It was a great honor for me this weekend to be presented with the 2010 Max Dalton Open Government Award from the Idaho Newspaper Foundation; there's info here. Here are the other nominees for the award this year:
    * Melody Finley, who has been a watchdog on government spending in the city of Wendell.
    * The Idaho Freedom Foundation, whose Web site, OurIdaho.com, packages public information about agencies around the state in a searchable format.
    * The Boise Guardian and Caldwell Guardian, two activist Web sites that have worked separately and together on open government topics.
    * Paul Alldredge of Caldwell, a long-time open government advocate who operates the blog Caldwell Guardian.
I appreciate all who work for openness in our government, which not only is key for journalists like me to do our jobs, but for our entire system of self-government to function - people have to be informed about what their government is doing, in order to participate effectively in that government.