I wish that Letters to the Editor carried a more prominent position in newspapers. Why, for the simple reason that there’s a lot of good, old-fashioned common sense coming from people across the country. Example:  While politicians and pundits have been batting the ball back and forth regarding Wall Street’s massive bonuses, they ignore similar issues in other sectors, as...

On January 15, 2009, Captain Chesley Sullenberger had to make a series of critical decisions in 208 seconds.  As a result of his actions, he saved the lives of all 155 individuals on a crippled US Airways flight that had to ditch in New York’s Hudson River. In an interview (washingtonpost.com) conducted by Doug Feaver, Sullenberger talks about the qualities...

Okay, boys and girls, it’s time for this week’s dilemma. You invite a friend to lunch.  Great conversation, terrific food, the check comes and the person you invited grabs the check first. Who should pay, the inviter or the person who grabs the check first? That’s just one of a plethora of ethical dilemmas “Larry David” faces on the HBO...

Last Monday (Oct. 12) I brought up the ethical issue facing Charles Rangel, the House Democrat from New York. Mr. Rangel has been under investigation for the past year regarding some questionable financial reporting. Recently, The House Ethics Committee has expanded their investigation into Mr. Rangel’s failure to “…report hundreds of thousands of dollars in income and assets from 2002 through 2006,” The...

Whenever I’ve had a question about health care, or check up on President Obama’s progress; whenever I want to get the straight dope about people, pundits and policy issues, I pay a visit to PolitiFact.com. Who is PolitiFact? PolitiFact is a site owned and operated by The St. Petersburg Times  whose purpose is to help anyone,  » Read more about: Who is PolitiFact and Can They...

New York’s Democratic Representative Charles B. Rangel, chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, has a bit of an ethical issue. The House Ethics Committee has expanded their investigation into Mr. Rangel’s failure to “…report hundreds of thousands of dollars in income and assets from 2002 through 2006,” The New York Times wrote (Oct. 9). The good news:  Last Wednesday, House Democrats blocked efforts...

One of the best examples of corporate responsibility came from a conversation I had with former Johnson & Johnson Chairman James E. Burke. In the fall of 1982, Burke was confronted with a nightmare scenario. Seven people in the Chicago area had died after ingesting Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules that were laced with cyanide. His decision-making process, leading to the recall of all forms...

This is one judge you never want to face. If you’re an executive at the Securities and Exchange Commission and Bank of America, Judge Jed S. Rakoff is one court official you don’t want to mess with. During the takeover of troubled financial giant Merrill Lynch by Bank of America in 2008, the S.E.C. gave its blessing to the deal.   » Read more about: Accountability  »...

It’s not easy to do the right thing when everybody’s making money but you.  That’s why ’50s Manhattan College basketball star Junius Kellogg stood out in more ways than one. In the superb 1998 HBO documentary, City Dump: The Story of the 1951 Basketball Scandal, broadcaster Al McGuire remembers, “You didn’t even have $15 for laundry in those days.  You had no scratch,...

Here’s the scenario: You’re an executive at a large, retail store. Company policy clearly tells employees that if they witness any shoplifting, they are not to go after the suspected thief outside the store. Word comes of a shoplifting event at one of your stores. Two employees wrestle the suspect to the ground outside the store, but in spite of their best...