some political updates

Rumor has it that one or two new scandals and investigations into Olmert's corruption are soon to be publicized...

One will be involving bribery issues from when he was mayor of Jerusalem. It will involve educational institutions. I have not heard what they received in return, but I would suspect they received buildings, licenses, funding, etc. In return they gave Olmert gifts of expensive pens (he is a collector), cigars, purchased his wife's artwork at overpriced prices, etc..

On another note, Maariv (Israel's second largest newspaper) is reporting that Olmert is going to be appointing another Deputy Minister to his government, despite his promises to not appoint such positions. The promise was originally made due to the fact that the Deputy Minister carries no responsibilities and is simply an expensive political payment at the taxpayers expense. So we will be now adding yet another ministerial position and salary to the already over-bloated government.