Pints&union garners an outstanding review in the Courier-Journal.

Back in prehistoric times, through at least the dawn of the World Wide Web, these Courier-Journal reviews were disproportionately important. Susan Reigler's review of the original Rich O's Public House in 1994 helped "break" us to a wider audience -- and on the Saturday evening after the review came out in the Scene, the deluge "broke" my damned back, although it was worth it in the long run.

I'm also reminded of the late, great Keith Moon's description of himself.

I'm the best Keith Moon-style drummer in the world.

Pints&union will be a year old on August 1, and we've already stayed entirely true to Joe's founding principles while evolving tremendously during this short time. It doesn't particularly matter whether we're English, Irish or New Albanian, only that we remain the best Pints&union-style pub in the region.

Because I'm a miscreant and a laggard, the C-J has me boxed out of seeing the review; I actually read the piece on Calvin's phone. Here's the link for those of you able to make the connection through yonder pay wall.

Hop across the river for the best British pub this side of the pond at Pints & Union.

The CJ's remarkably consistent terminal decline: No news in the Indiana Newsletter, and plenty of blue-bagged litter to clog the city's storm drains.

Friday was the 4th straight day of a Romeo Langford college choice story with top billing in the CJ's "Indiana Newsletter," finally supplanted today by the opioid crisis, another recurring chestnut that at least constitutes genuine news.

This vacuous irrelevance was accompanied by a fresh spate of unwanted blue-wrapped street spam.

Ah, but we have all been here before.

The Courier-Journal's "Indiana Newsletter": More Indiana coverage, perhaps, but is any of it really news?

When I think of all the possible news of the world, and all the conceivable news in Southern Indiana, and then this being a fairly typical "Indiana Newsletter" via e-mail ... the CJ's terminal decline gets even sadder.

It the best they can do: Sports, entertainment and celebrity hokum.

It's profoundly depressing.

And here:

Down with the Courier-Journal's blue-bag-recycling-hypocrisy. Fact is, it's litter.

Free speech my ass: The Courier-Journal can spin this any way it likes, but it's litter, plain and simple. Why do we allow representatives of the newspaper to trash the city? I'm not sure, but perhaps the city council's forthcoming litter ordinance will take this into consideration.

The secrecy, maybe? "Something doesn’t feel right about David Jones’ group of Louisville powerbrokers."

Tell me if you've heard this one before.

Encroaching nausea as Insider Louisville tracks down Louisville's secretive power brokers, an "elite group of influencers."

Oh, look. How charming. The usual suspects, same old pillars and engorged oligarchs together again, in secret, to huff and puff and -- dear, could you fetch my pitchfork? Just in case One Southern Indiana's already played the copycat.

Gerth nails it.

Something doesn’t feel right about David Jones’ group of Louisville powerbrokers, by Joe Gerth (Louisville Courier Journal)

The group that David A. Jones Sr. brought together is impressive.

There are nearly 70 community leaders — from entrepreneurs to ecclesiastics (and a rabbi thrown in for good measure) — who have joined to address the problems that have held Louisville back for decades.

Good idea. Talented cast.

But something doesn't feel right about this.

It's instructive that Insider Louisville broke this story, and the Courier Journal gives credit where due. Let's hope the News and Tribune is reading.

The group operated in complete secrecy until Insider Louisville wrote about it earlier this week and said that Jones wouldn't turn over a list of members. He relented and gave Courier Journal a list of names the following day.

Let's borrow LEO's "Thorns and Roses" idea and apply it to the News and Tribune.

From last week's LEO Weekly comes this entertaining segment in the Thorns & Roses issue.

Thorns & Roses: Courier Journal bites back

[The following is one part of the Thorns & Roses issue, where we discuss the worst, best and most absurd people, places and things in Kentucky this year]

This page is where every week we deal out Thorns, Roses and Absurds to anyone and everyone in the state (often Gov. Matt “Oblivious” Bevin because he is a thorn machine). Our target also has been Courier Journal, which we love to hate and hate to love. When a thorn is thrust, it always is in good fun, with the goal of making the newspaper better. For this issue of LEO, we thought it would be… fun — or masochistic — to turn over this column to Courier Journal. We asked CJ to give us their best, and the paper agreed to do so, assigning reporter Jeffrey Lee Puckett and metro columnist Joe Gerth … This below is their best?

