There are many ways for elected officials to undermine democracy, but
trying to scare people away from registering to vote is among the most
insidious.<br>
<br>
This is what Jeffrey M. Frederick, member of the Virginia House of
Delegates (legislature) and chair of the Virginia Republican Party
(RPV), is doing. According to the<a href="http://www.rpv.org/news.asp?DocID=146&quot; target="”_blank”"> RPV's own press release</a>,

A good quote on government corruption from Rushworth M. Kidder, from
his <a href="http://www.globalethics.org/newsline/2008/08/04/corruption-matter/&quot; target="”_blank”">Ethics
Newsline</a> (which you can get as a weekly e-newsletter with links). I

A miscellany of interesting conflict of interest stories that don't merit their own blog
entries:<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/483">Click here to read the rest of this blog entry.</a>
<br>
<br>

Money may be the root of all evil, but it's a nice way to spice up
ethics training.<br>
<br>
Take the <a href="http://www.proethics.com/er_0804.html&quot; target="”_blank”">Ethics Rock!
program</a>, designed for lawyers who have lots of money to spend on
CLE credits. Ethics case studies are done to the tunes of such songs as
"American Pie" and "A Day in the Life." The songs are performed by a

I've begun a process of going back through the Model Code, adding comments, alternative language, and possible additional provisions inspired by the way various local governments have dealt with the issues involved. As always, any and all comments are welcome.

I will report on and link to these changes in this blog. The first changes and additions are as follows:

The actual and perceived independence of an ethics commission is
one of the most important aspects of a government ethics program.<br>
<br>
The U.S. House of Representatives finally decided to be overseen by an
independent Office of Congressional Ethics. Hallelujah!<br>
<br>
And so who did the House appoint? The three Democrats are former Reps.
David Skaggs (D-Colo.), Yvonne Brathwaite Burke (D-Calif.) and Karen
English (D-Ariz.). The three Republicans are former Rep. Peter Goss

The New York State Commission on Public Integrity released <a href="http://www.nyintegrity.org/enforcement/norc.html&quot; target="”_blank”">a report</a>
yesterday on the allegations relating to the Spitzer Administration's
attempts to gather and make public the travel abuses of the Senate

According to <a href="http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20080721-1926-bn21sedc.html&qu…; target="”_blank”">a
recent article in the San Diego <span>Union-Tribune</span></a>,
the chair of one of the city's economic development commissions made an
unusual deal with, and a half-million-dollar instant profit from (the
purchase and sale transactions were filed at the same time), the

In <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/472&quot; target="”_blank”">my recent entry</a> about Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, I said
nothing about the fact that the university center he was seeking funds
for has his name on it. An excellent <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-fund/bipartisan-scandal-congre_b_113…; target="”_blank”">entry

The drug war is not really about drugs, it's about addiction. And
dependency is what powers addiction.<br>
<br>
As it turns out, dependency is also what powers the drug war, at least
in Texas. Local government agencies, and often local governments
themselves, are dependent on the money that comes from asset
forfeitures related to the drug trade. We're talking hundreds of
millions of dollars.<br>
<br>