Reading the Downtown Jeffersonville News and Tribune reminds me of a certain food.

The Downtown Jeffersonville News and Tribune is getting very good at covering news that occurs within walking distance of the newspaper's headquarters ... in downtown Jeffersonsville.

As for the rest of us, there are scraps, sports and the odd bit. Anyone feel like some head cheese?

After all, parts is parts.

What Is Head Cheese And How To Eat It (Melanie Cooks)

“Head cheese” is not a cheese. I don’t know why it’s called cheese, when it is, in fact, meat! Head cheese is a jellied meat made from the meat of the head of a pig or cow. That’s why it’s “head”, but who knows why it’s “cheese.”

Following is an excerpt from an old story of mine about eating and drinking in (soon to become independent) Slovakia when I was teaching in Kosice in 1991.

Why repeat it? Because the only way I can get the bad taste of the News and Tribune's seemingly inexorable decline out of my mouth is to imagine pleasant things like beer and snacks going into it.

Can someone pass the vinegar?

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Jozef announced his unshakable preference for a dish called t'lachinka: "Do you like our food?" he asked. "T'lachinka is Slovak food of tradition. At this restaurant, it is very good. Okay?" He actually smacked his lips.

"Maybe it isn't so good for you," said Ludmila. "Maybe your stomach is not good for our Slovak food." Vladimir laughed. Jozef looked dismayed. "No, no," he said, "it is best food for beer. We eat t'lachinka and drink beer. Yes?"

Yes.

The beer arrived. One taste confirmed that it was Pilsner Urquell. Three tastes later, it was gone. So was Jozef's. Vladimir, good‑natured and quiet, abandoned his half‑full glass to find the waitress and order another round.

I told Ludmila that Slovak food was fine. The previous evening, I'd gone with another student to the Gazdovska wine cellar, an atmospheric, slightly scruffy restaurant where the specialty is bryndza hluska, which I'd heard much about but not sampled.

Every Slovak I'd spoken to considered it to be incompatible with American tastes, perhaps owing to its topping of melted sheep's cheese. Naturally, the Gazdovska's bryndza hluska was excellent: pea‑sized dumplings in a white gravy, topped with tangy cheese and real bacon bits, and accompanied by a glass of golden Tokaj wine.

Back at the Zlaty Dukat, Ludmila was impressed by my familiarity with Slovak cuisine. Moments later, two platters of t'lachinka arrived.

In the lunchmeat section of the typical American supermarket, you'll find t'lachinka. It's called head cheese.

With obvious relish, Jozef said "watch me, okay?" He shifted a stack of raw, chopped onions onto slices of the compressed, unidentifiable, gelatinous meat. He ladled vinegar from a small tureen, dousing the quivering stack of meat by‑product and onion.

After that, all was flashing forks and lengthy drinks of the world's finest pilsner beer. I didn't hesitate to follow suit, and the t'lachinka was good. Why waste time contemplating internal organs and slaughterhouse scrapings so long as they taste good with beer?

Paging Mr. Hanson: "Media Condemns Julian Assange For Reckless Exposure Of How They Could Be Spending Their Time."

Bill Hanson's right on top of it.

Oh, dear. Lots of religion, but not a single word about this.

Meanwhile The Onion wryly offers a reminder to the prom planning committee.

Media Condemns Julian Assange For Reckless Exposure Of How They Could Be Spending Their Time


WASHINGTON—In the wake of the WikiLeaks founder’s arrest by British authorities on behalf of the U.S. for charges stemming from the publication of classified military documents in 2010, members of the American media condemned Julian Assange Friday for the reckless exposure of how they could be spending their time.

“We denounce Julian Assange in the strongest possible terms for his negligence in publicly demonstrating the kinds of work journalists could actually be doing to investigate government malfeasance and hold the powerful accountable,” said Washington Post editorial page editor Fred Hiatt, speaking on behalf of many of the leading members of the media who castigated Assange for never once considering the harm that bringing rampant government criminality to light no matter the consequences could do to other news publications’ reputations.

My letter to the editor about Jeff Gahan's Money Machine: These are down-low times for local journalism and governance -- but I'm just a self-promotional blogger.

I throw back my head and emit raucous laughter.

Roger,

The News and Tribune received a letter to the editor from you regarding the New Albany mayor’s race.

In reviewing the letter, there are a couple of changes needed for it to be published. The parts of concern are highlighted and referenced below:

• The “point of fact” is inaccurate; it is opinion.
• The highlighted phrases and word indicate criminal wrongdoing and since no such criminal convictions exist, cannot run.
• We do not publish Blog promotions in taglines

We are happy to reconsider publication of your letter once those concerns have been addressed.

