Obama inauguration donor database
President-elect Barack Obama has promised more government transparency, and it looks like he’s following through with the disclosure of donors to his Presidential Inauguration Committee.
From his Web site:
For the first time, an inaugural committee’s donor disclosure efforts will include a searchable, sortable, virtually real-time database of donors, available on the PIC website. Any citizen will be able to search for and sort donors who give more than $200 by name, employer, or hometown (city, state and zip code). Information on donors and donations will be updated regularly, with information on each new donation over $200 appearing online within 48 hours of its receipt.
The committee goes on to note that the disclosure is more stringent that what is required by the Federal Election Commission. (However, it’s a shame Obama didn’t take the same tack during the campaign, when he refused to disclose small donors, unlike his rival, Sen. John McCain and the Republican National Committee.)
A quick whirl around the Presidential Inaugural Committee donor database shows that several Oklahomans have already contributed to the committee. The business arm of the Cherokee Nation has contributed $50,000. Edmond attorney Reggie Whitten has donated $25,000. Whitten was one of Oklahoma’s superdelegates who backed Obama during the Democratic Party primary.
In case you missed it, my colleague Carrie Coppernoll had a story on the inaugural donors over the weekend.
–Paul
OKC traffic accidents map in real time
The City of Oklahoma City rolled out a new Web page this week that allows you track traffic accidents worked by Oklahoma City police in real time. The page uses Microsoft’s Virtual Earth to map out both injury accidents and non-injury accidents across the city.
Tulsa’s live crash mapping is here. They also have a listing of live police calls, sort of like a police scanner for the Web.
On a related note, a few smaller police departments in the state have contracted with a third-party vendor to put their crime maps on the Web:
–Paul
