Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Let the Sun Shine In

—

by

James A. Bacon
in

I am probably the last blogger in Virginia to mention it, but there may be a few readers who haven’t seen Waldo Jaquith’s new “Richmond Sunlight” website yet. Waldo’s creation provides an interface to General Assembly information that’s far more user friendly than the G.A.’s own website. Plus, it has cool features such as lists of newest bills, most viewed bills and most discussed bills, along with easy access to legislator information.

The website has fun, dynamically updated charts that show, among other things, the Top 10 bill filers (Del. Bob Marshall is the most prolific). And the comments capability could prove interesting. As of today, the bill that has sponsored the most commentary is HB 1774, which would make it “unlawful for any person to keep, maintain or operate or to visit a disorderly house.”

Great job, Waldo! I’m book-marking this baby, and I’m going to use it.

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Comments

5 responses to “Let the Sun Shine In”

  1. Waldo Jaquith Avatar
    Waldo Jaquith

    Thanks for mentioning it, Jim. Honestly, the site was a lot of fun to put together, and I enjoyed it immensely. That the resulting site is useful to others is just gravy. 🙂 If you have any ideas for how the site could be more useful to you, please let me know. Every interesting feature of this site was suggested by somebody, as I expect all of the best upcoming ones will be, too.

  2. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    Indeed! KUDOS!

    seeing the “money on hand” on Waldo’s site reminded me of the Virginia Public Access site which has fairly detailed money reports and a NEW feature LOBBYISTs.

    http://www.vpap.org/

  3. Ray Hyde Avatar
    Ray Hyde

    Yes Waldo, this really is a piece of work, congratulations, again.

    Maybe you could give me some lessons: websites and HTML are not in my vocabulary, yet.

  4. Ray Hyde Avatar
    Ray Hyde

    Gee, if we make it unlawful to keep a disorderly house, that could make it real hard on VDOT, not to mention my wife and a number of fraternities.

    Why is it that we can’t just say what we mean?

  5. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    Waldo’s site is a JOY!

    His search engine actually “works” (as opposed to that thing that is masqerading on the Official GA site).

    In general – Waldo’s site is a far superior interface to the data AND I’d hate to think what the GA is paying to maintain it’s website…

    Gee.. I wonder if the GA would be willing to pay Waldo instead?

    🙂

    congrats Waldo!

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