Kate Campaigne Piercy
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Cook County Coffee Czar?
The media has been uncovering some interesting spending from Cook County’s newly launched check registry, such as this find from The Prairie Stater, which discovered $76,291 in checks paid to Elgin-based ACE Coffee Holdings, Inc. since December 2009.…
Weakening FOIA
HB5154 would threaten transparency in Illinois government by prohibiting the release of any public employee’s performance evaluation.
As the State Journal Register explains, this idea started with exempting school teachers’ performance evaluations, and now Senate Democrats Kimberly Lightford, David …
Raises in Chicago Public Schools or Not?
Check out this revealing (and entertaining) story by Chicago Reader’s Ben Joravsky about the maze of Chicago Public Schools spending and the difficulties in figuring out exactly where all the tax dollars are going and why.
Joravsky’s piece, “A …
Cook County Check Register Live
Want to find out how Cook County is spending your tax dollars?
Check out its check register here and see where your tax dollars are going.
ABC 7′s I-Team found some interesting expenses of note, such as $6,243.75 to CROE …
If Companies Won’t Do Business with Illinois, What’s Next?
Shore Galleries Inc. refused to ship bullets to the Illinois Department of Corrections unless the state paid the vendor upfront, according to a report from the Herald Review today. Currently, the state owes the Lincolnwood firm $6,000, and they don’t …
Health Care Bill: Obama’s Lack of Transparency
Although promising the public would have five days to look at every bill online before signing it into law, Obama has signed the health care bill just 36 hours after it passed the House.
Transparency and Teacher Layoffs
The SouthtownStar has been looking into south suburb school district spending over the last week amid growing talks of teacher layoffs and cutting school programs. The paper sent FOIA requests to 18 towns and 25 school districts asking for information …
Public Online Information Act
Congressman Steve Israel (NY-02) has introduced transparency legislation called the Public Online Information Act (POIA) which, according to the Sunlight Foundation, “embraces a new formula for transparency: public equals online. No longer will antiquated government disclosure practices bury public information …
Illinois State Sunshine Website
Illinois state government has created a useful one-stop shop website at www.sunshine.illinois.gov with the goal of bringing more transparency to the workings of your state government.
According to the website, the state created this resource by starting with “Sunshine …
Sunshine Commission Passes House
Good news from Springfield yesterday: The House passed legislation to create the Illinois Sunshine Commission (HB4836), which would create a commission “to conduct a thorough review of the relevance, efficiency, and effectiveness of each “State executive branch program.”
Rep. …
