Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's Ticketgate might have faded from the headlines, but not from the scrutiny of the state Fair Political Practices Commission and the city Ethics Commission, and now Villaraigosa has agreed to pay almost $42,000 in fines to settle up the years'-long matter of taking tickets to functions as unreported gifts, according to LA Now. more ›

"Ticketgate" is once again back. Following a recent L.A. Ethics Commission recommendation to ban politicians from accepting free tickets to events from companies with pending city business, the state's Fair Political Practices Commission ruled Friday that receipt of free tickets to events for official duties must be posted online, according to the LA Times. more ›

Remember "ticketgate" from back in June? Since taking office in 2005, it was found that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa had accepted free tickets to some 80 events, including high profile ones such as the Oscars or Lakers games with courtside seats. The estimated value of all the freebies, as determined by LA Weekly, was $100,000. more ›

Three awaited congressional ethics charges against 10-term Los Angeles representative Maxine Waters were announced today and as expected, they revolve around an alleged help she gave to bank where her husband owned lucrative stock. Here's the breakdown of the accusations: more ›

When a politician appeals for money on Twitter or Facebook, that action is not necessarily regulated by state like other reportable ones. That could soon change. A report released today by the state's ethics commission details recommendations on full disclosure of official campaign messages via social networking. more ›

She'll be the second Democrat to face such a trial this fall. A representative for portions of central, south and west L.A., including some smaller surrounding cities, Congressmember Maxine Waters will be defending herself against accusations that she violated ethics rules back in 2008. more ›

US Rep. Maxine Waters (D-35th District) will likely face an accusation "of at least one ethics violation in her efforts to help a bank with ties to her husband," according to LA Now. Waters was made aware of the allegations on Friday, and has told an anonymous source that she "plans to fight the charges in a House trial." The charges against Waters, who serves a swath of Los Angeles that includes Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lawndale, and Gardena, will be made public on Monday by the Office of Congressional Ethics, which has passed their independent findings to the House Ethics Committee, which, in turn, "turned the matter over to a panel of [...] lawmakers who have been conducting their own probe for months." more ›

And ticketgate continues. California's statewide ethics agency is now investigating free tickets to over 80 events accepted by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, according to the LA Times. The Fair Political Practices Commission will be coordinating with the L.A. District Attorney's Office and L.A. Ethics Commission, which oversees local ethics laws. more ›

There are 80 events on Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's official schedule since he took office in 2005 for which he did not pay to attend. He may not have even attended all of them, but shoddy records kept by his office mean a blurry paper trail pegging the source of each of these gifts, and the "official duty" Villaraigosa would have performed in attendance in order to justify his accepting the freebies in the first place. more ›

Remember last year when the Mayor got caught up in the joy that is seeing Bono perform live and Tweeted out his love for Los Angeles? Turns out that U2 concert at the Rose Bowl was one of the only ticketed events Villaraigosa paid for himself to attend, according to the LA Times. more ›

Maxine Waters and Laura Richardson are the focus of separate investigations by the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct , reports KPCC. Waters stands accused of arranging a meeting between Treasury officials and an association representing minority banks, one of which she owned stock in. Richardson may have "improperly profited" when she lost her Sacramento home to foreclosure, sold it to a third party and later reacquired it. more ›

The Assembly Ethics Committee yesterday had to drop the investigation into former Orange County Assemblyman Mike Duvall after they were advised the panel lacked authority over the issue. more ›

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass today removed Assemblyman Jeff Miller (R-Corona) from his Ethics Committee post after he listened to Mike Duvall discuss two sexual trysts, one allegedly with an energy lobbyist. more ›

Yesterday, 33-year-old unemployed graduate student Nadya Suleman broke her silence and sat down for an interview with the Today Show about her choice to have 14 children via in vitro fertilization, including the octuplets born to her on January 26th in Bellflower. While the interview raised the issue of her life-long desire to be a mother to many children, as well as her struggle with depression, it still could not address some of the very pressing issues of medical ethics raised in the aftermath of her octuplets' birth. more ›

An academic and ethical scandal has jarred the staff and students at Harvard-Westlake school, as the consequences of cheating reverberate on the school's campus. more ›

• Social giant MySpace is prepping a new news service that may require users to verify their ages before entering. • Worried about the upcoming change to Daylight Savings Time? Find out what it means to you in the handy FAQ. • Sony launches its "Home" and "Little Blue Planet" services for PS3 users. And the world reacts with a thunderous yawn.... more ›

Welcome to the LAist weekly tech news roundup. Each week I'll be bringing you the latest, and hopefully most interesting, technology news from around the city, the state, the country and the world. Also, if you have any news, tips or things of interest you want to point out, feel free to drop us a line at: themacist [at] gmail dot com. Ok, let's get to the news: The Bush administration is at it... more ›