— Susan

Tellingly the local chain newspaper's editor has found it expedient in the past to take many similar liberties when lambasting Donald Trump, but I suppose that's somehow different.

Roger: Here is my second try. I changed some words and omitted a few others. I don't suppose the newspaper would be willing to divulge the dollar amount of ads purchased annually by taxpayers for Gahan's self-promotional "city of New Albany" ads? The city won't tell me. Perhaps the expenditure comes from a third party. Is that how it works?

Susan: Thank you addressing our concerns. This version is just fine and will run on Thursday’s Opinions page. I don’t have the information you are seeking, but it wouldn’t be appropriate for us to share client information anyway.

Sharing the amount of tax revenue being expended to advance Jeff Gahan's personality cult dozens of times yearly as part of the mayor-for-life's quest to brand a city with his own face?

Jeff Gahan has been branding the city in his own image, and using our money to do it, but we need collective thinking, not the shoddy veneer of a personality cult.

No can do, bucko. Revealing the money in this fashion apparently would violate the sanctity of journalism, which brings to mind the words of Abraham Lincoln to his hesitant general, George McClellan -- paraphrased to suit my own thoughts.

If the Jeffersonville News and Tribune does not want to use journalism, I would like to borrow it for a time, provided I could see how it could be made to do something.

Bill Hanson was cc-ed in the preceding discussion. He never uttered a peep. Perhaps he was busy in the home library listening to Tom May audio books.

Here's my letter. Don't forget to #FireGahan2019

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR — For Thursday, Feb. 14

Mayor Gahan has too many outside backers

During the past eight years, Mayor Jeff Gahan has presided over a campaign finance operation of unprecedented scale and dimension. Let’s call it the Jeff Gahan Money Machine.

Presumably collecting campaign finance donations from the usual suspects is Gahan’s only real skill as a politician. The game is simple: self-interested parties give Gahan lots of money, and receive benefits so blatantly obvious that a six-year-old could figure it out.

Could someone run off and fetch a six-year-old to narrate the video?

Let's make one thing perfectly clear. While it’s true that everyone involved is responsible for perpetuating the cynical patronage system Gahan has so laboriously constructed, the upshot is that one person and one person alone might have chosen from the beginning to erect a higher bar and deter the possibility of corruption stemming from the practice of “paying to play.”

That's Jeff Gahan himself, but apparently transparency is too much for citizens to expect from a C-minus student, and so Gahan opted for the behind-the-scenes money. Tens of thousands of dollars have migrated to Jeff Gahan from out-of-town companies, lawyers, lobbyists, unions and PACs. Now there is a pervasive odor requiring a long overdue electoral purge.

Fortunately there’s a better way. Democratic mayoral candidate David White has stated publicly that he will not accept donations from individuals and corporate entities seeking favors to do business with the city. As such, White rejects personal benefit from the disbursement of public funds.

Rather, White seeks to restore genuine merit to the process of vending, consultation and contract seeking. With White we'll have ethical standards from the get-go — not a cesspool on the down low.

I encourage you to visit White’s website, to engage with him and to vote White in the primary. White won't have Gahan's $175,000 campaign finance war chest, much of it coming from outsiders, but he has something even better: straight talk, transparency and an honest desire to put the people of New Albany first, not Gahan's cliques and special interests.

White’s web site: www.davidwhiteformayor.com

— Roger A. Baylor, New Albany

Following the money: HWC Engineering made city streets even safer for speeding cars. Now the company will oversee the Reisz Mahal. Can campaign donations be far behind?

Speaking only for myself, whenever I'm confronted with an anti-climax like this, I reach for my Rice Krispies Treats. HWC's Ed Jolliffe probably does, too.

For many years prior to being awarded so many city contracts that it opened an office within eyesight of the mayor's anchor-bedecked window, HWC annually pumped thousands of dollars into Mayor Jeff Gahan's campaign finance war chest, which at last glance was topping out at around $100,000.

We all know why.

David Duggins was the city's redevelopment director, and his wife worked for HWC. It reeked of nepotism, but who other than this blog bothered to state the facts aloud?

Accordingly, the stenographers strike again with yet another gullible report on the awarding of YET ANOTHER contract to HWC, this time to manage construction of the new luxury city hall.

What will it take for the News & Shambles to inform the public of the many cash-strewn trails running from special interests like HWC to Gahan's Money Machine?

