<i>Update below:</i><br>
<br>
The Internet has been around for some time now, and yet local
government officials still get away with saying things like, <span>“If you have a better process or procedure [than
having the city council enforce the ethics code], I would like to hear
about it.”<br>
<br>

<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/business/17muni.html&quot; target="”_blank”">An
article in yesterday's New York <span>Times</span></a>
points to yet another clever end run around ethics laws involving
municipal bonds. Bond underwriters are not allowed to make campaign
contributions, to prevent a pay-to-play environment. However, financial advisers, the people who hook local

Check out <a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/20090214_Karen_Heller__Fumo_s_g…; target="”_blank”">this excellent look</a> at Vincent J. Fumo, a Pennsylvania state senator who "made no distinction between the personal and the political." Of special interest is his intimidating treatment of his staff.<br>
<br>

<p class="MsoNormal">Here’s a new, foolproof way for an elected official to make
some money on the side: loan money to your campaign, charge it a lot of
interest, and then pay the loan principal off slowly, over a number of
years.</p>

<p class="MsoNormal">Perks that public officials give themselves should be
monitored as carefully as gifts, campaign contributions, and relationships with
contractors. But they are not. And they’re usually easy to hide.</p>

<p class="MsoNormal">What is more horrible than the scheme of two eastern
Pennsylvania judges to fill two for-profit juvenile detention centers with
thousands of youths who would not otherwise have been removed from their
families and schools?</p>

<p class="MsoNormal">Should an option in a light-rail train car manufacturing
contract be exercised, rather than going to a competitive bid, because the
company says it will move its plant, and 5,000 jobs, into the county?</p>

<p class="MsoNormal">This dilemma is being faced by the Los Angeles County
Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), and the recession and the stimulus
package are both involved. So is an accusation of conflict of interest.</p>

Type "ethics" into the search line at utah.gov, and all that comes up
is Archery Ethics Course Online.<br>
<br>
In response to what are referred to in Utah as last year's "ethics wars," <a href="http://le.utah.gov/%7E2009/bills/hbillint/hb0159.pdf&quot; target="”_blank”">a new
legislative ethics bill </a>has been drafted. What is interesting for

It's good to see that, upon his death, attention is being given to the
life of Donald C. Alexander, the IRS Commissioner who stood up to
President Nixon at the end of Nixon's time in office.<br>

The <a href="http://www.michiganvotes.org/RollCall.aspx?ID=308177&quot; target="”_blank”">Michigan
House passed</a> <a href="http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2007-2008/billengrossed/House/p…; target="”_blank”">a
bill</a> in November requiring all local governments in Michigan to set