Ethics

Most voters have by now received their sample ballots, and those who plan to vote by mail are sending in their applications. The June 5 election is underway right now. It is noteworthy for several reasons. Los Angeles County voters will be selecting a new district attorney, and this is the first time since 1964 that there is no incumbent trying to hold onto the seat. The field is wide open. To win outright in this nonpartisan race, a candidate must get more than 50% of the vote.

Los Angeles city government must cut its expenses with two distinct but related goals in mind: It must slash deeply to ensure that the coming year's budget is balanced and includes a responsible reserve fund; and it must restructure so that when fiscal times are better, City Hall is left not merely leaner but also more focused on core functions. The first goal could be accomplished through equal slashing across departments, but the second requires budgeters and policymakers to take a breath, think things through and recalculate as necessary.

It was the kind of move that would usually mean a ticket for a young guy in a tricked-out BMW: unsafely zipping around a truck and another vehicle -- which happened to be a CHP cruiser -- while zooming down the road. But rather than getting slapped with a fine last year on U.S. 101 south of San Francisco, Nick Palefsky was let go with a warning. "He said, 'Next time, be a little bit more cautious,' " Palefsky recounted in a recent interview.

SAN FRANCISCO — A judge Friday refused to reinstate suspended San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, paving the way for a city ethics commission and the Board of Supervisors to determine whether the elected sheriff should be removed for a domestic violence-related conviction. Mirkarimi, 50, elected keeper of San Francisco's jails in November, argued that Mayor Ed Lee did not have authority to suspend him for an action that occurred before Mirkarimi was sworn in as sheriff in January.

Culver City Police Chief John Montanio, accused of giving a city councilman's son special treatment during a traffic stop, signed a letter this year urging leniency for the same man in an earlier concealed weapon case. Montanio went to bat for Albert Vera Jr., 39, who received probation after pleading no contest to illegal possession of a handgun. The gun was discovered when the son of Culver City Councilman Albert Vera Sr. was arrested for petty theft last year.

To Dow Corning, a $1.8-billion-a-year high-tech corporation, breast implants are a tiny part of its business--a money loser. Even before the current controversy over their safety, the product was something of an embarrassment to scientists and managers who develop the space-age silicone materials for the aerospace and electronics industries that make up the bulk of the company's business.

A few weeks ago, the chairman of online auction site Bidz.com forecast good news ahead. The company was headed for another blowout quarter, David Zinberg said, with sales topping the already-rosy projections made in November. The announcement was designed partly to quell questions that had been swirling around the Culver City-based company for months.

The Supreme Court is different from lower federal courts, and not just because its rulings can't be appealed. Another difference is that its justices are exempt from the ethical standards imposed on judges in less lofty positions. That's an unjustifiable anomaly that Congress should rectify. The Code of Conduct for United States Judges was established by the U.S. Judicial Conference and covers all federal lower court judges. Among other things, the code says that "a judge should avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all activities.

Removal of fuel from the Costa Concordia, which ran aground last month off Tuscany, began last week and officials say that after it's gone, it may take seven to 10 months to refloat the ship. Meanwhile, Tuscan tourism officials are urging tourists to visit eight-square-mile Giglio, off whose coast the ship ran aground on Jan. 13, as a “gesture of love.” Not long after the accident, which killed at least 17 people (15 are still missing), islanders said people came to Giglio to gawk and not because of their affection for Giglio, one of seven islets in the Tuscan Archipelago.

With Sabbath candles burning and 14 guests seated around her dinner table, Joanna Arch held up a cup of kosher red wine and chanted the kiddish prayer in Hebrew: "God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it he rested from all his creative work."

SACRAMENTO - Alarmed that political groups are secretly funding bloggers to promote or attack candidates, the state's ethics czar proposed Thursday that Web-based pundits disclose such payments. Voters are increasingly relying on bloggers and websites for information on political issues and have a right to know if an interested party is paying to plant messages, said Ann Ravel, who heads California's political watchdog agency. "In order for people to really know whether they can have faith and trust in the independence of recommendations they are receiving, they have to be aware" of any payments, she said.

SACRAMENTO - The state's ethics watchdog agency on Thursday dismissed allegations against Assemblyman Chris Norby (R-Fullerton) that he misused campaign funds to pay for a motel stay in Orange County for personal benefit. The state Fair Political Practices Commission overruled its chief of enforcement, who argued that Norby lied when he claimed to have checked into a motel as part of a study of homelessness issues. "He listed the date of separation from his wife as the exact same date he checked into the motel," Gary Winuk, the commission's chief of enforcement, told the commission.

James Murdoch's resignation as chairman of satellite broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting comes ahead of a government report expected to be critical of his handling of the ethics scandal at News Corp.'s British tabloids. Murdoch, in announcing his decision Tuesday, alluded to the ongoing investigations into alleged phone hacking and police bribery by News Corp.'s the Sun and the now-closed News of the World. Problems at the tabloids last summer derailed the media conglomerate's plans to take control of Britain's dominant pay-TV provider, in which it holds a 39% interest, with a $12-billion purchase of all outstanding BSkyB shares.

The city of Vernon has launched an investigation of questionable voter registrations, weeks before its first election since a series of government reforms were enacted. The city, which was nearly disincorporated last year after a series of corruption scandals, has received several complaints about a surge of new registered voters, said John Van de Kamp, the former state attorney general who is acting as Vernon's ethics advisor. County records show there are nine registered voters — with six different last names — at one small home owned by the city.

The House Ethics Committee is conducting a review involving Rep. Shelley Berkley of Nevada, posing a potential challenge for the Las Vegas Democrat whose closely watched bid for the Senate could determine which party controls the chamber. The Ethics Committee acknowledged its work in a brief statement Friday and plans to make its findings public by July 9. The issue was referred to the committee in February by the Office of Congressional Ethics. The committee did not disclose details and said the probe does not indicate that an ethics violation has occurred.

Congress gave final approval to one of the most sweeping ethics overhauls in years, clamping down on insider trading by lawmakers and administration officials in an election year push to improve the public's low opinion of Washington. The Senate passed the legislation overwhelmingly Thursday, 96 to 3, sending it to President Obama, who had called for such a measure during his State of the Union address. Few lawmakers want to stand in the way of ethics reforms at the moment, and the bill was received with gusto in Congress - even though one of its most compelling provisions was stripped by Republicans in the House.

They say all press is good press, but when restaurateurs Rachel Thomas and Coly Den Haan read a nasty blind item about their downtown Los Angeles wine bar the Must on local food blog Eater LA, they were furious. "I was flabbergasted," Den Haan says. "I wanted to pass out. I didn't know what to do. I think freaking out is a pretty good word to describe it."

A recent, and much-heralded, study on how to reduce the spread of HIV and AIDS appears to be raising more health- and ethics-related questions than the dramatic findings might first suggest.  First, the news : Giving antiretroviral drugs to HIV-positive people reduced the transmission of the virus to their partners by 96%. But the research doesn’t mean all HIV-positive people will be taking the cocktail of drugs used in the study....

U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. has jumped out to an early lead tonight in his Democratic primary contest against longtime foe Debbie Halvorson , a former congresswoman. Jackson had 72% to Halvorson's 28% with more than 9% counted in unofficial returns in the 2nd Congressional District.  Halvorson, who served one term in Congress, hopes to end Jackson's 17-year tenure as he battles ethics allegations. Jackson faces a congressional ethics investigation stemming from accusations that his campaign supporters offered to raise money for then-Gov.