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<p>The Alliance Defense Fund just filed an emergency injunction and restraining order in response to the decision a couple hours ago by an "ethics panel" at East Tennessee Children's Hospital to discontinue care of 9-month-old Gabriel Palmer.</p> <p>Baby Gabriel was born prematurely with a genetic abnormality, club foot, and narrow airway, but he flourished when he went home from the hospital in June, where he grew, played, and received physical therapy while going to regular doctor visits. He was fed through a tube and received some oxygen and medications.</p>

The S.C. Ethics Commission has charged Gov. Mark Sanford with 37 counts of breaking state ethics laws. The commission filed its charges last week but only released them Monday. Those charges allege that, in 18 instances, Sanford authorized, approved or allowed the purchase of business-class airfare so that he could travel to and within the continents of Europe, Asia and South America. Four of the flights cited involved a 2008 state Commerce Department trip to Brazil that Sanford extended to Argentina so that the married, two-term Republican governor could see his Argentine lover. State law bars the use of high-priced...

COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford faces 37 ethics charges he broke state laws limiting official use of airplanes and involving campaign money. The details were released Monday by the State Ethics Commission. They came five days after the panel charged the governor without offering any specifics. Sanford's lawyers have claimed the charges involve minor and technical aspects of the law. The charges followed a probe into whether Sanford used state aircraft for personal and political trips, used pricey airline seats despite low-cost travel requirements and reimbursed himself with campaign cash.

NY State is trying to do its best to surpass Illinois in Scandals. According to Bloomberg News NY State Attorney General and President Obama's choice for the next NY Governor, Andrew Cuomo took campaign contributions from law firms defending clients who the AG's office was investigating for wrong-doing. Boies Schiller & Flexner LLP, a New York law firm led by David Boies, gave Cuomo $35,000 this year, records show. The firm represents former American International Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Maurice “Hank” Greenberg in a civil fraud case the attorney general is pursuing. Lawyers defending Dell Inc., Deutsche Bank AG...

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Enabling terror: This month, corrupt Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd helped block a congressional amendment, supported by nearly 150 relatives of the victims of 9/11, that would have prevented the prosecution of Islamic terrorists in the U.S. court system. Days later, the Obama administration announced it would try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other terrorist suspects in a civilian court in New York City. Granting the accused the U.S. constitutional rights they despise and raising the possibility of acquittal on legal technicalities are bad enough. But the trial poses a severe threat to public safety by making the courthouse and federal...

JW Will File FOIA Lawsuit against Chicago Mayor Daley's Office to Obtain Records Related to Olympics Bid. Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it will file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's office to obtain records related to the Obama administration's failed bid to bring the Olympics to Chicago. President Obama tapped White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett to lead the Olympics effort, despite her personal and business ties to Chicago, which included a stint working for Mayor Daley. The Obama White House granted Jarrett...

Standing on the shoulders of RangelBy STEPHON JOHNSON Amsterdam News Staff Published: Thursday, November 12, 2009 12:05 AM EST Congressman Charlie Rangel: We have your back. That was the theme of Thursday morning’s news conference outside of City Hall, where fellow politicians, nonprofit leaders and businessmen all stood up for the embattled Rangel, who has faced attacks from the right wing calling for him to step down from some of his more prominent positions on congressional committees. “It’s a bum rush, as one might say,” said State Sen. Bill Perkins. “It will create guilt without process, and I don’t think...

Black Lawmakers under Ethics SpotlightWashington AFRO Zenitha Prince Posted: Nov 09, 2009 November 8, 2009) - Are seven investigations too many to be a coincidence? All seven of the full-scale ethics investigations currently underway in the U.S. House of Representatives are focused on African-American lawmakers—and it would be eight if the committee conducting the investigations hadn’t deferred to the Justice Department’s investigation involving Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. The disparity is beginning to raise some eyebrows. “I don’t think they (Black lawmakers) are scared—they’re upset. They think [Congressional Black Caucus] members are being singled out,” Rep. Elijah Cummings, former chairman of...

Democrats' Ethics Targeted by GOP By BRODY MULLINS Republicans are seizing on newly revealed ethics probes of congressional Democrats ahead of next year's midterm elections, accusing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her colleagues of failing to make good on their pledge to clean up Washington when they regained control of Congress. None of the Democratic lawmakers under investigation by the House Ethics Committee is expected to lose in 2010. And ethics concerns are usually less important to voters than pocketbook issues. But Republican campaign strategists say ethics issues rumbling under the surface could help the GOP pick up a few...

