The BGA's volunteer Citizen Watchdog Training is a free program that empowers citizens to keep an eye on their government and report about what's going on in their local communities.
A listing of each local, county and state Freedom of Information Act & Open Meetings Act officer in the State of Illinois.
The Downers Grove Park District and villages of Downers Grove and Willowbrook scored the highest of 16 public agencies recently evaluated in a government transparency audit. The audit was part of the Illinois Policy Institutes Local Transparency Project.
With recent improvements to the Village of Glencoe's website achieved a 92.5 out of 100 possible points on our transparency test, the highest score weve ever recorded in llinois.
Daniel Anthony featured on Chicago Tonight discussing the blizzard of 2011.
Institute CEO, John Tillman, on FOX Chicago discussing the city's response to the blizzard and the cost to the tax payers.
After hearing of the Local Transparency Project and the 10-Point Transparency Checklist, Sen. Dan Duffy contacted the Illinois Policy Institute to address the issue with legislation at state level.
The Institute has filed a FOIA request seeking any e-mail sent or received by Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle's concerning the trouble-plagued Adult Probation Department.
The City of Chicago kept 17 employees on the payroll after their convictions in public corruption cases, at a cost of $681,195 to the taxpayers.
In a move to fulfill the Pledge to Americas commitment to a more transparent and accountable government, House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and House Speaker John Boehner today announced the release of broadcast-quality Oversight hearing vid
The 112th Congress, which convened today, plans to adopt new governing rules for guiding the legislative process. Multiple transparency reforms are among the changes under consideration. Springfield should take a look and consider them too.
The Problem Families are watching their budgets and managing spending as efficiently as possible, focusing on necessities and eliminating unessential spending. Government at every level should do the same—while some are, others are not. In the current economic climate most municipal governments are experiencing significant declines in revenues, which has led to spending cutbacks for...
The Problem Encouraging volunteerism among Illinois’s senior citizens is a worthy goal, with many benefits for both individual volunteers and those they serve. Illinois’s Foster Grandparents Program, housed in the Illinois Department of Aging, is meant to connect “volunteers” with “opportunities for seniors to work with children with exceptional needs.” However, the program’s structure leads...
by Kristina Rasmussen Illinois Senator Dick Durbin help to vote down a proposed Senate ban on earmarks today, reports The Hill. As if tea pot museums and bridges to nowhere weren’t enough, Illinoisans had yet another reason to oppose Congressional earmarks. According to a new Cato Institute study by Brandon Arnold, Illinois is an “earmark donor state”—one that receives...