<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/top-city-judge-allegedl…; target="”_blank”">Mike
DeBonis's article in the Washington <i>Post</i></a> last week describes an operatic
ethics matter, with several twists and complications, with dramatic

Government officials leaving office do not have to do just the
minimum necessary to help gain the public's trust. They can do a lot
more. And they can even make the rules they're following clear, so
that they suggest an alternative to others and provide guidance.<br>
<br>
What is needed are role models. Jesse Eisinger of ProPublica wrote
about two possible role models in his New York Times column on
Thursday. One is Sheila Bair, former head of the FDIC who, in order

They said it couldn't — or, at least, wouldn't — be done, but you
can see it for yourself, in living Internet color:  <a href="http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/ethics/provdrs/reg/svcs/vies…; target="”_blank”">non-required
disclosures made by Chicago officials and employees</a>.<br>
<br>
These are not annual disclosures, but mostly disclosures of gift

Human Rights Watch has just published a harrowing report entitled "<a href="http://www.hrw.org/reports/2014/02/05/profiting-probation-0&quot; target="”_blank”">Profiting
from Probation</a>," which shows how the privatization of
probation has led to conflicts of interest that have seriously
harmed many individuals, and how probation companies have not been sufficiently supervised
by the criminal justice system.<br>
<br>

What role does humor play in a government ethics program? It looks like this
is the principal issue in a Broome County, NY ethics case. According
to <a href="http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20140205/NEWS01/302050028/Preston-…; target="”_blank”">an article put up yesterday afternoon on the Gannett Pressconnects website</a>, the chair of the opposing party's

The draft of Fordham Law professor Zephyr Teachout's new essay, "<a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2383317&quot; target="”_blank”">The
Forgotten Law of Lobbying</a>," which will appear in <i>Election Law
Journal</i>, looks at the history of how American courts have viewed
lobbying. This history provides a valuable perspective on lobbying,

A dispute in Kansas raises the question:  which takes
precedence, the First Amendment (free speech) or the Second
Amendment?<br>
<br>
On July 1, 2013, <a href="http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2013_14/measures/documents/hb2162_enro…; target="”_blank”">a
Kansas state law</a> became effective that prohibited the use of
state funds to pay for promotion or lobbying on gun control

<b>Updates:</b> February 5 and April 16, 2014 (see below)<br><br>
<a href="http://blog.nj.com/njv_guest_blog/2014/01/chris_christies_pick_for_ethi…; target="”_blank”">Here
is a must-read <i>Star-Ledger</i> op-ed piece by Paula Franzese</a>, a professor at
Seton Hall Law School and former chair of the New Jersey Ethics
Commission (2006 to 2010). She provides a short history of the

This week, the Broward County (FL) inspector general filed <a href="http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sfl-broward-inspector-general-report-ethics…; target="”_blank”">a
Review of the Existing Ethics Structure</a> (attached; see below) of the countywide
ethics program that he oversees, and which came into being via
charter amendments overwhelmingly approved by the county's voters in late 2010.

Here is a concrete example of the problem of allowing local
government attorneys to provide ethics advice that protects local officials, a problem that
Florida state senator Jeff Clemens and the Florida League of Cities
want to harden into state law in SB 606 (see <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/florida-league-cities-ethics-reform-p…; target="”_blank”">my