What the newspaper's cloistered management apparently fails to understand is that for a growing number of us on the outside of this enrichment loop, journalistic silence about City Hall's corruption implicates the newspaper itself. Perhaps this is an unjust point of view, but as it stands, it's the only logical conclusion to draw from the newspaper's failure to report facts.

Meanwhile, it appears that municipal corporate attorney and chief sluice greaser Gibson was misquoted.

WAS: "They (HWC) will make sure what we bought is what we will get."

CORRECTED: "They (HWC) will make sure a percentage of what the city bought lands in the mayor's campaign finance account."

HWC to oversee city hall construction in New Albany, Chris Morris (Hanson Capitulation Chronicle)

NEW ALBANY — As work progresses on transforming the old Reisz Furniture building at 148 E. Main St. into the new city hall, the city has hired HWC Engineering to complete ongoing inspections during the construction period.

Shane Gibson, city attorney, told the New Albany Board of Public Works & Safety on Tuesday that HWC will be onsite daily.

"They will make sure what we bought is what we will get," Gibson told the board.

The contract for the duration of the work is not to exceed $154,000.

The nadir of commentary: "It will be a great day for journalism when Chris Morris no longer has a platform for kissing the asses of those in power."

The city bought the property. The city refused to maintain the property. If a private citizen shunned this responsibility to the same extent that the city neglected the Moser Tannery building, neighbors would be clamoring for the ordinance enforcement to bring the hammer down.

But the mayor slobbers meaningless platitudes to the reporter, and the reporter accepts them at face value.

This is journalism, News and Tribune style.

Why does the newspaper give Gahan a free pass every single time?

(hint: follow the advertising money)

MORRIS: Loss of Moser building sad, but site's future still bright

 ... “We had done our best to seal it up. We had put a security fence in place,” New Albany Mayor Jeff Gahan said Monday. “People know we certainly have interest in historic preservation and we do our best to preserve our history. But at the end of the day we need support from the private sector.”

Bait and switch: Empathy on empty as Jeff Gahan asks you to think about an embryonic rails-to-trails fantasy rather than the resident killed by a driver while riding his bicycle downtown.

Rest assured, it remains my goal to phase out the strident polemics -- I am, and I will, but as H. L. Mencken is my witness, I simply refuse to allow both City Hall and the News and Tribune to cooperate on shameless diversions when people literally are dying on city streets owing to Jeff Gahan's casual indifference. 

Progressives, where are you? "What you permit, you promote. What you allow, you encourage. What you condone, you own." 

Article Synopsis: Mayor Jeff Gahan's announcement of a future rails-to-trails pathway from New Albany to Bedford is all hat, no cattle. For one thing, when's the last time he's been spotted walking? Most of the right-of-way lies outside of New Albany; the path should be multi-modal and not only for walkers; and all of the work (if any occurs) will take place over a period of decades. This breathless announcement is another politically-motivated diversion, intended to impress casual observers with surface sheen, even as the mayor refuses to undertake common-sense traffic-calming measures to render his own city's street grid safe for non-automotive users. 

Grade: D ... partial credit awarded for artfully stealing ideas from others

---

A guy riding a bicycle is struck by another guy driving a truck. The bicyclist dies, the driver says it wasn't his fault, civil authorities breathe a sigh of relief because they needn't give a damn (yet again), and life goes on.

Except, of course, for the bicyclist -- who never once had the chance to tell his side of the story.

How many bicyclists, skateboarders and pedestrians have to die before Jeff Gahan gives a flying fuck?

The News and Tribune scarcely notices any of it, burying news of the bicyclist's death beneath a sculpture installation and Democratic Party chairman Adam Dickey's most recent petty, formal complaint about behavior on the part of the opposing political party, to whom Dickey routinely loses elections but somehow manages to retain his position.

And, in a marvel of poor timing, Jeff Gahan chooses to occasion of another death on his city's streets to take full credit for seizing an opportunity to create a rails-to-trails project that doesn't yet exist in any tangible form, will require decades for construction and untold millions of dollars to achieve, the bulk of responsibility to be shouldered by entities other than Gahan's own TIFFed-out New Albany municipal government.

It gets even worse. Bob Caesar, himself a slobbering mayoral aspirant, gets downright servile.

“I think it’s an exciting thing,” New Albany City Councilman Bob Caesar said at Monday’s council meeting. “It’s a big deal for New Albany. This can be a big shot in the arm.”

