A difficult aspect of government ethics is the percentage of a company
that must be owned by a government official in order for there to be a
conflict of interest. The figure chosen for ethics codes is usually 5%.<br>

The most serious obstacle to the acceptance of conflict of interest
programs in government is the clash between government ethics' use of a
rules-based (deontological) ethical approach, and government officials'
use of an ends-based (teleological) ethical approach.<br>
<br>
It's not that these two approaches necessarily require different values
or decisions, it's that they don't speak the same language, and they
judge each other by different standards. In addition, the ends-based

We have something more than a credit crisis. We have a governance crisis.

According to the new <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/110458/Trust-Government-Remains-Low.aspx">Ga… Governance poll</a>, only 26% of Americans are satisfied with the way this nation is being governed.

In 2002, the number was 59%. As recently as early 2007, the number was 42%. This is a bigger drop than the stockmarket. Perhaps our nation belongs in moral bankruptcy court.

Here is an editorial from today's Salt Lake City <i>Tribune </i>about the state of the
state's ethics laws</i>. I've read
editorials like this before, but this one sounds unusually hopeless. After the editorial, I will throw out an idea about how to go about getting politicians to make the right sort of ethics pledges.<br>
<br>

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. <br>

Today's big story comes to us from Cook County, Illinois, and although
it's about whether a government lawyer has a conflict of interest, the
matter falls into the area of government ethics in which Chicago
and Cook County have led the way for decades: patronage.<br>
<br>
Here's the situation. An assistant Cook County state's attorney defends
the county against charges of patronage. This suit, part of a series
originally filed in 1969, recently was settled, with $3.2 million being

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 a campaign contribution to their party's
presidential candidate.<br>

In Arcata, California, according to <a href="http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_10476440">an article
in yesterday's </a><span><a href="http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_10476440">Times-Standard</a&…;,
</span>there is a policy to review the city's conflict of interest code

Is it a conflict of interest for local government officials to give themselves
perks such as luxury boxes at sports stadiums, where they can not only
entertain dignitaries in their government roles, which few would
contest, but also their friends and contributors in their roles as
person or candidate?<br>

When U.S. presidents, or even mayors, are brought down by ethics
violations, it takes some pretty hefty skullduggery and covering up to
do it. But according to <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0910/p01s02-woap.html&quot; target="”_blank”">a Christian
Science Monitor article this week</a>, with the great title "As a TV
chef, Thai P.M. cooked his own goose," Thailand's Constitutional Court