Charlie could catch a breakBy DAPHNE RETTER Last Updated: 7:50 AM, November 6, 2009 WASHINGTON -- Rep. Charles Rangel is likely to be cleared on one of a half-dozen ethics charges, it was reported yesterday. Rangel and four other members of the Congressional Black Caucus may be exonerated of allegations of rule violations stemming from a 2008 trip to the Caribbean for a conference, according to the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call. **SNIP** Members of Congress are barred from accepting multiday trips from companies that employ lobbyists.

Generation Cynical Sarah Carlsruh, November 6, 2009 “Cynicism exists. It’s toxic,” said Michael Josephson at an October 29th presentation on “High School Character” at the National Press Club. Josephson is president of the Josephson Institute of Ethics (JIE), which recently released its study on the link between high school attitudes and subsequent adult conduct. In its study, the Institute found that “younger generations are significantly more likely to engage in all forms of dishonest conduct than those who are older.” This raises the question, is the study measuring the increasing moral degradation of society or simply the fact that older...

Paul Singer of Roll Call is reporting: The House ethics committee is likely to exonerate five members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) who were accused of taking an improper trip to the Caribbean, according to sources familiar with the case. If this is true, we are not surprised. When we provided photographs and audio recordings from the trip at the request of the Committee in May, we made clear that our willingness to do so was not an endorsement of the Ethics Committee process, which has again proven to be a joke.Rep. G. K. Butterfield (D-NC), a member of...

very ironic announcement that I just got in my Harvard email announcing a forthcoming lecture: HARVARD UNIVERSITY EDMOND J. SAFRA FOUNDATION CENTER FOR ETHICS Eliot Spitzer, former Governor and Attorney General of New York, will deliver a public lecture as part of the 2009/10 Labs Lectures on the Question of Institutional Corruption. Thursday, November 12 at 4:30pm Emerson Hall, Room 105 25 Quincy Street, Cambridge This is a ticketed event.

Finding Critics for Science Allie Winegar Duzett, November 4, 2009 There are many fields with rigorous critics; many writers make a living critiquing music, dance, art, and literature. At Accuracy in Media and other media watchdog groups, employees critique the claims of major news organizations. But one crucial field regularly goes without any public criticism: the field of science, and scientific discovery. “Science lacks for critics,” David Berlinski claimed at a recent Heritage Foundation Bloggers’ Briefing. “It is really remarkable that in the sense in which literature or dance or music has always entered public consciousness with a very rich...

Lies, Tax Fraud and DeceitMy theory is that Alan Grayson is a liar, a fraud, and a tax-cheat. Who is this guy? How did he really obtain his wealth? It’s certainly worth further investigation in light of the following.Summary: Roll Call lists Alan Grayson’s largest asset is a claim against Derivium Capital, the now bankrupt Ponzi scheme, in the amount of $34 million. Central Florida Politics lists Alan Grayson as the Derivium Capital scams most frequent customer. Roll Call lists Grayson’s net worth at $31.12 million. Grayson’s only other asset is said to be a trust fund worth $5...

Before taking control of the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, "Democrats intend to lead the most honest, most open, and most ethical Congress in history." However, with dozens of mostly Democratic lawmakers and various staff under investigation by the House's twin ethics bodies, the majority clearly values political power over clean government. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Charles B. Rangel, 20-term New York Democrat, and Defense Appropriations subcommittee Chairman Rep. John P. Murtha, 19-term Pennsylvania Democrat, are the poster children for how failed ethics cops protect old-guard lawmakers. While under investigation by the ethics committee, they continue to...

No one saw the truck drive off, it left the alley between the bank and another business. You could pick up the cash and no one would see you. What should you do?

WASHINGTON (AP) - Dozens of lawmakers have drawn scrutiny from their ethics monitor this year for everything from financial dealings to travel and campaign donations, according to a leaked account showing an active House panel secretly at work.

Rangel: Ethics talks unrelated to personal finance issuesBy Paul Kane Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, October 30, 2009; 11:37 AM House ethics committee investigators have interviewed Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee whose personal finances have been under investigation for more than a year, a committee document from July reveals. Committee staff met with Rangel in late July. In an interview with The Washington Post, the lawmaker said the meeting concerned only a recent trip to the Caribbean island of St. Maarten that he and four members of the Congressional Black Caucus took...

WASHINGTON -- Internal investigations into the conduct of several House members have been exposed in an extraordinary, Internet-era breach of security involving the secretive process by which Congress polices lawmaker ethics. Revelations of the mostly preliminary inquiries by the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct -- also known as the Ethics committee -- shook the chamber as lawmakers were immersed in a series of scheduled votes Thursday. The panel announced that it was probing two California Democrats -- Reps. Maxine Waters and Laura Richardson -- even as its embarrassed leaders took pains to explain that several other lawmakers also...