If you're a regular reader of NA Confidential, you know the absentee Courier-Journal seldom so much as enters into the blog discussion these days, but when we consider the CNHI newspaper in Jeffersonville -- well, to borrow LEO's description, it's something we love to hate and hate to love.

Seeing as you're invariably exposed to my invective, this time I'll button my lip and ask you to contribute.

Based on what you've observed in 2017, what are your thorns and roses for the News and Tribune?

What does it do well, and badly?

Send you answers through the usual channels, and post here or at Facebook.

The view from 1952: "You Name It ... New Albany Has It!"

A friend uncovered these snippets of the time 65 years ago when an untolled bridge (Clark Memorial) was a godsend for Southern Indiana, and New Albany still had its own Chamber of Commerce.

Strikingly, the availability of public housing was considered an indicator of growth progress, but the units being constructed at the time were segregated ... in Indiana, mind you.

Six and a half decades later, are we making progress?

Thanks, B.

The Putsch Man Cometh: Jeff Gahan waxes delusional about being a public housing "advocate," then cheerfully explains why he should be summarily deposed in 2019.

The Courier-Journal's Justin Sayers surveys the corroded tinpot grandeur of Jeff Gahan's Public Housing Putsch 2017, and both the mayor and his servile, bootlicking minions predictably emerge on a subterranean par with Donald Trump and his motley band of societal looters.

Despite reassurances, plan to scatter public housing spreads fear across Louisville

 ... (resident Candace) Brewer started circulating a petition in early July that asks Gahan to not "tear down public housing without a plan to replace it." She got 400 signatures from New Albany residents in the first month.

Gahan, who said his parents were in public housing for a time, considers himself an advocate for it.

Gahan's utterly unqualified but extravagantly over-compensated operative Dugout also is an advocate ... of the Scarecrow's predicament in The Wizard of Oz.

(David) Duggins said the goal is to move residents into more mixed-income living spaces and neighborhoods. He acknowledged that it could be difficult for residents but said the conditions in the new units would be better than they are currently.

“If you would offer the opportunity for that family or that individual to move to a new location and a new unit, to me, that’s a no-brainer," he said.

There's something to be said for intimate personal experience.

Others have taken note of the New Tidal Wave of Gahan's bobble-headed sycophants on the NAHA board, and meanwhile, the mayor styles himself as a Great Communicator, which is so obvious a contrived whopper that I won't waste readers' time refuting it.

Brewer and (resident Shirley) Fitzgerald lamented changes on the authority's board and police presence at its meeting, calling it an intimidation tactic.

Gahan said he does not believe he and the housing authority have hidden their plans — he said the housing authority sent letters to every resident notifying them of the plan and that he published a letter in local newspaper the News and Tribune prior to a vote to move forward with the plan.

He called the presence of police typical for every city board meeting but said he was concerned by residents' feelings that they were being intimidated. He added that he would look into it and "not one time will we not be listening to people.” There were no police officers at the next meeting.

Allow me to fix that: "Not one time will we begin listening to people, here or elsewhere in the city."

Intent on adding self-insult to injury, Gahan proceeds to explain to Sayers exactly why he should not serve a third term as Anchor in Chief.

This public housing plan is spreading fear across Louisville. Here's what you need to know

 ... Gahan told the Courier-Journal that Lane was fired because he needed to ensure that the plan had the support of the housing authority's director. Lane declined to comment when reached by the Courier-Journal.

“We’re moving forward with a plan that needs the support of a lot of people and it certainly needs the support of the director," Gahan said. "I think sometimes changes are necessary especially when an organization has been pursuing certain plans for a long time."

Credit Gahan for being able to tell the truth at least once during the course of his chats with Sayers, and thanks to the reporter for capturing the intellectual carnage.

Finally, let's look at what 9th District congressional aspirant Dan Canon, a genuine real-life Progressive Democrat, had to say about Bob Hall's Gahanesque tactics v.v. Pleasant Ridge Lebensraum in Charlestown (Charlestown's Bob Hall channels his inner Gahan. Are the cattle cars on their way?)

Unbelievable. This guy has no shame about driving the working class out of the city by destroying entire neighborhoods. I am trying to avoid the internet this weekend but this is so appalling I can't stand it.

