In the news

Update: Later in the day, according to a report in On the Hill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called on the Treasury Secretary to strengthen the conflict of interest requirements discussed below. The bailout, pursuant to the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, is being contracted out to fina…

The current economic crisis provides an important opportunity for government ethics professionals. It takes our eyes out of the trees -- individual government officials' conflicts of interest -- and lets us see the forest. Here's an excerpt from Senior Fellow Benjamin Barber's Huffington Post blog …

According to a lawsuit filed yesterday in Alaska by five Republican lawmakers to halt an investigation into Gov. Palin's dismissal of the state's public safety commissioner, elected politicians cannot investigate the actions of other elected politicians if they have a political bias, such as giving…

The actual and perceived independence of an ethics commission is one of the most important aspects of a government ethics program. The U.S. House of Representatives finally decided to be overseen by an independent Office of Congressional Ethics. Hallelujah! And so who did the House appoint? The thr…

Talk about the appearance of impropriety is, as Congressman Charles B. Rangel of New York is quoted in a recent New York Times article as saying, “annoying.” Why should there be anything more than a decision of his peerless peers on the House Ethics Committee, guilty or not guilty? Appearances of p…

Congressmen and -women sometimes act as if they didn't know the first thing about government ethics. Even when their actions are more in the public eye than usual, many of them unnecessarily, and selfishly, do the wrong thing. This week, Congress seems to be all about Roger Clemens, who is definite…

An op-ed piece by Pollster.com editor Mark Blumenthal, in yesterday’s New York Times, brought up an interesting point about the transparency of political polls. I would like to take his piece a step further. Blumenthal feels that political polls provide too little background information, such as wh…

Found this site today: http://www.governmentdocs.org/ Their Description: www.governmentdocs.org was created to advance the values of open and accountable government. This site gives the public an unprecedented level of access to government documents by allowing users to browse, search, and review h…

In an article published in the Jacksonville Daily Record on Thursday, Carla Miller revealed her plans as the City's new Ethics Officer: 'In a very large city like Jacksonville you can't say that every single person who comes into government will be an ethical and honest person, so it comes down to …