Free Republic

Most Americans believe the Biden administration’s ethical standards are “not good” or “poor,” according to a new national poll released Thursday. A majority of US adults (55%) surveyed by Gallup throughout July gave top White House officials a negative ethics rating — the lowest of any administration in recent history with the exception of former President Donald Trump.The poll showed 42% of respondents gave the Biden administration a positive ethics rating, with 34% calling the current standards “good” and 8% calling them “excellent.” Trump officials had the lowest ethics ratings of any presidential administration on record, with only 38% giving...

White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Monday claimed President Biden’s administration is the most ethical “in history” — despite jobs flowing to relatives of senior aides and potential conflicts of interest involving first son Hunter Biden’s shady new art career. Obama administration ethics chief Walter Shaub last week tore into Biden for distributing official jobs to the wives, children and siblings of his senior aides. Shaub on Monday also slammed a high-dollar art auction from Hunter Biden — who hopes to fetch up to $500,000 for his paintings from buyers who will be kept confidential — as “shameful and...

In September 2019, four researchers wrote to the publisher Wiley to “respectfully ask” that it immediately retract a scientific paper. The study, published in 2018, had trained algorithms to distinguish faces of Uyghur people, a predominantly Muslim minority ethnic group in China, from those of Korean and Tibetan ethnicity1. China had already been internationally condemned for its heavy surveillance and mass detentions of Uyghurs in camps in the northwestern province of Xinjiang — which the government says are re-education centres aimed at quelling a terrorist movement. According to media reports, authorities in Xinjiang have used surveillance cameras equipped with software...

Former Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein has roundly condemned the reported agreement between the Likud and Yisrael Beytenu parties, to include provisions for implementing the death penalty for terrorists as part of a coalition deal. Under the agreement, a new directive will be issued to military courts, by which only a simply majority of two judges will be needed to sentence a terrorist murderer to death, as opposed to the unanimous requirement currently in place. Imposing a death penalty for terrorist killers was one of the key conditions set by Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman for entering the governing coalition. While...

Britons are to be the first in the world to test a new vaccine against the deadly ebola virus. Altogether 60 healthy volunteers will be given the vaccine next month in a trial led by Oxford University scientists. If the vaccine performs as well in humans as in monkeys, the trial will be extended to 80 people in The Gambia and in Mali. The entire trial programme is being fast-tracked – subject to ethical approval – with the intention of using the vaccine in people at high risk in West Africa early next year. Latest figures show that more than...

The Obama administration’s testy relationship with the press is nothing new for Washington, but it’s now extended to Colorado and has touched off a firestorm after Interior Department officials booted local reporters from a public meeting earlier this week. Journalists with Colorado's Craig Daily Press and at least two other media outlets were barred from a Tuesday question-and-answer session with Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, despite the fact that members of the public were allowed to attend. “What happened would be in complete alignment with the administration’s policies. We were promised the most transparent administration ever and instead we’ve gotten the...

(CNSNews.com) - The Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Inspector General says it will investigate whether EPA officials -- including Administrator Lisa Jackson -- used alias email accounts to conduct official government business, thereby shielding those communications from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. Jackson reportedly used the name "Richard Windsor" on an official email account from which she may have sent messages on the administration's coal policy. Chris Horner of the free-market Competitive Enterprise Institute says he discovered Jackson's "false identity" while doing research for his book, "The Liberal War on Transparency.” Horner said he came across an "obscure" EPA...

California Democratic congresswoman Maxine Waters will not be charged with ethics violations. At a meeting Friday, House Ethics Committee members said they found no violations in their investigation of allegations she steered a $12 million federal bailout to a bank where her husband owns stock. Waters is a senior Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. The committee, however, said Waters' chief of staff, Mikael Moore, did take actions in Congress in an attempt to help the bank and violated standards of conduct. Moore likely will receive a letter admonishing him for his conduct. but will not face more severe punishment,...

CNN reported back in 1999 that Newt’s college course that the Democrats tried to make hay out of in saying it was a major ethics violation was vindicated and proved legitimate by the IRS:

(AP) WASHINGTON — An assistant secretary at the Department of Labor has resigned after an internal investigation found that he improperly steered federal contracts to friends and former colleagues. Raymond Jefferson, who headed the department's Veterans Employment and Training Service since 2009, used his position to coerce or intimidate other employees to make the awards without open competition, according to a July 21 report by the agency's acting inspector general, Daniel Petrole.

