Scandal

A cheating scandal that has harmed the reputation of the U.S. Naval Academy now appears to be threatening the career of its superintendent, Rear Adm. Thomas C. Lynch.The two-star admiral -- who admitted "failure" in not aggressively pursuing the largest scandal in academy history -- is now being offered two-star assignments rather than the three-star promotion he had hoped to achieve, Navy and Pentagon sources said.Admiral Lynch, 52, a 1964 academy graduate and former Navy football captain, was yearning for a fleet command and is now deciding whether to accept a deputy post or retire from the Navy, sources said.

TAXPAYERS no doubt hope that after a government scandal has been investigated and "steps" have been taken, the system will somehow work better. In the case of the Iran-contra scandal, that hasn't happened. Indeed, there is a strong basis for believing that none of the so-called corrective organisms of the system have worked, and that the relationship of comity, so essentialto effective functioning of our political system, has been further eroded.As matters stand, the central issue in this episode -- how the shared responsibilities for the conduct of foreign policy ought to be divided between the presidency and the Congress -- has not been seriously joined, at least not by the presidency; the central decision-maker of the scandal -- former President Reagan -- has not been held to account; and the institution established to deter, or to police, wrongdoing -- the independent counsel -- will likely end up discredited.

VIENNA, Austria -- In this once home to rulers of the Holy Roman Empire, the Roman Catholic Church is being buffeted by an unprecedented series of attacks and scandals that has left many Austrians questioning their faith.A half-million Austrians signed a petition last month demanding radical reform, including allowing priests to marry and women to become priests. And in a surge of disillusion, more than 35,000 people have abandoned the church in recent months.The turmoil began last spring when a former Catholic school student came forward to accuse the head of the church, Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer, of sexually molesting him 20 years ago.The 75-year-old Cardinal Groer, who is also the archbishop of Vienna, declined to comment on the allegations and stepped down as head of the Bishops' Conference.

Washington. -- The House banking affair is more a debacle than a scandal, involving more ineptitude than peculation. But as some members of Congress try to mollify constituents, they demonstrate the really scandalous side of modern government.Consider two Georgians, Charles Hatcher, a six-term Democrat from a mostly rural district, and Newt Gingrich, an eight-term Republican from suburban Atlanta.Mr. Hatcher, author of 819 overdrafts, was listed among the 22 worst abusers. But is he in trouble back home?

As the scandal that sunk Rupert Murdoch's News of the World continued to unfold last week, one of the questions that loomed was whether there would be any fallout on this side of the Atlantic. What most American analysts were wondering was whether evidence would show that employees in Britain or at one of Murdoch's U.S. properties like the New York Post had hacked into the voice mails of family members or victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks — or paid off police for information on celebrities and others here or abroad.

Rear Adm. Thomas C. Lynch, whose fast rise in the Navy stalled when he presided over the Naval Academy during its largest cheating scandal, has been assigned to a new Pentagon post that will chart the future of the Navy and Marine Corps.The 52-year-old academy superintendent yesterday received his orders to become director of the Navy's roles and missions study group, under the chief of naval operations.The admiral will oversee a staff of 10 that will study will review the types of military operations that may be required in the post Cold War era."

The Naval Academy's No. 2 official had his promotion to rear admiral put on hold this week, because of Senate concerns about his role in the investigation of the school's largest cheating scandal.Navy Secretary John Dalton asked the Senate Armed Services Committee to delay considering the promotion of Capt. John B. Padgett, the Naval Academy's commandant of midshipmen, who was among an estimated 30 nominees considered for promotion to rear admiral.Mr. Dalton took the step to make sure the other officers on the list were acted on by the committee, which approved the nominees this week, said Capt.

With some 125 midshipmen expected to be implicated in the U.S. Naval Academy's largest cheating scandal, the academy's superintendent yesterday named three retired admirals to help determine what type of discipline should be handed out.Rear Admiral Thomas C. Lynch said at a news conference that the admirals -- all former academy officials -- would provide "fairness and consistency" and not "overburden the midshipmen" who rule on violations of the school's strict...

TOKYO -- Top finance officials and business leaders tripped over each other rushing to reverse field yesterday, demanding a public answer to the most obvious question about Japan's worst stock market scandal: Who got the $1 billion?The rush to the side of openness, on the eve of a key parliamentary committee meeting to begin inquiries into the scandal, threw into pell-mell retreat the Tokyo power elite's monthlong drive to keep the public from knowing who are the few hundred favored clients.

Criminal misuse of public money is more than cops and robbers stuff. Putting someone in jail for it is not the end of dealing with scandal in government. There is always a larger issue: How and why did someone get away with stealing public money? Can the taxpayer be sure something like it won't happen again?Those questions are particularly pertinent in the aftermath of the Maryland State Games scandal. This was no theft of petty cash by a clerk. A lot of money -- perhaps more than $1 million -- was either siphoned off for personal use or otherwise diverted to purposes not authorized by the legislature that appropriated it. And the swindlers were high-ranking state officials, one of them the deputy secretary of the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.