State Integrity news from Oregon Public Broadcasting:

Since primary day, the big dollar donations have been flying. 1300 transactions of a thousand dollars or more have been logged in the state's disclosure database, known as ORESTAR.  The money's not easy to track, since one donation can pass through several political action committees, but many of these gifts are headed for state legislative races.

Read and hear more from Oregon Public Broadcasting.

State Integrity news from SII partner Oregon Public Broadcasting:

Oregon has an unusual regulatory system for campaign contributions. It's one of only a handful of states that places no limits on hom much money donors can contribute. That can lead to dizzying piles of cash pouring in to campaigns.

On the other hand, the state has some of the nation's tightest disclosure laws, so voters can track the flood of money.

Read and hear more from Oregon Public Broadcasting.

State integrity news for Oregon from SII partner Oregon Public Broadcasting:

If you go before a judge for a traffic ticket, to get a divorce, or deal with a crime, you want to know the court system is clean. The Center for Public Integrity and Public Radio International have assembled a report card that rates judicial accountability. Oregon's grade was a "D."

No state west of the Mississippi received an "A."  But that doesn't mean that state courts are rife with corruption. The project looks at mechanisms designed to catch problems in the system.

Read and hear more from Oregon Public Broadcasting.

State integrity news for Oregon, from the Oregonian:

Following a story this week about a category of political contributions that were essentially hidden in paper files at the offices of Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown, state Elections Director Stephen Trout said these records will soon be posted online.

"We want to be transparent and have that information out there for people to see," said Trout, adding that he had also been spurred to put the information online by Janice Thompson, executive director of Oregon Common Cause.

Read the rest of the story at the Oregonian.

Early last month, lawmakers in Iowa completed work on a new open records statute. Senate File 430 creates the Iowa Public Information Board, a nine-member commission charged with enforcing the state’s open records and meetings laws.

For good government advocates in the Hawkeye State, the new legislation was cause for celebration — sort of.

Indeed, there were smiles all around as Gov. Terry Branstad signed the law on May 3 in the ornate Capitol Building, surrounded by lawmakers and journalists — many of whom spent six years on the effort. And the law is undoubtedly a victory of sorts for open government in the state, where enforcement was spotty at best, divided among several local and state entities. If a citizen’s request for information was denied, the only option was to sue — a time-consuming and costly course of action. Now, the Board can investigate complaints and bring them to court on citizens’ behalf.

It all sounds good — except for the fine print.

State integrity news for Oregon, from the Willamette Week:

Most political spending is logged in the state’s online campaign finance reporting system, ORESTAR. The database allows anyone to view campaign contributions and expenditures for any race in Oregon.

But the state Elections Division has allowed a whole class of spending, so-called “independent expenditures,” to remain hidden from public view. Rather than look up information about such spending online, you have to go to Salem, to Brown’s office, and ask to see the paper filings.

Read the rest of the story at the Willamette Week.

State integrity news for Oregon, from SII partner OPB:

The conflict between access and cost has shaped the debate over how public entities respond to public information requests.

The State Integrity Investigation awarded Oregon a failing grade on thirteen points of Oregon law. Yes, Oregon citizens have some legal rights of access to information. But, the investigation notes, there are many exemptions to that right.

Read and hear more at OPB.

State integrity news for Oregon, from the Oregonian:

The state Audits Division received 149 reports on its government waste hotline and questioned nearly $8 million of public spending in 2011. Most of the money questioned stemmed from two investigations, according to the report released Thursday.

The hotline was established in 1995. Callers can report suspected waste or abuse of funds via toll-free number (1-800-336-8218) or via web. Names are confidential.

Read the rest of the story at the Oregonian.

State integrity news for Oregon, from SII partner OPB:

Oregon gets a high transparency score for the way the state's database, ORESTAR, lets you see money moving in and out of lawmakers' political action committees.

But it's the sheer volume of those donations that dragged down the state's grade. There's no limit to the amount of money you can give to a candidate or party.

Read more and listen to the story at OPB.

State Integrity news for Oregon from SII partner Oregon Public Broadcasting:

The State Integrity Invesigation is a state-by-state accounting of the risk of corruption in state governments.

The study didn't look at how corrupt each state is. Instead, it looked at the mechanisms to prevent corruption in each state. The areas identified as the most corruptible in Oregon were campaign finance, lobbyist spending, public records requests, and conflict of interest regulations.

April Baer, the OPB News pointperson for the study, discusses it on OPB's "Think Out Loud."

Listen to it from OPB.