It’s easy to play the cynic and say everything’s going to hell in a hand basket when overwhelmed by the more than 1,650 ethics-related stories from last year.  It’s far more difficult to live up to a higher standard in spite of ethical failures. This is all the more reason we need to acknowledge those individuals and companies who do it right. ...

When a breach of trust occurs, so many people are affected. When that breach occurs with an elected official, the implications are more far-reaching.  But Eliot Spitzer was no ordinary, elected official.  He was elected governor of the state of New York in large part because of his passion for meaningful ethics reform and direct actions against fraud and corruption....

“Washington – President Bush reversed course on Thursday and accepted Senator John McCain’s call for a law banning cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of foreign suspects in the war on terror.” Wait, I’m sorry, I quoted the wrong story.That story, reported by the Associated Press, appeared on December 15, 2005! Let me start over. “Washington – March 8, 2008, President Bush...

February 8, 2008 Mr. Roger Clemens c/o The Washington Hilton Hotel and Towers Washington, DC Re: Testifying before Congress Dear Roger, In the past week you’ve been seen going from door to door visiting members of congress trying to drum up support to counter the negative statements about your alleged steroid use in the Mitchell Report. Don’t do it. You’ve been...

I don’t know about previous years, but 2007 certainly seemed to be a banner year for good and bad, (mostly bad) ethics-related stories. So many stories, so hard to choose… only ten! January 1, 2007 started when Eliot Spitzer, New York’s ethical sheriff, is sworn in as the 54th governor of that state. A key campaign pledge: ethics reform. “If there is...

The genesis of this site began with an experiment. I have long believed that ethics-related stories consistently dominate the news. You can’t open a major newspaper without finding at least one, usually more, ethics scandals in sections A and B. But I never sat down to take a closer look. So, from January 1 until December 31, 2007 I decided...