<b>Waiving the Privilege and The Extent of Withdrawal</b><br>
According to <a href="http://business-journal.com/airport-board-cooperates-in-land-deal-probe…; target="”_blank”">an
article in yesterday's <i>Business Journal Daily</i></a>, the Ohio Ethics
Commission, which has jurisdiction over local government ethics, is
investigating the Western Reserve Port Authority's lease of property at

"The appropriate authority" is a vague phrase to base a major ethics
reform proposal on, but that is just what the District of Columbia's <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/55673311/Comprehensive-Ethics-Reform-Act&quot; target="”_blank”">draft
Comprehensive Ethics Reform Act of 2011</a> does.<br>
<br>
Introduced Tuesday by the council chair, this act is neither

On December 6, according to <a href="http://www.chicagotalks.org/2010/12/06/mayoral-candidate-rahm-emanuel-c…; target="”_blank”">an
article on the Chicago Talks website</a>, Chicago mayoral candidate
Rahm Emanuel promised that he would make many ethics reforms to “change
the culture” of corruption and cronyism at City Hall.<br>
<br>

Government ethics is dangerous to dating and weddings. That's the
message of <a href="http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/palm-beach-county-ethics-rules-would-…; target="”_blank”">an
article in Sunday's Palm Beach <i>Post</i></a>.<br>
<br>

In March, I wrote <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/miscellany-15">a blog post
about a nepotism situation</a> in Valparaiso, IN. The city's ethics
commission found that the hiring of the fire chief's son would be in
violation of the ethics code, because the chief would be directly
involved in personnel matters involving his son.<br>
<br>

As a postscript to <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/jersey-sting&quot; target="”_blank”">the Jersey Sting</a>,
on Wednesday, according to <a href="http://www.justice.gov/usao/nj/Press/files/Kurlander,%20Mitchell%20et%2…; target="”_blank”">a
Justice Department press release</a>, the former CFO and CEO of a

Two months ago, a book was published called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Jersey-Sting-Crooked-Money-Laundering-Informant/d…; target="”_blank”">The
Jersey Sting</a>, by two <i>Star-Ledger</i> reporters, Ted Sherman and Josh
Margolin. It provides the history of an enormous federal sting
operation which led to the arrest of dozens of government officials,

Last month, the Obama administration drafted <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/53440033/Executive-Order-Disclosure-of-Politi…; target="”_blank”">an
executive order</a> that would require those seeking federal government
contracts to disclose their political contributions, and those of their
directors, officers, affiliates, and subsidiaries, made in the two

According to <a href="http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/article_b7ce…; target="”_blank”">an
article in the Billings <i>Gazette</i> last week</a>, the Montana Political
Practices Commissioner will have to step down from her position, because
her nomination by the governor was not approved by the state legislature. Her office,

Going by the reaction of the news media and the Pulitzer committee, the most serious government
ethics scandal of 2010 occurred in Bell, California, where the city's
top officials were paying themselves huge salaries, taking advantage of
an uneducated, uninvolved citizenry.<br>
<br>