In the news

Back in May, I wrote about the conflict of interest problems in upstate New York local governments due to the development of wind farms in the area. This week, New York's Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo, issued a Wind Industry Ethics Code to deal with these problems. Hats off to Cuomo for the idea, although not for the execution.

Back in June, I did a blog entry on the implications for local governments of a Louisiana decision that applied the Speech and Debate Clause to ethics investigations and decisions, effectively preventing state ethics commissions from investigating or enforcing ethics laws against state legislators, even if they voted for the ethics provision involved.

...

Here's an election story with a conflict of interest angle. In Crescent City, California (pop. 7,500) on the beautiful California coast up near the Oregon border, the little city's former finance director is running for clerk.

According to articles in the Daily Triplicate, the finance director was fired a little more than a year ago, either (depending on whom you ask) because she had...

According to an article in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune this week, the lame-duck mayor of Northfield, MN, home of Carleton and St. Olaf Colleges, has been charged with five counts of misconduct by a public official and two counts of conflict of interest under the town's ethics code (there is no...

The federal government's trust deficit today is in worse shape than our federal budget and current account deficits. Government leaders better jump on the government ethics bandwagon quick, or there could be a serious trust crisis. Here's the latest new from the Harris Polls:

• Four in five adult Americans agree that the federal government needs better moral leadership, with 59
...

The big news this week on the government ethics front is Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens' conviction on seven counts of making false statements on financial disclosure forms, regarding home renovations paid for by an oil executive.

But this is only the tip of the iceberg. I've already written about the way that Sen. Stevens, to an unusual extent, identified himself with his constituents and abused his power to unfairly...