Category Archives: Websites/Databases/Blogs

Ohio State University – salary information

Source: Ohio State University, Office of Human Resources, 2018

From the press release:
The Ohio State University is breaking new ground for transparency among public universities in Ohio by making all non-student employee salaries available to the public in an online, searchable web-based application. ….

…. In calendar year 2017, 42,670 faculty and staff received $2.5 billion in total earnings – representing a one-year employee headcount increase of 1,855 (4.5 percent) and a 6.4 percent increase over the 2016 $2.35 billion payroll budget. The 2017 median annual base salary stood at $48,173, compared to $47,661 in 2016 – a 1.1 percent increase.

Two types of data are available on the Human Resources website: Users may enter a name, department, title or salary range to search for base salary information in the web-based application. A second option is available to download Excel spreadsheets of total employee earnings for calendar year 2017, which includes bonuses, overtime, deferred compensation, and vacation and sick leave payouts in addition to base salary. The data will be updated throughout the calendar year…..

PolicyInsights

Source: PolicyInsights, 2018

We want to build you a simple and intuitive national platform to engage with your local governments, to understand the services provided and their outcomes. We are starting with four locations (two counties and two cities with similar demographic for comparison purpose). Here are some ways you can explore …. :
– select a location and explore the various programs
– compare the demographic to another location and their programs
– rate the programs of your local governments (if you happen to live in one of these four areas)
– this is a wiki style product, any users could update or add location/programs information (if you see something incorrect or want to add anything, you can contribute)

Locations:
Montgomery County, MD
Washington, DC
Fairfax County, VA
New York, NY

OpenCorporates

Source: OpenCorporates, 2018

OpenCorporates is the largest open database of companies and company data in the world, with in excess of 100 million companies in a similarly large number of jurisdictions. Our primary goal is to make information on companies more usable and more widely available for the public benefit, particularly to tackle the use of companies for criminal or anti-social purposes, for example corruption, money laundering and organised crime.

Campaign Finance Law Database

Source: Campaign Finance Institute, 2018

From the press release:
The Campaign Finance Institute is pleased to release a groundbreaking new tool, “CFI’s Historical Database of State Campaign Finance Laws”. The database covers all of the states’ campaign finance laws every two years since 1996. It is designed for everything from interactive and visualized lookups to downloadable datasets.

Anyone with a serious interest in politics is bound to have made, heard, or wondered about claims to the effect that the laws governing money in politics “make a difference”. These claims may be about who runs for office, how they campaign, who wins, how they govern, or what policies come out in the end. But until now it has been impossible to evaluate most of these claims properly. You cannot really understand a law’s effects unless you can compare jurisdictions with different laws to themselves and each other over time.

CFI’s new tool opens the door to let everyone make those comparisons. It covers every state since 1996 and is structured to handle queries from the simplest to the most complex. Because not everyone will want to use the tool in the same way, the material comes in two formats.

One is a remarkably compact and attractive visualization that will let users look up the answers to what we expect will be their most common questions. For example:
– What are the laws in my state? When did they change?
– Which states disclose what kinds of information about independent spending?
– Which ones changed their contribution limits after Citizens United?
– Which states offer public financing or political contribution tax credits? In rank order, which states had higher and lower disclosure thresholds (or contribution limits, etc.) in any given year?

All of these kinds of questions can be answered through the visualization tool. But the tool is based on only a fraction of what the data can offer. The full database has literally hundreds of pieces of information for each state and year. The visualization only covers about 10% of these. The full set can be downloaded in whole, or part. It then can be manipulated or merged with other data sets at the user’s pleasure. Downloading is the first step for answering “what difference” questions. For example:
– What difference does it make to have higher or lower limits?
– Is the law really responsible for a particular effect – whether positive or negative?

Confronting Poverty: Tools for Understanding Economic Hardship and Risk

Source: Mark Rank and Tom Hirschl, Washington University in St. Louis and Cornell University, 2018

Poverty Risk Calculator
Have you ever wondered what your risk of poverty might be in the future? Estimate your personal risk and compare it to other Americans.

Discussion Guide
Learn more about poverty and inequality with our discussion guide. Different modules are designed to further your understanding and stimulate discussion.

