Ethics Headlines is an
ethics-in-the-news clippling file published each Saturday by Greg
Feldmeth, a
high school teacher at Polytechnic School
in Pasadena, California. It contains news items from the media in the
past week that deal with some area of ethical inquiry. You may also
visit the
ethics course web site.
SUBSCRIBE.
You can receive the file via email every Saturday afternoon with
links to the original articles. Just email your address
here and put
Ethics
Headlines in the subject line. If you know of others
who
would be
interested, please forward the page to them.
This Week's Headlines--click on the
headline to read the full article
- Sweet Buster is far from radical. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings denounced PBS for producing with public funding an episode of "Postcards from Buster" featuring a lesbian couple.
- Wal-Mart sets new policy on ethics. After Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) fired seven top managers in mid-December for failing to meet company standards, the world's biggest retailer quietly issued a sweeping new ethics policy just two weeks later.
- Controversial Colorado professor resigns department post. A University of Colorado professor who provoked a furor when he compared victims of the World Trade Center terrorist attacks to Nazis resigned as a department chairman Monday but will retain his teaching job, the university said.
- Professor resigns
post over 9/11 writing. In an essay entitled "Some People Push
Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens," Professor Churchill called
the workers killed in the World Trade Center "little Eichmanns"... and
"technocrats of empire" working for the "engines of profit" and as such
were inevitable targets.
- College Cancels Speech by Professor Who Disparaged 9/11 Attack Victims. Over the last five days, tiny Hamilton College in upstate New York has been barraged with more than 6,000 e-mail messages full of fury, some threatening violence. Some donors have canceled pledges to an ambitious capital campaign. And prospective students have withdrawn applications or refused to enroll.
- Censorship not end of the world, students say. The way many high school students see it, government censorship of newspapers may not be a bad thing, and flag burning is hardly protected free speech.
- NIH plans to reform ethics rules. Under a far-reaching reform to be announced Tuesday, all staff scientists at the National Institutes of Health will be banned from accepting any consulting fees or other income from drug companies, and the employees must also divest industry stock holdings, officials said.
- House GOP Leaders Name Loyalist to Replace Ethics Chief. House Republican leaders tightened their control over the ethics committee yesterday by ousting its independent-minded chairman, appointing a replacement who is close to them and adding two new members who donated to the legal defense fund of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.).
- Ice, ice baby. Culpepper takes back necklace from paralyzed player. Minnesota Vikings quarterback Daunte Culpepper presented a paralyzed high school football player two diamond necklaces worth about $75,000 during an NFL awards ceremony, but then awkwardly asked for them back after it was finished.
- Letter on Homosexuality Prompts Rebuke From Board. The Fairfax County School Board issued a public reprimand last night to a member who sent a letter to high school principals urging them to ensure that students hear the views of people who believe homosexuality is a choice and a "destructive lifestyle."