“Va. appeals court affirms campaign finance law” by Larry O’Dell in CBS News.

“Former DeLay aide pleads guilty in campaign finance case” by Laylan Copelin the Austin Statesman.

“Conservative Super Pacs turn to social media and internet to expand reach” by Ed Pilkington and Amanda Michel in the Guardian.

“Funny-named political committees are proliferating” by Aaron Deslatte in the Orlando Sentinel.

On the other side of me is Zack Koozer, a sophomore at the University of Akron. Zack stays busy managing his blog, writing, sketching and playing with his dog, Sparky. He plays video games, and so on. Zack’s nicknames include Zack, Kaxzc, Kooz!, Kaxzcstrasz, and “Scooter.”

This summer marks Zack’s third internship here. During this stint he is focusing his efforts on social media.

Zack, on working at State and Federal, said this: “I love it here. I am never comfortable with people I don’t know, until I know them.” By now, he knows everyone pretty well.

For lunch, Zack is a sandwich and chips kind of guy. He also pays particular attention to Nutty Bars, apples and yogurt.

On Fridays during the summer (June 1- August 31), our neighbors at the John S. Knight Center host an outdoor café called “JSK Café”.   This is a flame-broiled event, often with a line around the building.   Chefs serving up burgers, pulled pork and other grilled delights greet the Akronites’ appetites.   At the sidewalk location on the corner of E. Mill St and S. High St, you are provided with a condiment bar to please any palate.

Elizabeth Bartz has purchased coupons for the staff of State and Federal Communications to be able to enjoy the delicious lunch opportunity and the fantastic Northeast Ohio summer weather.   Today, I joined many of the staff and walked down the block to enjoy lunch.    I have recently moved back to the Akron area after living in Austin, Texas for over seven years and love that I am becoming reacquainted with Akron.   I was excited to hear a unique but familiar sound overhead, yes, the iconic Goodyear Blimp made a flight over Downtown Akron.  Take a look at the photos:

A scraper, a sander and a paint brush. Not your typical office supplies. But Friday, June 15, 2012 was not your typical work day as State and Federal Communications, Inc. volunteered its time to lend a hand to Akron Public Schools for the United Way’s Day of Action.

State and Federal President and CEO Elizabeth Z. Bartz—an avid supporter of the United Way—sent 15 dedicated employees to be a part of this year’s event.  Day of Action functions to improve the good of the community in education, income and health by uniting local corporate sponsors, volunteers and non-profit organizations with a common agenda – to better the Akron area.  This year marks the 4^th year that State and Federal has participated.

Our assignment was scraping and painting football stadium bleachers. We split into two teams; one went to Kenmore High School and the other to Ellet. Team Kenmore scraped bleachers while team Ellet scraped, sanded and painted the handrails.

I was on team Ellet. We arrived and were put straight to work. I gathered my supplies; a scraper, gloves, a sander and a water bottle. With the sun beating down and sweat dripping from our faces, we spent the hottest hours of the day refurbishing the handrails surrounding the bleachers.

Over at Kenmore, for I.T. assistant Ken Kelewae, the task was more meaningful; he was back to his alma mater. Ken and the rest of his team stripped the faded bleachers that have served Kenmore High for at least 50 years.

What seemed like such a simple task proved to be much more. After many hours in the sun, a lot of sweat and a few sunburns later everyone walked away from their site with a sense of accomplishment. The United Way and Akron Public Schools were grateful for the hundreds of volunteers that committed their day to bettering the Akron community and the bleachers were ready to go for a new football season.

Out with the old, in with the new!

Day of Action video courtesy of Alexa Livadas.

“David All Shares Ideas on Emerging Trends for Campaigns and Elections” by Matt Williams and Matt Pittman in Government Technology.

“Apps Challenge Aims to Improve Detroit Through Technology” by Brian Peteritas in Governing.

“How 3 Startups Are Improving Urban Life Through Tech” by Jennifer Diamond in Mashable.

“States, Cities Use Social Networks to Test Open Records Laws and Transparency Goals” by Dylan Scott in Governing.

“Reps. Delete Tweets Celebrating Overturning of Affordable Care Act” by Sarah Lai Stirland in TechPresident.

“Heavy Twitter Traffic for Scotus Ruling” by Rubina Madan Fillion and Brian Aguilar in The Wall Street Journal.

