Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group

How well do popular drugs work?

Here at Real Time we are beginning to dig into examples of secret data--data the government collects, that could affect our health and safety, but we, the public, can't see.

"Man without a country" peddles international influence through tangled ties

None of the former officials who have signed up to lobby the U.S. government for foreign interests--a list that includes presidential nominees (Bob Dole) and congressional leaders (Richard Gephardt, Dick Armey)--has a resume as offbeat as that of Ari Ben-Menashe, a former Israeli spy who later tried to implicate the opponent of the president of Zimbabwe in an assassination attempt and now considers himself a "man without a country." He also had one of the richest contracts to lobby for a foreign client--though he apparently had no contacts with U.S. government officials whatsoever.

Rangel releases do-over financial disclosure

When it comes to financial disclosure, the second time, apparently, is the charm for House Ways and Means chairman Charles Rangel. Real Time reported last February 28 separate instances in which Rangel had failed to disclose his ownership, purchase or sale of assets stretching back to 1979; CQ reports today that Rangel has filed an amended financial disclosure form that includes "hundreds of thousands of dollars in previously unreported assets":

Raising Their Ugland House: Cayman Islands Lobbies to Keep Haven Safe

When President Barack Obama promised in May to raise an additional $210 billion in taxes a year by closing corporate loopholes and cracking down on individual tax cheats, he pointed to an address in the Cayman Islands listed by 12,000 corporations as the kind of abuse his proposals would shut down. "Either this is the largest building in the world or the largest tax scam in the world," the President said.

Opening the Window on Foreign Lobbying

In 2008, Bermuda's influential reinsurance industry needed some help. Successive seasons of monster hurricanes in the United States, where much of its client base is, had cost these insurers of insurance companies $22 billion in losses. Eager to avoid a repeat and unable to change the weather the companies and Bermuda's government turned to something they could influence: The U.S. Congress.

Bush DOJ emails: "30% approval makes it a lot harder to push back, unfortunately."

Internal Bush Administration emails released by the Senate Judiciary Committee lend some insight into the culture of political operatives, administration officials and the space in between during the Department of Justice's replacement of U.S. Attorneys and subsequent investigation.

Adding it up: The Top Players in Foreign Agent Lobbying

It isnt just U.S. companies or groups that push for their causes on Capitol Hill. Thousands of times each year, lobbyists for foreign governments and other overseas organizations reach out to members of Congress and other U.S. leaders to make their case on issues important to them.

The $333 Million Grant That Wasn't

Training

Top recipients of contributions from registered lobbyists, 2010 election cycle.

5,000 earmark requests databased

Our friends at Washington Watch have had some success in their effort to turn messy, un-formatted member earmark requests into usable, analyzable data:

With objection period on contract over, board will release contract

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Less than three percent Palin's itemized PAC contributions from Alaskans

Less than three percent of the itemized money raised by resigning Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's leadership PAC came from Alaskans, newly filed campaign finance reports show. SarahPAC reported raising more than $730,000 in the last six months--less than half of the $1.6 million raised by Mitt Romney's PAC.

Washington Watch Releases Earmark Request Entry Form

For the first time in 2009, members of Congress had to release their earmark requests to the public. As we've documented before, this information is scattered over 535 Web sites in all kinds of different formats. Jim Harper and Washington Watch have now released a tool that allows volunteers to capture that earmark information for posterity, centralize it in a single location, and allow for all kinds of additional analysis and investigation. And, if you participate, you can win a Kindle!

USDA misses the point

Matt Drudge has linked a dozen or so examples of what look to be wasteful spending in the stimulus--$2,531,600 for 'HAM, WATER ADDED, COOKED, FROZEN, SLICED, 2-LB', $1,191,200 for '2 POUND FROZEN HAM SLICED' (I linked that one immediately below), $351,807 for 'REPLACE AND UPGRADE THE DUMBWAITER, $1,562,568 for 'MOZZARELLA CHEESE'... and so on. In response, the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture posted the following clarifying information: