The Opposition Research Training Blog

IRS Makes Verifying Exempt Status Easier

Locating information about exempt organizations has gotten a little easier with the introduction of Select Check by the Internal Revenue Service Exempt Organizations Section. Select Check allows users to search for exempt organizations found in IRS Publication 78, smaller organizations filing a 990-N, and those organizations automatically revoked for failing to file for three consecutive years, all in one place. The search engine defaults to finding any search terms in a search string, so place the organization’s name in quotes to save time.

FOIA Guide for Local Government Leaders

The Virginia Municipal League publishes an excellent FOIA guide to help local government leaders understand and meet their obligations under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. The handbook is revised yearly.

The Virginia Freedom of Information Act, Virginia Conflict of Interest Act and the 
Virginia Public Records Act 2011-2012 Edition Guide for Local Government Leaders can be found here. The handbook also provides sample Statement of Economic Interest, Financial Disclosure Statement, and Disclosure of Real Estate Holdings forms.

The Code of Virginia, For Humans

Researchers who regularly search the Code of  Virginia using Virginia’s Legislative Information System know it can be a nightmare at times. Virginia Decoded is an excellent resource created by Waldo Jaquith, an open government technologist. The site displays the code in a more user friendly fashion and seems to have a more robust search engine. In addition to the code,  sections contain historical legislative information as well as amendment attempts, the correct cite for the law, and relevant court cases.

The Opposition Research Handbook

The Opposition Research Handbook is now available at Amazon as a Kindle book. Like the downloadable PDF version all links are footnoted or hyperlinked if you are using a Kindle with Internet access.

Monitoring Twitter Conversations

Stop getting one side of the conversation when you search for tweets by user name. TweetsBetween is a Twitter search tool that allows you to monitor a conversation between two public Twitter accounts. TweetsBetween is a search API that will locate tweets between two users in the last 6 to 9 days.

“Docket in Your Pocket” Smartphone App

Attorney Matt Haindfield has come up with a great application that allows users to search court dockets with your smartphone. The Docket in Your Pocket program runs on the Android and iPhone operating systems and is available through the Android Market and the Apple App Store. The program currently offers docket information for the state of Pennsylvania.

The company launched the app on October 24^th with plans to add more states in the coming months. Haindfield says that in states where not all courts are available online the company will make an effort to obtain docket information directly from the court and integrate it into the program. This will ensure users are getting the widest possible coverage from their search.

One of the biggest problems faced by data aggregators today is marketing around the limitations of the data. The Internet is ripe with web pages offering nationwide criminal checks where there is no such thing. Some sites offer searches they claim are statewide but fail to identify non-participating courts or bury this information in super fine print that is rarely seen. The consumer is left believing their search covered all state courts when it has not.

Haindfield says that as each state is added to the program the user guide will be updated to reflect the parameters of the dataset. The user will know any limitations the search has with regard to how far back the index goes, the type of cases indexed, and the date the index was made available through the app. This is valuable information for opposition researchers as they prepare their reports identifying searches and sources. If a court index was last updated 15 or 30 days ago the researcher may elect to make the additional effort to go to the court and check the most up-to-date index.

Monitor a Twitter Account Without Following

Monitoring an opponent’s Twitter account is an important part of opposition research. If you would like to keep up with someone’s Tweets, but not actually publically follow the author, try using Twitter to RSS. This service allows you to enter the name of a public Twitter account and create an RSS feed for popular RSS readers like Google Reader, Yahoo, Bloglines, and Newsgator.

The Quickest Way to Find Property Information in Prince William County Virginia

The search for property information in Prince William County is easy using the county’s QuickInfo web page. The results page indicates if the property is residential or commercial. Also shown on the results page is the owner, school information, and voting information if it is a residential property. There are two quick links to view property tax information and a map of the parcel.

FactCheck.org Gets New Look & Features

Brooks Jackson the director of FactCheck.org highlights some changes:

• FactCheck Wire items, which have become our staple, are now much more prominently displayed, in the left column.
• Our traditional Articles (with a Summary followed by a detailed Analysis section) have now become "Featured Articles" and are displayed in the center column.
• A new "Viral Spiral" page is now specifically devoted to Internet rumors, those chain emails that often spread like a disease. It takes the place of our old "Hot Topics" page. You can reach Viral Spiral through a prominent link in the right column.
• A "2012 Players Guide" giving brief profiles of the groups -- like the conservative American Crossroads and the liberal Priorities USA -- that will be spending large amounts of money on TV ads and other campaign messages in this election cycle. The "Players Guide" for the 2010 election cycle will remain accessible. Both can be reached through a prominent link in the right column.
• A new mobile/smartphone version of the site that is more functional than our previous, mostly-text "mobile" site. We'll be sending you a separate message with more details about the new mobile/smartphone site, explaining some of its features.
• The Archives page can now be browsed by subject matter as well as by date, and by type of article.

PACER Fee Increase

The Judicial Conference on standards and procedures announced a fee increase for PACER access:

The Conference . . . authorized an increase in the Judiciary’s electronic public access fee in response to increasing costs for maintaining and enhancing the electronic public access system. The increase in the electronic public access (EPA) fee, from $.08 to $.10 per page, is needed to continue to support and improve the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system, and to develop and implement the next generation of the Judiciary’s Case Management/Electronic Case Filing system.

A 25% increase sounds like a big deal but accessing federal court filings and downloading them as a PDF remotely is still the best deal in town.