Federal:

Edwards Campaign Owes $2 Million

Pakistan’s Military Plotted to Tilt U.S. Policy, FBI Says

Washington’s Long Debt-Ceiling Debate Hits K Street in the Wallet

From the States and Municipalities:

Alabama

Country Stars Push Senator to Vote

California

Jerry Brown Assumes Uncommon Influence over FPPC

Georgia

Ethics Panelists Gave to Campaigns

Hawaii

Hawaii Ethics Director: Lawmakers ‘Pushed’ the Line on Gifts

Maine

Judge Strikes Down Maine’s Matching Funds Law

Massachusetts

Massachusetts House Democrats Block Debate on Republicans’ Ethics Rules Changes

North Carolina

North Carolina Election Will Go On, Even if No One Is Running

Pennsylvania

Chairman: Ethics board ‘being strangled’ by budget cuts

Pennsylvania

Philadelphia Official Fired for Accepting Meals, Gifts from City Contractors

Tennessee

Tennessee GOP Finds Loophole in Campaign Law

Washington

Judge Blocks Washington Limit on Recall Contributions

West Virginia

Some W.Va. Election Ad Rules Again Struck Down

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.

Jim Sedor is editor of News You Can Use.

Elected officials and government agencies increasingly are using social media platforms as a way to be in touch with their constituents. I am often asked, “How do I find them?”

For anyone interested in lists of public officials on social media, there are a few key places to go. One place is the Government and Social Media Wiki with its ever expanding lists of federal, state, and local elected officials and agencies. There is also DCI Group’s Digital America with its interactive map of the states offering a Twitter and Facebook grade for each state and links to connect with your state officials.

The latest offering comes from Stateline.org. They published an article today, “How many governors are using social media?” According to the article, 47 of our 50 governors are using social media. You’ll find an interactive infographic by Mary Mahling showing the state, the name of the governor, and links to their Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube accounts.

This is a valuable resource. Thank you Mary Mahling and Stateline.org!

As August 2nd approaches and the federal government gets closer and closer to the possibility of defaulting on its debt, I’m sure there are many people out there who believe they could contribute a few of their own ideas to Congress and President Obama to aid in creating an improved national budget.

This week’s Highlighted Site Of The Week allows you to create your own national budget, giving you complete control over taxes and government spending. BudgetHero gives all the power to the player to decide if spending will be increased or cut on controversial programs such as defense, Social Security, and health care as well as to increase or decrease taxes on a number of different sources.

Each issue is represented by a card that includes a brief description of the policy change, the pros and cons of making the change, the impact on the nation it would have, and the 10 year impact it would have on the budget. Whether you are serious about creating a balanced budget or just experimenting with different possibilities, this game is a fantastic way of breaking the partisan barriers and seeing the difficulties that exist in deciding how the nation’s money should be spent.

I went through the game and created my own custom budget thinking I made enough cuts while keeping what I consider the important programs only to see that the government would still go broke by 2032. I suppose it’s a good thing the fate of the nation doesn’t rest in my hands.

This article from the Washington Post tells more about the game as well as about an upgrade to BudgetHero 2.0. Enjoy!

Everyone have a great weekend!

The special session of the Utah Legislature adjourned after one day, as expected.

Several items were passed including a resolution calling for a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Photo of the Utah State Capitol by BigBen212 on Wikipedia.

Judge Thomas Johnston of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia has struck down key provisions of campaign finance law pertaining to electioneering communications.

In a suit filed by West Virginians for Life and the Center for Individual Freedom, the court held that while the state of West Virginia could regulate advertisements that “can have no other reasonable meaning than to urge the election or defeat of one or more clearly identified candidates,” the state could not require financial disclosures from third party groups creating advertisements that are merely “susceptible” to the interpretation that they are an appeal for or against a specific candidate.

Further, the court struck down the extension of electioneering communication regulations to print media while upholding the applicability of such regulations to broadcast media.

The special legislative session called on Tuesday by Governor Mark Dayton adjourned at 3:43 a.m. Wednesday morning.

The Legislature passed 12 budget bills that were signed by Governor Dayton in order to reopen state government.

True to the recent trend that can be observed in both local governments and the federal government, the city of Burleson, Texas has released a new Facebook app named the Citizen Request Tracker soon to be spread  to other communities nationwide that makes it easier for citizens to report problems and request services from its local government.

This app can help alert the local authorities about such issues such as pot holes, graffiti, barking dogs and malfunctioning streetlights.

Read more about the Citizen Request Tracker Facebook App in “New App Connects Social Media Users with Municipal Services” by Brian Heaton posted on GovTech.com.

We now provide information on lobbying, political contributions, and procurement lobbying for Miami, Florida; Pembroke Pines, Florida; and Vancouver, Washington on our website.

The image of North America by Bosonic dressing on Wikipedia.

The Cuyahoga County Executive and Inspector General, in collaboration with the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio have announced plans to offer additional vendor ethics training courses.

The first vendor ethics course was offered for construction vendors only. Training sessions will soon be scheduled for health and human services providers, professional services providers, and miscellaneous service providers.

Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton has called a special legislative session to begin today at 3 p.m. for a vote on a budget agreement that would end the state’s government shutdown.

Governor Dayton stated that some state agencies could re-open as early as Wednesday if the budget agreement is finalized.

Photo of the Minnesota State Capitol dome by Mulad on Wikipedia.

Utah Governor Gary Herbert has called a special session of the State Legislature for July 20. It is expected to last only one day.

“The items on the call are generally minor housekeeping items, some of which are time-sensitive,” the Governor is quoted as saying in his press release.

Photo of Governor Gary Herbert courtesy of Gw.hajduk on Wikipedia.

New ethics regulations have been introduced by the Laurel, Maryland City Council, including provisions related to lobbyists.

Observing Maryland’s state ethics regulations for municipalities, the introduced ordinance requires lobbyists to file reports twice a year for each entity they represent. Lobbyists failing to file timely reports could be assessed a late fee of $10 per day up to a maximum of $250. Further enforcement of violations by lobbyists could include additional fines up to $5,000 per offense and suspension of lobbyist registration.

The bill also includes financial reporting requirements for public officials, hiring practices regulations, and rules regarding conflicts of interest.

Map of Maryland by Arkyan on Wikipedia.

Mobile Gov is an interagency group that has the mission to discover information and make the case for mobile in your agency, discuss with the public the challenges to mobile gov, and design this mobile future.

An article titled “Government Apps Should Be Task-Oriented and Mission Driven, Mobile Gov Director Says” by Joseph Marks posted on NextGov.com indicates that Mobile Gov is charged with culling best practices for agencies as they begin developing mobile apps, and they hope to leverage the government’s website experience to make the mobile transition more orderly.

The article also discusses smartphone apps that have already been created which include apps such as IRS2go and MyTSA. A really cool one that I downloaded onto my Android phone is called the NASA App which collects, customizes and delivers an extensive selection of dynamically updated information, images and videos from various online NASA sources.

A full list of all 68 official U.S. Government smartphone apps can be found here. To read the full article which includes much more information on government smartphone apps and Mobile Gov, click here.

The city attorney for Boynton Beach, Jim Cherof, has proposed ceasing enforcement of the city’s lobbying ordinance and turning over enforcement to the Palm Beach County Commission on Ethics. The lobbying ordinance, in effect since 2007, has come under fire recently due to a perceived vagueness in the law.

This past May, the city levied the first fines ever under the ordinance and has also taken steps to open an investigation against former city commissioner David Katz, all concerning failure to register as a lobbyist. Each fine is being appealed and Katz maintains he was never required to register under the law because he was performing consulting work and not lobbying.