NAHA vs Pleasant Ridge: Deaf Gahan is appalled that he didn't think of mass taserings first.

We're still trying to understand why a public official clocking in at $120K per annum thinks it's hilarious to threaten a resident of public housing with shooting/tasering, merely because the resident exercised his rights to free speech and assembly.

Maybe it's because in David Duggins' bloodshot eyes, they're not really people: We don't need a TASER Tsar at public housing.

Jeff Gahan placed Duggins in this position of alleged stewardship trust at NAHA, and the ethically challenged Taser Tsar has run through his first allotment of Dear Leader's trust. The tank's empty.

It's theoretically possible that Team Gahan might publicly explain and take responsibility for this latest fiasco before Thursday afternoon, when ON THE AVENUES will break it down -- and while we're busy handicapping, perhaps anyone walking on the northern Spring Street sidewalk today should use caution lest a stray piano drop from the third floor of Break Wind Lofts at Duggins Flats.

Meanwhile over in Charlestown, where the mayor doesn't even try to pretend he's a Democrat, there is more ugliness over a very NAHA-like situation, with the primary difference between the Pleasant Ridge and NAHA land grabs being that public housing residents in New Albany have even less clout than targeted "non-citizens" in Charlestown.

According to our 9th district Democratic congressional candidates, Pleasant Ridge is a very bad deal, indeed, and deserving of denunciation.

My advice to them: Take a good, hard look at the interim director of NAHA. People there need you now, not after the primary. Isn't a terroristic threat just the same irrespective of who utters it -- and shouldn't there be a higher bar for a public official like Duggins?

You can only hold your noses for so long, right?

Or, does shit stink only when it cascades to the ground from the posterior of a Republican?

Lawsuit accuses Charlestown officials, developer of extortion scheme to buy land for a song, by Justin Sayers (Louisville Courier Journal)

Some property owners accuse Charlestown, Indiana city officials and others of an extortion scheme that used fines to pressure them to sell their properties well under market value.

The federal lawsuit filed Friday claims that nine property management companies and landlords were persuaded to sell more than 100 Pleasant Ridge rental properties, most of them for only $10,000 each, to Pleasant Ridge Redevelopment LLC, the company hired by the city to redevelop the low-income neighborhood.

Prior to the sale, the city of Charlestown levied code-enforcement fines on the homes, some of which amounted to thousands of dollars a day for the owners. Once the properties were sold, the fines were waived, according to the suit filed in the U.S. District Court in New Albany.

The plaintiffs claim their constitutional rights were violated under the equal rights protection act. They also argue that coercing owners to sell to a private entity violates federal anti-corruption laws.

Named as defendants were Charlestown Mayor Bob Hall, members of the city council and public works board, the Charlestown Redevelopment Commission and the development team, including the chairman of Pleasant Ridge Development LLC, John Neace ...