An audit by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the federal government’s USAID agency says that what turned into a seven-year, $102 million contractor-driven effort to bring fair and open elections to Iraq has failed to become sustainable by Iraqi officials without outside help. Yet despite that concern the USAID contractor, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), whose board of directors is composed of high-octane Washington, D.C. insiders and business and non-profit luminaries, got a $36 million extension for follow-up work for another three years from October 2011 to October 2014.
Collaboration in Civic Spheres
Archive for the ‘non-profits’ Category
Audit: Iraq elections contractor falls short, wins renewal
by Matt Rosenberg April 26th, 2012
Washington ranks in the middle nationally on executions
by Henry Apfel April 3rd, 2012
According to a recent report from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Washington is ranked twenty-fourth among U.S. states in the number of inmates it executed during the years 1930-2010, at 52. However, very few prisoners have received the death penalty in recent years; Washington has executed only five inmates during the years 1977-2010, 22nd of 50 in that time. Texas ranked first, having executed 761 inmates since 1930, and 464 between 1977 and 2010. Data on all 50 states is immediately below, in our visualization based on the BJS report.
Follow the red and blue lines closely with your mouse, to see data on all 50 states.
Source: The Bureau of Justice Statistics
According to a 2008 report by the Washington, D.C.-based Urban Institute on the costs involved in capital-eligible cases in Maryland, cases in which the death penalty was not sought cost on average over $1.1 million. Cases in which the death penalty was unsuccessfully sought cost on average $1.8 million, while cases in which the death penalty was successfully sought cost an average of $3 million.
A bill to abolish the death penalty in Washington, SB 5456, was introduced last year in the state legislature and reintroduced this year, but failed to advance.
Internationally, the death penalty is still very common, according to a recent report from Amnesty International summarized in The Guardian. Amnesty estimates that China alone executes thousands yearly, although exact statistics are difficult to find. China, North Korea, Yemen, Iran and the United States conduct the greatest number of executions. The United States remains the only G8 nation with a death penalty. In total, according to Amnesty, 139 countries still retain a death penalty and last year, at least 676 executions were carried out by nations other than China, roughly half of which were conducted in Iran.
Public Data Ferret is a news knowledge base program of the Seattle-based 501c3 public charity, Public Eye Northwest. Ferret In The News; Donate.
Review, comment on our Knight News Challenge bid
by Matt Rosenberg March 22nd, 2012
It’s brief, and we hope you’ll take a look at our Public Data Ferret project’s entry in the Knight News Challenge funding competition, for innovative news start-ups. Add a supportive comment if you like – very soon please – finalists will be announced April 2 – and share the link and a brief introduction with your networks on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Tumblr. The theme this round is use of existing “networks” and platforms, which includes what we do: building on online government information sources; and building awareness and working partnerships around our work in the community. We’re humbled by the supportive response so far, that you’ll see in the 40-plus comments from hyper-local bloggers, news professionals, technologists, educators, students, readers and others. Here are several comments among the many posted that really capture the value propositions we’re trying to embody.
Saturday forum in Seattle to honor local watchdog heroes, and probe “Open Government: Past, Present and Future”
by Matt Rosenberg March 8th, 2012
Saturday March 10 in Seattle during national Sunshine Week the Washington Coalition for Open Government hosts a day-long conference, “Open Government: Past, Present and Future.” More details on the event and registration here. Highlights include in-person stories of citizen activists from Lake Forest Park, Everett and Skamania County who used public records laws to daylight secrets about a government weapons cache, conflict of interest in a county auditor’s office, and a bogus charity. Panel discussions will look at lessons learned in the 40 years since passage of Washington State’s landmark open records initiative, and at the role of technology and community in open government, going forward.
Congressional Facebook Hackathon report maps legislative transparency solutions; now what will Congress do?
by Matt Rosenberg February 13th, 2012
Imagine if instead of emailing or calling your U.S. Congressman or Senator with concerns about pending legislation, you could re-draft a portion of the bill text online, or endorse the revisions of another reader, knowing you’d be heard by decision-makers? In fact, there’s a very beta version of that called Madison, unveiled by U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa (R.-Calif) and U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) to harvest legislative text revisions from the public to privacy and transparency bills such as OPEN, PIPA, and earlier, the controversial SOPA or “Stop Online Piracy Act.” This open real-time bill markup tool is just one of the public tool concepts outlined in a recently-released report on the first Congressional Facebook Hackathon.
