Recent developments in the Democratic Caucus "Bonusgate" scandal have displayed an additional underlying issue which will, and has, compromised integrity, safety and efficiency of our state government. By this, I am speaking about computer backups.

Attached are two documents involving the progress of the task force's findings as of January 30, 2009.

The first document is a letter to City Hall requesting an extension. The second document is a transcription of all the testimonies as recorded by the task force.

Testifiers were:

by Adam Lang
January 10, 2009

There is an epidemic taking place in American government. It seems a week doesn't go by where you don't hear about some government official abusing the public trust for their own benefit. Sadly Philadelphia and Pennsylvania have been a large part of the problem. Philadelphia has been at the heart of America's crisis of ethics and we need to take strong action to solve the problem.

When addressing ethics from a legislative standpoint, it needs to be done with the realization that people typically already know what is right and wrong. They do it because there are no legal prohibitions. The law can not teach morality, but it can create bright lines defining illegal activity. When creating ethics laws, we need to define prohibited actions in a manner that does not create more gray areas. We also need to realize when disclosure of activities is sufficient compared to ban of activities.

by Adam Lang
December 10, 2008

I grew up in Plainfield, Il. At the time it was a sleepy little town south of Chicago surrounded by corn fields. I have also lived the last ten years in the Philadelphia metro. This year it has pained me to see the land where I grew up and the land where I choose to live being at the front of the news for government corruption.

In Illinois we have the recent arrest of Gov. Blagojevic for widespread corruption - with the top off of trying to sell a Senate seat. It says a lot when people familiar with the Illinois/Chicago political scene go "Wow!".

On the home front, residents of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania have been bombarded with news about State Sen. Vince Fumo and Bonusgate.

When Michael Nutter was elected mayor he declared "New Day, New Way" for Philadelphia. He should have sent a memo to his fellow politicians because they are still operating on the "Old Day, Old Way" politics by ignoring ethics and the law. In this new instance it revolves around judicial misconduct of Common Pleas Court Judge Dan Anders and Municipal Court Judge Pat Dugan and other contributing politicians.