Here is Wednesday’s look at transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events.

News Roundup:

• Without ever using the term “earmarks,” Sens. Boxer (D-CA) and Inhofe (R-OK) sent a letter to colleagues requesting that they “provide… specific project and programmatic requests you would like considered for inclusion” in the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), a multiyear authorization bill. (The Hill)
• Sen. Grassley (R-IA) uploaded a YouTube video advocating for federal judges in trials and appeals to be able to choose to film what happens inside their courtrooms. (Tech President)
• The Wisconsin Assembly stayed overnight as a Democrat-led filibuster attempted to block the Republican governor’s plan to eliminate public sector workers’ bargaining rights. (Washington Times)
• DefendWisconsin.org, a website set up by labor activists, was blocked from the Wisconsin State Capitol guest WiFi network for some time. (Tech President)
• Civic Commons’ Code for America project, an inititative to set up a system encouraging the use of open-source software in government, is beginning to take shape. (Tech President)
• Nextgov has compiled a few dozen official federal twitter feeds in one place. (Next Gov)
• Documents and e-mails suggest that over the past few months the Chamber of Commerce law firm, Hunton & Williams, has been working with a task force consisting of three cyber-intelligence firms and calling itself Team Themis to develop a plan to discredit critics of the Chamber such as the U.S. Chamber Watch. (Politico)
• The Sunlight Foundation has released “Capitol Defense,” an online game that allows citizens to virtually fight special interests. (Project on Government Oversight)*
• Chinese officials have increased internet control as they attempt to prevent the atmosphere of revolution from spreading into the country. (Tech President)
• Experts caution Obama to take the time to think through any government reorganization plans. (Federal Computer Week)
• Numerous advocacy groups including Free Press, Media Access Project, Media Mobilizing Project, and Public Knowledge filed motions in Verizon’s lawsuit against the FCC, arguing that the lawsuit poses a threat to the FCC’s ability to protect an open Internet. (Next Gov)
• Lawyers counsel legislators to stay silent on the topic of redistricting. (Politico)
• Opinion: The Obama administration’s Open Government Directive has accomplished a lot, but there is much more to be done. These ten steps are critical to achieving open government success. (Information Week)
• Opinion: The National Archives and Records Administration attempts at maintaining digital archives is failing. (Federal Computer Week)