In short, it's another day in Jeff Gahan's luxury-driven, quality-of-life (for people with money) paradise, and instead of asking myriad questions about why normal folks who haven't taken the precaution of arming themselves with automobiles keep losing their lives in downtown New Albany, the newspaper goes all in on adoration for Gahan's pastoral fantasies about building this rails-to-trails connection to Bedford, a city that the mayor tells Chris Morris might as well be Bloomington, even though a whole 25 miles separate the two cities.

The city's triumphant video about a non-existent trail system that apparently won't even touch downtown New Albany or link with the Greenway (itself 30 years in the making) was released on the same day that our car-centric street grid claimed another victim, and also at roughly the same hour as David White announced his candidacy for mayor in opposition to Gahan.

Think there might have been a connection?

As we've observed so many times in the past, whenever the cognitive dissonance becomes too much for Bud Light to handle, the mayor pops up to hoist a pleasant artist's rendition of the latest bright shiny object:

No, not that one. Maybe this one:

As for the video itself, Gahan wants us to believe he's in possession of critical knowledge of the sort that only he knows and can deploy for health and recreational benefits.

Little-known? Maybe to Gahan, until someone like Scott Wood told him.

Of course, there have been hundreds of Rails to Trails projects in America over the past 30-odd years.

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a nationwide network of trails from former rail lines and connecting corridors to build healthier places for healthier people.

The single best way to prove that "rails-to-trails" is a familiar concept nationwide is that lawyers often litigate it.

People Love (to Sue) Rails-to-Trails Projects, by Eric Jaffe (CityLab)

The federal government has paid $49 million in claims in the past year alone.

Rails-to-trails projects — old railroad corridors re-purposed for hiking and biking — have exploded in popularity in recent years. Many of the 1,800 rail-trails that now exist across the United States run through remote areas, but there are lots that go through cities, too. The Elliot Bay Trail reaches downtown Seattle; the Katy Trail winds through cities in Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri; and a whole bunch of rail-trails pepper the D.C. Beltway.

Lately, these projects have come under heavy assault from adjacent landowners. Jenna Greene of the National Law Journal recently reported that the federal government has paid $49 million to property owners who filed just compensation claims against rail-trails this year alone. With 8,000 claims pending, according to Greene, the ultimate taxpayer liability could top half a billion dollars.

What went wrong? The answer goes back to a 1983 law that made it easier to convert old rail corridors into recreational trails. Before that time, potential trail managers often backed out of projects for fear of being drawn into a legal morass of land-ownership disputes.

A few of the questions the faithful stenographer Morris might have asked, but of course didn't, include these.

Given that these negotiations with CSX date back at least to February 2018, why the timing, and why wait until now to let us know?

How much of the trail actually will be located inside city limits -- a few hundred yards?

Considering the fact that almost all of the heavy lifting will be borne by governmental entities outside New Albany, who can the mayor express confidence in success when he won't speak publicly about making his own city safe for non-automotive users of the street grid?

Isn't it just as important for this proposed trail to link with the Greenway by extending south as well as north?

Why isn’t Gahan equally "fascinated" by making downtown safe for walkers?

Wait -- is this trail intended for walkers only?

That's insane. What about bicycles -- why isn't it a multi-modal trail connecting Bedford to the Ohio River Greenway?

If the trail covers only a small portion of New Albany and Floyd County, isn't it true that our actual role in building it is equally small?

Really, $40 million?

Isn't this announcement just another in a long series of feel-good diversions from real issues like Gahan's captive NAHA's neglect of human beings in Riverview Towers?

Why use Gahan’s photo at all when the article ostensibly is about a walking trail?

Doesn't the use of Gahan's photo amount to a free campaign ad?

As for the later, we already know the answer, as George Monbiot surveys in The Guardian. For heaven's sake, News and Tribune, can you please do your damn job?

Our cult of personality is leaving real life in the shade

... The task of all journalists is to turn off the spotlight, roll up the blinds and see what’s lurking at the back of the room. There are some magnificent examples of how this can be done, such as the Windrush scandal reporting, by the Guardian’s Amelia Gentleman and others. This told the story of people who live far from where the spotlight falls. The articles were accompanied by pictures of victims rather than of the politicians who had treated them so badly: their tragedies were not supplanted by someone else’s drama. Yet these stories were told with such power that they forced even those within the spotlight to respond.

The task of all citizens is to understand what we are seeing. The world as portrayed is not the world as it is. The personification of complex issues confuses and misdirects us, ensuring that we struggle to comprehend and respond to our predicaments. This, it seems, is often the point.

Holy cow, Joe Sixpack! It turns out your own two eyes were right about Summit Springs stormwater runoff.

