Meet Christina Crawley

We’re thrilled to welcome Christina Crawley as the inaugural Manager for the OpenGov Hub community, a shared, open workspace for like-minded organizations in downtown Washington, D.C. that’s set to open in early-October. As the primary point of contact for the OpenGov Hub, Christina will play a key role in making the Hub community a gathering point for…

Beyond Text, Few Parallels between New Russian and Existing U.S. CSO Laws

On August 14th, the Woodrow Wilson Center hosted a lecture called “Understanding and Responding to Attacks on Civil Society: The Rule of Politics and Law.”  Panelist Carl Gershman, President of the National Endowment for Democracy, qualified new Russian legislation as an “attack” on the freedom of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs).  I was intrigued to hear…

What’s behind the hasty ethics reform in South Carolina?

Governor Nikki Haley of South Carolina surprised us yesterday with an unexpected initiative – a comprehensive ethics reform at the state level. The reform includes five elements, as presented on the initiative’s poster: “no incumbent exemptions for election filings, mandatory conflict of interest recusals, one ethics commission for all public officials, total income disclosure, freedom…

SURPRISE: Governor, Attorney General Spring Sudden “Ethics Reform” Package

This post was originally published here on August 22 by Free Times, Columbia, South Carolina's free weekly. UPDATE: Republican House Speaker Bobby Harrell says he wasn’t contacted about Haley’s ethics package. Harrell also said,“The biggest driving force behind the need for ethics reform in our state was brought about by Governor Haley’s own questionable actions.…