Shopping cart blurbs, magazine ads, billboards ... and now the NTSPY Awards. How much of your money is Jeff Gahan spending on all this?

Proving that appetite suppression is the healthiest diet of all, we established earlier today that Jeff Gahan's boundless cult of personality has embraced selected grocery chains.

Scraping rock bottom: Jeff Gahan brings his cult of personality to Kroger shopping carts. But who paid for these political ads?

The question was intended to be rhetorical, and the answer is obvious: If you're a New Albany resident, you're paying for it.

You're paying for Gahan's belief that he's a rock star politician. As regular reader MC soon pointed out, you're also paying for other examples of Gahan's incessant personality cult expansion.

Just saw full page inside cover in Extol magazine with his pic. What legitimate reason is there for that? They are all over. It's blatant political advertising and the public is paying for it. The man has no shame.

Neither does the Democratic Party.

Here's another ad, this one in the News and Tribune's business magazine.

We've often noted that the city of New Albany is a big advertiser in the News and Tribune, with neither party willing to cease their mutual back rubs long enough to discuss publicly the extent of expenditures.

This topic resurfaces whenever the newspaper fails to ask hard questions of Gahan's municipal government ... or, several times weekly.

Have we mentioned that the newspaper hosts a high school sports award program?

2017 NTSPY Awards

The News and Tribune invites you to attend the Fourth Annual News and Tribune Sports Performance Yearly Awards. Join us in recognizing the accomplishments of the top male and female athletes from 12 Clark and Floyd county high schools.

Family and guests are invited to join free of charge this year thanks to the generosity of our sponsors.

You've probably already guessed the primary sponsor.

Do you live in New Albany? You're paying for this, too, though at least Gahan's mug isn't pasted where the anchor resides, sinking ever further into the muck of an Ohio River flood plain.

In another startling coincidence, and just like cooking school before it, the NTSPY Award show is held at Eastside Christian, where publisher Bill Hanson is an elder ...

... and one of his columnists used to be a minister.

Maybe this explains why there still is no atheism column. Jeeebus knows, we've tried.

Unless you're a subscriber, you're not paying for Hanson's choice of columnist. However, you're still paying when the newspaper doesn't dare disturb the serenity of public officials who've grasped the utility of using your money to pay for political advertising disguised as public service announcements and/or philanthropy.

You see, the newspaper doesn't question any of it.

But the newspaper's purpose is to ask these questions, right?

And when it won't?

That's the real problem, isn't it?

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As an addendum, NAC has been unable to confirm whether New Albany Mayor Jeff M. Gahan or anyone working in the city's administration is under federal investigation or indictment for corruption, bribery or racketeering. It is standard policy of the U.S. Justice Department to refuse to confirm or deny the existence or non-existence of investigations or subjects of investigations. A similar policy exists at the F.B.I.