As to my long-term point about the theory and practice of journalism, there's this (story link below).

Surveyor David Ruckman and project engineer Scott Moser provided updates on the project at Tuesday's New Albany Board of Public Works & Safety meeting. They also addressed concerns about recent water runoff issues on State Street.

Ruckman, who is working on the Summit Springs project, said developers will address these runoff issues with a new detention basin that will control the water flow coming from the development site.

He said there are erosion control plans in place at Summit Springs, but the excessive rainfall events on June 20 and Sept. 8 exceeded those defenses.

It is fitting and proper for the reporter to record Ruckman's comments just as the surveyor made them at the Board of Public Works meeting. It's also axiomatic that Ruckman and his fellow Summit Springs project managers might not always wish to utter publicly what they know privately to be the case -- for whatever reason.

Conversely, it is not inconceivable that they're simply mistaken, but in the case of trusting one's own eyes about stormwater runoff problems at Summit Springs, even as city officials assure us all "technical" standards are being implemented, it turns out the public's vision has been very clear -- so much so that added detention precautions will be implemented.

Unfortunately,the story likely ends here. According to the newspaper, it has done its job by faithfully replicating Ruckman's comments. Still, wouldn't it be good to know more, both as it pertains to past performance and future expectations?

The potential follow-up questions ask themselves:

• What's the definition of a "normal" rainfall, given two rainfalls in less than three months have exceeded the norm?
• Are these excessive rainfalls happening more often?
• What exactly is the legally mandated minimum retention effort required for approval?
• What are the implications for Phase Two of the Summit Springs hilltop development?

And so on, and so forth, except we've been conditioned to expect that the newspaper's coverage now will cease, at least until the next rainfall event occurs. Usually it does, and this isn't the responsibility of the reporters. It's about management, which in the News & Tribune's case restricts the bulk of local coverage to feel-good human interest stories and gets investigative only when the target is sufficiently distant to pose no threat to the bottom line.

Not that I'm a cynic, but if so, I'd not only be asking the follow-up questions above. I'd be asking for the newspaper's explanation of current advertising revenue from Summit Springs planners and builders, as well as potential ad proceeds from the various chain businesses set to occupy the site -- all of it in the context of possible environmental hazards (among other unsavory ripple effects emanating from the development).

The genuine, over-arching point is simple. These answers are important irrespective of the tone of the questioner's voice.

Someone needs to be asking them, and yes, perhaps there'd be less need for gutter politics, exaggerated polemics and pure satire (my specialties) if those entities charged with pursuing the answers consistently and aggressively did so. They don't, and the News & Tribune shares this prize for underachievement with the C-J.

Has it occurred to anyone besides NA Confidential Nation that maybe -- just maybe -- the movers and shakers in this or any other American habitation of requisite size occasionally can't resist the temptation to cut a corner here and gild the lily there precisely because no one's paying attention?

Fake news and false facts needn't trickle down to us from above. They're just as likely to flower from below, and the need for journalism to be vigilant does not lessen closer to the grassroots. It might actually increase in importance.

And it cannot come from NA Confidential alone.

In the coming weeks, I'll be making changes to my method of operation. My working career in beer has resumed, and available time has diminished accordingly. My career goals can be achieved only by cutting blog time even further.

In addition, for quite some time it has been obvious this blog has hit a glass ceiling, insofar as pro bono local rabble-rousing is concerned. I'm too opinionated to abandon commentary entirely, but I'm just as weary of the battle as my adversaries, who've effectively blockaded me from information. As a result, all this energy needs to be diverted into work.

The game's assuredly not over. My positions haven't changed, and you can reference them by browsing previous posts. However, I'm changing the rules of engagement on my end, making the blog's local coverage less personal and more analytical.

What I need from you as a reader is greater participation.

I've always intended these pages to be an anthology, with contributors from many sides of the local spectrum. Your chance to grab apiece of my infamy is now. I know you're there, because you comment on Facebook. You're encouraged to add your voice here, in slightly longer and more traditional form, with my eager assistance in readying your words for prime time perusal.

I'll have more to say about all this, probably next week. Right now, there are things to get accomplished.

To conclude, the Summit Springs horse long since bounded from the barn. The imperative now isn't to avert the damage, because the harm's already been done. Rather, we need to be minimizing the environmental consequences -- and never, ever forgetting who's responsible for it.

Summit Springs to address water runoff with new detention basin, by Brooke McAfee

NEW ALBANY — Saturday's heavy rains brought attention to stormwater runoff issues on State Street in New Albany. Now, one of the next steps for Summit Springs developers is to address these flooding problems.

