St. Louis Public Radio and NPR joined together to form a partnership recently. The result was a project aimed at educating the public regarding state lobbying.

Using information gathered from the Missouri Ethics Commission, they created an online database with the names of lobbyists, lawmakers, gifts, and transaction details. Also accessible are easy to understand charts and graphs.

See it all at LobbyingMissouri.org.

Eric Brown’s Political Activity Law blog pointed to a press release today, in which Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced that information connecting lobbyists’ activities, their compensation, and expenses with each of their clients would now be provided on the city’s lobbyist disclosure database.

Regarding the new data that is now going to be released, Mayor Emanuel said,

“Today I am delivering on a promise to make more lobbyist data available as part of my administration’s commitment to transparency. For the first time ever, we are making city lobbyist data available online that isn’t just numbers on a spreadsheet. This new data ties information together in a way that shows the connection between client, lobbyist and city hall.”

This information is available through the City of Chicago Data Portal. The lobbyist databases include the Lobbyist Agency Report, Lobbyist Gift Report, Lobbyist Categorized Expenditures Report, Lobbyist Major Expenditures Report, and Lobbyist Registry.