Sunshine Week Events Aim to Promote Open Government
This week is Sunshine Week, an annual effort sponsored by journalism advocacy and civil society organizations to promote values of open government, freedom of information, and public participation. A rich variety of events are scheduled around the country, most of which are free and many of which will be webcast.
I will be participating in several programs, including these: Open Government in the Second Term, sponsored by the Center for Effective Government and the Electronic Privacy Information Center on March 12.
The Future of Classification Reform, sponsored by the Brennan Center for Justice on March 14
Freedom of Information Day at the Newseum on March 15
Freedom of Information Day at the Washington College of Law Collaboration on Government Secrecy on March 18
A new report from the Center for Effective Government found reason to praise the Obama Administration’s openness in some areas of government but not in national security, which it said has been a “glaring exception” to progress in other domains.
Among numerous recommendations for future progress, the Center report urged the Department of Justice to renounce the use of criminal prosecution for leaks to the media. “Unauthorized disclosures of restricted information to the media should be handled through administrative channels, not criminal prosecution.” See Delivering on Open Government: The Obama Administration’s Unfinished Legacy, March 10.
The bootcamp brought more than two dozen next-generation open-source practitioners from across the United States to Washington DC, where they participated in interactive modules, group discussions, and hands-on sleuthing.
Fourteen teams from ten U.S. states have been selected as the Stage 2 awardees in the Civic Innovation Challenge (CIVIC), a national competition that helps communities turn emerging research into ready-to-implement solutions.
The Fix Our Forests Act provides an opportunity to speed up the planning and implementation of wildfire risk reduction projects on federal lands while expanding collaborative tools to bring more partners into this vital work.
Public health insurance programs, especially Medicaid, Medicare, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), are more likely to cover populations at increased risk from extreme heat, including low-income individuals, people with chronic illnesses, older adults, disabled adults, and children.