New Congressional Candidate Tracker

Today we're excited to announce a new way to keep track of everyone running for Congress. And you can help!

The RaceTracker project on the OpenCongress Wiki tracks every election for the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, and state governor.

For every state and district (including yours!), you can find info about candidates and their status, campaign contributions they've received, district maps, past election results, and more.

Best of all, RaceTracker is free, open-source, non-partisan, and collaborative. Add what you know to the wiki, citing a news source, and help build public knowledge about Congress. Check it out ::

Project:RaceTracker

... to dive right in and see an example, here's the page for Sen.
Roland Burris (D-IL), whose seat is up for election in 2010 and for
which eight candidates are already in the mix ::

IL-Senate_Class_III_Seat

... for more information on how you can use RaceTracker and how to get involved, please see today's announcement on our blog ::

Blog

Finally, if you haven't taken a look at our Wiki in a while, it's worth checking out the new info that the public and our editors are continually adding to pages for Senators and Representatives: official contact information for their offices (both in D.C. and in their districts), Congressional scorecards from issue-based groups, video announcements & floor speeches, narrative summaries of hot votes, and more ::

Open Congress Wiki Home

... hope you enjoy RaceTracker, and let us know what you think!

Thanks,

-the OC Team

Opencongress.Org

Utility Rate Increase Alert

Wisconsin Power and Light (WPL), just like the Janesville Water Utility, announced they will “likely’ file an emergency rate increase because of lost sales volume.

JG Excerpt: (Jan.22, 2009}
The chief executive of WPL's parent, Alliant Energy, projected WPL's sales will drop 6.4 percent this year, or $30 million. Because of that, Alliant CEO Bill Harvey says they "will likely file an emergency rate case" to the Public Service Commission.

Just before Christmas, the Janesville Water Utility also requested a rate increase for the same reason - low sales volume expected from the closing of the GM plant.

JG Water Rate Increase: (Dec.20,2008)
To account for the reduced revenue, the city has approved a wastewater rate increase and is anticipating a water rate increase for next year. Rate increases also are planned for 2010.

The Janesville water rate increase and WPL's increase are two sides of the same coin and both must acquire PSC approval before becoming law. Both requests defy the principle of supply and demand. When demand goes down - supply goes up - prices should drop. Instead, they want to increase prices to make up for lost revenue.

The PSC, the Janesville City Council and the Janesville City manager all want your input on this matter. Send all comments regarding rate increases by water, heating gas and electric utilities to the PSC.

Janesville residents, in addition to sending complaints to the PSC, can send their comments regarding the proposed water and sewer rate increases to the Janesville city manager and all council members here.

Note: WPL is a subsidary of Alliant Energy. For all practical matters - they are one and the same.

“Say Anything” night debuts downtown

Got something to say?

Say it at Codos!

Every Wednesday, starting at 7 p.m., until there’s nothing left to say.

Codos: Between the Main Street Saloon and Perfectly Plus.

“The word ‘poetry’ scares people,” said Russ. “Let’s just have a spoken-word night.”

Last week a small group gathered at Codos Coffee, 119 N. Main St., and entertained each other for the evening reading poetry, song lyrics and original material.
This group was diverse – and that’s why it worked.

Enthusiastic patrons begged Codos owner Russ Allen to keep it up, and he agreed to a spoken-word night every Wednesday until folks run out of things to say.

SO: bring your novel, short-story, speech, drama and essay excerpts -- poetry too – and anything else we forgot to mention. Make it original, steal it from someone else (but remember to attribute it!), wing it, prepare it, keep it hate-free and (relatively … relatively) clean, come if you’re young, come if you’re not, read in English or some other language, students, elders, all genders welcome!