November 10, 2015

How Honest Is Your State?

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This year, the Center for Public Integrity has once again ranked all 50 states for their transparency and accountability. A high score means your state is tolerably honest. A low score means corruption galore. AJ Vicens has the whole story here, along with plenty of detail.

But for those of you who just want the tl;dr version, I’m here to help. The chart below shows how all 50 states did. Congratulations, Michigan! You’re our most corrupt state, edging out Wyoming by a few tenths of a point. In the “beats expectations” category, I think I’d give the award to Illinois, with New Jersey as runner-up. In the “most disappointing” category, I’d pick Oregon, which really brought down the otherwise impressive performance by the Western states.

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We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

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