<p>Yesterday, two members of a New York City council member's election campaign were indicted on criminal charges brought by a special prosecutor, who was appointed in 2012. Read this <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/let-campaign-finance-board-do-it…; target="”_blank”">December 2014 New York <em>Law Journal</em> op-ed piece</a> by Brennan Center (NYU) Chief Counsel and longtime New York City Corporation Counsel Frederick A.O.

<p>Is it, as Every Voice says <a href="http://everyvoice.org/press-release/chicago-votes-overwhelmingly-empowe…; target="”_blank”">in its celebratory e-mail</a> last night, an "exciting victory [that] sent a loud and clear mandate to city and state governments to fundamentally reform the way we fund elections so that everyday Americans can take back control of their democracy"?<br />
<br />

<p><strong>Lecture by Dr. Bill English</strong></p>

<p>Larry Lessig has a concept of Institutional Corruption (IC) as a deviation from the purpose of the organization.  This is shown graphically by a compass pointing north--true north is the purpose of the organization; if you get pulled off of true north (like with a magnet pulling the compass off of north), that represents corrupting influences.</p>

<p>So the number one question is what is the purpose of your organization?  Why does it deviate from that purpose?</p>

Just a place to upload the files from...

Even the most enthusiastic good government politicians often have a
serious blind spot:  themselves. They believe that everyone
else is into pay to play and selling out to big contributors. But
not them. They're only doing what's best for their city.  They
have only the community's best interests in mind. And sometimes the
community needs those big contributors, and who but he is best
situated to get them to open their wallets? However, the big
contributors don't have the same blind spot, so they don't want the

<p>From the <a href="http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/&quot; target="_blank">Miami Herald blog</a>: <strong>Newspapers, advocates sue the governor and Cabinet for sunshine violation</strong> The Florida Society of Newspaper Editors, the Associated Press, a Tampa lawyer and a coalition of sunshine advocates filed a lawsuit late Tuesday alleging that Gov.

The arrest of New York state senate majority leader Sheldon Silver
points to an ongoing institutional problem that is not limited to
New York state:  the law firm as the perfect place to launder money.
The reason for this is that lawyer-client
confidentiality, at least as it is often practiced, allows a law firm, and the public office holders who are part of or do work for it, to keep its
clients, its services, its receipts, and its payments secret. <br>
<br>

<b>Call for a State Municipal Lobbying Code</b><br>
It may be a big holiday week and the end of the year, but there has still been
some news on the government ethics front. <a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/editorials/2014/12/28/close-local-lo…; target="”_blank”">The
Boston <i>Globe</i> has called for</a> the state to institute

There is a lot of disagreement over whether contingency fee
arrangements between client and lobbyist should be permitted. Many cities,
counties, and states prohibit arrangements where lobbyists are paid
only if they succeed. The principal reason is that this arrangement encourages ethical misconduct. It
encourages lobbyists to do everything they can to win, which may be good in a private adversary suit, but is not appropriate in a public context, where winning
involves changes in public policy or obtaining public contracts, grants, or

ALEC has gone local. No, not Alec Baldwin. ALEC is the <a href="http://www.alec.org/&quot; target="”_blank”">American Legislative Exchange Council</a>,
an organization that for the last few years has been drafting