Mayor Hall: consider that if the torches and pitchforks come (and let me be clear that progressives are trying to stop that from happening), they are coming first for elected officials who wipe out the working poor to accommodate the wealthy. You can only take so much from your own people. Taking their homes is going too damn far.

Tell it to Gahan, and tell me, Adam Dickey: How is it that a regressive like Jeff Gahan and a progressive like Dan Canon can somehow co-exist in your hypocritical, tottering party tent?

How many masters can you personally serve before the whole rotten edifice comes crashing down around your slickly ambitious earlobes?

Now more than ever, local progressives worthy of the name have a clear dual mandate:

Do whatever is possible to seat Canon in 2018 -- and to unseat Gahan in 2019. 

The Courier-Journal's "Indiana Newsletter": More Indiana coverage, perhaps, but is any of it really news?

When I think of all the possible news of the world, and all the conceivable news in Southern Indiana, and then this being a fairly typical "Indiana Newsletter" via e-mail ... the C-J's terminal decline gets even sadder.

It the best they can do: Sports, entertainment and celebrity hokum.

It's profoundly depressing.

SHANE'S EXCELLENT NEW WORDS: From the ethereal to the ephemeral in a mere seven days.

In last week's installment, I spoke of reconnecting with Ben, an old friend. In yet another of life's transitions, I've resumed public tippling and our trip to Bountiful (saloons) yielded the word "ethereal" as meat for my writing.

It turns out, I struck a nerve, though not in the intended target. Ethereal happens to be a word seared into the psyche of another friend of more recent acquaintance, who picks up the story here.

He may or may not be referring to himself ...

---

It seems this friend was a precocious sort who nearly almost well-nigh virtually and approximately earned a berth in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, circa eons ago. And "ethereal" most definitely came into play to thwart the friend's ambition.

Now, back then, the national winner might prevail by spelling, oh, a word you've read here on this blog, so the degree of difficulty did not approach that of today's championships. Kind of like the NBA.

As the regional field was winnowed to four, my friend tells me that visions of D.C. were twirling around the contestants. Then came today's Excellent New Word.

The announcer called out "ephemeral."

Piece of cake, thought our contestant. Spell it and watch the others fall. But remember, the competition was down to the last four. This might be the final round.

Being one of wide vocabulary, our aspirant hesitated and juggled a few options. "There IS this word 'ethereal' that a future sesquipedalian will use to troll a future bureaucrat," mused our combatant, somehow peering into the far future of June 2017, the time of flying cars, celebrity presidents, and unqualified public housing directors.

"E-P-H-E-M-E-R ... ... E-A-L." Thank you for playing.
[ih-fem-er-uh l]

adjective
1. lasting a very short time; short-lived; transitory:
the ephemeral joys of childhood.

2. lasting but one day:
an ephemeral flower.

noun
3. anything short-lived, as certain insects.

---

Thank you, Noah Webster.

Why is it a spelling "bee" and not a spelling "scrum" or "ordeal"?

The word bee, as used in spelling bee, is one of those language puzzles that has never been satisfactorily accounted for. A fairly old and widely-used word, it refers to a community social gathering at which friends and neighbors join together in a single activity (sewing, quilting, barn raising, etc.) usually to help one person or family.

The earliest known example in print is a spinning bee, in 1769. Other early occurrences are husking bee (1816), apple bee (1827), and logging bee (1836). Spelling bee is apparently an American term. It first appeared in print in 1875, but it seems certain that the word was used orally for several years before that.

And what of the origins of the Scripps National Spelling Bee? They're closer than you might think.

Who's based in Kentucky and started the National Spelling Bee? This newspaper

Almost 100 years ago, before computers or spell check, a Kentucky institution thought kids should be more excited about spelling — so it started the contest that has become the long-running National Spelling Bee.

That institution was the Courier-Journal.

Playwright Tony Kushner provides a sentence for the word ephemeral.

"So I think I'll say the obvious thing: theater is ephemeral. When a production is done, it's gone forever. You can take pictures of it. You can make a film of it. But it's not the production. It's not the same thing."

Though not to neglect ephemereal:

Soon we'll be looking back on the Gahan Era as an ephemereal interlude in the city's long history.

Down with the Courier-Journal's blue-bag-recycling-hypocrisy. Fact is, it's litter.