The Summit Springs development is under construction on the hill next to State Street, and in last Saturday's heavy rainfall, runoff water flooded the hillside. A video posted to Facebook shows brown water rushing down the road that leads to Home Depot.

Days after heroically defending press freedom, our local chain newspaper returns to swimming in fluff.

Last week our own (or more accurately, the city of Jeffersonville's) News and Tribune hopped on the Boston Globe "free press" bandwagon with all available leaden feet, then returned to rescued kitten stories, (short)cut 'n' pastes from local restaurant social media feeds, and a third -- fifth, 32nd, 315th -- weekly Tom May column.

Ironically, "dereliction of duty" is the Trump-obsessed News and Tribune's default as it pertains to the excesses of Team Gahan.

 ... We can be sure that somewhere this morning deep within the labyrinthine bowels of the down-low bunker, over decaf coffee and Eggo waffles, Team Gahan is laughing aloud at the News and Tribune's editorial.

Not because the editorial isn't correct. It is. But Jeffrey and the gang know it has nothing to do with them, because the newspaper will not practice locally what it preaches nationally.

Just imagine if the local chain newspaper's management team actually applied these bold sentiments not only in denunciation of the faraway president, but as a daily mission statement to monitor the persistent chicanery of local officials.

To repeat, Bill "Make Advertising Great Again" Hanson and the editorial team are perfectly correct to defend a free press from attacks by the moron-in-chief, although when it comes to deploying this situation for the community's benefit, they all should stand to be reminded of Abraham Lincoln's vexed comment about his primary general's unwillingness to fight the enemy:

"If General McClellan does not want to use the army, I would like to borrow it for a time."

It's interesting to note that not every newspaper in America joined the parade. In this op-ed piece, John Diaz of the San Francisco Chronicle explains why his editorial board did not, and perhaps the conclusion states it best:

Our editorial page will continue to speak out against this president’s war on the free press. Our silence on Thursday is testament to our commitment to do it in our own way, on our own timetable.

Wait ... this feels almost like a pulse, from a newspaper accustomed to walking the walk and not merely talking the talk. It must be nice to have a newspaper like that, but in New Albany, we don't know the feeling. For the likes of Jeff Gahan, the News and Tribune isn't the free press.

It's more like a free pass.

Why the San Francisco Chronicle isn’t joining the editorial crowd on Trump, by John Diaz (San Francisco Chronicle)

When the Boston Globe called on the nation’s newspaper editorial boards to come together against President Trump’s “dirty war on the free press,” regular readers of The San Francisco Chronicle no doubt assumed we would be among the first in line.

After all, in our unsigned editorials and in my Sunday column, this newspaper’s criticism of Trump’s efforts to delegitimize, threaten and neuter independent journalism has been clear, emphatic and repeated since the early days of his presidential campaign.

But our editorial board will not be joining the estimated 300 newspapers which have signed on to the Globe’s pitch for a coordinated editorial campaign in Thursday’s editions.

Ironically, "dereliction of duty" is the Trump-obsessed News and Tribune's default as it pertains to the excesses of Team Gahan.

Can someone fetch the irony sickness bag?

We can be sure that somewhere this morning deep within the labyrinthine bowels of the down-low bunker, over decaf coffee and Eggo waffles, Team Gahan is laughing aloud at the News and Tribune's editorial.

Not because the editorial isn't correct. It is. But Jeffrey and the gang know it has nothing to do with them, because the newspaper will not practice locally what it preaches nationally.

Just imagine if the local chain newspaper's management team actually applied these bold sentiments not only in denunciation of the faraway president, but as a daily mission statement to monitor the persistent chicanery of local officials.

As I've noted time and time again, this same chain newspaper accepts all sorts of advertising dollars from City Hall. Then, when the proper questions of officials aren't asked, and the propaganda they ooze is yet again accepted at face value, the newspaper's leaders bristle at the obvious conclusion.

These are flowery words, guys, and to be sure, they're both merited and appreciated overall, but it's time for Bill and Susan to discard their delusional tendencies, adjust the newspaper's vision locally, and grasp that it's not only the president of the city council who needs to be examined more closely.

It's also the chief consolidator of shadowy local power, Mayor Jeff Gahan, serial dispenser of advertising largesse. To him, these taxpayer dollars constitute protection money to keep journalists at bay, nothing more. Begin demanding the truth from Gahan, and watch as he stammers.

That's because he cannot tell the truth.

