An excellent <a>article on the front page of last Sunday's New York <i>Times</i></a> looks at a <a href="www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-09-13/pdf/2011-23311.pdf&quot; target="”_blank”">proposal by the federal Office of Governmental Ethics</a> (OGE) to limit
two exceptions to the prohibition on accepting gifts from
lobbyists:  the "widely-attended gathering" (WAG) exception and

I have written about the need for ethics commissions to go beyond
the criminal enforcement paradigm, which limits commissions to determining whether an
individual respondent has violated an ethics provision or not. It is hard to find instances of a commission looking at the bigger picture, that is, at the common practices and unwritten rules that underlie an individual's ethical misconduct. I

One of the most damaging aspects of ethical misconduct in government
is that it decreases the amount of citizen participation in
government activities. People feel that their local government is
rigged to help politicians and their families, friends, and business
associates. It's not worth spending time getting involved in a
rigged system, unless your goal is to be part of the in crowd.<br>
<br>

<a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/campaign-spending-shows-political-tie…; target="”_blank”">ProPublica
ran an excellent article yesterday</a> by Kim Barker and Al Shaw
about campaign, PAC, and Super PAC coordination and self-dealing,
primarily at the presidential level. What is so special about the
article is that it follows the money to where it is being spent.

A few days too late for St. Patrick's Day, <a href="http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/the-reward-that-cost-250m-and-was-…; target="”_blank”">today's
Irish <i>Examiner</i> has a wonderful story</a> about catching officials
involved in ethical misconduct relating to land use. It's an old
story, but new to me, and probably new to you, as well. The occasion

It's amazing the lengths people will go to when they are accused of
bribery. Take Zehy Jereis, a former Yonkers, NY party chair who gave
nearly $175,000 to a Yonkers council member, and is being accused of
doing this in order to get her to make a pivotal vote in favor of his

The independence of ethics commissions and their staff is the single
most important aspect of a government ethics program. <br>
Who selects the commission members and their staff, and how, colors
everything about an ethics program and determines, more than any
other factor, whether the public has confidence in the commission's
advice and enforcement of an ethics code. So the news from Washington, DC and Atlanta is not good.<br>
<br>

The great Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes' 2006 novel, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Eagles-Throne-Novel-Carlos-Fuentes/dp/0812972554/…; target="”_blank”"><i>The Eagle's
Throne,</i></a> translated from the Spanish by Kristina Cordero, is one of
the best political novels I've ever read. I highly recommend it. The
novel also happens to contain some great quotes that touch on

I never know where I'm going to find something that inspires a
blog post on local government ethics. This time it was <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/jan/31/can-italy-change/&quot; target="”_blank”">an

<h4>I did stop and and try to invoke legislative immunity, but the camera would have none of it.</h4><br>