A study finds that – yet again – Fox News viewers are the least informed of all. You’re so shocked, we know. [HuffPo]

Two top U.S. financial regulators said on Tuesday the issues around the initial public offering of Facebook should be reviewed, putting fresh pressure on the company, its lead underwriter, Morgan Stanley, and the Nasdaq stock exchange. [Reuters]

The UofL Indigent Care Board got its ass handed to it in the latest audit by Adam Edelen. [The 'Ville Voice]

Wonder why Republicans are having trouble with Hispanics this cycle? Maybe because they’re comparing immigrants to dogs. [Politico]

How rural America got fracked. The environmental nightmare you know nothing about. [Mother Jones]

You should check out the comments from this school psychologist. Nope, not racist at all. And you wonder why America is effed up the goat butt. [Wonkette]

The Kentucky State Police will add a new tool to help solve crimes and analyze crash scenes. [WKYT]

Pakistan has sentenced the doctor who helped the United States find Osama bin Laden. And the U.S. continues to throw millions at that jacked up country of awful. [HuffPo]

Let’s take a look at the conservative fantasy history of civil rights. Yes, mouth-breathers, this means you. [NY Mag]

Mittens Romney versus Liberty Christ Rand Paul in 2016? Rand wishes. He believes he is the chosen one. [NPR]

The US could fall off a “fiscal cliff” if tax rises and spending cuts due to take effect at the end of 2012 are not avoided, auditors have said. [BBC]

Four in ten Democratic voters chose someone other than President Obama on Tuesday in primaries in Arkansas and Kentucky. [The Hill]

The burden of air pollution and asthma is not evenly shared among U.S. children. [HuffPo]

Folks love to hate David Williams and some of that hate is well-deserved. But he helped make this thing in Louisville happen. [C-J/AKN]

Sorry, Marty Cockring, but the jesusian mouth-breathers did refuse to print those t-shirts because the clients were gigantic, sparkly gays. Stop playing pat-a-cake. What you neglect to mention, however, is that the mouth-breathers also did the right thing by finding another company to print the shirts for them at the same damn price. So you can’t really say they’re discriminating. The Lexington gays went after them because they knew it would be a problem. It’s so blatant that you don’t even hear the usual gay voices chiming in to support them. Additionally, I hope you some day have to suffer at the hands of the Aryan Nation for daring compare gay rights activists to the AN. What a despicable thing. [H-L]

Every singly media outlet in the state ran a story about Hal Rogers’ longtime aide retiring. Because that’s apparently important news. [WTVQ]

We’ve heard more about this story from the bourbon industry than we ever imagined. Seems a certain signature industry is about a pop a vein. [The 'Ville Voice]

Yes, this absolutely is the most boring presidential election ever. [Rolling Stone]

Wait, are we supposed to feign shock and surprise that the University of Kentucky board of trustees is going to vote to raise tuition again? [WKYT]

What? Yet another Republican who is unfamiliar with the minimum wage? Surely not! [HuffPo]

Something doesn’t smell quite right about these Kentucky tourism claims made this week. [H-L]

Who wants to bet this Paul Patton effort to take coal severance funds from several counties to create scholarships at the University of Pikeville isn’t going to work out so well? [C-J/AKN]

Looks like Alecia Webb-Edgington’s silly “gun rights” endorsement is negated by the latest teabagger move. [Kenny Coleslaw]

Adam Edelen says he’s going to review micro-government groups like lie-berries, sewer and fire districts. [Ryan Alessi]

How dare Mittens Romney hire a known homosexual to do campaign work! The shame! Horror! [HuffPo]

Calumet Farm finally sold for $36 million. Guess the claims that it wasn’t being sold were flat-out lies. [H-L]

Have you ever wondered how a police agency chooses their police vehicle? The answers vary and obviously depend on the needs of the agency regarding the type of service delivery and geographical terrain that they routinely patrol in. [Rodney Brewer]

How crazy is it that a truckload of Jim Higdon’s Cornbread Mafia was STOLEN? Hoo boy. [Crumbled Cornbread]

Adam Edelen isn’t mincing words when he discusses Richie Farmer or his corrupt former appointees who put thousands of lives at risk. [Ryan Alessi]

Today Papaw Beshear appointed John Phillips to the Horse Racing Commission, replacing John T. Ward. [Press Release]

