The Sacramento Bee's recently updated state leader gift database contains data on nearly 82,000 gifts from registered lobbying entities valued at approximately $4 million. The database, which covers the last 10 years, is searchable by corporations/interest groups that lobby or the name of the gift recipient.

This week, the Center for Public Integrity launched a beta version of a new investigative journalism web site called iWatch News.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission launched the SaferProducts.gov portal for complaints and recalls related to the 15,000 types of consumer goods it oversees.

The Art of Access public records blog emphasizes strategies for gaining access to records. The blog is targeted toward journalists that write document-based stories, but its resources are relevant to any member of the general public with an interest in public records.

Budget cuts have impacted FOIA and open records response times. Here are a few tips on making successful public records requests during budget cuts.

Last week, Google introduced a new spam filter that enables users to customize searches by providing the option to block unhelpful web sites from appearing in future results.

Most video search engines search the text of tags and descriptions written when a video is uploaded. A company called Blinkx also uses speech recognition and analyzes images.

CalAware has conducted and released several audits of California agencies commenting on compliance with the California Public Records Act, the Political Reform Act, the Ralph M. Brown Act, and other open government laws.

ProPublica's Dollars for Docs is a searchable database compiling payments made to doctors by pharmaceutical companies. Since each company discloses payments individually and does not always release the data in a searchable format, ProPublica's database enables comprehensive searching by doctor name and/or state.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) will launch an online database of the complaints it receives by March 11, 2011. The CPSC regulates the safety of consumer products, and relies on sources ranging from consumer complaints to media reports to learn of potential product risks.

The California Controller's Office has just updated the Local Government Compensation Reports database with salary data for public employees at California agencies, including transit and waste disposal agencies as well as fire and police departments.

Facebook users can download and save a zip file of information tied to their Facebook accounts. Each user can only access his personal account information which will give users a clear idea of the type of information that they have publicly shared with other Facebook users.