I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Agencies in the federal government announced transparency initiatives yesterday and urged the public, including open government groups, to weigh in on the plans. Today, Ellen Miller, executive director of the Sunlight Foundation, said she was not impressed by what she saw, writing, “I feel like a disappointed parent.”
Later in the post, Miller switched gears to an automotive metaphor.
“But yesterday was the day when the rubber was supposed to hit the road on data,” Miller wrote. “For many agencies, they didn’t even get out of the garage.”
All the language added up to one thing: the efforts weren’t enough.
For example, she notes that only 18 out of 30 agencies that the Sunlight Foundation reviewed identified new information to be released. This was a total of 89 data sets, in what Miller described as a “generous” definition of data sets, in the 18 agencies. And not all the information was particularly “high value,” according to Miller.
Miller does, however, highlight the Department of Health and Human Services as being among the best at releasing data, especially “critical data about Medicare.”
You can read the entire blog post on the Sunlight Foundation Web site.