Federal:

After Winning Right to Spend, Political Groups Fight for Secrecy

Court Upholds Ban on Corporate Political Contributions

GOP Lawsuit Challenges Campaign Contribution Caps

From the States and Municipalities:

California: Cudahy Arrests Add Salt to L.A. County Area’s Civic Wounds

Connecticut: Malloy, Legislature Make Last Stab at Campaign Reform

Florida: Tom Lee Wants Back in the Senate, to the Chagrin of Some Lobbyists

Illinois: U of I Professor Relents, Will Take Ethics Training Developed by ‘Unwise Rulers to Annoy Us’

Montana: Supreme Court Reaffirms Citizens United, Tosses Montana Corporate Spending Ban

Nebraska: Special Interests Spent $14 Million to Influence State Government

New York: Supreme Court Declines to Hear NY Campaign Finance Case

South Carolina: State Ethics Law Has Disclosure Gaps

Vermont: Federal Judge Dismisses Vermont Campaign Finance Challenge

State and Federal Communications produces a weekly summary of national news, offering more than 80 articles per week focused on ethics, lobbying, and campaign finance.

News You Can Use is a news service provided at no charge only to clients of our online Executive Source Guides, or ALERTS™ consulting clients.

Comedy Central’s Indecision is a website where political humor rules.  On this site, they take serious topics and turn them into hilarious jokes. For example, you could read about how “Democrats are avoiding the National Convention like the Plague” and “U.S. wakes up in an Alternate Reality where Obamacare is not killed”.

They have a blog with similar stories as well, covering the presidential campaign and many other topics.  The most recent post (as of this writing) was the Top 5 Best reactions to the Supreme Court ruling on Obamacare.

Indecision also has a Video tab where you’ll find videos where hosts Jared and Jordan talk about politics and a Photo tab leading to a page with funny photos of political figures.

Indecision has an app for iPad and iPhone that can keep you up to date with their hilarious news.  My favorite feature on the site is the Caption Challenge. You may add your own caption to a photo and the funniest one is chosen to represent that photo or picture.

This is just scratching the surface of the Indecision site.  Go check it out for yourself!

Have a good weekend and we’ll see you next time.

The Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission has submitted a recommendation to the legislative research commission for several changes to the code of legislative ethics.

The recommended changes include:

• requiring employers of lobbyists to report the cost of advertising supporting or opposing legislation that appears during a session of the general assembly, if the cost is paid by an employer of lobbyists or a person affiliated with an employer;

• prohibiting employers of lobbyists and PACs from making campaign contributions to legislative candidates or legislators during a regular session of the general assembly, and prohibiting lobbyists from directly soliciting contributions for an election campaign of a legislator or legislative candidate;

• repeal the provision allowing each lobbyist and employer to spend up to $100 annually on food and beverages for each legislator and his or her immediate family, and prohibit lobbyists and employers from paying for out-of-state travel, food, or lodging expenses for legislators or candidates; and

• limiting the interaction between lobbyists and candidates who have filed to run for election to the general assembly, who are currently not subject to the $100 limit on food and beverage or prohibition on receiving anything of value from a lobbyist or employer.

There are six of us in all.

Joanna Kamvouris sits beside me, to the right. She smiles brightly and works hard. She doesn’t go by any nicknames, so Joanna it is. A soon to be sophomore, Joanna studies journalism at Kent State University. While in high school, she reported for The Richfield Times and the Bath Country Journal, though she considers working here—at State and Federal Communications, Inc.—her first real job.

“It has given me a chance to experience the working environment of an office . . . to work among a close group of employees, observe meetings, and bond with some of the staff here. I am so thankful,” she said. Joanna is responsible for helping with communications. She said she was nervous to begin, but slowly things started feeling more familiar. “There is still so much that I have yet to learn!”

Everyday Joanna packs a lunch of peanut butter and jelly on wheat, Wheat Thins or cheese crackers, a granola bar and a bottle of water. One time she and I walked together, around the corner and across Market Street, to join her Great Uncle—Evangelos—for lunch at his restaurant, the Western Fruit Basket. She had a gyro and I had salata.

Both houses of the New York state Legislature recently passed a bill aimed at lowering procurement costs for municipalities. Senate Bill 5525 authorizes state municipalities to piggyback off existing public contracts entered into by the federal government, any state, or any municipalities within those states.

New York state municipalities will still have to abide by state contracting rules when utilizing this piggybacking ability. Therefore, the original contract must have utilized competitive bidding when necessary and the municipalities must still comply with the laws regarding minority and women owned businesses as well as any preferred source requirements.

The bill will now head to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s desk where he will decide whether to sign it into law or veto it.

Photo of the New York State Capitol by UpStateNYer on Wikipedia.

As cars and crowds pass by the offices of State and Federal Communications, a vibrant flower arrangement sits peacefully on the corner of South Summit and East Mill Street. At a glance, this may seem like just an ordinary arrangement of white, green, purple and red plants growing from a large, blue pot. But this delicate flower arrangement represents the pride of a company and the intricate beauty of its surrounding city.

Through a program sponsored by the Downtown Akron Partnership, State and Federal Communications, under President and CEO Elizabeth Bartz adopted a flower pot to decorate outside the company building. The Keep Akron Beautiful program is sponsored to plan and maintain flower arrangements throughout the city of Akron.