Months before Barack Obama knew Mitt Romney would be his political opponent in 2012, the president knew the identity of his foremost literary challenger: Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Maraniss, who had been reaching out to Obama’s old friends, classmates and lovers for the past several years. [Politico]

From Bear to Lehman: Documents reveal an alternate history. [PBS]

The Securities and Exchange Commission seems to think that it has done a much better job of investigating financial crisis wrongdoing than the Justice Department. And it’s true. But it’s like being proud that you’re the “Dumb” of “Dumb and Dumber.” [Pro Publica]

These green innovations aim to feed a world of 9 billion people. The United States should take note. [Reuters]

U.S. alcohol retailers find law changes are hard to swallow. The US consumes more bottles of wine than any other nation in the world. But almost 80 years after the end of Prohibition, buying a drink can still be tricky. [BBC]

Ugh, two people died in an Eastern Kentucky house fire. We wish the region could receive some good news for once. [WYMT]

And just like that, Richie Farmer’s guy got axed from “The Amazing Race.” Talk about coincidental timing. [WKYT]

The Cabinet for Health and Family Services and Steve Beshear’s crew are still withholding child-abuse death records. So much for promised transparency. [H-L]

Ever wondered how Cordish Cos. runs local businesses off at Louisville’s 4th Street Live? Here’s a look at one of many issues. [The 'Ville Voice]

Mmm hmmm. The South Central Los Angeles 1992 riots, the largest in American history, were a lesson to a society that still has a lot to learn about the injustice of our economic system and its refusal to honor labor with decent wages. It is a lesson about the injustice of the legal system. It is a lesson in how people WILL rise up when things become so horribly skewed in favor of one group over another that something must be done. [FourStory]

The only thing spot-on in this story is the fight between Steve Beshear and Brereton Jones. I’d be hilarious watching Brereton have to take a trophy from Papaw. [C-J/AKN]

The high cost of tax breaks? Not so easy. Closing loopholes is politically painful. [The Economist]

Really? A “trend” of newer, younger faces in Frankfort? We guess that’s why there are so many people constantly running unopposed and so many people older than Steve Beshear. [WFPL]

U.S. hospitals are ripping out wall-mounted toilets and replacing them with floor models to better support obese patients. The Federal Transit Administration wants buses to be tested for the impact of heavier riders on steering and braking. Cars are burning nearly a billion gallons of gasoline more a year than if passengers weighed what they did in 1960. [Reuters]

On a scale of one to Steve Beshear blaming all of his problems on David Williams, how angry is Shawn Jones of the Kentucky Medical Association? [H-L]

The Obama campaign is out with a new web video Monday that highlights the accomplishments of President Obama’s first three years in office — and concludes that there is “still more to do.” [Politico]

Mmm hmmm. TAKIN YER GUNS. Uh oh you guys. A forensic technician for the Los Angeles coroner died and it might have been poison. And he may or may not have personally worked on Andrew Breitbart’s corpse. And it was the same day good ol’ Sheriff Joe “announced probable cause for forgery in President Obama’s birth certificate.” And this is all in the same story because? Can’t help you there, dudes. [Wonkette]

According to a new study, religious belief decreases with analytical thinking. Can’t be having folks think for themselves, now! [HuffPo]

Turns out? Richie used state resources and employees for his own personal gain. He’s still refusing to be interviewed by auditors but you can bet he and his people will trash this report anonymously and in the press.

“The law makes no distinction between icons and the rest of us, and neither do I,” Edelen said. “The report paints a clear picture of an administration that had no qualms about treating taxpayer resources as its own. The former commissioner had state employees on state time take him hunting and shopping, mow his yard, build a basketball court in his backyard, and even chauffer his dog. He showered himself with gifts and office equipment and rewarded friends with jobs. These are just some of the documented abuses that should outrage every Kentuckian.”

