Leave it to The Onion to ask, “Are we failing our lobbyists?”

According to the Corruption Chronicles, a public university professor has been indicted by a federal grand jury for passing on sensitive information about the U.S. military to communist China. According to CC:

“The electrical and computer engineering professor (J. Reece Roth) at the University of Tennessee violated the Arms Export Control Act by disclosing restricted military data about Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, also known as drones, to foreign nationals without required government license or approval.”

Over at All Things Whistleblower, Dylan Blaylock reports (based on an article in The Atlantic) about two attorneys who think that they may have a case against major U.S. energy companies. According to the lawyers, energy firms have not only contributed to global warming, but they have also engaged in campaigns to cover up the health and environmental effects of their operations. According to Blaylock:

“The game-plan is the same methodology used against big tobacco companies in the 1980’s and 90’s. Basically, each industry engaged in the use of shill groups to raise and foster public doubt about the effects of their respective products (or emissions) on public health.”

In other transparency news, Scott Amey is taking Congress to task over its lack of support for a “contractor misconduct database” that would log and make available information on contractors that have become embroiled in criminal, civil, and administrative cases. Ultimately, he argues that such a database would keep the American people informed, while preventing these companies from earning taxpayer dollars.

While bills have been proposed to initiate such a logging system, some government officials are less than keen on the idea. Amey finished his piece by asserting the following:

“The public should have access to a government sponsored comprehensive list of contractors (similar to POGO’s Federal Contractor Misconduct Database) that defrauded the government, violated laws and regulations, had poor work performance, or had their contracts terminated for default.”

Ellen Miller reports on an amazingly useful game and educational tool from American Public Radio. The game—entitled “Budget Hero” allows players to make changes to the federal budget (cut taxes, place higher taxes on the rich, etc.). But, instead of simply showing the monetary cost of decisions made, “Budget Hero” provides a truly educational experience. According to Miller:

“...with Budget Hero, every major decision, such as to repeal the Bush tax cut and raise taxes on the rich are accompanied with a list of pros and cons and potential impacts.”

Be sure to check it out!

Miller also covered Mobile.org’s Democracy 2.0 Entrepreneur Grant Summit - Money in Politics—a competition to foster and promote clean electoral policies/practices. A second grant summary is in the works as well! In the meantime, you might be interested in learning more about the first summit (as per Ellen Miller and Sunlight):

“Every proposal must make creative use of new technologies and the Internet to advance their goals. The winners of this community based contest will receive $3,000 to $5,000 grants to pursue the goals of their proposals.”