Both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have faced ongoing ethics questions in recent years, but a new bill seeks to bring any such problems to the surface much sooner.
A new bipartisan piece of legislation would require presidents and vice presidents to disclose gifts received, conflicts of interest, foreign financial dealings and more ethical gray areas within two years of taking office.
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Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich is facing an ethics complaint from a former mayoral candidate alleging the Democrat used his office to send out campaign materials to hundreds of residents.
Genrich, engaged in a tough re-election battle against Brown County administration director Chad Weininger, has also been embroiled in a city hall bugging scandal.
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New Democratic Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes issued a press release last month criticizing her predecessor, Republican Mark Brnovich, for disagreeing with two of his employees on whether there was election fraud in the 2020 midterm election. As a result of her press release, 17 people filed bar complaints against him, including Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. Jennifer Wright, who served as the Arizona Attorney General Office’s (AGO) Election Integrity Unit (EIU) civil attorney, denounced Mayes for the move, and is asking the Arizona Supreme Court to look into whether Mayes violated ethics rules by releasing attorney-client privileged work to the public.
In a March 13 letter addressed to Justice Bill Montgomery as the chair of the Arizona Supreme Court’s Task Force on Ethics Rules Governing the State Attorney General, County Attorneys, and Other Public Lawyers, Wright referenced Mayes’ position on the task force, and said, “I encourage the Task Force to inquire as to what Rule of Professional Conduct Ms. Mayes relied upon to justify waiving her predecessor’s attorney-client privilege and publicly releasing privileged materials.”
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Michigan State Senator Jon Bumstead (R-Newaygo) on Tuesday introduced legislation to reform the state’s ethics requirements, aiming for greater transparency for lobbyists.
Under the new plan, lobbyists would face stronger financial reporting requirements, mandating that the individuals file reports monthly.
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Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed former state representative Joe Carr to the newsmakers line to talk about recent polls showing him in the lead for Rutherford County mayoral race.
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New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez may have violated a myriad of House ethics rules for attending the ritzy Met Gala on Monday evening while wearing a “tax the rich” dress, a conservative watchdog group alleged in a complaint obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The watchdog group, National Legal and Policy Center, alleged in a complaint filed with the Office of Congressional Ethics on Thursday that Ocasio-Cortez’s acceptance of free tickets to the event, which reportedly run at $35,000 apiece, for both herself and her boyfriend violated House Gift Rules. The group also alleged that Ocasio-Cortez received a prohibited gift from a paid attendee of the Met Gala by sitting at a sponsored table during the event, which are reportedly valued at up to $300,000.
In addition, the watchdog group alleged that Ocasio-Cortez may have accepted prohibited in-kind gifts due to her use of her custom-designed “tax the rich” dress and other services and amenities.
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The Republican Party of Virginia is requesting the University of Virginia perform an ethics investigation into the university’s Center for Politics, alleging its director has shown strong partisanship toward Democrats in his taxpayer-funded role.
The Center for Politics was created by Dr. Larry Sabato, a political scientist and analyst, for the purpose of inspiring people to engage with politics and instill the values of freedom, justice, equality, civility and service, according to its website. Sabato is the current director of the center and labels it as nonpartisan.
Rich Anderson, the chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia sent a letter to UVA President James Ryan requesting the university investigate statements by Sabato for potentially violating the university’s Code of Ethics. In the letter, Anderson said certain Tweets show “bitter partisanship,” which “a reasonable taxpaying citizen can readily conclude.”
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Friday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio to discuss the lack of ethics displayed by Democrats and left-wing bribery.
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Wednesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio to discuss historian Jon Meacham’s recent firing from MSNBC for ethical reasons.
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The Wake County District Attorney has dismissed a complaint against the North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore as well as allegations made against the speaker in an anonymous letter. “Over the past few months the State Bureau of Investigation, at the request of the Wake County District Attorney, has conducted an inquiry into payments made by the NC Bail Association and pharmaceutical company KNOWBio to North Carolina Speaker Tim Moore,” Freeman said Monday in a statement. “Following this review, we have determined that these fees were for legal services paid to Mr. Moore in his capacity as an attorney,” said Freeman. “This review found no misuse of public office for private gain or other wrongdoing as to these payments and we, therefore, are closing the inquiry into this matter without further action,” Freeman said. “Unfortunately, deceptive and politically motivated criticisms seem to be the norm in our current political climate,” Speaker Moore said in response to the end of the inquiry. “I appreciate the careful and professional way the District Attorney and the SBI handled the anonymous allegations that were made against me,” said Speaker Moore. I appreciate the confidence that North Carolina voters have placed in me and I…
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by Evie Fordham Members of Congress are considered the least honest and ethical of professions including telemarketers and car salespeople, according to a Gallup survey released Thursday. Fifty-eight percent of people said they had low or very low faith in the honesty and ethics of members of Congress, according to the survey. Only 44 percent of people surveyed said the same about car salespeople, and 56 percent said the same about telemarketers. Nurses came out on top of the survey, with 84 percent of people saying they would rate the honesty and ethical standards of nurses as high or very high. Nurses’ high ratings were followed by physicians, pharmacists and high school teachers. Members’ of Congress poor honesty and ethics ratings have hovered around 60 percent disapproval since 2016. But that’s better than in 2013, when 66 percent of respondents gave them poor ratings. Only 8 percent of people said they would rate members of Congress as having high or very high honesty and ethical standards in 2018. Thirty-three percent of respondents ranked members of Congress as having “average” honesty and ethical standards. Several scandals may have contributed to the poor reputation of members of Congress in 2018. They…
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When we fail to elect men and women of character, we get politicians committed to upholding the status quo and their own political preservation.
