There's no denying that Mayor Rahm Emanuel has made great strides to increase transparency in the city government, but the Tribune says his office has shut reporters out from crucial information. more ›

Unlike some politicians who call themselves reformers, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle at least has a track record of acting opposite of the party line. Preckwinkle has been making waves the past couple of days with two notable acts. Yesterday, Preckwinkle and County Commissioner John Fritchey announced the Open Cook County Plan, a major transparency initiative intended to rebuild the public trust in county government by making government data and information available to the public, hopefully allowing better interaction between country residents and their representatives and helping residents have a better understanding of what county government does. more ›

Remember last month when the Chicago transit Authority, beaming at the results of the North/Clybourn station renovation, said that they would open up naming rights to anything they owned to the highest bidder? more ›

With the Board of Education facing a $700 million deficit next year, today's report in the Sun-Times looking at the average salaries of principals is timed to either incite outrage or sympathy, depending on whether you think principals are over paid or don't make enough money. more ›

In an effort to increase transparency, Cook County Board President Todd Stroger is releasing the tax returns he and his wife, Janine, filed in 2008 and 2009. If the other three candidates that are running for the seat don't as well, “it tells me there must be something they don’t want you to see,” he told the Tribune. The other Democratic candidates replied quickly to denying the request. more ›

WBEZ's Rob Wildeboer has been fighting to get access to the state's juvenile prisons to see how they're run, especially given the fact taxpayers fund the $100 million-plus budget for the prisons. But Gov. Quinn is shutting them out. Wildeboer's requests were in response to allegations from teens who had spent time in these facilities, such as young man from a St. Charles facility who told him: more ›

No one’s happy about the economy right now and it doesn’t seem that anyone is happy about the stimulus package either. Whether someone is shouting socialism or directing other vitriol at President Obama or some fuzzy numbers and bad data show up in the records, the stimulus package can’t seem to get a break. Now, the Chicago Tribune reports that the $6.4 billion Illinois received doesn’t seem to add up to many new jobs. more ›

We were excited to learn that EveryBlock co-founder Daniel X. O'Neil was working with Harper Reed of Threadless fame to develop a new online gadget - but it's not the hyper-local t-shirt you might immediately presume (pretty please?). Instead, the pair produced a new city government transparency toy: CityPayments. And it's likely to be all the rage among us reporters as it gathers momentum. But what does it do? And why do we care? more ›

A new ordinance will give Chicago aldermen at least 60 days to review major city lease agreements and sales in the city. The law, which was approved by the city council June 3, permits aldermen to call in independent auditors before the city contracts are put out to bid. It also allows the council to call on the office of the inspector general for review agreements, though the council retains its usual responsibility for review. more ›

Ald. Manny Flores (1st) is still fighting the bacterial infection that is traditional Chicago politics - with sunshine. First he, with Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd), pushed hard enough to pass the so-called TIF Sunshine Ordinance. Then he and Ald. Ed Burke (14th) won the baby bottle battle last week. Then he proposed even more legislation requiring city government to clear up its muddy financing via online publishing. And somewhere in there, he was the first alderman to attract our attention to the plight of charity magazine Streetwise. So what's he up to this time? More transparency, combined with his favorite constituent-focused hobbies: social media and cable television. more ›

Chicago Aldermen Manuel Flores (1st), Rey Colon (35th), and Brendan Reilly (42nd) proposed The City Asset Lease Agreement Disclosure Ordinance Wednesday that will require documents related to the lease and sale of city assets (i.e., parking meters, downtown parking lots, the Skyway and Midway Airport) to be published and tracked publicly. The ordinance applies to agreements worth more than $10 million. more ›

An ordinance submitted by aldermen Manny Flores (1st) and Scott Waguespack (32nd) intended to implement more government transparency in Chicago planning and development passed through city council today by a unanimous 48-0 vote. The ordinance, unprecedented in Chicago, requires all documents related to tax increment financing districts (one of the city's most notoriously murky development funding schemes) to be posted online in an easy-to-use, searchable format. more ›