Founded in Illinois in 1923 to fight Al Capone's "ironclad grip on Chicago City Hall", the Better Government Association (BGA) is a non-partisan Chicago-based watchdog group with the mission to "combat waste, fraud and corruption in city, county, suburban and state government." The "Government Payroll Database" section midway down the homepage, allows visitors to check out the paychecks of...

Among the many fine names associated with public television, Bill Moyers is one that frequently comes up in conversation. Moyers recently decided to return to public television after a brief hiatus, and if this website is any indication, he appears to be back to stay for some time. The goal of this new show is to "feature analysis of vital issues, strong interviews with unique voices on politics,...

Coined the "search engine for democracy," BillTrack50 launched "to help individuals and organizations become informed about what their government is doing, and connect them with each other and with their representatives." While the platform offers fee-based plans tailored to certain professional organizations, individuals can create a free account to access basic research features. With this...

History, Art & Archives is a collaborative project between the Office of the Historian and the Clerk of the House’s Office of Art and Archives to serve as the institutional memory for the House of Representatives. Currently featured on its website and based on the book, Black Americans in Congress, 1870-2007, are the biographical profiles of the 140 African Americans that have served as U.S....

Professor Quintard Taylor of the University of Washington and his colleagues have created this very fine online resource that covers six centuries of African American history. The site includes an online encyclopedia of hundreds of famous and lesser known figures in African America, along with full text primary documents and major speeches of black activists and leaders from the eighteenth century...

The Blair House has been the next-door neighbor of the White House in Washington, DC since 1824 and it is the President's official guest house. The house is named after Francis Preston Blair, who served in President Andrew Jackson's "Kitchen Cabinet" and he was the consummate political insider during the administrations of Martin Van Buren and Abraham Lincoln. Today, the house also serves as a...

What's the situation with America's ports? How are the freeways in Alabama doing? Is there a long-term solution to the problems with freight train "logjams" in Chicago? All these questions are answered, courtesy of PBS's program, "Blueprint America". The program is sponsored by The Rockefeller Foundation, and many PBS shows contribute programming to this series, including NOW, The News Hour with...

Those users who are looking for all things related to the Federal Reserve System will need to look no further than this well-designed and thorough website. Visitors will find a number of links on the left-hand side of the homepage that will take them directly to information about monetary policy, payment systems, economic research and data, and basic consumer information. One rather fine feature...

Delegates, pundits, commentators, media mavens, and others have begun to arrive in Boston for the upcoming 2004 Democratic National Convention, which is set to take place between July 26th and July 29th. New England's largest city has never played host to a major political convention, and the city has spent copious amounts of time and money in preparing for the thousands of people who are...

Started in 1942, the Bracero Program brought millions of Mexican guest workers to the United States, and over the next two decades, more than 4 million Mexicans came to work in the country. This fine public history resource from the Center for History and New Media at Georgetown University brings together oral histories and artifacts pertaining to the program. Visitors can read the "About" section...