Pirro moves to drop case against Olympian, says Reflecting Pool damage caused by ‘flawed installation’; CNBC, July 31, 2026

 Kevin Breuninger, CNBC ; Pirro moves to drop case against Olympian, says Reflecting Pool damage caused by ‘flawed installation’

[Kip Currier: No responsible government attorney should ever have brought a case against Olympic canoeist David Hearn when even a basic understanding of the facts would have unequivocally demonstrated that these were trumped up allegations to deflect from the Trump administration's embarrassment over the ongoing Reflecting Pool debacle.

Hopefully, the attorneys responsible for these groundless claims will at the very least face ethics-based proceedings and consequences from their respective bar licensing associations.]

"U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro on Friday moved to dismiss an indictment charging U.S. Olympic canoeist David Hearn with vandalizing the Reflecting Pool of the Lincoln Memorial, writing in a court filing that damage to the pool’s sealant was the result of a “flawed installation.”"

Sex, Lies and Secrets: A Federal Judge’s Trysts Go Public; The New York Times, June 11, 2026

 Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs and Mattathias Schwartz, The New York Times; Sex, Lies and Secrets: A Federal Judge’s Trysts Go Public

"The ensuing investigative report is a chronicle of sex, lies and ethical breaches, much of which is cloaked in secrecy because America’s federal court system affords judges broad deference."

Literary Prizewinners Are Facing AI Allegations. It Feels Like the New Normal; Wired, May 19, 2026

 Miles Klee, Wired ; Literary Prizewinners Are Facing AI Allegations. It Feels Like the New Normal

Three of five regional winners of the prestigious Commonwealth Short Story Prize are suspected of relying on chatbots. They’re certainly not alone.

"AT FIRST, THE winners of the prestigious Commonwealth Short Story Prize for 2026 enjoyed the envy of their peers. But since their works of fiction earned this distinction, these authors have found themselves facing harsh scrutiny from the literary community, with several accused of enlisting generative artificial intelligence to write for them."

Accounting giant KPMG fines partner for using AI to cheat on training exam; Semafor, February 16, 2026

 Tom Chivers, Semafor ; Accounting giant KPMG fines partner for using AI to cheat on training exam

"The accounting giant KPMG fined one of its partners for using AI to cheat on a training exam… about using AI, one of a number of unintentionally illustrative incidents involving the firm. 

The $7,000 fine is one of several penalties it has meted out: Dozens of other staff have also been caught cheating on exams using AI."

So This Is Why Trump Didn’t Want to Release the Epstein Files; The Atlantic, December 24, 2025

 Sarah Fitzpatrick , The Atlantic; So This Is Why Trump Didn’t Want to Release the Epstein Files

"Trump has also insisted that he knew nothing of Epstein’s criminal activity—though his critics have questioned how that could be true given their close relationship and history of chasing women together. Members of Congress from both parties have said they will continue to probe the issue in the upcoming year. Representatives I spoke with told me their takeaway from reading the files is that top officials in the Trump administration have not been honest about what was in them, and that they intend to press Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel for more information.

“Although the files are overly redacted, they’ve already demonstrated that the narrative painted by Patel in hearings, Bondi in press statements, and Trump himself on social media wasn’t accurate,” Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican who co-authored the Epstein legislation, told me. “A complete disclosure consistent with the law will show there are more men implicated in the files in possession of the government.”"

Harvard professor fired following claims she falsified ethics research data; The Guardian, May 27, 2025

Ramon Antonio Vargas, The Guardian; Harvard professor fired following claims she falsified ethics research data

"A Harvard professor known for researching honesty before being accused of extensive data fraud has been fired, the first time the Ivy League institution has dismissed a tenured instructor in about 80 years.

Francesca Gino was initially put on administrative leave by the Harvard Business School (HBS) in 2023 after multiple allegations of falsifying data related to her research, which focused on ethical behavior. On Tuesday, a university spokesperson confirmed that Gino’s tenure had been revoked, terminating her employment."

‘This Is the Land of Wolves Now’: Two Columnists Get to the Heart of Biden’s Pardon; The New York Times, December 3, 2024

 ROSS DOUTHAT AND DAVID FRENCH, THE NEW YORK TIMES; ‘This Is the Land of Wolves Now’: Two Columnists Get to the Heart of Biden’s Pardon

"Patrick Healy, the deputy Opinion editor, hosted an online conversation with the Times Opinion columnists Ross Douthat and David French about President Biden’s decision to issue a broad pardon to his son Hunter Biden.

Patrick Healy: Ross and David, you both have written extensively about the rule of law and presidential power. You both have a good sense of what American voters care about. And you both are fathers. So I’m curious what struck you most about President Biden’s statement that he was pardoning his son Hunter Biden.

David French: As a father, I think it would be very, very hard to watch your son go to prison — especially if you have the power to set him free. I can’t imagine the pain of watching Hunter’s long battle with substance abuse and then watching his conviction in court. But in his role as president, Biden’s primary responsibility is to the country and the Constitution, not his family.

As president, this pardon represents a profound failure. Biden was dishonest — he told us that he wouldn’t pardon Hunter — and this use of the pardon power reeks of the kind of royal privilege that is antithetical to America’s republican values...

Ross Douthat: I think it’s important to stress that Biden always kept Hunter close, within the larger aura of his own power, in ways that likely helped his son trade on his dad’s name even as his own life was completely out of control. This pardon is a continuation or completion of that closeness: It’s a moral failure, as David says, a dereliction, but one that’s of a piece with the president’s larger inability to create a sustained separation between his own position and his troubled son’s lifestyle and business dealings and place in the family’s inner circle. A clearer separation would have been better not just for the president and the country, but also for Hunter himself — even if he’s benefiting from it now, at the last."

Dan Simpson: Ethics, schmethics; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 8, 2017

Dan Simpson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; 

Dan Simpson: Ethics, schmethics

"The idea that the president’s choice to be U.S. attorney general, the nation’s top law enforcement official, would lie under oath to the Senate committee considering his nomination — people who were his colleagues as senators for 20 years — is stunning and possibly a sign of just how far down the standard of ethics in Washington has descended.

Nonetheless, that is exactly what Jefferson B. Sessions, who went on to be voted into office as attorney general, did. Asked a direct question about the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russian officials, he replied, “I did not have contact with the Russians.” It turns out subsequently, after the Senate had approved his nomination, that he did, on two occasions, once in his own office.

One of the problems of the descent of a nation, particularly one as large and important as the United States of America, is that the fall can occur, step by step, in the form of death by a thousand cuts. I am not saying that it is all over for us yet, but I am saying that Mr. Sessions’ lie to the senators, the position he was being considered for and the subsequent so-far refusal of President Donald Trump to fire Mr. Sessions for what he did, are grave evidence of the low state of ethics at the very top of our government."

Superintendent; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 6/22/16

Rob Rogers, Brewed on Grant, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Superintendent