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District 12 Metro Councilman Steve Glover plans to introduce legislation next week so that ethics guidelines like those written in Mayor Barry’s Executive Order 005, apply to elected officials: Given this new revelation, I will be introducing legislation next week to make sure that the rules and ethics will apply to elected officials and that we do not get a separate set of standards. Glover’s proposed legislation is in response to the review by former Metro lawyers Saul Solomon, Kevin C. Klein and Allison Bussell whose firm Klein Bussell was retained by the Metro Legal Department to evaluate an ethics complaint filed against the Mayor one week after she admitted to her extramarital affair. Klein Bussell’s review of the ethics complaint concluded in part, that the Metro Board of Ethical Conduct, “lacks jurisdiction to examine alleged violations of Metropolitan Government executive orders.” The Star asked Councilman Glover what purpose is served by Executive Order 005 if no one can be held accountable to its contents; his response was prompt and candid: In light of what has been revealed by this independent legal finding, it saddens me even greater than in days past. If Mayor Barry’s Executive Order has no reach, then it’s…
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On Wednesday, Klein Bussell, the law firm retained by the Metro Legal Department to evaluate an ethics complaint filed against the Mayor one week after she admitted to her extramarital affair, concluded that the Metro Board of Ethical Conduct, “lacks jurisdiction to examine alleged violations of Metropolitan Government executive orders.” The report was crafted by three of the firm’s partners, all of whom worked in the Metro Legal Department under previous Democratic administrations. Saul Solomon was Director of Law for the City of Nashville from 2012 to 2015 under former Mayor Karl Dean. Kevin C. Klein worked as an attorney in the Metro Legal Department from 2003 to 2012, first under former Mayor Bill Purcell, and subsequently under former Mayor Dean, as his bio at the Klein Bussell website explains: In 2003, Kevin came to work for then-Director of Law Karl Dean at the Nashville Department of Law. He spent the next nine years in the trenches, investigating claims, conducting discovery, taking depositions, trying cases, and briefing and arguing appeals. During that time, Kevin got dozens, if not hundreds, of cases dismissed before trial with no payment to the plaintiff, won numerous jury and bench trials, and successfully briefed and…
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“How do you increase your net worth by 69 million dollars while you’re working full-time as a Senator?” That’s the question Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi asked about Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) on Friday. Neither Taibbi nor Rolling Stone are fans of Corker (or of President Trump, Republicans, or conservatism in general). And Rolling Stone has had problems of its own, recently, as has Taibbi. Nonetheless, Taibbi puts a fine point on what many political watchers across the Volunteer State have been asking for years. Federal campaign contributions and lobbying data tracker Open Secrets has perhaps the most jaw-dropping illustration of Corker’s rise to wealth. As Rolling Stone’s Taibbi writes, “Corker didn’t just enter the Senate without any money. He entered it carrying, according to his own disclosure forms, a mountain range of huge loans.” Setting the stage for his ‘promotion’ from Chattanooga Mayor to U.S. Senator, Taibbi writes of Tennessee’s junior senator: Corker took office in January, 2007, during the last gasp of the Bush/Rove political juggernaut. The Iraq war had gone south and the Republicans had just been routed in midterms. The financial crisis was just around the corner. And nobody paid attention to the smooth-talking freshman Senator from Tennessee, who turned…
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When The Tennessee Star asked State Rep. Barry “Boss” Doss (R-Leoma) why his company’s Doss Brothers, Inc. construction equipment was seen at a $2.2 million road construction project in Ardmore, the chairman of the House Transportation Committee who pushed Gov. Haslam’s gas tax increase through the Tennessee House of Representatives said “The turn lane being constructed in Ardmore on SR 7 was announced 2 years ago and was set to bid before the improve act was introduced! Doss brothers inc. did not bid on the project!” Doss did not deny, however, that the construction company he owns, Doss Brothers, Inc., is working on the project. The Star can now confirm, based on documents obtained from the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) in a public records request, that Doss Brothers, Inc. is listed by the Rogers Group, the contractor who was awarded the $2.2 million project on March 31, 2017, as a subcontractor performing “earthwork” and “concrete flatwork” work on the project. [pdf-embedder url=”https://tennesseestar.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/TDOT_Rogers_DossBrothers_March312017.pdf”] The name of the “earthworks” subcontractor on the TDOT form for that March 31, 2017 contract awarded to the Rogers Group is Doss Brothers, Inc. Doss Brothers, Inc. is also named as the “concrete flatwork” subcontractor in that…
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Respecting the authority of teachers is essential to creating an environment conducive to learning, effective instruction in the classroom, and proper administration of our local public schools.
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