Ethics Newsline®

That’s what the head of the U.S. Customs Service called last week’s sting operation that resulted in the arrests of dozens of airline employees on charges of smuggling. It’s an interesting view on employers’ responsibilities in monitoring the actions of workers and our lead story in this week’s edition of Business Ethics Newsline.

We have several compelling categories of news about business, ethics, and governance this week, including two stories from the health-ethics beat: a settlement by the makers of Norplant, and a report that some Mexican firms are requiring pregnancy tests as a precondition of employment.

We follow with a pair of stories about media ethics: the closing of a Turkish TV station after it aired critical reports about the government, and a verdict against a Web site that distributed what Ford Motor Company claimed were confidential documents.

Next, three reports about guns: a decision to bar a huge gun show from Los Angeles County property, a gun buy-back in Washington, D.C., and a report that police departments are selling used weapons to gun dealers — weapons that sometimes find their way back to the street.

We have three stories about governance and ethics, including reports on a suit against the U.S. Justice Department, the resignation of an official in British Columbia who faces a criminal probe, and bribery charges brought against the head of a dam project in the African nation of Lesotho.

From the United Kingdom come two stories about job stress there.

We conclude our wrap of the news with a story about Home Depot’s promise to become more sensitive to the environment.

And our report is capped with a story from the “Trendlines” file — looking at new ways for universities to obtain research money and new ethical problems encountered along the way — and a “Whatever Happened to…” report about the massive verdict against General Motors.

Have a productive, ethical week.

– Carl Hausman