At The Aggregate, a discussion of the ethics and legality of Slick Jeffrey's 4-H Fair propaganda blitz.

As we've pointed out numerous times in the past, the campaign finance cash Jeff Gahan collects from pay-to-play special interest donors and the tax proceeds we all pay into local government are often co-mingled to the point of pea soup fog. Too many voters shrug it off. They shouldn't.

The problem is compounded by the mayor's ego, which has long since swelled past the dimensions of a dirigible. He genuinely believes the press clippings generated by his own propaganda commissariat, and he can't tell the difference between the city and himself.

We can do something about this in November: #FireGahan2019

Gahan for Mayor at the Fair?, by Daniel Johnson and Madison Miller (The Aggregate)

Last Wednesday, on a sunny day in New Albany, the Fair in Floyd County was offering everything from classic fair food to a full rodeo and grandstand events. It has been a long tradition, particularly in our smaller communities, for kids to bring their livestock and show them off before the market sale. For many of these kids, the Fair will be the highlight of the season. In the photograph above, Jeff Gahan, the current Mayor of New Albany, who is up for re-election this year, enjoys this event alongside his constituents by handing out free ride tickets in front of a Floyd County Democratic Party tent. Voters will be sure to remember this at the booth come election day. This was one of many Mayor’s Nights that have been going on for years, and it was not the first time Gahan has participated. However, this act of kindness has some political implications that, it could be argued, are unethical, or worse, illegal.

As voters in a republic, we all deserve to have the full context of actions taken by elected officials ...

Attention, News & Tribune: "Politicos take liberties when it’s nobody’s job to hold them accountable."

"Those civic watchdogs make a difference to the bottom line."

Hence my recurring point. As newspapers like the News and Tribune become forever more oriented toward human interest stories and whatever bells and whistles impel web clicks, local government coverage devolves into stenography.

Straight up: The News and Tribune abdicates its civic watchdog role more often than not.

But you're saying wait -- this CityLab article is about newspapers that shut down; we still have half a local newspaper in New Albany

Maybe half. More like one-fourth. When the Tribune and Evening News merged, the main office was established in Jeffersonville, and I believe it's a foregone conclusion that the center of gravity shifted east with it.

Take solace. The return of the newspaper's cooking school, some sort of pet adoption scheme or even a Chalupa Walk surely lies just around the corner.

The Hidden Costs of Losing Your City's Newspaper, by Kriston Capps (CityLab)

Without watchdogs, government costs go up, according to new research.

When local newspapers shut their doors, communities lose out. People and their stories can’t find coverage. Politicos take liberties when it’s nobody’s job to hold them accountable. What the public doesn’t know winds up hurting them. The city feels poorer, politically and culturally.

According to a new working paper, local news deserts lose out financially, too. Cities where newspapers closed up shop saw increases in government costs as a result of the lack of scrutiny over local deals, say researchers who tracked the decline of local news outlets between 1996 and 2015.

Disruptions in local news coverage are soon followed by higher long-term borrowing costs for cities. Costs for bonds can rise as much as 11 basis points after the closure of a local newspaper—a finding that can’t be attributed to other underlying economic conditions, the authors say. Those civic watchdogs make a difference to the bottom line ...

"The Long Con": Elmer Gantry was a fumbling neophyte compared to the late Dan Johnson.

Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting, please come to New Albany, where the charlatans are as high as a clergyman's eye. 

This one goes out to those of my friends living outside the United States, who may be observing the state of affairs in my homeland and wondering exactly what happened to the better angels of our nature.

To me, these angels seldom ever existed. The longest con of all involved convincing ourselves they actually did. These days, we're simply reverting to the mean.

For the record, two days after the results of this investigation started being released, Rep. Dan Johnson killed himself. Rough justice, perhaps, but arguably better than no justice at all.

THE POPE'S LONG CON, by R.G. Dunlop and Jacob Ryan (Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting)

A Kentucky preacher-turned-politician's web of lies

... The Pope, as everyone knows him, commands this side of the room, his voice tinged with the Louisiana drawl of his youth. His biceps are decorated in ink, his sideburns white, his golden pompadour thinning.

Long ago, Johnson fashioned an identity as a modern-day American patriot. Pro-gun, pro-God, pro-life. He talked in 2013 about making America great again. He lamented the lack of God in everyone’s lives. He wept over the country’s future.

But behind this persona — cultivated, built up and fine-tuned over decades — is a web of lies and deception. A mysterious fire. Attempted arson and false testimony. Alleged molestation in his church.

In Johnson's wake lies a trail of police records and court files, shattered lives and a flagrant disregard for truth.

This seven-month investigation is based on more than 100 interviews and several thousand pages of public documents. It also included numerous attempts to interview Johnson, who refused all requests.

Over and over, there were warning signs for government officials, law enforcement, political leaders and others. Yet, virtually nothing was done. For years, Johnson broke laws. Now, he helps make them.

In his latest feat, Johnson catapulted himself into the Kentucky Capitol in 2016 as representative for the 49th House District.

The Sacramento Valley Mirror: "I don’t see many small papers doing what we do."

Now THIS is what I'm talking about. Thanks to the Bookseller for the link. As he notes, we've both really needed this timely reminder of how things ought to work.

Granted, I can't link to something (The Sacramento Valley Mirror) that isn't on-line, but it's enough to know the district attorney and sheriff in Tim Crews' town seem annoyed at having to answer questions.

Boy, can we relate to such attitudes here in New Albany. Then again, our bunker-ensconced elected officials don't have a newspaper of any sort yapping at their heels.

