The New York Times checked up today on the financial situation of the Reverend Al Sharpton, New York and America's most public private citizen. The setup is about how Sharpton has gone from outsider to insider, track suits to tailored suits, "from the streets to the suites," in his words, etc. Then we learn—well, "learn" isn't exactly the right word, given how well-documented all of Sharpton's aspects have been through the years.

Lloyd Grove, on the Daily Beast, in a sort of irony/empathy juggling act, wrote about Washington Post columnist, contributing editor for The Atlantic, New York Times bestselling author, and "CNN Presenter" Fareed Zakaria, host of Fareed Zakaria GPS on Sundays on CNN (check your local listings) and the trouble he's in for his plagiarizing of all kinds of material, from martini recipes to unimportant stuff, and how "pathetically uncredentialed, no-account bloggers who go by the ridiculous Twitter handles @Blippoblappo and @Crushingbort" are bringing possible ruination down upon the "[i]mperially slim and darkly handsome, possessed of an insinuating charm and a cultured manner of speech that recalls the British Raj" Zakaria, also known to Mr. Grove as "America's most celebrated public intellectual."

Chris Epps resigned as head of the Mississippi Department of Corrections this week after more than a decade on the job. An indictment against him says he spent much of that time systematically robbing the state.

If there is any institution that perfectly embodies the vacuous, superficial, money-centric nature of America's ill-concealed oligarchy, it is our national political conventions. They are useless pieces of shit. Now, it will be slightly easier for moneyed interests to buy them.

If we ever hope to be a truly fair representative democracy, we need to have campaign finance reform. The Republicans in the Senate have just blocked a proposed Constitutional amendment that might help do that. In America, the money owns the people. Not the other way around.

Ex-Virginia governor Bob McDonnell was found guilty of 11 corruption charges in a case that centered around his allegedly exchanging political favors for cash and gifts, the Washington Post reports. Maureen McDonnell, his wife, was found guilty of eight corruption charges and obstruction of justice.

The New York Times editorial board, with great pride in its own high-mindedness, has refused to endorse Andrew Cuomo's campaign for renomination as governor of New York in the upcoming Democratic primary. As the Times' reporters have amply documented, Andrew Cuomo is, in his role as a self-appointed champion of clean politics, a gutless fraud at best, and at worst a crook. Having sworn to rid Albany of its toxic and comical culture of gross corruption, he promptly and comically corrupted his own reform effort. The Times editorial board says so—that Cuomo "broke his most important promise."

If you read nothing else for the rest of your life, read the paragraph below that details how ex-Virginia governor, onetime presidential hopeful, and repository of family values Bob McDonnell and his wife plan to defend themselves against federal corruption charges.

Ray Nagin, the former Democratic Mayor of New Orleans, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison Wednesday for corruption. In February, Nagin was found guilty on 20 counts of bribery and fraud, which included money laundering, conspiracy, tax evasion, and wire fraud. He initially faced 20 years in prison.

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was detained by anti-corruption police for questioning on Tuesday. The investigators are attempting to determine whether or not he used a magistrate as an informant during judicial proceedings against him.

The vice president of Argentina, Amado Boudou, has formally been charged in a corruption scandal where it is alleged that Boudou abused his power as economy minister to assure that a company he allegedly controlled was given the contract to print Argentine currency.

More good news for JPMorgan Chase, the investment bank which has paid $30 billion in fines in the last two years: the firm's ex-head of investment banking in China was recently arrested in Hong Kong by an anti-corruption agency in an investigation believed to be related to the bank's possibly-illegal nepotistic hiring practices.

Dinesh D'Souza, onetime conservative phenom and Ann Coulter paramour, has pled guilty to federal charges that he made multiple illegal campaign donations in other people's names, including the mistress that wrecked his marriage and his presidency at a Christian college.

A corruption case out of New Orleans has turned into a fight over an issue that might be of interest to certain users of this here website: Do commenters on a news website have an absolute right to anonymity? And it all traces back to a federal prosecutor with an out-of-control, borderline-rehab-requiring online commenting habit. Federal prosecutors: They're Just Like Us.

Authorities say California State Senator Leland Yee is a corrupt politician who sold political favors, bragged about a friendship with an arms dealer, and attempted to broker a multi-million dollar weapons sale with an undercover FBI agent.

A little landlocked city in Florida is so outrageously corrupt that state officials are trying to abolish it.

[Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, arrive at federal court for a motions hearing in Richmond, Virginia, on Monday. Lawyers for McDonnell and his wife are expected to ask a judge to clarify who the former first couple can speak with prior to their July trial on corruption charges. Image via Steve Helber/AP.]

At least seven people were injured in Bangkok this morning, including a local newspaper reporter and an American photojournalist, as demonstrators exchanged gunfire and threw rocks ahead of national elections tomorrow.

Former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell and his wife Maureen were just indicted on federal corruption charges for taking $160,000 from a dietary supplement company they helped politically. The 43-page indictment documents the birth of a sugar daddy and the attempted coverup — these are the highlights.

New Jersey mayor Dawn Zimmer revealed that the administration of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie withheld Sandy relief money for Hoboken on MSNBC's Up with Steve Kornacki this Saturday.