A dangerous conflict-of-interest loophole

It is – or should be – obvious that a government official should not have a personal financial stake in his or her decisions.
In fact, one of the first laws passed by the Legislature after California became a state in 1850 was to prohibit such conflicts of interest, and currently, Government Code Section 1090, makes it a crime.
Dozens of state and local officials have wound up behind bars in recent decades for violating Section 1090 and other state and federal corruption laws by usin