We all know that state governments vary greatly in their policies on a variety of issues. I just discovered the degree to which they also diverge in their willingness to disclose data on their implementation of those policies. I learned this lesson in the course of gathering data from state environmental regulators across the country for a major expansion of the Violation Tracker database. Next week, my colleagues and I will post 50,000 new entries from those agencies along with a report analyzing the data.

More than 43,000 businesses and non-profit organizations that received CARES Act funds have a history of misconduct, collectively paying $13 billion to settle civil and criminal penalties over the last decade.

A new compilation of regulatory enforcement actions shows that states have collected more than $17 billion in penalties from financial services companies over the past two decades. Most of that sum comes from cases brought by New York State against major U.S. and foreign banks

Covid Stimulus Watch, the website created by Good Jobs First to help monitor CARES Act aid to corporations, has just grown tenfold with the addition of 5,000 entries involving healthcare providers. The new entries are an enhanced version of a recipient list posted late last week by the Department of Health and Human Services for the Provider Relief Fund created by the CARES Act.

The uproar over the participation of larger companies in the Paycheck Protection Program is a sign that the country will increasingly confront a broader issue about the massive Covid-19 relief effort: does every company deserve assistance during a crisis that affects all parts of the economy?