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Stimulus Spotlight: What we're finding in Recovery.gov data
By Anupama Narayanswamy Apr 1, 2010 12:42 p.m.A research group that played a key role in the Manhattan Project is one of the biggest recipients of contracts from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
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Stupak 11 post: What we got wrong
By Bill Allison and Anu Narayanswamy Apr 1, 2010 9 a.m.We set out to look at how leadership--of both parties--persuades rank and file members to vote their way. In the 111th Congress, we've seen enormous discipline on both sides of the aisle on a series of high profile votes. Our hunch is that the leadership of both parties has something to do with that, and understanding what levers they have--whether it's funding earmarks, supporting their campaigns with money, appearing at fundraisers or through other means that we still can't track with the current state of congressional disclosure--is something we want to follow in the coming months.
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Correction and update on our Stupak 11 Post
By Bill Allison and Anupama Narayanswamy Mar 30, 2010 5:54 p.m.We have made more corrections to the report we did on the Stupak 11. First, the simpler errors. We have learned that there are additional errors in the spreadsheet we posted along with the story--there were a total of four numbers that were overstated by a factor of ten. This led to us erroneously listing Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper among the five members whose earmark request totals increased for fiscal year 2011--her earmark requests actually declined. We deeply regret the error, and thank Rep. Dahlkemper for pointing it out.
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The bailout is investing again
By Ryan Sibley Mar 29, 2010 5:06 p.m.The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) has started to grow again, after the Department of Treasury announced in December of last year the bailout would be coming to a close. Earlier this month, the Department of Treasury invested $21 million in small business loans with more investments to come that could total as much as $15 billion.
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Cao, two other Republicans ignore House GOP earmark moratorium
By Bill Allison Mar 29, 2010 12:59 p.m.Rep. Joseph Cao, R-La., is one of at least three House Republicans to ignore his caucus's ban on requesting fiscal year 2011 earmarks. Cao requested projects totaling more than $500 million for his district.
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Editor's Note: Correction to Stupak 11 post
By Bill Allison Mar 29, 2010 11:43 a.m.A note about our story, "After health care vote, Stupak 11 request billions in earmarks." For Rep. Charles Wilson, D-Ohio, we had inaccurate amounts for both FY2011 and FY2010 in the Google spreadsheet, available here, that accompanied the article. Wilson has requested $84 million in earmarks for FY2011, up from $62.3 million in FY2010. The spreadsheet originally listed these numbers as higher by a factor of ten, which threw off our calculation of the total amount of earmarks requested. We rechecked that number and the rest of our other numbers, and have since corrected the post.
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How to easily set up a campaign finance database
By Luke Rosiak Mar 26, 2010 2:34 p.m.No one does federal-level campaign finance better than the Center for Responsive Politics, and for the last year or so, they've outdone themselves by making all of their databases--millions of records that a staff of human beings tirelessly cleans up--available, for free, in their entirety.
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After health care vote, <del>Stupak 11 request billions in earmarks</del> members turn to earmark requests
By Anupama Narayanswamy and Bill Allison Mar 26, 2010 11:14 a.m.[Note: this post has been corrected and revised]
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Bailout watchdog criticizes home loan program
By Aisha Qidwae Mar 25, 2010 4:33 p.m.A year after the $75 billion program to reduce mortgage payments under the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) went into effect, a recent audit report criticized the outcome of the program as "disappointing." So far, out of the million trial mortgage modifications, under which homeowners can have their mortgage payment reduced for three months, only 168,000 loans have been permanently reduced falling drastically short of the 3 to 4 million initial goal of the Department of Treasury.
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Available on paper: Government records on jobs lost to foreign trade hard to access
By Aisha Qidwae Mar 23, 2010 11:42 a.m.In December 2009, Bristol Myers Squib, a biopharmaceutical company with international operations, told employees at two Indiana plants that 75 to 100 of them would need to seek other work. In February 2010, HSBC, the British financial firm that bills itself as the "world's local bank," laid off 20 full-time customer service representatives who processed loan modifications in a Kentucky town named, ironically enough, London. Some 125 workers who built and assembled truck cabs for 18 wheelers at Mayflower Vehicle Systems in Norwalk, Ohio, saw their workplace shut its doors in April 2010.
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Gov’t Database of Bad Doctors Blocks Public From Seeing Names
By Jim Morris Mar 23, 2010 10:50 a.m.In the mid-1980s, incompetent and negligent doctors were moving freely between states, with state licensing boards and hospitals largely oblivious to lawsuits or disciplinary actions in other locations that might have flagged bad providers.
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The bailout makes a move towards transparency
By Ryan Sibley Mar 19, 2010 9:29 p.m.Today, in a huge win for transparency, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled that the Federal Reserve Board must disclose records containing information about how it intervened to bail out banks during the financial crisis.
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Description of Citizenship Database Available – If You’re Willing to Pay Nearly $112,000
By Nick Schwellenbach Mar 18, 2010 10:22 p.m.After taking nearly four years to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request, the U.S. immigration agency is demanding $111,930 for records that describe what is in a government database of claims for U.S. citizenship – not the actual database itself.
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POIA aims to make public records truly public
By Bill Allison Mar 16, 2010 2:45 p.m.According to a procurement officer in the Transportation Department, SF-LLLs, a disclosure form filed by lobbyists when they help their clients pursue contract or grant awards, are filed away with other contracting documents and "kept in a secure place so no one has access to the them." This, despite the fact that, in fine print on the lower left hand side of the document are the words, "This information will be available for public inspection."
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