Hiding a conflict of interest can lead to much worse problems than
appearing before an ethics commission and getting your hand slapped, or
even getting slapped with a fine. A criminal case in Winston-Salem, NC
this week shows how bad things can get.<br>
<br>

When I saw the headline from the Anchorage <span>Daily News,</span> "Palin Calls Blogger's
Ethics Complaint Bogus," and saw that it had to do with clothing the
governor wore, I thought I might write a piece about using ethics
complaints for the purpose of political harassment. But when I read <a href="http://www.adn.com/palin/story/735153.html&quot; target="”_blank”">the article</a>, I

I have treated the legislative immunity litigation in Rhode Island as
the least relevant to other states and to local governments, because the ethics program was set
up pursuant to a special constitutional convention. But <a href="http://www.northhaveninfo.org/resources/RI+CC+brief+0309.pdf&quot; target="”_blank”">an
amicus brief</a> filed this week by Common Cause of RI and the League

Ethics codes do not generally have rules about the involvement of
spouses of government officials in citizen groups. But this can create
serious appearance problems, as it has in St. Charles, Illinois, an hour west of Chicago, according to <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-school-couple-23-mar23,0,2…; target="”_blank”">an

There are two interesting developments going on in Texas right now, and
two bills that will be heard in committee today.<br>
<br>
One involves a request to the state legislature by El Paso County to
allow local governments to give their ethics commissions teeth (they now
can only censure).<br>
<br>

I recently wrote about the problem of having a toothless ethics commission in a Connecticut city.
According to <a href="http://www.newstimes.com/ci_11960785&quot; target="”_blank”">an article</a>
in yesterday's Danbury <span>News-Times,</span>
it's <i>good</i> that another Connecticut municipality's ethics commission
is toothless.<br>
<br>
But the story has less to do with teeth than it has to do with what

Last October, I wrote <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/544&quot; target="”_blank”">a blog entry</a> about why parties should fight
elections, not referee them. <a href="http://media.kentucky.com/smedia/2009/03/19/17/clayindict.source.prod_a…; target="”_blank”">An
indictment this month</a> in Kentucky emphasizes the need for the

The controversy surrounding the New York State pension fund returned to
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/20/nyregion/20morris.html&quot; target="”_blank”">the
front page of the New York <span>Times</span></a>
today. The players are former state comptroller Alan Hevesi, his
political adviser Hank Morris, and pension fund investment officer
David Loglisci.<br>
<br>

Michael Malbin, executive director of the Campaign Finance Institute, <a href="http://www.campaignfinanceinstitute.org/states/pdf/CFI_to_IL_Jt-Legis-C…; target="”_blank”">testifying</a>
to the Illinois legislature's Joint Committee on Government Reform this
week (Illinois is one of five states with no limits on campaign
contributions; it requires only disclosure. It is also a leading state

In third world countries, corruption is said to grease the wheels of
commerce. We don't like to believe that this is true in the U.S., and
we certainly don't have to grease the palms of ordinary government
employees in order to get any service.<br>
<br>
But what would happen if pay-to-play were truly brought to its knees?<br>
<br>