Free speech my ass: The Courier-Journal can spin this any way it likes, but it's litter, plain and simple. Why do we allow representatives of the newspaper to trash the city? I'm not sure, but perhaps the city council's forthcoming litter ordinance will take this into consideration.

New Gahania Luxury Stadia: Moore tells it straight, so can this soccer story possibly get any more entertaining?

Yes, stadia is the plural noun.

In which Jeffersonville's Mike Moore says the right thing and cuts directly to the chase, while Jeff Gahan is ... yep, you guessed it, 'cuz he's unavailable for comment.

Again.

And again.

And again.

Time to move on, folks.

LouCity: We're committed to Louisville stadium, by Phillip M. Bailey, Madeleine Winer and Justin Sayers (Courier-Journal; 1:09 p.m. EST January 4, 2017)

Neace said "New Albany is not a frontrunner. We're down to two sites. Both those preferred sites are in Louisville." He said the team listened to New Albany's pitch but that plan is not the team's preference.

New Albany Mayor Jeff Gahan did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mike Hall, a spokesman for Gahan, said the mayor met with Neace at the end of December and presented three possible locations for a stadium in New Albany. He said talks were still in the preliminary stages and did not know which locations were discussed.

Moore said the team is using talks with Southern Indiana cities as a negotiation tactic to gain leverage over Louisville and that he texted Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer on Aug. 30 about Neace's offer.

“I think it’s a ploy to get Louisville to ante up,” Moore said. “Jeffersonville is not interested in stealing Louisville’s soccer team.”

Previously at NAC:

New Gahania Luxury Stadia: Moore tells it straight, so can this soccer story possibly get any more entertaining?

MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY: Louisville City FC's John Neace clarifies, "Construction of a venue in Louisville is our priority."

Green Mouse says: Think NORTH for Gahan's proposed soccer stadium site.

The ultimate in bright shiny objects? Now Jeff Gahan's going to build a pro soccer stadium in New Albany.

And it's only January 4.

Randy Smith for NA-FC School Board: "I think it's important to remember that the superintendent works for the school board and not the other way around."

Thousands of Floyd Countians already have voted, and as with the News and Tribune, the Courier-Journal has belatedly released candidate information.

Couldn't these newspapers go to work a bit earlier, and provide information to the public before voting begins?

Floyd County School Board candidates | Election 2016, by Kirsten Clark (Courier-Journal)

The presidential election isn't the only important race on the ballot. There are nine candidates vying for seats on the New Albany-Floyd County School Board, which evaluates the superintendent, oversees the school district's budget and has the final say in issues of district policy and facility decisions.

Take a look at who's running, and be sure to vote on Nov. 8.

Having already endorsed Randy Smith for the at-large slot on the school board, I'm under no obligation to be fair to the other candidates. Here is Randy's bio and answers, as submitted to the C-J.

---

Randy Smith

Age: 60

Occupation: Bookseller

Education: Bachelor of Science with high honors in public administration, graduate study in law

Family: Wife, Ann Baumgartle

Reason for running: I hope to take NAFC schools to the next level by building a community consensus around public education and the importance of investing in our students. Great schools are made by great teachers, and it is important to show them the respect needed to make their jobs fulfilling.

Biggest issue facing constituency: Two issues present themselves: 1) Teacher recruitment and retention, and 2) restoring trust in the school administration. A lack of transparency and accountability have created a lack of trust which hampers progress. I think it's important to remember that the superintendent works for the school board and not the other way around.

The NAFC administration has falsely presented this referendum as if it is our only choice. For that reason, I do not expect it will be approved by the voters. I don't believe there is even a Plan B, which makes this do-over referendum incredibly risky. The next school board will need to be prepared to address the most serious concerns facing the district. Dr. Hibbard's solution actually puts limits on what we can do to strengthen the vitally important instruction mission, offering only a construction alternative. I will be voting "no."

C-J does the impossible by immediately hiring a new Indiana reporter. 320 days later, the News and Tribune can't say the same.

It fairly boggles the mind. The Courier-Journal has managed to hire a new Southern Indiana reporter in a matter of days.

Madeleine Winer hired as CJ Indiana reporter

Meanwhile in New Gahania, the Green Mouse has been told that the debut of CNHI Jeffersonville's 11-months-delayed New Albany beat reporter will be August 22.

