"In just the last two months, lawmakers invited lobbyists to help pay for ... lavish birthday parties in a lawmaker's honor ($1,000 a lobbyist), martinis and margaritas at Washington restaurants (at least $1,000), a California wine-tasting tour (all donors welcome), hunting and fishing trips (typically $5,000), weekend golf tournaments ($2,500 and up), a Presidents' Day weekend at Disney World ($5,000), parties in South Beach in Miami ($5,000), concerts by the Who or Bob Seger ($2,500 for two seats), and even Broadway shows like 'Mary Poppins' and 'The Drowsy Chaperone' (also $2,500 for two)." But don't worry -- it's all happening under the U.S. Congress' new ethics rules. "Instead of picking up the lawmaker's tab" directly, explains the New York Times, "lobbyists pay a political fund-raising committee set up by the lawmaker." Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who voted for ethics reform, said, "If you are not going to have publicly financed elections ... I don't see any problem with having events where private individuals who give you money can talk to you." Such fundraising via lawmakers' personal political action committees (PACs) "might even increase the volume of contributions flowing to Congress from K Street, where many lobbying firms have their offices."

One radio station in Santa Fe, New Mexico has had enough. "It is the policy of KSFR's news department to ignore and not repeat any wire service or nationally published story about Iran, China, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia or any other foreign power that quotes an 'unnamed' U.S. official," news director Bill Dupuy told his staff. "We should not dutifully parrot whatever comes out of Washington, on the wire or by whatever means, no matter how intriguing and urgent it sounds, when the source is unnamed. I am also calling on our colleagues in other local news departments -- broadcast and print -- to take the same professional approach." President Bush inadvertently proved the wisdom of KSFR's policy at a February 14 press conference. Bush contradicted an earlier briefing by "unnamed officials" in Baghdad claiming that "top Iranian leaders" were behind weapons used against U.S. troops in Iraq, reports Editor & Publisher. "I do not know whether or not the Quds Force was ordered from the top echelons of [the Iranian] government," Bush said.

Source: Guillaume restaurant at the Sydney Opera House

The global drug company, Roche has been fined $A75,000 for breaching a provision of the Australian drug industry's voluntary code of conduct which requires that meals given to doctors at company events should be "simple and modest". An investigation into the complaint - lodged by the Australian government drug regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration - followed the July 2006 revelations in the British Medical Journal and The Australian that the company had spent in the order of $A65,000 entertaining approximately 300 cancer specialists at the Guillaume restaurant in the Sydney Opera House. A majority of the members of a committee hosted by the peak drug industry lobby group, Medicines Australia, which oversees the code of conduct, found (pdf) that Roche's entertainment for doctors "brought the industry into disrepute." A minority of the committee "did not consider the hospitality provided ... to be excessive". Roche did not appeal against the decision.