Thorns & Roses: The Worst, Best and Most Absurd

Thorn: So, What Are You Hiding, Mr. Mayor?

Louisville police are suing The Courier Journal so the paper won’t get records about the abuse of Explorer Scouts by officers. At issue is how the city handled the investigation of abuse, leading to the prosecution of two former officers. The CJ’s lawyer said the case was about “trying to obtain transparency into the most serious allegations of LMPD officers in recent memory.” “Because those cases are done — officers have pled, these records have never been introduced into the court file and there won’t be a trial — the public will never know the full range of the conduct the officers engaged in, unless we can get these records,” he said.

Thorn: Hurting The One You Love

Looks like Gov.-reject Matt “Tinfoil Hat” Bevin might have helped prosecute the emoluments case against his mentor and orange-hued doppelgänger, President tRump. The Washington Post reported that Bevin stayed two nights at tRump’s Washington, D.C., hotel in January, and the state Republican party paid the bill: $686. That transaction, the story says, may “run afoul of an anticorruption provision of the Constitution barring the president from receiving any ‘emoluments,’ or payments, from the states, legal experts say.”

Thorn: Everyone Should Worry

Paid print subscriptions to the CJ dropped by 36.1% between 2017 and 2019: down to 49,474 from 77,418, according to a Business Journal analysis. By comparison, in 2011, the CJ’s average daily circulation Monday to Friday was nearly 143,000, the story says, citing Louisville Business First. The story also said that as of June, Gannett reported its digital-only subscribers totaled 607,000, less than a third of its print subscribers. The CJ’s editor did not respond to a request for comment, the story says. But the CJ’s news director tweeted this reply to Business First: “We’re doing just fine. Worry about yourselves. #loumedia.”

Absurd: Perfect For Gifts Of Coal

And finally, as if the war on Christmas weren’t fake enough, U.S. Sen. Mitch “Grinch” McConnell’s re-election campaign is offering wrapping paper festooned with images of him in a Santa hat. The quid pro quo is that you get some by donating $25 or more. If Team Mitch was really smart, it’d put his face on toilet paper.

This article appears in November 26, 2019.