The World’s Most Ethical Companies designation recognizes companies that truly go beyond making statements about doing business “ethically” and translate those words into action. WME honorees demonstrate real and sustained ethical leadership within their industries, putting into real business practice the Institute’s credo of “Good. Smart. Business. Profit.” There is no set number of companies that make the list each year. Rather, the World’s Most Ethical Company designation is awarded to those companies that have leading ethics and compliance programs, particularly as compared to their industry peers. This year, there are 110 World’s Most Ethical Companies. Of these companies, 36...

Is is legal for Obama to continue to campaign like this by email while acting as the President and to have this email signed also by Joe Biden?   It would seem to me that Both Obama and Biden need to stop the politics and start running the country.   Perhaps we might have something to starting hitting them with.  This is really getting to be a very slimly group Obama and Biden.  I'm not an attorney but shouldn't this type of constant campaigning be a violation of some law? Below is an email that I received today:   Body of Letter:---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Dave --We've got a...

Some Say Getting Immunized Is a Matter of Social Responsibility. Does Americans' right to determine what is best for themselves and their families trump the federal government's efforts to head off what it believes could be a flu pandemic? That is perhaps the primary ethical question at the heart of the controversy surrounding the government's swine flu vaccination campaign, and the answer is deeply contested by those on both sides of the issue. So far, many Americans are balking at the vaccinations, saying there are too many questions about the effectiveness and safety of the vaccine, considering that, for most,...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - The State Personnel Board today dismissed an ethics complaint filed against Gov. Sarah Palin. The governor's office says it was the 13th ethics complaint filed against the governor or her staff that has been resolved with no finding of a violation of the state ethics law. Andree McLeod of Anchorage filed the complaint. Among the allegations was that Palin violated the Executive Branch Ethics Act in using state resources and staff to further her own national political aspirations.

Two More Ethics Complaints Dismissed Proving Accusations Lack Merit FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 09-117 Two More Ethics Complaints Against Governor Palin Dismissed May 12, 2009, Anchorage, Alaska – Today the governor’s office was informed that yet two more ethics complaints filed against Governor Palin have been dismissed, part of the mounting evidence that accusations of wrongdoing by the governor lack merit and have been politically or personally motivated. The complaints, one by Zane Henning of Wasilla, filed on November 13, and one by Anthony Martin of Talkeetna, filed on December 2, were dismissed by Michael Geraghty, an investigator for the...

Now that we are in the middle of a real estate disaster there is a great hue and cry for regulatory reform. We were here before in the early 1990's. The answer on that occasion was real estate appraisal licensing. Now the thrust is on Appraisal Management Companies (AMC's). Licensing did and does have some potential to address the proper evaluation of collateral for loan purposes. In the intervening years, however, it was subject to what is known in political science as "regulatory capture*". The emphasis in the New York State Attorney General Andres M. Cuomo proposal on Home Valuation...

LOS ANGELES – On June 8, TV stations around the city reported that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was separating from his wife of 20 years. “The rumors were true,” is how one newscaster, 35-year-old Mirthala Salinas, broke the news to her Spanish-speaking audience on Telemundo's local affiliate, KVEA, Channel 52. What Salinas didn't tell viewers was that she had been in an extramarital affair with Villaraigosa for many months. That apparent ethical slip puzzles many observers, who say Telemundo's credibility has been damaged, even more so because the station didn't remove Salinas from the air until this week, after the mayor...

Whole Foods, the Austin, Texas-based natural foods grocery chain, decided to take a stand against the unethical and painful treatment of crustaceans. Last June the chain said they would no longer sell live lobsters and crabs.The Whole Foods ban would apply even to the crustacean capital of North America: The State of Maine. But today they rolled back that rule with some stipulations. Whole Foods decided to sell lobsters at its Portland, Maine store after finding a company that met its demands for how the lobsters should be treated. The lobsters will be kept in private compartments instead of being...

Dear xxxxxx: Thank you for contacting me about the current situation in Iraq . As your voice in Washington , I appreciate being made aware of your views. As you know, on May 1 st , 2003, President Bush announced the end of the combat phase of the U.S.-led war in Iraq , and the Administration is committed to doing what is necessary to bring about a stable, democratically elected government to Iraq that respects the rights of all Iraqi citizens. In the aftermath of the war U.S. troops still remain in Iraq and are partaking in reconstruction and stabilization...

Editor's Note: This is the fifth in a series of columns first posted on the Illinois Right to Life Committee's (IRLC) website [http://www.illinoisrighttolife.org/] written by Bill Beckman, IRLC's executive director. The RFFM.org re-posting of the column discusses hospice care and gives individuals and families the tools they need to choose a good hospice care provider. This series warns readers about end of life issues and the need to monitor the care given to loved ones. The IRLC director also describes what readers can do to protect themselves from the looming culture of death which permeates the thinking of many medical...