In the news

Due to President Obama, the word "empathy" is getting tossed around a lot lately. What interests me is that his definition of the word "empathy" is central to what ethicists call "moral imagination." And moral imagination is central to government ethics.

Vernon, the "Dream Machine" I've written about in two previous blog posts (1 and 2), is back in the news. This time, according to an article in yesterday's Los Angeles Times, it appears that there is a crack in the self-serving power structure...

Ottawa is currently in the grips of its mayor's influence-peddling trial. The allegations are that the mayor tried to get another mayoral candidate out of the race by offering him money and a federal position. The Ottawa Citizen has an excellent chronology of what allegedly occurred. There is a lot of evidence, but most of it appears to be hearsay, at least so far. But...

There is a bright side to the British Parliament expenses scandal. For one thing, many M.P.'s had the fortitude to walk right by that enormous parliamentary trough and eat at home instead.

Second, Parliament showed the world how a failure to do the right thing and do it transparently — seek larger incomes — and instead to take public money clandestinely and then, when news started leaking out, to deny and obfuscate, can completely undermine trust in a public institution.

See update below
What is a local government ethics commission's role when a government official has done something illegal or unethical that has nothing to do with the official's work in government? That's the question facing the Knox County (TN) Ethics Committee, according to an article in yesterday's Knoxville ...

According to an article on yesterday's Philly.com website, the Philadelphia Board of Ethics fined its executive director $500 for violating the confidentiality rules of the city's ethics code. The story is instructive in how to handle such difficult matters. (Disclosure: I know and have a lot of respect for both of the individuals in this matter.)

The short...