UofL piggy bank for the rich | Thorn
The forensic audit of the UofL Foundation is shocking and validating. It uncovered a culture of deception, disastrous investments, excessive spending, self-dealing payouts and awards of sportsball tickets. Most shocking: Auditors identified no crimes, but the attorney general says he is investigating.
Like your cards now? | Thorn
Among the audit’s findings is that the UofL Sportsball Kingdom was suckling on the foundation’s teat at the expense of real students, you know — not so-called student athletes but the ones who are there to learn. Perhaps WDRB’s Eric Crawford said it best: “Instead of a self-sustaining athletic department, the picture of athletics that emerges in this audit is of a department that leaned heavily on the university’s fund-raising arm for some salary and facilities needs so that it could continue to spend more each year on its own operations, even as the university itself struggled to cope with shrinking state appropriations.”
Free Speech is not fr$$ | Thorn
More than a dozen Kentucky lawbreakers, nee lawmakers, were convicted in the early 1990s for selling votes on horse racing legislation. It triggered reforms aimed at hobbling greedy lawmakers. Now, a federal judge has ruled that the lobbyist gift rule is unconstitutionally vague and overbroad. “The scope of the gift ban is so broad that even a glass of water may be considered a violation...” the judge wrote, according to The Courier-Journal. The ruling also says lobbyists can contribute to candidates. One defendant, GOP state Sen. John Schickel of Union, called the ruling “a great victory for freedom of speech.” We call it a great ruling for preserving the oligarchy.
With a name like conn | Absurd
Kentucky lawyer Eric Conn was freed on bond before sentencing for disability payment fraud, even though the FBI said he had stashed money around the world, traveled widely and indicated he would flee. But prosecutors agreed to bond, and the judge said the FBI lacked enough proof, The CJ reported. So Conn carried off one last con last week — he fled.
Better there than here | Rose
President tRump was in Cincy last week.
