Massachusetts' Executive Office of Environmental Affairs "awarded a $10,000 contract to a Boston Herald op-ed columnist to promote the governor's environmental policies." The contract involves writing op-ed pieces and internal documents "to promote education, awareness, and acceptance of major policy initiatives." Three days after the columnist, Charles Chieppo, applied for the position, he filed a column praising

A week ago Ray Kotcher, the CEO of the PR firm Ketchum, responded in writing to a series of questions from PR Week about the controversy over Armstrong Williams promoting the U.S. No Child Left Behind law.

At last weekend's Midwest Journalism Conference in Bloomington, Minnesota, Dave Beal reports that Lynn Casey, the CEO of the PR firm Padilla Speer Beardsley, referred to the controversy over video news releases as a "wake-up call" for the PR industry.