According to an article in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune this week, the lame-duck mayor of Northfield, MN, home of Carleton and St. Olaf Colleges, has been charged with five counts of misconduct by a public official and two counts of conflict of interest under the town's ethics code (there …

The big news this week on the government ethics front is Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens' conviction on seven counts of making false statements on financial disclosure forms, regarding home renovations paid for by an oil executive. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. I've already written about the…

Long Island (NY) Railroad (LIRR) retirees are many times more likely to be on disability than other rail workers, and the New York Times has been focusing on this story (click here for a page of articles and information). Needless to say, according to an article in today's paper, behind it all are …

"As long as I count the votes, what are you going to do about it? --William Marcy "Boss" Tweed, 1871 see update below Another of Boss Tweed's famous quotations is, "I don't care who does the electing, so long as I get to do the nominating." His and other city bosses' way of controlling politics thr…

It's not quite civil disobedience by county officials, but Michigan's senate majority leader has asked the Attorney General to block what those officials are doing, according to an article yesterday on mlive.com (Booth Newspapers). The officials are county clerks, and what they've done is to cross-…

I've already written about the conflict of interest problems involved in the New York City term limits dispute. But now the dispute is over, according to an article on today's New York Times website: the NYC Council chose to allow current elected officials to run beyond the term limit rules approve…

See update and second update below People in the government ethics field can be very arrogant. I know I can. But it's horrible to see it in action, especially when it's turned against what we commonly think of as good government. Fred Voigt is the deputy city election commissioner for Philadelphia,…

Sometimes city councils feel compelled to write or improve their city's ethics law due to a scandal. Sometimes city councils are compelled by a ballot measure. And in both instances, the council isn't happy with the result. In San Diego, the ethics code came via ballot measure in 2002, and yes, the…