A leaked document shows that House ethics investigators are probing the activities of nearly three dozen lawmakers — an ethical dust storm that will empower the Republicans and could imperil efforts to get health care reform through the House next week. The House ethics committee said Thursday that it was opening two new investigations — one into the foreclosure scandal of Rep. Laura Richardson (D-Calif.) and one involving financial questions about Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and her husband. But shortly after the committee met, chairs Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Jo Bonner (R-Ala.) interrupted proceedings on the House floor to say...

House ethics investigators have been scrutinizing the activities of more than 30 lawmakers and several aides in inquiries about issues including defense lobbying and corporate influence peddling, according to a confidential House ethics committee report prepared in July. The report appears to have been inadvertently placed on a publicly accessible computer network, and it was provided to The Washington Post by a source not connected to the congressional investigations. The committee said Thursday night that the document was released by a low-level staffer.

Dozens in Congress under ethics inquiry AN ACCIDENTAL DISCLOSURE Document was found on file-sharing network By Ellen Nakashima and Paul Kane Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, October 30, 2009 House ethics investigators have been scrutinizing the activities of more than 30 lawmakers and several aides in inquiries about issues including defense lobbying and corporate influence peddling, according to a confidential House ethics committee report prepared in July. The report appears to have been inadvertently placed on a publicly accessible computer network, and it was provided to The Washington Post by a source not connected to the congressional investigations. The committee...

Report: Dozens in Congress Under Ethics Scrutiny Nearly half the members of a House panel in control of Pentagon spending, including Rep. John Murtha, are under scrutiny by ethics investigators in Congress, according to a leaked report October 30, 2009 WASHINGTON -- Nearly half the members of a House panel in control of Pentagon spending are under scrutiny by ethics investigators in Congress, The Washington Post reported Friday, citing a leaked confidential House ethics committee report. Investigations by two separate ethics offices include an examination of Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa.,chairman of the appropriations subcommittee on defense, and six other lawmakers...

The House ethics committee has voted to begin full-scale investigations into ethics allegations against Democratic Reps. Maxine Waters (Calif.) and Laura Richardson (Calif.), but decided against investigating Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.). After Thursday’s votes, Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Jo Bonner (R-Ala.), chairwoman and ranking member of the committee, went to the House floor to assure members that a cyber-hacking incident – which apparently resulted, they said, in an internal panel document ending up in the hands of the Washington Post – did not signal a major security breach of the committee’s computer system. They suggested that the document in...

Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) is criticizing the new ethics office that recommended he be reviewed by the House ethics panel. Graves issues a statement Thursday thanking the House ethics committee for dismissing the charges against him and lashed out at the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE). Graves struck early by releasing the statement before the ethics panel publicly announced that it had unanimously dismissed the complaint against him. Graves lashed out at the OCE in his statement, accusing it of investigating an anonymous complaint and looking into a matter that even if true did not violate House ethics rules. “I...

"Once a liar, always a liar" is a proverbial parental admonishment. A new study claims there is truth to the adage: People who cheated on exams in high school are considerably more likely to be dishonest later in life, according to a report to be released today by the Josephson Institute of Ethics. The study, which surveyed nearly 7,000 people in various age groups nationwide, offers a sobering assessment of today's youth as cynics who are aware that their behavior crosses boundaries but believe it is necessary to succeed. And the findings suggest that habits formed in childhood persist: Those...

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is facing mounting pressure to intervene in an intense dispute between an outside ethics office she pushed through the House and the full ethics committee. The stakes are high for the future of the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), a new entity Democrats created to help police lawmakers. Its board members and top staff are threatening to resign if the ethics committee doesn’t meet a deadline the OCE believes is critical to its role, according to several sources within the ethics community. Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami said the Speaker believes cooler heads will prevail and the...

Jayson Blair, who was at the center of a major journalism scandal as a New York Times reporter in 2003, will be the featured speaker at Washington and Lee University’s 48th Journalism Ethics Institute on Friday, Nov. 6. The title of Blair’s talk is “Lessons Learned.” The public is invited to the presentation at 5:30 p.m. in Stackhouse Theater, Elrod Commons. Blair resigned from the Times after an investigation found that he had plagiarized and fabricated major portions of stories that he had written during four years with the Times. Some of the stories that he covered in this manner...

Freepers: I occasionally work as an adjunct (I'm retired) for a local college. This college has just initiated a policy where they require their students to work for 75 hours for a third-party for free. That is, they require that a student give 75 hours of work to a non-profit, a charity, and so forth. The college will provide the list of organizations from which a student can choose. This strikes me as being pretty shaky legally and ethically. We seem to be providing a pool of unpaid labor for groups in our community--regardless of whether they want to work...