Research
Explore a collection of books, articles, and papers dealing with important aspects of poverty and inequality in America.

Related:
Enter your info to calculate poverty risk
Source: Neil Schoenherr, Futurity, April 20, 2018

Waiting — and Waiting– For Corporate Tax Cuts to Deliver Those Wage Hikes

Source: Manuel Madrid, American Prospect, April 13, 2018

Though if you’re a CEO or shareholder, the new tax cuts are the gift that keeps on giving. ….

…. It’s been nearly four months since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act became law, and the good times continue to roll for shareholders and company executives. Corporate profitability is well on its way to hitting decade-long highs, and CEO pay, coming off of a record year in 2017, will be the cause of much champagne-popping. But if the new tax bill, which showered corporate America with an estimated $68 billion in savings, has been a party for Wall Street, folks on Main Street—the supposed primary beneficiaries of the tax-cutting bonanza, as Republicans told it—have yet to receive their invitations.

A new online database launched by Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF), a broad coalition of more than 400 groups championing progressive tax reform, tracks how corporations have responded to the new law. The ATF website, entitled “Trump Tax Cut Truths,” contains information on more than 800 companies, including the amount of tax savings those companies received along with details on planned bonuses, pay raises, and stock buybacks. The information is sourced from news articles, press releases, public corporate filings, independent analysis, and ATF research. ….

Black Futures Lab

Source: Black Futures Lab, 2018

Black Futures Lab works with Black people to transform our communities, building Black political power and changing the way that power operates—locally, statewide, and nationally.

The problems facing Black communities are complex. The solutions to these problems will come from our imagination, our innovation, and experimentation. Changing our communities for the better requires changing a culture that takes Black people for granted and changing policies and laws that make us criminals and keep resources from our communities.

To get there, we work to understand the dynamics impacting our communities; we build the capacity of our communities to govern; and we engage and include Black people in the decisions that impact our lives.

There are three ways that Black Futures Lab is a different kind of project for change: our mission to engage Black voters year-round; our commitment to use our political strength to stop corporate influences from creeping into progressive policies; and our plan to combine technology and traditional organizing methods to reach Black people anywhere and everywhere we are.

Related:

Black Census
Welcome to the Black Census, a project of the Black Futures Lab. This survey was created for understanding the opinions of the Black community and will take about 20 minutes to complete.  Your participation is voluntary, and you may withdraw at any time and skip any questions that make you feel uncomfortable. All of your responses are confidential and only reported without information that could identify you.

Black Lives Matter cofounder launches biggest survey of the black population “after Reconstruction” Source: Aaron Morrison, Mic, February 26, 2018

Alicia Garza, cofounder of the Black Lives Matter movement, said she is beginning a new chapter of her groundbreaking work in the modern struggle for black liberation. In an announcement Monday, Garza formally launched the Black Futures Lab, a broad effort to engage black people, legislators and grassroots organizations working to build political power and enact policies that make black communities stronger. The lab’s first major undertaking will be a national data collection effort that Garza is calling the Black Census Project. It will attempt to methodologically survey tens of thousands of black people in nearly two dozen states on issues that disproportionately affect them, according to the announcement…..

….Through an online survey and door-knocking operation, the Black Census Project wants to hear directly from 200,000 black Americans about issues of generational oppression, mass incarceration, police violence and inequities in access to health care and employment, the announcement stated. The survey will target 20 states and the District of Columbia, chosen for their concentration of black Americans, black LGBT communities and black immigrants, among other black demographics, Garza said…..

\….The states include Alabama, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi and Texas. The Black Futures Lab will dispatch field organizers who will conduct in-person surveys in March. The online survey will be available through August. Once compiled and analyzed, the data will be revealed by the end of 2018, according to the lab’s announcement…..

Statistics Resources and Big Data 2018

Source: Marcus P. Zillman, LLRX, March 25, 2018

This new guide is a comprehensive resource for all researchers who require access to reliable and accurate publicly available statistics and Big Data sets that address diverse and timely subject matter. The resources included in this guide are developed and maintained by a range of organizations, including: academic and scholarly sources, the federal government, the corporate and business sectors, open source contributions, advocacy groups, NGOs and IGOs.