I’ve had to take a more active role in moderating the comments on Monday’s post regarding Malia Zimmerman’s lawsuit against State Senator Sam Slom, her housemate for a decade.

I took a chance in posting details of the lawsuit’s allegations because it seems to me to raise issues related to journalism ethics, conflict of interest, and to some extent, political hypocrisy.

But after the initial round of responses, comments started veering into inappropriate, negative, and just mean personal references to the young woman reportedly caught up in this latest situation.

To be clear, I’ve exercised control and deleted these comments. I may have to close off further comments if this thread continues to require additional time and effort to moderate.

So please, for the sake of relatively open discussion, please stay civil.