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MORAL COURAGE: The new book by Institute president Rushworth Kidder is now on bookstands! To learn more or order online, simply visit: http://www.globalethics.org .

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In the March 14, 2005, edition of Ethics Newsline:

For the complete issue, click here: http://www.globalethics.org/newsline/members/currentissue2.tmpl

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1. Statline:

U.S. Public Frowns on Controversial Interrogation Tactics

Full story: http://www.globalethics.org/redir/nl.html?d=3/14/2005&;id=03140518564520

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2. Commentary by Rushworth M. Kidder:

An Epidemic of Promise Breaking

The bankruptcy bill that passed the U.S. Senate last week raised a tough ethical question: How easy should it be to declare bankruptcy? Bankruptcy, which is a deliberate breaking of a promise to pay, is only a symptom a deeper issue. We're confronting a national epidemic of promise breaking -- an unwillingness to accept responsibility for keeping one's word, doing what's been agreed, and honoring commitments....

Full story: http://www.globalethics.org/redir/nl.html?d=3/14/2005&;id=03140519013420

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3. What They're Saying:

Mitigate the Threat

"Our top choice would be to win the war on terrorism and declare an end to it and repatriate everybody. The next best solution would be to work with the home governments of the detainees in order to get them to take the necessary steps to mitigate the threat these individuals pose."

-- A senior Defense Department official, discussing the government's efforts to accelerate the transport of terrorist suspects to foreign countries...

Full story: http://www.globalethics.org/redir/nl.html?d=3/14/2005&;id=03140518591013

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4. Boeing Fires CEO, Citing Ethics, Loss of Confidence

CHICAGO

Scandal-plagued Boeing Co. last week forced CEO Harry Stonecipher to resign, saying the man hired to restore the company's reputation had violated the ethics code he championed by actions related to an affair with an employee....

Full story: http://www.globalethics.org/redir/nl.html?d=3/14/2005&;id=03140519022148

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5. GAO Finds Evidence of Bias in EPA's Mercury Ruling

WASHINGTON

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) skewed the science behind its controversial industry-backed proposal for regulating mercury pollution from power plants to make it look better than the proposal supported by environmental groups, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded last week....

Full story: http://www.globalethics.org/redir/nl.html?d=3/14/2005&;id=03140519043363

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6. Federal Judge Rejects Agent Orange Suit Filed by Vietnamese

BROOKLYN

A federal judge last week dismissed a lawsuit accusing more than 30 U.S. chemical companies of participating in war crimes by supplying the U.S. government with Agent Orange during the Vietnam War....

Full story: http://www.globalethics.org/redir/nl.html?d=3/14/2005&;id=03140519052654

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7. Business Schools Bar Applicants Who Hacked Admissions Website

BOSTON

Two of the nation's top business schools came out swinging last week after being hacked by prospective students, saying candidates who sneaked a peek into their admissions files would be barred from enrolling....

Full story: http://www.globalethics.org/redir/nl.html?d=3/14/2005&;id=03140519060395

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8. U.S. Backs Out of International Pact after Losing Court Battle

WASHINGTON

Smarting from a legal rebuke for mistreating Mexican prisoners sentenced to death in the United States, the Bush administration last week said it will pull out of the international protocol that gave the prisoners the right to appeal their treatment to the International Court of Justice in the Hague....

Full story: http://www.globalethics.org/redir/nl.html?d=3/14/2005&;id=03140519063412

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9. Citing Weight of Scandals, UC Boulder President Resigns

BOULDER

With her university caught up in scandals, Elizabeth Hoffman, the president of the University of Colorado at Boulder, last week announced her resignation, saying she needed to put the school's welfare ahead of her own....

Full story: http://www.globalethics.org/redir/nl.html?d=3/14/2005&;id=03140519065810

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10. Congress Subpoenas Ballplayers to Testify about Steroids

WASHINGTON

Upping the pressure on professional baseball to come clean about steroid use, Congress last week slapped seven players and four Major League Baseball executives with subpoenas to testify at a hearing this week....

Full story: http://www.globalethics.org/redir/nl.html?d=3/14/2005&;id=03140519073458

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11. Canada Seeks Compromise to Lumber Dispute with U.S.

OTTAWA

The Canadian Press is reporting that the Canadian government is offering a compromise to settle a long-running trade dispute with the United States over softwood lumber despite numerous legal victories against the United States under international trade rules....

Full story: http://www.globalethics.org/redir/nl.html?d=3/14/2005&;id=03140519080834

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12. Research Report:

129 Journalists and Media Workers Killed in 2004

From the International Federation of Journalists:

"The IFJ ... today said 129 journalists and media employees were killed last year, the worst 12-month toll on record.... In a wide-ranging report that covers media deaths in 34 countries, the IFJ has attacked the impunity and injustice in the way governments respond to media deaths...."

Full story: http://www.globalethics.org/redir/nl.html?d=3/14/2005&;id=03140519084977

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13. Quote from the Ethics File:

A Set of Promises

"Every civilization rests on a set of promises.... If the promises are broken too often, the civilization dies, no matter how rich it may be, or how mechanically clever. Hope and faith depend on the promises; if hope and faith go, everything goes."

-- Herbert Agar (U.S. newspaper editor and Pulitzer-winning author, 1897-1980)

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Full issue available here: http://www.globalethics.org/newsline/members/currentissue2.tmpl