Michael Hiltzik: Critics say Trump nominee for a key science job has a glaring conflict of interest
It may be getting harder to gauge the potential ethical conflicts of President Trump's appointees without a scorecard and calculator, but here's a candidate boasting what critics say could be the most direct conflict of interest of anyone poised to join the administration.
He's Barry Myers, the former CEO of Pennsylvania-based AccuWeather, which was founded by his brother Joel. AccuWeather still is controlled by Myers' family. Joel currently serves as its CEO.
Myers has been nominated as head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a crucial scientific agency whose public activities AccuWeather allegedly has tried to restrict, largely because services provided by the National Weather Service, a NOAA agency, compete with AccuWeather's business model of offering similar services for a price.
As Walter M. Shaub Jr., who headed the Office of Government Ethics under the
