Blogs

While we're in North Carolina, it's worth a look at a new poll of North Carolina citizens on their views of public corruption. The poll is from Elon University, and was conducted a month ago.

I'd like to call your attention to a new local government law blog that, among other issues, covers government ethics. It's called Coates' Canons: NC Local Government Law Blog, and it's a joint effort of  local government law faculty members at the School of Government at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Albert Coates, after whom the blog is named, was the founder of the university's Institute of Government...

There are a lot of stupid reasons for opposing ethics reform initiatives, but an organization in Utah has pulled a Plaxico Burress with the stupidest of all.

What do clean water laws have to do with government ethics laws? According to an article in today's New York Times, there are three connections. One, the water in Scottsdale, AZ, where government ethics professionals just congregated for a conference, has high amounts of arsenic in it.

Two, both laws provide minumum standards, and most people don't understand or accept this fact (see...

Good and Bad News from Memphis
The good news from Memphis is that newly-elected mayor A. C. Wharton, Jr. issued an ethics executive order last week (attached; see below). The order's provisions, which do not apply to council and its staff, are less valuable in their own right than as a prod to the council to improve the current ethics code.

After many months of deliberation (and a blog post), yesterday the Palm Beach Board of County Commissioners passed three ordinances, establishing a new ethics and lobbying code, ethics commission, and...