Until the newspaper finally BEGINS scrutinizing Nawbany's Dear Leader -- not serving as fawning stenographers, but actually digging -- then these noble words simply are not being backed by real-life deeds. When it comes to Gahan's machinations, "dereliction of duty" is the newspaper's default setting. Scratching one another's backs cannot be characterized as "scrutiny" or "accountability," can it?

When will this deferential neglectfulness change?

OUR OPINION: We are defined by purpose, not the president 

 ... The fallout from Trump’s media blitzkrieg is being felt in newsrooms across America — including this one. The negative comments have reached our ears. Some dismiss us out of hand, as if we were more annoyance than a partner in the community.

We remain committed, though, to delivering the news of the day — without sanitation — and information that but for our efforts would elude public scrutiny.

Our leaders — be they presidents of the nation or of the city council — do not get to choose to whom they are accountable. They are accountable to the citizenry.

We intend to hold them to it. To do anything less is dereliction of our duty.

But Ms. Duncan, when will the News and Tribune begin to "speak out" on relevant local issues and "challenge" local leaders?

Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. The newspaper manages the first half of the equation, but seldom the second.

Editor, heal thyself.

DUNCAN: The meat matters, by Susan Duncan (Tom May's Soapbox)

Silence is complicity — no matter the realm.

Failing to speak up — about anything — indicates a level of acceptance.

As long as Jeff Gahan keeps spending taxpayer money on this ...

... will the newspaper ever "challenge" the mayor as those demonstrators did Mitch?

People who yelled at U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as he dined in Louisville last weekend — it happened twice at two different restaurants — had reached the point where they could no longer keep quiet.

People in leadership positions understand, or should realize, they will be challenged. Not everybody is going to agree; unanimous consensus is elusive.

Here's a friendly hint, editor. Follow the rivulets feeding Gahan's Money Machine.

You'll feel like yelling, all right.

Our civility today has been diminished, but not our civic responsibility. We should speak out. And circumstances sometimes demand we speak up at a decibel that reaches yelling.

Cooking school crashes into Jeffersonville home, and the paper is right there to baste it.

File under: Muscle memory, although "atrophy" is a more appropriate word.

It should come as no surprise that on the day after cooking school, the paper still is busy promoting it. This lends regrettable credence to a friend who predicted (or was it a prophecy?) ...

Don't you realize you'll soon see -

"The Return of The Son of The Cooking School"?

"Due to the recent success, we've decided to repeat the classes so those who couldn't attend … "

He's right, and we're probably doomed to another six months of irrelevance while waiting for the 'Bama pensioners to approve a New Albany beat reporter, but let's stumble forward with this:

PHOTO: SUV crashes into Jeffersonville home

But how did it get there without a driver? Did it roll across town?

Now, if I were to stroll up to the mayor's car and douse it with red paint, I'm guessing the banner wouldn't read "Paint can vandalizes mayor's car."

Or, to be more topical: "Kitchen utensils fashion the perfect souffle."

Although maybe they did. After all, never second-guess Bill Hanson's journalism auto-pilot.

Just imagine if we had a newspaper in New Albany (1): Politically, it has been all Jeffersonville-centric.

Jeff Gillenwater's Fb summary of the differences in the News and Tribune's political coverage of Jeffersonville and New Albany is  clear and succinct.

He didn't have occasion to mention the piece examining mayoral candidate finance in Jeffersonville (not in New Albany).

In New Albany this political season, we've had two previews apart from debate coverage, one for council and the other for mayor. That's all.

Yes, it's true: New Albany's N and T reporter left his job just as the election season was approaching full boil. However, since the 2011 merger and the main office moving to Jeffersonville, it's a discussion about disparity that we've had more than once.

The newspaper will issue its standard denials, and so it goes. In a broader sense, the News and Tribune faces a future challenge shared by all traditional news outlets in the  area, which need to come to grips with the fact that we started voting two weeks ago. Print and television media released their election previews and information packages just this week. Probably 30% of voters, maybe more, already had voted by the time these appeared.

as for Jeffersonville/Clark County versus New Albany/Floyd, it's out of kilter, and speaking personally, I doubt it ever changes so long as the office is located in Jeffersonville. As usual, I hope I'm wrong.

Take it away, Jeff.

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The difference in the News and Tribune's political coverage of Jeffersonville and New Albany is sometimes pretty amazing. In Jeffersonville, they ran a fact check of mayoral debate claims; not in New Albany, where several Gahan claims would have proven less than truthful.