The bipartisan public-private forum was held in early December to explore how social media and technology can make the U.S. Congress more open, accessible and participatory to stakeholders. Below we’ll hit some highlights of the report. In addition to real-time public markup of legislation, they include an online Git repository of legislative text; crowd-sourced committee hearings; and a constituent casework tracking portal. Still unclear is what happens next, and to what extent the tools envisioned could be developed under common technical standards, and a similar look and feel for end-users, on a state-by-state basis.
North Creek Forest conservation gets big boost from Bothell
by Matt Rosenberg November 14th, 2011
A community-driven and grant-funded effort to preserve a forest for recreation, conservation and environmental learning in the heart of suburban Puget Sound has received a big boost with the City of Bothell okaying a purchase from the Boy Scouts of America for 35 acres of the North Creek Forest, straddling the border of King and Snohomish counties on the side of Maywood Hill just west of Interstate 405. The sylvan swath is within walking distance of 9,000 students at eight different schools, including the University of Washington-Bothell, Cascadia Community College, and public and private elementary, junior high, and high schools.
North Creek Forest includes another 29 acres held by other owners, which conservationists also hope can be acquired, and is home to 34 nesting bird and nine mammal species, nine wetlands, seven streams and an uplands coniferous forest. Pending an environmental assessment of the property to be completed by December 15, and with a land sale closing deadline of December 31, the initial purchase can now proceed following the unanimous approval of Agenda Bill 11-210 last week by the Bothell City Council at a regularly scheduled meeting.
The bill authorizes the city to complete a $450,000 purchase and sale agreement with the Boy Scouts plus $10,351 in closing and acquisition costs for 35.66 acres comprising the northern portion of North Creek Forest. The land buy is funded by a series of grants the city was awarded with much of the legwork done by two local groups, Friends of North Creek Forest, formed only last February, and the longer-standing Help Our Woods. Awarded to the city were a Snohomish County Conservation Futures grant of $200,000, a Washington State Department of Commerce grant of $193,987, a King County Conservation Futures grant of $33,182, and another $33,182 from the King County Proposition 2 Park Expansion Levy.
MOVE maps digital stories on diet, smoking in King County
by Matt Rosenberg October 24th, 2011
Almost 70 digital stories on healthy diet, obesity prevention and smoking prevention from Seattle and King County residents are mapped online at a new web site called Mapping Our Voices For Equality (MOVE). Featured are digital personal narratives on healthy eating in challenging surroundings, teens learning healthy cooking, finding low-cost exercise opportunities, preventing smoking in shared public spaces, and related topics. The initiative stems from a program developed by the U.S. Centers For Disease Control (CDC).
An easy mapping interface at the site lets users scan the region, then click on locations and view digital stories and videos developed by community members with the assistance of local organizations including Sea Mar, Creative Narrations, Entre Hermanos, Puget SoundOff, International Community Health Services, the REACH Coalition and the government agency Public Health – Seattle and King County. Currently, 69 stories are mapped and more are coming according to organizers. (Stories are found on the map by clicking on large icons and small multi-colored dot clusters which reveal more icons; also, all are indexed at the site’s “stories” page.)
In the Kitchen of FEEST from Mapping Voices on Vimeo.
MOVE arises from a federally-funded campaign called Communities Putting Prevention To Work (CPPW) originated by the CDC which enlists grassroots resources to develop and spread messages counteracting obesity and smoking. Both are major health risks in lower-income neighborhoods. The MOVE site also includes resources for learning, action, and developing new stories.
In a statement, MOVE Project Manager Natasha Freidus said that through the Web site of mapped stories local residents “have become more involved in creating positive changes for their communities while learning new technologies.” Added Dr. David Fleming, Director and Health Officer for Public Health – Seattle & King County, “MOVE provides a forum for voices from the community as well as a visually interesting way to capture the exciting changes that are happening in King County” around public health awareness and community engagement. The map has a customizable “changes” view that lets users explore the policy changes that have occurred in King County on healthy eating and fighting obesity and smoking as a result of CPPW’s work.
MOVE has scheduled three community forums this autumn to highlight involvement in obesity and smoking prevention awareness and action. Residents will present the MOVE story map and digital stories, along with their policy priorities, to panels of elected officials. The first of the three events is “International District on the MOVE” Friday October 28 at Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific-American Experience, 719 S. King Street, Seattle. It will include neighborhood tours, free entry to the “From Fields to Family” exhibit at 3 p.m. and a community forum at 4 p.m.
