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 Brief Bio: Carla Miller is a global government ethics advisor, former U.S. Federal Prosecutor and founder of CityEthics, a non-governmental organization that provides ethics advisory services to local governments. She has extensive national and international experience in creating anti-corruption …

There is a situation involving a Cincinnati council member that touches on many important government ethics issues, which I will deal with it in multiple blog posts over the next couple of days. In this post, I will set out the basic facts and the issues. The council member works for a development …

Today's NY Times has an interesting article on the "honest-services fraud" statute: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/07/us/07honest.html?_r=1&scp=5&sq=joun%20schwartz&st=cse (URL may require subscription) [Quote]: It has become an important tool for federal prosecutors, who used it successfully again…

No one does unethics like Chicago. It's been four months since I've written about the city, so it's long overdue. According to a recent article in the Chicago Sun-Times, Alderman Patrick O'Connor is the favorite for appointment to the chair of the board's second most powerful committee, the Zoning …

See Update Below At a University of Washington panel on Thursday, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, known most recently for his investigation and arrest of Gov. Blagojevich, spoke about corruption in government and what can be done about it. According to an…

Check out this excellent look at Vincent J. Fumo, a Pennsylvania state senator who "made no distinction between the personal and the political." Of special interest is his intimidating treatment of his staff. My earlier blog entry on Fumo.

It's good to see that, upon his death, attention is being given to the life of Donald C. Alexander, the IRS Commissioner who stood up to President Nixon at the end of Nixon's time in office. According to the New York Times obituary, among Alexander's accomplishments was disbanding the Special Servi…

According to an article in yesterday's Nevada Appeal, the Nevada Commission on Ethics has appealed the district court decision which removed its jurisdiction over state legislators participating in legislative conduct. The Commission believes that the legislature waived its sole power to punish its…