Here Comes the 2011 Session
With a new year comes a new General Assembly session. This year the session will start on January 12 and run for 45 days. Here’s a roundup of what to expect.
- The indispensable Richmond Sunlight has a constantly updating list of bills that have been proposed for this session.
- The Virginia Coalition for Open Government is tracking bills related to open access throughout the session.
- Fifteen lucky legislators will be provided with iPads instead of laptops this session, in a first of it’s kind pilot program.
- Waldo Jaquith’s top wish for the session is a new law explicitly recognizing the rights of citizens to photograph and record police officers.
- Jaquith also eloquently defends public broadcasters from Governor McDonnell’s proposed funding cuts. Also, don’t miss the note at the bottom about Jaquith’s difficulties in becoming a credentialed member of the Capitol press corps.
Elsewhere Around Virginia
- Vivian Paige had a great op-ed on the mess surrounding Hampton Roads Transit and how increased transparency could help clean things up.
- She also provides a few more thoughts on her blog.
- Waldo Jaquith wonders why there is no easy way to integrate Virginia Amber Alerts into websites.
Around the Country
- The Sunlight Foundation has a great post up about how publishing data on public employee salaries in Nevada has led to increased scrutiny on firefighter salaries.
- A look at the transparency provisions in the new U.S. House of Representatives rules.
- A new site is up and running to provide high quality web video of House of Representatives hearings.
A Look Back at 2010
- O’Reilly Radar has a post taking a look a how citizen engagement platforms grew in 2010.
- Sunlight Labs takes a look back at new web apps for transparency from 2010.
- In a similar vein the Sunlight Foundation takes a look back a their policy successes from 2010.
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