#mp-transparency

#mp-transparency

The escalation came about 15 months after nearly 72 percent of Massachusetts voters approved of a ballot measure specifying that the state auditor has the authority to audit the Legislature. DiZoglio sued legislative leaders earlier this month, asking a single justice of the Supreme Judicial Court to compel the lawmakers to comply with an audit.

The river won, the forest won, the memory of our ancestors won, said the campaigners in Santarem when it was clear their actions had forced the Brazilian government into a U-turn on plans to privatise one of the world's most beautiful waterways and expand its role as a soy canal.

She was a Black and poor woman who dared to stand up to the interests of White, wealthy male militiamen. Franco had dared to fight land-grabbing operations in areas under the influence of then-congressman Chiquinho Brazão and Rio state auditor Domingos Brazão, brothers who led militias there, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes said from the bench.

The emails published by the US government last month suggest the 72-year-old peer gave Epstein advance notice of an imminent 500bn (438bn) bailout to save the ailing euro in 2010. The European Commission spokeswoman told the BBC that, as a member of the Commission, Lord Mandelson had been subject to obligations under a code of conduct.

Last week- after the Wall Street Journal broke more news about the Trump family's dodgy crypto-business dealings and before the President shared a racist video of the Obamas depicted as dancing apes-the Amazon entrepreneur Jeff Bezos decided that one of his smaller properties, the Washington Post, has proved such a drag on his two-hundred-and-thirty-billion-dollar fortune that prudence required that he obliterate much of its newsroom.

Dear Transparency-Committed Reader, You're not alone. So many of us want decision-making to reflect our collective values (like transparency, care, and shared power), but it's hard to actually put those values into practice. That gap between what we believe and how we decide can be frustrating. And getting stuck in the process is a common concern I hear from groups. I am happy to share, though, that decision-making doesn't have to be a nightmare.

City law requires the council to approve all contracts above $250,000. But Oakland's city administrator, Jestin Johnson, has the power to issue contracts up to that amount without informing the council and the public. The mandatory annual report is meant to provide transparency into these purchases. The report also requires Johnson and his team to explain if any contracts were issued without a competitive bidding process, and how many awards went to local businesses.

The inspector general, a relatively new arm's-length position tasked by the province with overseeing policing, was asked to investigate Thursday after eight current and retired Toronto officers were charged in an organized crime and corruption investigation. The case immediately raised questions about whether systemic issues contributed to organized crime's alleged infiltration of the ranks, said Kent Roach, a University of Toronto law professor and contributor to several high-profile police inquiries. Those questions, he said, are best answered by a civilian-led investigation.

The report says Mace consistently 'requested and received the maximum allowable reimbursement' from a program meant to help House members pay their D.C. living costs. An OCC review of invoices, utility bills and other documents 'identified discrepancies between the amounts requested and received by Rep. Mace ... and the total of these associated bills.'

Since Richard Nixon was forced to resign, powerful people in both political parties have worked assiduously to ensure that their leaders would escape the consequences of their actions. Trump has evaded punishment for crimes both low (campaign-finance violations, for which he was convicted, though he will serve no time thanks to his 2024 victory) and high (his attempted overthrow of the federal government in the aftermath of his 2020 election loss, for which he was spared by the Supreme Court's decision to grant him a kingly immunity).

While anyone drawing up a list of potential Conservative defectors to Reform UK would have put Suella Braverman near the top, this is still a big moment. Braverman is a former Conservative home secretary, a big beast of recent Tory history. And her switch emphasises the momentum Reform are showing in draining the Conservative Party. She is the fourth sitting Tory MP to join the party since the last election, and the third this month. The week before last it was Robert Jenrick, a week ago it was Andrew Rosindell, now Braverman.

Jair Bolsonaro's lawyers appear to have been reading up on the country's penal code and have found a way to help their client reduce the 27-year prison sentence he received last year for plotting a coup: by reading books. There is only one problem: the former far-right Brazilian president has never been known as a bibliophile. Sorry, I don't have time to read, Bolsonaro once declared. It's been three years since I read a book.

In this new season, I'm asking how the Trump White House is rewriting the rules of U.S. politics, and talking to Americans whose lives have been changed as a result. Today's episode examines the destruction of the civil service: the removal of professionals, and their replacement with loyalists. I've seen this kind of transformation before, in other failing democracies. Everyone suffers from the degradation of public services.

According to the OCC's website, both the House Ethics Committee and the OCC share responsibility regarding alleged ethical violations by House Members, officers, and employees, describing the cooperative process as follows: The OCC is a non-partisan, independent entity established by the House in 2008 to conduct initial reviews of allegations of misconduct and, when warranted, refer matters to the Committee on Ethics, which has exclusive jurisdiction to find violations and impose punishment.

An investigative subcommittee of the Ethics panel released a 59-page report last week detailing a litany of allegations against Cherfilus-McCormick. Most notably, it said there is "substantial" evidence to back up criminal charges the Florida Democrat is facing that she laundered a $5 million government contract overpayment to her family business and funneled it into her congressional campaign. The report also alleged instances of misreporting campaign finances, accepting illegal donations, improper employment practices and steering federal funding towards allies and associates.