Port: All the ethics and transparency laws in the world won't matter if the voters don't care

Port: All the ethics and transparency laws in the world won't matter if the voters don't care

MINOT — Why are North Dakota's elected officials so tone deaf when it comes to ethics and transparency laws? There's an answer for that, but first let's explore some history and some national context. Remember Billy Beer? It was a marketing gimmick dreamed up by a flailing brewing company to cash in on the proximate celebrity of President Jimmy Carter's charming, beer-swilling, redneck brother, Billy Carter. It didn't work out very well. Billy B…