Beyond the Network: September 23, 2011

Every couple of weeks, the Network takes a look at some of the issues from beyond the Midwest, and outside of the issues that we normally cover. Here are some of this week’s interesting links from Beyond the Network:

Civic Source, a part of the University of Illinois at Chicago Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement, takes a look at President Obama’s open government plans and the status report the administration released earlier this week on their commitment to open government.

The Lawyers’ Committee on Civil Rights has released an interactive version of their Map of Shame, which shows the spread of voter ID laws across states. On the new map, you can see the current voter laws in each state as well as pending legislation.

Network partner Brennan Center for Justice discusses alleged, but ultimately nonexistent, voter fraud amongst students in Maine.

The Half in Ten Campaign, with the goal of cutting poverty in half in ten years, also has an interactive map, this one showing new poverty rates by congressional district. Check out your state and see the change in poverty since 2007, and the child poverty rate.

The Sunlight Foundation is pushing for transparency in the Congressional Super Committee. They are asking the public to contact their Representatives asking them to sponsor the Deficit Committee Transparency Act, which would require “common sense measures” to guarantee the interests of the American people are being met.

The Center for American Progress has released a new report on some positive steps that “receiving communities” can do to be more welcoming to new immigrants. One of our national partners, the Campaign for Stronger Democracy, takes a look at this report as well as some other national campaigns that are working to change the dialogue on immigration reform.

The Center for Public Integrity looks at federal budget cuts and what that means for transparency programs.