If so, the duration of the gap will prove to have been an even eleven months, during which the paper's shrinking violet management has consistently hewed a passive-aggressive path as to the rationale for it negligence, claiming first that reporters are hard to find; second, that it has been the intention all along to hire last year's intern; third, it's in no way harmful to deprive an entire city of in-depth coverage during this length of time; and fourth, that they'll simply not discuss such matters publicly.

But what does Bill Hanson care? He lives in Sellersburg, right?

Iamhoosier said it best on Facebook.

The N and T has always tried to make us believe that they are our "local" paper.

Really?

Usual suspects AWOL as C-J community discussion considers topics that make local politicians uncomfortable.

Yesterday's C-J-sponsored "community discussion" at the Carnegie Center was well worth my time.

3 takeaways from the CJ's S. Ind. community event, by Lexy Gross

... It was clear that people who attended The Courier-Journal's community discussion at the Carnegie Center in New Albany truly care about the residents in the community. Speakers from the Carnegie Center, Jesus Cares at Exit 0 and Metro United Way hit on the region's needs and engaged in discussion. About 30 people attended the event.

My favorite moment? Easy.

Regrettably, nary a cog in the Gahan nomenklatura was on hand to offer a rebuttal.

Barbara Anderson from Haven House Services Inc. in Jeffersonville discussed poverty and the community's ability to address it in the future. She decried New Albany's plan to help build a luxury apartment complex, despite the need to address affordable and public housing in the city.

Still waiting for YOUR local Democratic Party to display a pulse as it pertains to homelessness, affordable housing, income inequality and other topics that make the mayor blush?

Don't hold your breath.

Ain't happening.

The Mighty Oz was re-elected, the Wunderkind was promoted, and the pretend-luxury can proceed with real corporate welfare subsidies ... and without the pesky distractions of the real world.

Dec. 12 C-J event about "big pictures" and deeper meanings of life in Southern Indiana.

I wish them luck. NA Confidential has been trying to answer these questions since 2004, and we haven't even gotten a lousy t-shirt.

Topics we won't be seeing include "Origins of the Dissident Movement in New Gahania," and "Are They Apparatchiks or Are They Nomenklatura?"

Wait: When's the News and Tribune forum?

CJ event to look at past, present, future in S. Ind., by Lexy Gross (C-J)

Southern Indiana is known for its sense of community.

The Courier-Journal wants to help the region share ideas about how to improve the lives of residents and continue the missions of many local leaders. On Dec. 12 from 2-3:30 p.m., Hoosiers will have a chance to meet some of those leaders and hear about the changes happening in their own backyard.

With the theme, "A new year: Southern Indiana's past, present and future" we will have the opportunity to look at the "big picture" of the region and what it means to live in Southern Indiana.

The event will be held in New Albany at the Carnegie Center for Art and History - an award-winning museum that's dedicated to remembering our region's heroes.

C-J critic ham-fistedly hammers Southern Indiana dining options.

Random Fb image from The Exchange.

There are a number of potential talking points here.

• Do traditional media reviewers matter any longer?
• Is the review fair to Rocky's? 
• What is a newspaper, anyway?
• What's the name of the restaurant she already reviewed?

These aren't the point of the digression.

It is this: Has this reviewer even visited downtown New Albany? Yes, Veteran's parkway is  a chain food court, but this long since has ceased to define food and dining hereabouts.

Review | Rocky's Sub Pub in Jeff is sub-par, by Nancy Miller (Courier-Journal)

... I can’t understand why the Hoosiers aren’t spitting mad that having a mediocre dinner is the best for which they can hope (with the exception of one restaurant, which I have already reviewed.)

The Ohio River is the great culinary divide. On the south side are dozens of restaurants for every taste and budget. On the north side, it’s as if a giant food court of chain restaurants thinks of their customers as second-class citizens who don’t deserve first-class food.

C-J: "Roger Baylor 'certainly serious' about candidacy."

Yes, I certainly am.

Lexy Gross is the Courier-Journal's new Southern Indiana reporter, and I think she does a fine job distilling an hour of chat into this candidate profile.

The piece features a photo of me at Bank Street Brewhouse, and I think this association is fitting and proper. After all, it forms the basis for yesterday's column: My career as a double naught capitalist.

