Beyond the Network: July 22, 2011

Every two weeks we take a look at some of the issues from beyond the Midwest Democracy Network. This installment looks at non-profit journalism outlets, the partisanship of state governors, voter ID commentary, consumer finance protection updates, as well as cuts to democracy programs and reductions in the charitable deduction due to budget cuts. Read on for the stories:

Pew Research study on non-profit journalism outlets

The Pew Research Center’s project for Excellence in Journalism released a study on non-profit journalism outlets which includes ProPublica, the Daily Caller, and the Washington Independent. The study examines the ideologies and funding sources of these websites, with some interesting results.

New Republican governors show stronger partisan streaks

FiveThirtyEight takes a look at partisan ideologies amongst state governors, noting that recently elected Republican governors are more likely to take harder conservative stances than current Democratic governors as well as Republican governors who held office before 2010. Nate Silver, the article’s author, notes that many of these new governors also have high unfavorable ratings.

Federal cuts to democracy programs

Join the Campaign for Stronger Democracy on its next Democracy Exchange conference call, which will be held on August 2 at 1pm eastern time. This month’s topic is the federal budget and potential cuts to democracy programs. Sign up at their website.

Voter ID commentary

The Nation reports on the impact that new voter ID legislation will have on students. Stephen Colbert also took on voter ID laws in a segment this week.

Consumer finance protection hits the web

TechPresident writes on the launch of ConsumerFinance.gov, what to expect from the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as well as some of the shortcomings of the initiative. Largely, though, they conclude that the Bureau is taking a very unique approach, though it may have some things to learn as it goes along.

Possible changes coming to the charitable deduction

The Chronicle of Philanthropy notes that a provision of the Conrad budget proposal from earlier this week makes changes to the federal charitable deduction, and that the “gang of six” in the Senate, is based off a plan by a budget commission that recommended reforming the charitable deduction as well.