Too many of my blog entries look at instances where things did not go right. One reason is that when things do go right, no one talks about them. Another reason is that so often ethics problems are not handled very well. So it's nice to read about the proper handling of a conflict situation in Supe…

Should an agreement between an ethics commission and a respondent, which ends an ethics proceeding, include an acknowledgment by the respondent that he violated the ethics law? According to an article in yesterday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee thinks not. The A…

My state, Connecticut, has just added itself to the at least 14 states that provide for public official pension forfeiture. Like some of the other states, its new law covers municipal officials. Pension forfeiture is the capital punishment of government ethics.  It makes legislators look like they …

The standard of proof for determining whether an ethical violation occurred has become an issue in Louisiana's ethics reform. After looking at several local government ethics codes, as well as the ethics codes of the states that have jurisdiction over local government officials, I don't think stand…