Ever wished you could get an email or text message alert every time somebody in Congress introduces a bill that affects one of your priority issues? Or that whenever somebody in Congress or in a state legislature mentions that issue? Or a federal or state regulatory agency issues a new rule on your issue?

Thanks to the transparency fanatics working away day and night in the digital skunkworks at the Sunlight Foundation, there is now a way to do that. It’s called Scout and it’s a free online alert system. Here’s how Sunlight’s Ellen Miller describes it: