Conflicts of Interest

The Rhode Island Code of Ethics restricts government administrators from hiring or appointing nearly four dozen branches of their family trees, including grandfather-in-law, step-nephew, and uncle-in-law, but for blood-relatives, the line was drawn right before their cousin's children.

State Sen. Frank Ciccone III — who has held various titles with the Laborers’ International Union of North America, most recently as consultant to Local 808 — is the new chairman of the Senate Labor Committee.

A year ago, state lawmakers approved the appointment of a former state representative, the House speaker’s legal counsel and a legal adviser to the governor with family ties to the Senate leadership and the Laborers International Union to top-paid posts in the state courts, in which they get to wear the same black robes as judges without having to go through the same screening.