Editor’s note: Public Data Ferret or its “mother blog” site Social Capital Review periodically cover community group or non-profit news. Contact matt(at)publiceyenorthwest(dot)org.
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The Next Phase For Public Eye Northwest
by Matt Rosenberg October 18th, 2011
The Seattle-based non-profit Public Eye Northwest (PEN) has just received approval from the Internal Revenue Service to operate as a tax-exempt 501c3 public charity. This will enable the ramping up of an investment campaign to sustain the organization. Formed in late 2010 first as a Washington state non-profit, PEN advances voluntary government transparency and civic education through public service journalism and community outreach work. PEN is non-partisan.
One key project of PEN is the news knowledge base Public Data Ferret, which produces plain-language summaries of recent, high-news value public documents found online. The summaries are then archived and searchable at the Ferret hub by jurisdiction and topic – and are used by media, students and researchers, government and a range of other stakeholders. Public Data Ferret is a member of the Seattle Times News Partner Network. PEN also trains student journalists, and has led forums about voluntary online government transparency for the University of Washington Evans School of Public Policy, Seattle Pacific University, the U.S. State Department’s Visiting Foreign Leadership Program, groups of public affairs professionals, and others.
PEN provides free informal consultations to government officials on how to improve online transparency, and at its Social Capital Review blog – the parent site of Public Data Ferret – PEN also promotes the work of other non-profits on concerns such as literacy, public health, public lands and recreation, human rights, open government and civic engagement. Additionally and in cooperation with top scholars, PEN has begun an “open science” reporting initiative to highlight key findings of medical and scientific research from publicly-funded institutions serving Western Washington (particularly the University of Washington), and the U.S.
David Griswold, Vice-President of PEN’s 10-member board of directors, said, “now that we’ve got federal tax-exempt status we’re looking forward to reaching out for investment that will help our organization sustain its work of daylighting what the public sector does and why a lot of that matters to us all.” Griswold added, “The Seattle region is blessed with a vibrant ecosystem of innovative news providers and civic engagement programs. At the same time though, there has been an explosion across the U.S. of social media and news and commentary sites that are often entrenched in partisan warfare. This accents the need for factual, objective information from unbiased sources as a building block for public engagement, and civility in the public square. Established mainstream media still make valuable contributions, but community and non-profit actors have to step in, as well. PEN is filling an important role with its systematic focus on the stuff that slips between the cracks.”
PEN founder and Executive Director Matt Rosenberg emphasized the importance of voluntary government transparency. He said, “Mandated government disclosure through open records and open meetings laws is a cornerstone of our democracy and goes hand in hand with freedom of the press and freedom of political expression. But disclosure laws, as essential as they are, don’t currently yield the kind of baseline transparency needed. We’re encouraged to see more and more government bodies that are already starting to go the extra mile by making important documents and data available online without being required to do so by law; things such as staff memos, draft legislation, special reports, studies, investigations, audits, contracts with vendors, meeting agendas, meeting packet documents, special search tools for sets of public records, and government data sets that civic-minded software developers can turn into new, stakeholder-focused apps.”
Rosenberg added, “As a society we can always use more and better government transparency, whether it results from stronger disclosure laws, collaboration between the public and officialdom, or both. But even as we search for more sunlight, there’s already an abundance of information out there. So one big question is, ‘what do you do with transparency once you’ve got it?’ Information can be used in ways that add to today’s political polarization and stridency, or in ways that build bridges and help provide bottom-up solutions to challenges faced by those who collect and spend tax monies. Stakeholders are not ‘eyeballs’ to be marketed to; more and more they are choosing to be full-fledged participants in shaping the collective will, with a sharp eye on difficult public policy decisions we face in our city halls, public school systems, statehouses and the U.S. Congress.”
Public Eye Northwest received pro-bono representation from the Seattle law firm Foster Pepper in its application for federal tax-exempt status.
Donate to our tax-exempt parent non-profit, Public Eye Northwest.
RELATED:
- Public Eye Northwest directors and advisors
- Public Eye Northwest: mission and current work
- Guest article for Sunlight Foundation blog, Washington, D.C.: “Transparency Is A Two-Way Street.”
- Public Data Ferret In The News.