Roger Baylor 'certainly serious' about candidacy

... Baylor understands why it might be difficult for some New Albanians to consider him a "normal" candidate. He doesn't really fit into what people in the community consider a Democrat to be, and he's "never been a Republican."

Mutchler's letter ... or, the thoroughly depressing week that was, Part 2.

In these numbingly stupid times, it's no longer possible to differentiate between fact and The Onion. In fact, The Onion is probably more factual than many alleged news sources.

But there was nothing Onion-like about Thursday's "open letter" from Dave Mutchler, president of the Fraternal Order of Police in Louisville.

I write not as a candidate, just as an ordinary citizen engaged for many years in the pursuit of small business -- and moreover, as someone who tries to live by the rules of the game and tries his best to know why we have these rules, and what they mean.

I know plenty of policemen, and do my best to support the cop on the street. Always have, always will, and yet Mutchler's words were absolutely blood-curdling for anyone who has paid the slightest bit of attention to the outside world.

"Sensationalist, liars and race-baiters" sounds plainly like rhetoric pulled directly from the worst chapters of 20th-century history books -- you know, the ones we typically refuse to read -- as uttered by people in Mutchler's position in places like Franco's Spain, the Uganda of Idi Amin, or in East Germany.

And let me tell you that having traveled in Communist countries, policemen were feared, precisely because the definition of who constituted a "lawless element" was subject to change on whim.

At Insider Louisville, Joe Dunman offers his usual precision take.

Opinion: In a free society we are entitled, right or wrong, to criticize the actions of public servants — including police.

 ... Mutchler’s letter is so dangerous because police officers wield tremendous power and privilege. Our life and liberty as citizens are often literally in their hands. When someone claiming to represent police officers puts citizens “on notice” for their “attitude,” promising to meet them “with force” should they dare not comply with orders, it invokes the most terrifying aspects of a fascist police state.

Police are public servants. They answer to all of us as citizens, even those who don’t reflexively defend their every action. They don’t get to decide who in the community they will protect and who they will target for retribution. That’s not how a democratic, constitutional society works.

I assume by criticizing Mutchler’s ill-conceived threats to the public I will be added to his list of “sensationalists, liars, and race-baiters.”

So be it. In a free society we are entitled, right or wrong, to criticize the actions of our public servants without fear of retribution by agents of the government. Those public servants swear an oath to the Constitution, which still includes, much to Mr. Mutchler’s apparent disdain, the First Amendment.

Of course, Mutchler's subsequent denial of a threatening tone to the words he chose to use testifies more than anything else to several generations of Americans passing through the portals of our education system without instruction as to the meaning of words and how to write them coherently.

The letter was so disturbing that even the milquetoast Courier Journal was moved to rare editorial eloquence.

Editorial | Don’t let Mutchler inflame tensions (The Courier-Journal)

 ... Then, we had to spend a day trying to make sense of the uncivil and unproductive letter from Fraternal Order of Police president Dave Mutchler.

Knowing that our own words are often misinterpreted or misunderstood, we read and re-read his comments. We tried walking a mile in the shoes of an obviously frustrated FOP president. But those shoes kept getting mired in one of the key byproducts of the backside at Churchill Downs.

There are times when we're looking for answers, and while the right answer may be elusive, we can at least eliminate the wrong ones. Mutchler's letter was just such a wrong answer, and that's the best I can do at the moment.

Following are two other explanatory links.

Local FOP president sends threatening open letter to ‘sensationalists, liars and race-baiters’ (UPDATED), by Joe Sonka (Insider Louisville)

Mayor and police chief issue condemnation of FOP president, by Joe Sonka (IL)

Jeff Gahan texts Greg Fischer: "OMG, the CJ called, LOL."

"Governing" (note proper use of quotation marks) by press release precludes exposure to the unscripted, as the free-lancer Esarey has discovered. In short, Mayor Gahan has no time for what remains the largest area newspaper.

Gahan faces former city controller in primary: Current New Albany Mayor Jeff Gahan faces businessman David White in the May 5 primary, by Jenna Esarey (Courier-Journal)

Incumbent mayor Jeff Gahan is being challenged by businessman David White on the May 5 primary Democratic ballot for mayor of New Albany.

The winner will face off against Kevin Zurschmeide who runs unopposed on the Republican ballot, and likely Independent candidate Roger Baylor, a co-founder of New Albaniana Brewing Co., who is working to accumulate the needed signatures to appear on the fall ballot.