There's a blog, of course, and this comment from the article hits the center of the target.

"It does get people talking, that’s for sure. Nobody will admit to reading it, but everybody seems to know what he writes."

I'm interested in hearing from readers who are or have been in the newspaper business. Why does it take a cranky country publisher/curmudgeon to be the exception to what should be the rule?

A few highlights ...

Meet the ‘cranky country publisher’ who files lawsuits instead of tweets, by Daniel Funke (Poynter)

At the Sacramento Valley Mirror, Tim Crews is everything.

He’s the founder, publisher, editor and owner. He reports, takes photos and sells ads. The newspaper is so small that he even helps deliver copies when it prints twice a week.

And you wouldn't know it by his blank email signature or no-nonsense tone, but Crews is also a controversial, bulldog investigator. He’s used open records to expose wrongdoing by public officials, penned countless editorials about various misdeeds and published long-form investigations about local government. But what people think of the plucky 73-year-old varies widely, from a noble bastion of watchdog journalism to a scandalous rabble-rouser who’s up to no good.

This:

Crews said he has been shot at, his office burgled, his building set on fire, his car's brakes weakened and his dog Kafka poisoned. In late March, Crews and reporter Larry Judkins were the subject of threatening phone calls and complaints after writing about a local homicide, according to a recent Reporters Without Borders (RSF) article. The Mirror publisher even sent the journalism advocacy organization a photo of a noose that was left in front of the newspaper's downtown Willows office in late April.

Just imagine:

In a time when many local papers have been decimated by cost-cutting and shrinking print ad budgets — merging, folding and compromising good journalism for clicks — the Mirror stands out. The 16-page broadsheet has become known for both its fight for open records access in California and its penchant for local gossip — despite having only a three-person full-time staff and a smattering of volunteers.

Because:

For Crews, the fight for press access and government transparency isn't a principled or glorious one. It's a way of life — one he’d like to keep up for another 10 years.

"You have to just stand up for yourself," he said. "If someone is messing with you, you have to fight back. It's just the American way."

This:

"So far as small papers are concerned, we’re a little unusual," Judkins said. "When people run out of other options, they often come to us with the hopes that maybe a little light — a little public exposure — will help whatever problems that they may have."

“If we don’t report it, who will?”

That's the question at the top of each copy of the Mirror, which has a surprising amount of influence in a town of a little more than 6,000 people.

Hey -- Bill Hanson, you of your former minister's weekly religious advocacy column -- Roger is tanned rested and ready:

The Mirror has one of the only Atheist columns in the country, and it doesn't charge for wedding photos or obituaries.

Investigative? Be still my throbbing heart.

"That kind of stuff that newspapers in the past always did, we still do. But on the other hand, we’re very much an investigative organ," Crews said. “People want to know what’s going on.”

"He’s really done a wonderful job of showing people what a newspaper can do when it really covers the news, and really goes beyond just covering the news — when it finds foul play or a lack of public access," Rebele said. "That's the kind of thing Tim does.”

Throwback?

Crews has no website. He doesn't tweet, isn't concerned about growing his digital audience and says the migration of newspapers to the internet is "ruinous." What he does have is a desire to seek out and report the truth, a record of improving his community and a substantial network of people who support him. And it's not limited to his mostly senior audience or old newspaper pals.

Teaching access. It's like an alien language, eh?

"Tim Crews has been probably our most successful mentor of interns when he takes one. All those interns come out of that experience with Tim just raving because they learn so much about public records and how to get access to meetings," he said. "In its own way, and for its own community, Tim Crews has done the same thing (as big newspapers). It's just that Tim's reach is not as great as the L.A. Times’ reach is."

But what about sports, sports and more sports?

"If you want to know what’s going on in Iraq, this is not the place to look," he said. "People in small towns deserve A1 journalism the same as everybody else."

Treat yourself. Follow the link, and read the whole article.

Deaf Gahan says housing vouchers are the panacea. An NPR and PBS investigation bursts the mayor's bunker bubble.

Perhaps Adam Dickey believes that between them, Jeff Gahan, David Duggins and Dan Coffey can solve a nationwide voucher problem right here in Go Away (Poor People) City.

It's just another reason why New Albany's drooling class is unfit for command.

When Housing Assistance Fails, by Tanvi Misra (CityLab)

An NPR and PBS investigation puts two housing assistance programs under the microscope—and finds fraud, discrimination, and wasted taxpayer dollars.

Section 8 vouchers were created in 1974 to help poor residents move to neighborhoods with more jobs, better schools, and less crime. But only one in four households that need rental assistance, including Section 8, actually receives it. It’s not an entitlement as many would think, Urban Institute’s Erika C. Poethig explains—it’s a housing lottery.

But the lucky winners are often relegated to neighborhoods with concentrated poverty, thanks to the program’s design. Even if these vouchers cover the entire rent, landlords in high-opportunity areas will often refuse to take them. And even if they do, people who receive housing assistance face discrimination in their new neighborhoods. As Emily Badger explained in The Washington Post, “Section 8” has become “a racial slur” over time.

CARTOON: The News and Tribune's Bill Hanson weighs the relative merits of investigative journalism.

Erika makes an investigative funny.

Perhaps the strain of three posts in ten days is getting to New Albany's infamous faux academic.

Investigate?

Papa?

But her post isn't even about sports.

QUESTIONS FOR MR. MAYOR AND NEW ALBANY'S MERIT BOARD MEMBERS........

... Maybe it's time for Chris Morris of the News & Tribune to investigate what is going on here with the recent cutting of Officer Schook's pay and benefits...