Redefining Sex Ed Sarah Carlsruh, October 26, 2000 For parents worried about how to tell their kids about sex, good news: now you don’t have to. The public school system will do it for you. The Preserve Innocence Project’s September Innocence Report analyzes “government activity that threatens childhood innocence,” focusing on sexuality education. The report addresses sexuality education guidelines suggested by both the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), saying that implementation of these guidelines “would relegate children to a mass, cookie-cutter education on the most...

Rep. John Carter (R-Texas) acknowledged Wednesday that he failed to disclose nearly $300,000 in profits from the sale of Exxon stock in 2006 and 2007, and his office said he will file amended financial disclosure forms with the House ethics committee as soon as possible. According to Carter’s office, a 2006 sale of Exxon Mobil Corp. stock netted the Congressman just more than $199,000 in profits that were not reflected on his financial disclosure form for that year. A 2007 sale of Exxon stock netted about $97,000 that Carter failed to disclose.

Susan Crabtree of The Hill has the scoop: "Two junior Democrats are urging their leaders to open an investigation into the Countrywide VIP mortgage program. Rep. Paul Hodes (N.H.), who is in his second House term, and freshman Rep. Mike Quigley (Ill.) called on the House Oversight and Government Reform panel to initiate an investigation into Countrywide Financial's 'Friends of Angelo' VIP program and whether it was used to gain influence over federal officials. They made their case for the investigation in a letter to Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), the panel's chairman, and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the ranking member....

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) just took to the House floor to announce his new website, "Names of the Dead". According to the website: Every year, more than 44,000 Americans die simply because have no health insurance. I have created this project in their memory. I hope that honoring them will help us end this senseless loss of American lives. If you have lost a loved one, please share the story of that loved one with us. Help us ensure that their legacy is a more just America, where every life that can be saved will be saved. I'm told this...

The Washington Post reported over the weekend on the ongoing federal investigation into defense earmarks, saying that it was “increasingly focused on a former top aide to Rep. Peter J. Visclosky (D-Ind.) who worked with the congressman on funding requests from clients of a powerful lobbying firm, according to two sources familiar with the probe.” The story said that the aide, Charles E. Brimmer, Visclosky’s former longtime chief of staff, may have “suggested to some lobbyists that companies seeking Visclosky’s help in getting Pentagon funds would need to commit to a program of donations to the member of the...

"Of course I dislike the Nazis. But who is to say they're morally wrong?" The shocking statement was made by a college student in New York, as documented by author Kerby Anderson in a much-needed book, "Christian Ethics in Plain Language". The professor of the class, Anderson reports, "....said that he has never met a student who denied the Holocaust happened. But he also reported that 10 to 20 percent of his students cannot bring themselves to say that killing millions of people is wrong." This is certainly an indictment of how modern society has made a false religion out...

The House and Senate Armed Services Committees have taken a small but significant step to eliminate – well, almost – one of the most outrageous congressional behaviors in defense legislation. For years, these committees have raided the Pentagon’s critical Operation and Maintenance accounts to offset the cost of earmarks (pork) they add to their bills. A major part of the O&M budget pays for training, weapons maintenance, food, fuel, spare parts, and all the other things troops need when they go to war. Even though O&M spending is the budgetary embodiment of “Support Our Troops,” and even though research on these raids...

A number of my friends have children with disabilities. Their problems range from cerebral palsy to Turner's syndrome to Trisomy 18, which is extremely serious. But I want to focus on one fairly common genetic disability to make my point. I'm referring to Trisomy 21, or Down syndrome.   You may already know that Down is not a disease. It's a genetic disorder with a variety of symptoms. Therapy can ease the burden of those symptoms, but Down syndrome is permanent. There's no cure. People with Down syndrome have mild to moderate developmental delays. They have low to middling...

Ethics fight hits Rep. Charles Rangel's campaign funds; could hurt him in 2010 electionBY Michael Saul DAILY NEWS SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT Saturday, October 17th 2009, 4:00 AM Rep. Charles Rangel's campaign coffers are being drained by his battle to survive an ethics probe, leaving him vulnerable to a well-funded challenger next year. The Harlem Democrat spent more than $250,000 in campaign cash on legal fees from July 1 to Sept. 30, newly released records show - 56% of his total expenses for the period. His overall lawyer bills now total $1.1 million since a House Ethics Committee probe into his...