Gahan, who did not respond to several requests for comment, took office in 2012 ...

The entirety of the article that follows is devoted to White, who gives mostly good interview.

... White, 56, does not agree that the city is financially stronger, pointing to $89 million in bonded debt, the loss of some important businesses, and a near quintupling of the budget for the parks department, among other things.

"We're losing Pillsbury," he said. "We're losing Indatus — they just invented a new software that no one has in the world. Obama flew in just to meet with them. In a decade we've not had one major business move in. We're not investing in things that have recurring revenue."

White closes strong, observing that the mayoral hologram is remaining cloistered.

White said he has attempted to engage Gahan in a public debate before the election. "I've sent him a certified letter every week asking him," he said. "He's hiding from his record, because it's abysmal. He won't debate me, and I'll be honest, if I was him I wouldn't debate me either."

"I'm going to win this race and I'm going to win for all the right reasons."

IL's Stephen George asks: "Has The Courier-Journal lost its way?"

What is journalism now?

IL's Stephen George has written a very frightening glimpse into daily affairs at the once mighty C-J. This one's a must-read, folks.

With more staff cuts and a newsroom reorganization driven by market research, has The Courier-Journal lost its way? by Stephen George (Insider Louisville)

The executive editor and publisher of The Courier-Journal called the news staff of about 40 into a meeting on Tuesday afternoon, ostensibly to talk about the future.

That future, they soon learned, would start with all of them reapplying for their jobs. It’s a particularly dehumanizing part of an ongoing process driven by parent company Gannett and embraced by C-J executives to incorporate more market research and demographic trends into the paper’s reporting.

Journalism -- it's the perfect place for marketing professionals, rather like the best time to smoke cigarettes is while you're pumping gas.

The extraordinary contraction of the newspaper industry during the past decade has prompted round after round of layoffs and shrinking page counts. As ad revenue has declined, newspaper executives at the C-J and up the Gannett chain have scrambled to figure out what’s wrong, devoting increasingly more time and money to market research. Reporters and editors at the C-J have been subjected to various initiatives — driven by marketing professionals and often carrying goofy corporate rhetoric — designed to better connect them with their audience, a goal most media companies strive to achieve.

Uh oh ... it's the "profit motive" thingy again.

The memo is an explicit indicator of the change in approach C-J executives are pushing. Traditionally, reporters have been protected from the market pressures affecting their newspapers. It’s as old as newspapers themselves: Profit motive can corrupt the pursuit of news and investigations that aren’t exactly sexy but remain essential to the public discourse.

Now, reporters at all Gannett publications are being equipped with technology to monitor the performance of their online stories in real time. This might seem like useful information, but the implication has been clear: Write stories that people want to read. Never mind the traditional role of newspapers as keepers of the public trust.

“I don’t think they’re ignoring (the strong journalistic tradition at the C-J),” said one staffer. “I think they’re trying to obliterate it. It’s how can we get the most metric hits.”

It's a depressing and necessary read. I'm fond of reminding the uninformed that they're entitled to their own opinion, not their own facts, but as should be painfully obvious, we've already entered a protracted period of fact elimination. Then what?

Seeds and Greens grand opening coverage in the Courier-Journal.

With the Gnaws and Trombone absent, presumably having its belly scratched somewhere in Steamboat Days, the C-J receives kudos for covering an important downtown New Albany opening.

Seeds and Greens opens for business, although City Hall wouldn't know it.

Come to think of it, were any Harvest Homecoming officials there on Saturday?

Seeds and Greens embraces farm-to-table living, by Jenna Esarey (Special to The Courier-Journal)

Seeds and Greens Natural Market & Deli drew large crowds during its opening Saturday.

Owner Stacey Freibert welcomed shoppers, proudly showing off New Albany's newest downtown business and offering samples of products and items from the store's deli.

Seeds and Greens focuses on high-quality organic, natural, and minimally processed foods, dairy, eggs and meat, house care items and homeopathic products. It will support local farmers, carrying only non-genetically modified products free from pesticides, chemicals and artificial preservatives.

Gluten-free, soy-free, and dairy-free foods are available along with vegetarian and vegan items."If you're taking a step towards a healthier life we want to be here for you," said Freibert's husband, Jeff.