Pennsylvania public officials usually draw their salaries as their prosecution for alleged corruption drags on, sometimes for years. Not State Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin, however. The ruling stopping her pay may signal that Pennsylvania is growing less blase’ about corruption. http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/state/justice-orie-melvin-should-not-get-salary-judicial-panel-rules-651305/
Monthly Archives: August 2012
Why Overseers Need Travel $$$
The fallout from Ireland’s economic collapse continues five years out. This story about clawing back money from a once major economic force reveals that Irish investigators may have to travel to Ukraine, Russia, India and Belize to unravel where assets may be. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/business/global/deadline-looms-in-irish-bank-case.html?smid=pl-share
Their Computer Talked to Ours
The New York State Assembly sexual harassment allegations aren’t going away. Here comes the Times’ finger-waving editorial, with an interesting oversight angle regarding how pay-offs to two female staffers stayed under the radar thanks to closely held accounts and robo-signoffs on money transfers. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/opinion/the-sexual-bully-in-albany.html?ref=opinion
Save $–Get Citizen Meter-Maids
Cash-strapped Shaoyang, a city in southeast China, has redirected the energy of busybody seniors by making them minor-infraction police who get a cut of the fines. Result: An untrained policing mob with zero sense of discretion whose neighbors are afraid to venture out. Coming soon to a bankrupt city near you? http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/world/asia/chinese-city-gives-retirees-license-to-ticket.html?smid=pl-share
Harrassment: Job Condition?
This story will have legs. The New York State Assemblyman at its center has already been censured by colleagues more used to circling the wagons when one of their own is accused. But this case is also sucking in the Assembly Speaker relative to secret payoffs to women who complained, so I think we’ll hear more. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/30/nyregion/women-employed-by-vito-j-lopez-describe-sexually-hostile-office.html?smid=pl-share
Another Deadly Cop Car
I wouldn’t bet against the “Big Brother” technological fixes Memphis officials are contemplating, even though the rank and file are likely to howl. http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2012/aug/28/memphis-officer-involved-in-crash-on-force-for/
North American Firms, Bribes Abroad
So, if you run an international business anchored legally in both the U.S. and Canada, there is a lot of law to pay attention to when some country’s Commerce Minister suggests that she’ll have no time to consider letting in your factory because she is too preoccupied with finding financing for that new addition to her house. Interesting from a compliance angle. http://www.acfcs.org/shared-border-and-close-ties-aside-canada-and-us-differ-on-global-anti-corruption-laws/
Auto-Trades: Hi, Hal; Bye Dave
So adrenalized Wall Street computers trading madly due to programming glitches lost a brokerage a half billion in a flash! Leaving the firm floating, nearly lifeless, into space, hoping for rescue. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/02/business/unusual-volume-roils-early-trading-in-some-stocks.html?smid=pl-share
Banks–Reformed or Recidivist?
So the economic storm of 2008 almost sunk a flotilla of banks operating on the edge. Lesson learned? Apparently not. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/07/nyregion/in-the-financial-world-a-less-scrupulous-class-of-lawbreaker.html?smid=pl-share
Conflict of interest rears up!
Not as if this case hadn’t been percolating a few years. City ethics board member quits to help wife indicted for fraud.