A federal investigation into defense contracts awarded through congressional earmarks is increasingly focused on a former top aide to Rep. Peter J. Visclosky (D-Ind.) who worked with the congressman on funding requests from clients of a powerful lobbying firm, according to two sources familiar with the probe. Investigators have gathered evidence that Charles E. Brimmer, Visclosky's former longtime chief of staff, suggested to some lobbyists that companies seeking Visclosky's help in getting Pentagon funds would need to commit to a program of donations to the member of the Appropriations defense subcommittee, the sources said. The Justice Department is trying to...

Hippocratic Out Sarah Carlsruh, October 16, 2009 While he did not equate the current ethics of modern medicine to that of Nazi Germany, at a recent forum, an M.D. did imply that there is an “amoral component” headed in that direction. “One of the first acts of the Nazi government was to legalize voluntary euthanasia,” stated Dr. John Patrick. Reuters reported on September 21st that “assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland and physician-assisted suicide—where a doctor prescribes a lethal dose the patient may choose to drink—is legal in the State of Washington, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Oregon.” BBC News reported...

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada's Liberal Party said on Thursday it was launching an ethics complaint against the Conservative government, charging it was playing partisan politics with stimulus programs. The Liberals lodged the complaint against Prime Minister Stephen Harper and 47 other legislators for putting their signatures at the bottom of oversized publicity checks used in announcing federal grants for infrastructure programs and other economic stimulus measures. In the case of at least two members of Parliament, they said, the Conservative Party logo was also on the checks. The Liberals have asked Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson to rule that putting legislators'...

The 16 month-long tax and ethics investigation of House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-NY) has spawned something few other issues before the 111th Congress has garnered – bipartisanship on the nation’s editorial pages. From liberal publications like the Huffington Post and Daily Kos to conservative bastions such as the Wall Street Journal and Washington Times, editorial boards and writers are joining the call for Rangel to resign as Chairman until the constantly expanding ethics investigation is complete.

WASHINGTON -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi again covered for Charlie Rangel last week, but new developments suggest her patience is running out -- and with it, perhaps, Rangel's luck. Democrats' resolve to keep Rangel in charge of writing all tax laws, even though he confesses he has failed to pay his own taxes and neglected for years to report millions of dollars in assets, income and business dealings, showed the first signs of cracking when two conservative Democrats bolted the party line and voted against Rangel. Another indication that things were starting to go badly for Rangel came the morning...

Some of the headlines in recent days are not worthy of belief. No, I'm not referring to the headlines that Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize, however odd that many seem to many (including, it seems, Obama himself). I'm referring to the headlines earlier in the week to the effect that the health care bill sponsored by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus will cut the federal deficit by $81 billion over the next 10 years. Yes, that is what the Congressional Budget Office estimated. But, as the CBO noted, there's no actual Baucus bill, just some "conceptual language."...

Rep. Charles Rangel drowning in tangle web of ethics chargesBY David Saltonstall DAILY NEWS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT Sunday, October 11th 2009, 4:00 AM Rep. Charles Rangel likes to joke that - since the day he got hit with shrapnel on a frigid Korean War battlefield in 1950 - he's "never, ever had a bad day." That said, last week had to be one of Rangel's worst. On Monday, he had to flee a press conference in his own district to avoid questions from reporters and even a surly passerby about his alleged tax and ethical violations. On Wednesday, he had to...

If House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's pledge to "drain the [congressional] swamp" of corruption actually had teeth, she'd have to boot more than just embattled Ways and Means Chairman Charles B. Rangel. That's the unintended message California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters delivered last week as she defended Mr. Rangel's failure to report hundreds of thousands of dollars in income and assets. Mrs. Waters has to defend such collegial corruption because if Mr. Rangel loses his lofty perch, the congresswoman won't be far behind. "I want to tell you, there are many members who, if you go back over all of their...

CNN VIDEO October 8, 2009- CNN's Anderson Cooper reports on the House Ethics Committee expansion of its investigation of House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY). Joining Cooper are CNN Senior Congressional Correspondents Dana Bash and Joe Johns, as well as NLPC President Peter Flaherty. Click here for 4-page pdf transcript.

The House panel investigating alleged ethics violations by Rep. Charles B. Rangel, New York Democrat, said Thursday it voted unanimously to expand the probe. A statement by the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct said its investigative subcommittee already has issued nearly "150 subpoenas, interviewed approximately 34 witnesses resulting in over 2,100 pages of transcripts." The subcommittee also has analyzed more than 12,000 pages of documents and held more than 30 investigative meetings, according to the statement issued by Rep. Zoe Lofgren, California Democrat, who is the committee chairman, and ranking minority member Rep. Jo Bonner, Alabama Republican. However,...