel to Washington, [...]
Continue reading about Speaker Pelosi orders new transparency for House members’ expenditures
A recent Wichita Eagle article said the payout to former K-State football coach Ron Prince would be $4.4 million instead of only $1.2 million. Combined with the related $1.9 million payout to former K-State athletic director Tim Weiser, the $6.3 million in wasted salaries at K-State is staggering. Why not fill all 50,000 seats at Bill Snyder [...]
Continue reading about Many questions about transparency in payouts by K-State Athletics
Today the National Institute on Money in State Politics announced they had updated their data for Kansas for the 2008 elections. FollowTheMoney.org obtains data from the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission and updates its database and analysis for both candidates and political parties, and provides that information online for free. Their grid page shows they’ve processed [...]
Continue reading about FollowTheMoney.org updates their data for Kansas. Interesting PULSE diagrams.
The top Meadowlark topics for 2008 were all about political money and governmental ethics. The following is a topic summary with details given below. 1. New reports for last minute political money can make a difference. 2. More transparency is needed in Kansas governmental ethics. 3. Why is franking abuse ignored? 4. Why do political [...]
Continue reading about Political Money & Ethics were Top Meadowlark Topics in 2008
Last week the Campaign Disclosure Project gave Kansas a “better” grade in campaign disclosure for 2008. We’ve “improved” all the way to a “D+” from an “F” a few years ago. Sadly, even worse than this grade is the reporting of campaign finance stories by the Kansas press.
Continue reading about Kansas raises grade to “D+” in political money disclosure
