What Works Cities > How's This Going in Mesa?

OPEN : STATES > Information Interface - Please Get to Know + Use It

The idea for the Sunlight Foundation’s, Open States Project, began in 2009. From an initial core of volunteers from several states, the project has gathered volunteer contributors from all 50 staes plus Wash. D.C. & Puerto Rico. With additional contributions of computer expertise and a grant to  build the public web site, the Open States web site is now operational.

The interface allows citizens to locate their state representatives by entering an address or clicking on online maps or entering a legislator’s name.
Short biographical information, plus some news stories are provided. Links to the bills that the legislator has sponsored and recent votes on other legislation are presented.

Summary charts of campaign contributions are provided with links to more detailed data from Use these links
followthemoney.org 
opensecrets.org  .

Bills for the current and several past legislative sessions can be searched by chamber, sponsor, status, type of bill or resolution, and subject ( free text not an index).
The full text of the bill can be called up.
Roll call votes are also accessible.
There is a tracking tool called Scout from the Sunlight Foundation that alerts you when Congress or your state capitol talks about or takes action on issues you care about.

Here's a link to Arizona State Legislature
http://openstates.org/az/

Discover politics in your state

• Find your legislators
• Review their votes
• Search upcoming legislation
• Track bill progress

Recorded webinar: “(Re)Building Downtown: A Guidebook for Revitalization”

On December 15, 2015 Smart Growth America released (Re)Building Downtown: A Guidebook for Revitalization, a new resource for local leaders who want to re-invigorate and strengthen neighborhood centers of economy, culture, and history through a smart growth approach to development. The guide lays out in straightforward language seven main steps to help (re)build downtowns and Main Streets, and is designed to be used by any community, no matter where they are in the revitalization process.

As part of the kickoff, SGA hosted an online conversation all about downtown revitalization. Participants heard an overview of the new guidebook, and discussed revitalization efforts in three different communities. A recorded version of the webinar is now available.
http://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/2015/12/15/recorded-webinar-rebuilding-downtown-a-guidebook-for-revitalization/

Another Wrap-Up : Smart Growth America > Our Year in Review

Got a nice email from this org two hours ago:

Tim—
This was a huge year for Smart Growth America. So big, in fact, that we wanted to share with you some of our highlights.
Supporters like you make our work possible. 2015 was a banner year, . . Thank you for being part of our work this year. 

Enjoy this look back at some of our highlights from 2016.

Best,

Geoff Anderson,
President and CEO,
Smart Growth America
                  

In Downtown Revitalization, Equity Can Equal Authenticity

By Oscar Perry Abello | December 14, 2015

https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/equity-made-explicit-in-new-downtown-revitalization-guidebook

God + Government | Separation of Church-State

Mesa > Have we got a problem?
Hot topic - where do we draw the line?? . . . or is the better question where does the U.S. Constitution draw the line?
This book is a collection of columns, testimony, speeches, and other writings that the author - a Reverend - has done over the past 25 years of "in-trench" engagement for the preservation of the separation of Church & State.
It updates the issues Barry Lynn has written about over the decades and shows where we have made progress, where we have lost ground, and where we have been treading water.
It's not a comprehensive history of First and Second Amendment matters . It's selective and personal and quite funny at times, Of course there are new contested issues coming up practically every day.
[Disclaimer: the author and yours truly both graduated from Georgetown University]
.

If reading isn't your choice to process information, you can listen to an hour discussion about this on National Public Radio's Diane Rohm Show that was broadcast on October 28, 2015
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2015-10-28/rev-barry-lynn-god-and-government



For information about religious exemption from the Employment Non-Discrimination Act ENDA, readers can go here >> http://www.civilrights.org/lgbt/enda/religious-exemption.html


George Washington the new American Republic would give "to bigotry, no sanction".

Is Your Medical Data Safe + Secure ?? Hackers + Open Data



ProPublica came out today with three reports: got enof to worry about??
Policing Patient Privacy
Few Consequences For Health Privacy Law’s Repeat Offenders

Regulators have logged dozens, even hundreds, of complaints against some health providers for violating federal patient privacy law. Warnings are doled out privately, but sanctions are imposed only rarely. Companies say they take privacy seriously.

The story was co-published with National Public Radio's Shots blog.Readers can hear and read the entire transcript by going to this link >> https://www.propublica.org/article/few-consequences-for-health-privacy-law-repeat-offenders

Few Consequences For Health Privacy Law’s Repeat Offenders

by Charles Ornstein and Annie Waldman
ProPublica, Today, 4 a.m.

Regulators have logged dozens, even hundreds, of complaints against some health providers for violating federal patient privacy law. Warnings are doled out privately, but sanctions are imposed only rarely. Companies say they take privacy seriously

Methodology: How We Analyzed Privacy Violation Data

by Charles Ornstein and Annie Waldman
ProPublica, Today, 4 a.m.

ProPublica followed the paper trail to find out the health care facilities that repeatedly violated patient privacy laws. Find out how we did it.

HIPAA Helper

by Charles Ornstein, Mike Tigas and Annie Waldman
ProPublica, Today, 4 a.m.

Who is Revealing Your Private Medical Information

 

THE GOOD NEWS: You can explore the data

Sometimes, doctors and hospitals have financial relationships with health care manufacturing companies. These relationships can include money for research activities, gifts, speaking fees, meals, or travel. The Affordable Care Act requires CMS to collect information from applicable manufacturers and group purchasing organizations (GPOs) in order to report information about their financial relationships with physicians and hospitals.
Open Payments is the federally run program that collects the information about these financial relationships and makes it available to you. 
Here's the link for payments made to providers in Mesa
https://openpaymentsdata.cms.gov/search-physician?firstname=&lastname=&city=Mesa&state=AZ&zip=&country=&specialty=

 

 



Message from Mesa Chamber of Commerce > Pay-To-Hear The Mayor Talk

What State-of-Affairs in a democracy is this when the public is "invited" to pay $60.00 per person to hear Mayor John Giles give a talk about the State-of-the-City when he's employed and paid a salary by the voters and taxpayers?
... and still NO year-end review or performance evaluation of what he's started and accomplished in the mayor's seat during the last few months. Give it to us in black-and-white, facts and figures.
Is this what works in Mesa?
Voters will be the judge in upcoming 2016 elections for public office, with those seeking to fill the office of public trust responsible for engaging the public, and being available, accountable and transparent to their constituents.