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Business ethics Education & ethics Ethics in the news Politics, government & ethics

DISD board and its ethics policy

As reported by the Dallas Morning News, the DISD board is voting this afternoon on its new ethics policy. The key issue that divides the trustees is how to deal with the situation of a vendor with family or business ties to a board member: Require disclosure and recusal? Or disqualify the vendor from having […]

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Politics, government & ethics

McCain does me one better on Sen. Stevens’ case

Yesterday, I wrote that the Senate should expel Sen. Ted Stevens if he didn’t do the honorable thing and resign, at least if his appeal is unsuccessful. Today, Sen. McCain indicated he wasn’t particularly interested in the outcome of any appeal: “It is clear that Senator Stevens has broken his trust with the people and […]

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Politics, government & ethics

Louisiana, the ethical paragon?

After two somewhat downer-posts about ethics in goverment, it’s a pleasure to write something reasonably upbeat for a change. How’s this for a lead (from the BayouBuzz.com): Today, the Better Government Association (BGA) released its second edition of the BGA-Alper Integrity Index, announcing that Louisiana???s overall ranking improved from 46th in 2002 to fifth in […]

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Politics, government & ethics

Felons in the Senate?

Senator Ted Stevens’ conviction today on seven counts of filing false financial reports with the U.S. Senate raises an interesting question. According to The New York Times report, this throws the senator’s re-election bid into some doubt. On the other hand, should the voters of Alaska decide the 84-year-old Stevens deserves an eighth term, there […]

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Medical ethics

Physicians and placebos

As reported in The New York Times last week, a recent study published on-line by the medical journal BMJ, says that half of American internists and rheumatologists prescribe placebos on a regular basis. Although the BMJ article did not get into the ethical issues, the Times article did: One of the authors, Franklin G. Miller, […]

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Politics, government & ethics

Ethics, law, and politics

Stephen Branchflower Report to the Legislative Council (Vol. I, p. 8): For the reasons explained in Section IV of this Report, I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. Alaska Statute 39.52.11(a) provides: “The legislature reaffirms that each public officer holds office […]

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Business ethics Society & ethics

Cultural property law conference Oct. 16 at DePaul

In light of the Maguire Center’s conference on the Ethics of Collecting Antiquities last year, some of you may be interested in an upcoming law conference on October 16: DePaul University College of Law Center for Art, Museum & Cultural Heritage Law and the Center for Intellectual Property Law & Information Technology (CIPLIT??) present: 8th […]