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OGD: IRS migration data doesn't capture everyone
By Ryan Sibley Jan 22, 2010 7:34 p.m.The Department of Treasury's release of IRS migration data immediately made me want to see for myself what Hurricane Katrina's effect on Lousiana's population was. The data is state and county level and based on tax returns.
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OGD: Housing and Urban Development
By Luke Rosiak Jan 22, 2010 7:28 p.m.How bad are the public housing projects where our nation's poorest live? A handful of tables from HUD released minutes ago may lend some insight. Here are some quick takeaways:
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OGD: EPA visualizes the Chesapeake Bay's problems
By Ryan Sibley Jan 22, 2010 6:57 p.m.The Environmental Protection agency is highlighting their Chesapeake Bay water quality database. The site has some pretty cool visualizations of water temperature and salinity changes over time. The 3-D graphics make it easy to see the drastic changes the bay has undergone in recent years.
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OGD: Homeland Security (but really just FEMA)
By Lisa Chiu Jan 22, 2010 6:31 p.m.Of the 27 offices within the Department of Homeland Security, DHS chose to release three high-value datasets from only one of them -- the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The new datasets are:
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OGD: A quick look at data from Treasury and Education
By Ryan Sibley Jan 22, 2010 6:22 p.m.The high value dataset released by the Department of Treasury seems important, but might not be as valuable as it could be because of banking industry practices. Its also not new. The dataset in question is called the Quarterly Report on Bank Trading and Derivatives and its produced by the Office of the Comptroller and Currency.
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HHS releases Electronic Animal Drug Product Listing Directory
By Bill Allison Jan 22, 2010 6:02 p.m.In 2007, Congress required the Food and Drug Administration to maintain an online database of drugs administered to animals, and get it online by June 2009. The Electronic Animal Drug Product Listing Directory does just that; this previously published data set (it's available on the FDA's site here) is one of the high value data sets released by the Department of Health and Human Services.
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OGD: Transportation's tire rankings posted on Data.gov
By Bill Allison Jan 22, 2010 4:23 p.m.It hasn't been officially branded a high value data set by the Dept. of Transportation yet, but the Uniform Tire Quality Grading System, which provides results on federally mandated tests done on tires by manufacturers to check for things like traction performance and tread wear, is on Data.gov now. (A number of stories have mentioned it though, including this one.)
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OGD: Labor releases open government page
By Anupama Narayanswamy Jan 22, 2010 3:34 p.m.The Department of Labor is one of the few agencies that has its "/open" page up and running as part of the Open Government Directive. One of the datasets they have featured as a high value dataset is the "weekly reports of fatalities, catastrophes and other events." The data, compiled by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, briefly describes workplace accidents, identifies the company at which and the date when the accident occurred; the data can be downloaded as a csv file. Although this dataset is available on Labor's Web site, it doesnt seem to be uploaded on the data.gov Web site yet.
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We're tracking the open government directive
By Bill Allison Jan 22, 2010 10:02 a.m.Today, federal agencies are releasing three high-value data sets to comply with the Obama administration's open government directive (in fact, some of those datasets are already online). The Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group will be spending some quality time looking at each agency's "high value" data sets, describing what's there, what the formats are, how easy they are to download and use, and their potential newsworthiness. We'll also note whether the data is new, improved, or simply re-released.
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48 hours = six days?
By Luke Rosiak Jan 20, 2010 10:24 a.m.Disclosure of campaign contributions and expenditures hold candidates accountable -- but after the votes are in, it's often too late for the scrutiny of watchdogs (and opponents) to make a difference. That's why in addition to quarterly reports, candidates must report large contributions made in the final days of the campaign within 48 hours of receiving them.
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Database used to track contractor fraud poorly managed, filled with inaccuracies
By Anupama Narayanswamy Jan 14, 2010 1:03 p.m.Congressional watchdogs have often criticized the online tool maintained by the General Services Administration to prevent the award of federal funds to banned individuals and companies. A Sunlight Reporting Group review of the sites data finds that it continues to be badly maintained, with rampant problems including omissions, inaccuracies and other data quality issues.
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FDA's transparency effort has new features, old content
By Nancy Watzman Jan 12, 2010 6:26 p.m.Hot off the cyber-presses is this new Web site section from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), designed to tell us viewers what the agency does and how it does it, in plain and simple language. The agency says this is its first step in its transparency initiative, and that it represents its response to comments from the public, which wants "basic information about the agency in a user-friendly, accessible format."
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Chiropractics lobbied for special student loans, defaulted in droves
By Luke Rosiak Jan 12, 2010 11:01 a.m.The chiropractic industry counted a win after it successfully lobbied for inclusion in a federal student loan program for those studying health-related professions. Decades later, though, significant numbers of chiropractors have defaulted on their loans, leaving Uncle Sam to make up the difference.
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OOIDA spells it out
By Bill Allison Jan 9, 2010 10:24 p.m.The Real Time ticker kicked out this new filing with the Federal Election Committee--the OOIDA PAC, which stands for the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association Political Action Committee. I googled "OOIDA" and found the group's Web site -- it's a remarkable model of candor:
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