On June 2, ambassadors representing the Downtown Akron Partnership decorated a large, concrete flower pot in front of the building. That’s when IT Assistant Ken Kelewae of State and Federal Communications along with his wife, chose the arrangement of flowers to plant in the pot.

“My wife helped me in choosing the color arrangements of the plants to put in the pot,” Kelewae said.  “I painted it a solid color and topped off the pot with a layer of soil before I planted.”

Every morning an ambassador from the Akron Partnership makes a quick stop at State and Federal Communications to water the adopted flower arrangement.  Kelewae, along with his co-worker, IT Assistant David Jones, checks on the plants daily and gives them extra water toward the end of the day on Fridays.

“We wait until after 10:00 a.m. every day to check on the plants and make sure they’ve been watered,” Kelewae said.

From species of Sedum to the snow-white leaves of the Dusty Miller plants, State and Federal Communication’s adopted flower pot provides a colorful contrast to the brick buildings and black pavement along Summit Street.

“I think as active as Elizabeth is in the city and with the Chamber, it just shows how we’re involved and that we care how things appear,” Kelewae said.

Ren walked away with an exasperated look on his face. It was really loud. Joanna and I turned towards each other. We were just told by one of our superiors to leave work in the middle of the day, and to go outside. It was beautiful outside. Well, yeah. We nodded, in agreement. Of course we’ll go outside.

So we went. And we walked. We did laps around the building, maybe 8 to 10 of them. At 5’3” and with Joanna at 5’5” we noted how many steps we must have taken due to our short strides. We discussed our excitement for Walking, Part 2 to begin.

State and Federal Communications, Inc. was in the middle of its health initiative: Walking, Part 1. The staff is divided into three teams and provided with a pedometer. The team with the most steps wins. There is also a chart that translates other physical activities into steps, so those who do the rowing machine at the gym, for example, still get credit for being active. Signs of encouragement are posted all over the office: Keep on Walking, they remind us. On day one we were told to watch out for Team Myra: Myra Texas Walkers. They were in the lead. Apparently, Myra runs marathons with the same ease that most run through the drive thru. I can’t compete with that sort of mastery, I thought. But I did just run my first 5K. And with my little legs? They might finally be worth something.

Tiny steps, I said. For the win.

Campaign Finance

“Campaign money case could propel more deregulation” by Jack Gillum on CBS News.

“Inquiry Looks Into a Shield for Donors in Elections” by Nicholas Confessore in The New York Times.

“Social Fundraising Platform Rally Grows With A New Round of $7.9 Million” by Sarah Lai Stirland in TechPresident.

“Will Ct. now see gusher of campaign bucks?” by Ken Dixon in the Connecticut Post.

Lobbying

“K Street Files: Lobbyists Prep for SCOTUS Ruling” by Kate Ackley in Roll Call.

“Lobbying World” in The Hill.

“The lion’s aide on K Street” by Kevin Bogardus in The Hill.

“Hawaii professional employer organizations to form lobbying group” by Lynn Nakagawa in the Pacific Business News.

Government Ethics

“Outsider Privy to Ethics Case” by Amanda Becker in Roll Call.

Georgia: “Candidates late, confused on filing requirements” by Crystal Tatum in the Newton Citizen.

From the State Legislatures

“Cook, Rove, Zandi Address Legislators at June 2012 Leaders Meeting” by Alex Fitzsimmons on NCSL’s The Thicket.

Illinois: “Illinois lawmakers consider expulsion of Rep. Derrick Smith” by The Associated Press in the State Journal-Register.

Oklahoma:  “Oklahoma elections: Most incumbent House members win contests” by Michael McNutt in The Oklahoman.

Open Government

“R.I. open-government advocates hail improvement to public-records law” by Karen Lee Ziner in the Providence Journal.

“Public stations may get OK for political ads” by David Bauder (Associated Press) in The Washington Times.

“After winning right to spend, political groups fight for secrecy” by Joseph Tanfani and Melanie Mason in the Los Angeles Times.

Alaska: “Federal government role in Alaska elections questioned” by Becky Bohrer in the Anchorage Daily News.

District of Columbia: “Embattled DC Mayor Gray to propose campaign finance reforms in bid to end ‘pay to play’” by Ben Nuckols (Associated Press) in The Washington Post.

Minnesota: “Lobbying is a big business in Minnesota” by Jennifer Brooks in the Star Tribune.

Minnesota: “High court ruling throws state campaign law into doubt” by Corey Mitchell in the Star Tribune.

Texas: “Cruz-Dewhurst battle pits D.C. and Austin lobbyists” by Priya Anand in the Houston Chronicle.

Vermont: “Vermont Officials Criticize Federal Ruling On Campaign Finance” by Bob Kinzel on Vermont Public Radio.