Election officials. Who in a democracy should be more above suspicion than election officials?

At the place where I vote, the line that is the required number of feet from the voting area is traditionally right along the near side of the sidewalk that runs along the edge of the school parking lot. When candidates, their supporters, and others come to hand out their sheets, hold their signs, and talk to voters, they stand on that sidewalk.

One of the 'latest things' in politics today is Drew Westen, a psych professor who advises the Democrats that they should be paying more attention to emotions than to policies (as, many say, the Republicans have been doing), because people's emotional reactions have a great effect on how they vote.

Immigration is a new issue for municipalities. Or is it?

What a nice thing to wake up to: reading in the newspaper that at least some American institutions are using words like 'transparency' and 'accountability' as if they really meant it.

In common discussions of municipal ethics, one principal type of municipal employee is rarely mentioned: the teacher. Unless a teacher is, say, a school board member, he or she is rarely in a position to have a conflict of interest. Right?

<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/319">Click here to read the rest of this blog entry.</a>

Gaining and retaining the public's trust in government is the principal reason given for passing ethics codes. But there is little talk beyond this about the concept of trust.

Louisiana legislators do not seem to like the state Board of Ethics. Earlier this year, two of them sued the Board of Ethics, based on a decision it made. Now the Legislature has passed a bill clearly intended to get rid of the Board's chief counsel, Gray Sexton.

Whenever someone dies in a village in Bangladesh, Gonoshasthaya Kendra, a health charity, holds a public post-mortem, according to an article in the July 7, 2007 issue of the <i>Economist</i>. 'The aim is not to blame or indict <i>per se</i>'bare-knuckled confrontation would alienate the government'but to remind public servants that someone is watching them, and that the negligent will be named and shamed.'

According to <a href="http://www.politicsnj.com/files/James-RileyIndictment0712.pdf">a 33-count indictment</a> filed yesterday by the United States Attorney for New Jersey, former Newark, NJ mayor Sharpe James appears to have been just another crooked urban mayor out to help himself and his friends to the sort of perks that aren't supposed to come with public service: trips, tickets, cruises, the usual.

An excellent op-ed column by Stanley Fish in the July 14 New York <i>Times</i> focuses on a very difficult ethical problem in municipal government: affirmative action. The recently decided Supreme Court decision, <a href="http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/06pdf/05-908.pdf">Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 et al (No.