Now, in Jeffersonville, they're questioning whether a city publication is just publicly funded mayoral campaigning in light disguise. That sort of thing has been happening in New Albany consistently for years now but the paper has asked no such questions. Instead, they run articles like this one.

There's nothing in the record here suggesting that Team Gahan had anything to do with this cabinet company moving to the outskirts of New Albany nor did the business owners mention parks or pools - what Gahan calls "economic development" - as reasoning in support of their decision. The paper, though, runs the release alongside a photo Gahan has been using for campaign purposes, making an association where there is none just before the election. If the paper isn't going to question the mayor - something they have an abysmal record of not doing - perhaps they could at least question themselves a little.

Just imagine if we had a newspaper in New Albany (2): Dissecting PACs in Jeffersonville, not in New Albany.

There are numerous items of interest in the campaign finance reports submitted by Jeff Gahan, Kevin Zurschmiede and me.

Perhaps less so mine. To my knowledge, there are no "entity" donors, only individuals. I raised less than 10% of Zurschmiede's total. Gahan's up on me 45 - 1.

We did what we could with Gahan's report.

(Video) Show Me the Money: Gahan's campaign contributors ... or, how to buy and sell a city.

Just imagine ... better yet, to see how it might have been done, let's turn yet again to Jeffersonville, and something approximating election coverage.

Jeffersonville mayoral candidates using PAC donations ... Moore leads Julius in overall fundraising for top post, by Elizabeth Beilman (News and Tribune)

JEFFERSONVILLE — In addition to their campaign funds, Jeffersonville mayoral candidates Republican Mike Moore and Democrat Dennis Julius have benefited from political action committees this election cycle.

A PAC called Hoosiers for Jeffersonville donated a total of $100,000 to Moore's political committee, named I'm For Mike Moore, this year. The transfer leaves just $593 in the PAC's account.

Contributors to Hoosiers for Jeffersonville are almost exclusively engineers and architects, more than half employed by companies — or companies themselves — that have been contracted by the city under Moore's administration.

Just imagine if we had a newspaper in New Albany (3): Debate fact checking in Jeffersonville -- not New Albany.

Of course, the first advantage enjoyed by voters in Jeffersonville is that neither of their mayoral candidates decided to game the debate process by opting out, as Jeff Gahan did in New Albany -- or participating in a debate organized by one of their own appointees, in one of their own showpiece buildings, with questions provided in advance.

As Edgar Winter once urged, "Come on and take a free ride."

The second plus is linked here. For New Albanians reading the newspaper, it's epochal, breathtaking and offensive, all at once: A reporter uses a phrase like "here are the facts," and it applies to something important, like an election,

Come to think of it, we did experience pre-election investigative reporting in October, 2014.

News and Tribune bombshell: "Fake Facebook accounts linked to State Rep's wife."

Since then ...

Fact or fiction? Weighing the truth in Jeffersonville's mayoral debates ... Weighing the truth in Jeffersonville's mayoral debates, by Elizabeth Beilman (News and Tribune)

JEFFERSONVILLE — Throughout all three debates this election season, Jeffersonville mayoral candidates Mike Moore and Dennis Julius challenged the accuracy of some of each others' statements, asking audience members to look it up for themselves.

Here are the facts.

Just imagine if we had a newspaper in New Albany (4): Mayoral propaganda questioned in Jeffersonville -- not New Albany.

There's a story just like this one waiting to be written, right here in New Albany. City Hall's conventional media touts, social media feeds, billboards ... the vast majority of these featuring the face of the incumbent mayor in an election year.

I've written about Jeff Gahan's bizarre cult of personality.But perhaps more importantly, who's paying -- candidate Gahan or the taxpayers?

And who's peeling back the layers?

Journalism, anyone?

New Albany deserves some every now and then.

Is Jeffersonville newsletter informative or simply a timely political publication? ... Moore: 'Progress' updates on city projects; Commissioner: It's an ad, by Elizabeth Beilman (News and Tribune)

JEFFERSONVILLE — Jeffersonville Redevelopment Commissioner Marty Chalfant says the newsletter the department released last week uses taxpayer dollars to double as campaign material for Mayor Mike Moore.

The newsletter, called Progress, is an eight-page glossy publication with articles and accompanying photographs detailing recent projects that the redevelopment commission has championed — and some that it's had minimal involvement in. One article contains two factual inaccuracies.

"I am not running for public office, nor trying to keep a job," Chalfant wrote in an email to the News and Tribune. "I am a lifelong Republican who is upset that my name is attached to a false political ad without my knowledge or consent, and that redevelopment commission dollars are being used to fund political ads."