Fortunately my resarch data comes mainly from the state — traffic safety and law enforcement. No, I was talking about the web site that is supposed to provide the general public with a knowledge of how all of the stimulus money was spent. The last I heard is that the states received some guidance as to how they were to report things up, but the problem is that the states do not have a very good handle on money that has been passed directly to local agencies.

I was hoping someone out there might have better insight (perhaps more positive?) than mine.

Thanks — dave

I am most familiar with research data pertaining to US government health care programs. In this area (and likely others) researchers’ access to data used to come after jumping over a reasonable and manageable set of hurdles. Lately things have gotten so tight that certain types of data don’t flow at all. Researchers with funded projects are unable to do their studies. That’s a clear waste.

I am not at all familiar with the type of data you reference. It sounds more like information that reporters and government watchdog groups would value. I doubt there are many researchers with funded studies waiting for it. That puts it in a different class than the one I was considering.