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Sunshine Week: What People Are Searching About Money in Politics

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    This week marks  Sunshine Week , a national initiative dedicated to promoting transparency in government and the public’s right to information.   Journalists, civic organizations, and watchdog groups across the country leverage this week to highlight the importance of open records, accountability, and making sure citizens have the information they need to understand how decisions are made.   At OpenSecrets, that mission is at the core of everything we do.   Every day, thousands of people visit  OpenSecrets.org  looking for answers. Our website processes tens of thousands of searches each day from people wanting to understand the financial forces shaping elections and public policy.   Here are some of the  most common things people search for on OpenSecrets:   🔎  Politicians and candidates People frequently look up members of Congress and candidates to find their biggest donors.   🔎  Top donors and contributors Many u...
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You’re invited: Celebrate 30 years of independent journalism

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  March 16, 2026 |  Dear Reader, For 30 years,  CommonWealth Magazine , and now  CommonWealth Beacon , have provided independent, original, non-partisan journalism covering state government and public policy in Massachusetts. At a time when many news organizations are shrinking or closing, we are proud to have sustained this work for three decades and counting. To mark this milestone,  CommonWealth Beacon  and its publisher, MassINC, are hosting a celebration on May 14, 2026, and we hope you can join us. Get Your 30th Anniversary Gala Tickets As we reflect on three decades of non-profit journalism and what it has meant to Massachusetts residents, we are also focusing on what comes next. Since 2020, we have been working to strengthen our newsroom and expand our capacity to fill the growing holes in our news ecosystem. Since the launch of  CommonWealth Beacon  in November 2023 we have doubled our team, hired a new editor, expanded our audience, and ...
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Trump, a warmonger and toddler, is lashing out at allies

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  Support our nonprofit journalism   March 16, 2026 Happy Monday. Let's roll through the top headlines. President Trump, a warmonger and a toddler, is lashing out at allies for refusing his calls for help in Iran. As we wrote last week, Trump's predicament with the Strait of Hormuz is directly tied to the administration's   apparent failure to think through  plans for the Strait of Hormuz, one of the most vital chokepoints for energy in the world, before he decided to start his war. But that isn't to say this administration has  no  plans. They've got plenty when it comes to  turning newspapers into distribution chains for US propaganda . As Noah Lanard wrote this weekend: Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon has come up with a plan to limit the independence of  Stars and Stripes , the news publication for members of the US military that has been published continuously since World War II.   Under the new policy,  Stars and S...
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