Blogs

Yesterday in a dramatic speech to the City's Council, Mayor Peyton announced a series of sweeping ethics reforms, foremost of which was his appointment of Carla Miller as the City's Ethics Officer - in his words:

"The establishment of a high-level, in-house ethics officer for the city of Jacksonville. I have asked Carla Miller to take on this important responsibility. She is a former federal prosecutor, former chair of the Jacksonville Ethics Commission and

An article in the Washington Post by Dana Milbank gives a fitting close to the beleaguered ex-Attorney General's tenure:
"A White House spokesman said yesterday that President Bush...

Taiwan has come up with the perfect way to prevent mayors from misusing government funds. Its solution appears to be based on the way parents prevent their children from taking money out of their wallets: give them an allowance to spend any way they please.

The mayor of Taipei gets a $62,000 annual 'special mayoral allowance' which, according to...

Today's guilty plea by New Orleans' City Council vice president, Oliver Thomas, is on its face about the acceptance of a bribe. But behind that bribe is a serious conflict of interest.

Not only was Thomas the council vice president and longest-serving council member, but he was also a member of the board of the French Market Corporation, a city agency that owns and manages buildings in the French Quarter. The bribe was from someone who wanted to keep his parking lot contract with the...

It's difficult to show clearly that ethical government correlates with ethical conduct. However, last year Raymond Fisman and Edward Miguel came up with a study that does this: They studied parking tickets given to United Nations diplomats in Manhattan.

Because, until 2002, there was zero enforcement of parking rules for diplomats, they were given a carte blanche or, if you will, were tempted to act unethically (breaking...

Election officials. Who in a democracy should be more above suspicion than election officials?

At the place where I vote, the line that is the required number of feet from the voting area is traditionally right along the near side of the sidewalk that runs along the edge of the school parking lot. When candidates, their supporters, and others come to hand out their sheets, hold their signs, and talk to voters, they stand on that sidewalk.

At the last election, for the town...