Integrity news for New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania from SII partner WHYY:

After spending months looking into how state governments fare fighting public corruption through transparency and accountability, the State Integrity Investigation found that Delaware fared much worse that Tony Soprano and the Garden State.

Read more from WHYY - Philadelphia.

From Eric Walter at SII partner WHYY:

A haiku, inspired by reports coming today from the State Integrity Investigation:

Anyone surprised
by corruption in the state
is far too trusting

New Jersey should be excited that the state was found to have among the nation's toughest ethics and anti-corruption laws. But to rank the best in the nation for transparency and accountability, all it needed was a B+. No state could be called an overachiever, but New Jersey's upset has us feeling poetic.

Read more from WHYY - Philadelphia.

State integrity news for New Jersey from SII partner WNYC:

New Jersey has done the best job of any state in the nation in enacting anti-corruption laws designed to insure both transparency and public accountability, according to a study done by the Center for Public Integrity, Public Radio International and Global Integrity.

The State Integrity Investigation reviewed 330 "Corruption Risk Indicators" across 14 categories of state government including campaign finance, ethics enforcement, as well as how the executive, legislative and judicial branches measure up when it comes to public accountability and transparency.

Read more from WNYC - New York.

State Integrity News for New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware from SII partner WHYY:

An intensive study of all 50 states' vulnerability to corruption has found New Jersey top in the nation at stemming the tide of political sleaze. Pennsylvania and Delaware made the top half among state rankings, but only a handful of states rated a B or better in the survey. Fully half earned a D or F.

Hear the story from WHYY - Philadelphia.

State Integrity news from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware from Dave Davies at SII Partner WHYY:

I hope you're sitting down when I tell you that New Jersey ranked best in the country at sleaze-prevention. Almost as surprising to me is that Pennsylvania ranked 19th, though it scored only a C-minus (states were not graded on a curve, so the class did poorly as a whole). I thought Delaware would do better than its ranking in the middle of the pack, but read our coverage on the Delaware page, and it will make sense.

Read more from WHYY - Philadelphia.

State Integrity news for Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware from SII partner WHYY:

Host TRACEY MATISAK talks with three Delaware Valley journalists who conducted the State Integrity Investigation: CRIS BARRISH, senior reporter for The News Journal of Delaware; COLLEEN O’DEA, an editor-at-large for NJ Spotlight and longtime investigative reporter for the Daily Record of Morris County, New Jersey; and PETER DURANTINE, editor of TheBurg, Harrisburg’s monthly community newspaper, who covered the Pennsylvania capital for 15 years for the Associated Press, Philadelphia Daily News and the York Daily Record.

Hear the discussion from WHYY - Philadelphia.

Corruption news for Pennsylvania, from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Former high-ranking Democratic state Rep. Mike Veon and his ex-aide were found guilty Monday of charges related to the misuse of taxpayer grants directed to the Beaver County lawmaker's nonprofit organization.The ex-lawmaker from Beaver Falls was facing his second corruption trial in less than two years. He previously was convicted in 2010 in the state attorney general's legislative probe.

In the latest proceeding, he was accused of improperly spending portions of the $10 million in taxpayer-funded grants that he secured for the Beaver Initiative for Growth.

Read the rest of the story at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Corruption news for Pennsylvania, from the Harrisburg Patriot-News:

Consider how state government sometimes operates, such as revelations about the pre-Bonusgate days, and former House Speaker John Perzel’s employees. When the attorney general charged Perzel with wrongdoing, some staffers also were caught up in the net.

Among them was Samuel “Buzz” Stokes, who is Perzel’s brother-in-law. Stokes earned $41,418 from the Republican caucus and as the grand jury presentment states, Stokes allegedly told another GOP House staffer he needed health benefits, so Perzel (pictured, right) gave him a taxpayer-paid job.

If you spot a scandal involving public officials, you’ll often find a layer of nepotism on top.

Read the rest of the story at the Harrisburg Patriot-News.

Corruption news for Pennsylvania, from the Pittsburg Tribune-Review:

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin received formal notification that she is a target of an Allegheny County grand jury that recommended prosecution of her two sisters for using state employees for political work, the Tribune-Review has learned.

Melvin, 55, of Marshall received a subpoena to testify before the grand jury in mid-December, typically the final step before a grand jury recommends charges. It's unclear whether Melvin (pictured, right), a Republican elected to the high court in 2009, appeared before the grand jury.

Read the rest of the story at the Pittsburg Tribune-Review.

Corruption news for Pennsylvania, from the Scranton Times-Tribune:

The state's fiscal watchdog has warned Pennsylvania State University not to spend taxpayer dollars on the legal defense of campus officials facing charges related to the child sexual abuse scandal rocking the campus.

Auditor General Jack Wagner (pictured, right) said he notified the university that he doesn't want to see any of the millions of dollars of state aid going annually to the state-related institution used to pay anyone's legal bills. Former Penn State Senior Vice President Gary Shultz and former athletic director Tim Curley have been charged with perjury before a state grand jury and failing to report child sex abuse.

Read the rest of the story at the Scranton Times-Tribune.