Haley's cleared after threatening legislators

Corey Hutchens of Columbia's Free Times fills us in:South Carolina Republican Gov. Nikki Haley’s defense against an ethics probe into alleged improper behavior as a lawmaker could be summed up succinctly: Clear me or I’ll throw you all under the bus.

According to a copy of Haley’s defense obtained by Free Times, the governor’s lawyer wrote on March 30 to the chairman of the House Ethics

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Rainey continues fight for transparency, ethics

Former chairman of the Board of Economic Advisors John Rainey continues to fight for clean government, transparency and ethics, with a terrific column in today's edition of the Orangeburg Times and Democrat.The resignation of former Lt. Gov. Ken Ard, followed shortly by his indictment and guilty plea, marks another milestone in the long road of ethical lapses by public officials in South Carolina

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Tax exemptions, meet transparency

Phil Noble of Charleston published a great column in the online magazine Like The Dew -- "A Journal of Southern Culture and Politics" -- that I highly recommend:It is often said that South Carolina is a one-party state, and usually this is understood to mean the Republican Party. However, in many areas, it’s really the ‘good old boy’ party that is in charge – the party of legislators in both

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Lawmakers in 2008 voted to hide public information

Yesterday's Greenville News weighed in on a strange addition to the 2008 budget bill that blocks the public from knowing what lawmakers -- and others -- collect in retirement benefits. In this era of transparency -- and the avoidance of it -- the News explains why that hidden change in the law was so important:The South Carolina Legislature has done it again: It has passed a law that few

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Haley excludes retirees from meeting with bond agency

Back in March 2010, Rep. Nikki Haley delivered a speech to the Spring Valley Rotary Club in Columbia titled "Transparency in State Government." One presumes, as she was taking on several more-experienced opponents in her party's gubernatorial primary, that Haley was "for" transparency. But no record exists of the speech, so we're left to wonder.

It's a fact that Haley ran in that primary, and

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