Check out today’s interesting transparency video from the John Locke Foundation.  See what Chad Adams and Joseph Coletti have to say about budget transparency:

According to ABC’s The Blotter Blog, McCain has lost a number of campaign workers/lobbyists due to “conflicts of interest.” Interestingly, while some aides have resigned, at least one was fired from the McCain campaign after it initiated a new “conflict of interest” policy. According to The Blotter Blog,

“The departures of lobbyists for Saudi Arabia and energy companies brings to five the total number of aides who have had to cut ties with the Republican presidential candidate over their conflicting roles as both influence-peddlers and campaign officials.”

In other news, another U.S. border worker has been imprisoned. According to the Corruption Chronicles, a Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officer named Luis Francisco Alarid is currently being held at a San Diego jail and has been placed on leave. Authorities aren’t offering up much in terms of an explanation of charges. That said, the bigger issue is the vast level of corruption that has been seen within CBP—an agency that was created as an aggregate force after the 9/11 attacks. According to CC,

“CBP has been rocked by numerous scandals involving corrupt agents at airports, seaports and checkpoints along the southern border...Officers throughout the agency have been charged with trafficking drugs, taking money for migrant smuggling, witness tampering and embezzlement.”

Over at All Things Whistleblower, Dylan Blaylock covers food safety and the increasing pressures that consumers are placing on the American government for better explanations as to where the food they consume comes from, what it contains and whether the materials that comprise it are harmful or adequately nourishing.

In a piece on the Sunlight Foundation blog called “Hyper-Hyper Classification” Ellen Miller covers the Bush Administrations ultra-secret nature:

“The Washington Post’s Walter Pincus reports on how earlier this month the Bush White House issued a memorandum outlining new Executive Branch rules on the handling of sensitive but not classified information. They coined the term “Controlled Unclassified Information.”

The administration’s creation of this new, tightened measure are said to be aimed at increasing government secrecy. Miller ends her piece with hopes that the new administration in November reverses measures that lead to an overall lack of transparency—measures she feels this administration has championed.

And on the CREW blog, it’s reported that Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has sent a complaint to the House Ethics Committee. The complaint seeks to learn whether Rep. Vito Fossella (R-NY) violated House ethics rules by utilizing taxpayer money to conduct an adulterous affair. For a full disclosure of details, visit the CREW blog.