The highlights:

• Over a two-year period, the former personnel director was directed to reserve hotel rooms in the names of two employees who she knew would not be staying overnight during the State Fair. The former commissioner used the rooms for his family members at a cost of $4,257 to taxpayers.
• Employees did work at Farmer’s home on state time. They built a basketball court and moved a gun safe from his garage to his basement.
• Employees drove Richie on hunting and shopping trips. He went so far as to force a merit employee to leave a training session while in Indiana to drive him to a store.
• In 2007 and 2011, he used products purchased by his department and donated by Kentucky Proud vendors to create gift baskets for his family members.
• You already know about the two small refrigerators he had.
• Two laptops assigned to Richie remain missing
• He hid the true cost of the 2008 Souther Association of State Departments of Agriculture conference
• Six $449 rifles signed for by Richie remain missing
• The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service gave the department ginseng it confiscated during an illegal harvest. USFWS directed the department to sell the ginseng and use the proceeds to benefit the ginseng industry in Kentucky. The exam found the department spent $43,000 of the $241,000 proceeds toward the purchase of vehicles for its animal enforcement officers, who do not perform duties associated with the ginseng program.
• $15,000 in tobacco settlement funds were maybe misappropriated
• $70,457 was paid to one employee for work hours and travel miles that can’t be substantiated
• An in-law of Richie’s employed as an amusement safety inspector did all kinds of crazy things. Like disabling a GPS device used to track distances and movement.
• Richie signed the timesheets of his girlfriend/mistress because his chief of staff refused to do so/couldn’t substantiate any work she did
• A former executive director and former director told staff to delay action against a grain dealer because it was during an election year and could cause a negative political outcome for the former commissioner.
• A $1.65 million fuel-testing lab that was projected to test 20,000 samples a year has not met its goal and lost the state more than $744,000 in fiscal year 2011.
• Roughly half the department’s employees had permanently assigned take-home vehicles. Many of the employees were not justified in having state vehicles.

There’s lots more detailed in the report. 41 findings and 126 recommendations. Many issues surrounding the reporting of taxable benefits to the IRS and Kentucky Department of Revenue. So you’ll likely want to read it all:

CLICK FOR HUGE PDF

You’ll absolutely want to read the rest – including remarks from Jamie Comer and some photos of guns and gifts – after the jump…

Attached at the end of the auditor’s report is a six-page letter from Jamie Comer, the current Commissioner of Agriculture, detailing all of the changes he’s made as a result of Richie’s shenanigans. A taste:

Your audit cited a number of employees who could not account for their time and were not performing their job duties. In addition to taking disciplinary action against these employees, I have directed that every vehicle assigned to a field inspector in a consumer protection role be fitted with GPS monitoring.

-SNIP-

Additionally, on your suggestion, I froze the compensatory pay-outs for a number of employees pending the findings of this audit. I have already determined that at least two of these payments totaling more than $5000 are unwarranted. I will not exacerbate the disregard to the taxpayers by releasing compensatory payments to employees who cannot account for their work product.

-SNIP-

The mismanagement of the fuel lab in our Office of Consumer and Environmental Protection is a deep concern. Not only was the fuel testing process applied arbitrarily, there was no effort to obtain outside contract work that could make the fuel lab the revenue-generating program it was intended to be.

Guns Richie took – he only returned a few:

One of the many gifts worth more than $200 that Richie didn’t report:

Turns out? Richie really is forgettable. And maybe in a heap of trouble.

Here’s a damning story about the Ohio River Bridges Debacle in Louisville that you will never see in A Kentucky Newspaper. [News & Tribune]

Handing open-government advocates a partial victory in a better than decade-long battle, the Federal Communications Commission voted Friday to require major network affiliates in the top 50 TV markets to post information about their political ads online. [Sunlight Foundation]

Don’t miss Comment on Kentucky tonight at 8:00 P.M. Eastern on KET. Scheduled gusts: Ryan Alessi, Joe Gerth, Greg Stotelmyer. [KET]

A Senate investigation reveals that there is little evidence that torture produced anti-terror breakthroughs. [HuffPo]

Here’s your chance to win a copy of The Kentucky Derby. It’s all about the Run for the Roses becoming America’s premier sporting event. [Page One]

A southern Kentucky town is up in arms over a request by a local tavern to allow pole dancers to be paid for entertaining patrons at a bar straddling the Kentucky-Tennessee line. [WLEX18]

Can you imagine suing your dentist because he dropped a small screwdriver down your throat? Lawwwwd. Talk about an awesome surgery. [H-L]

Remember the Clay County magistrate who stabbed his wife earlier this week and then killed himself? The 911 tape has been released. This is one of the most shocking and tragic stories we’ve seen in months. [WKYT]

The Kentucky Supreme Court says universities can’t ban guns in staff and student vehicles on campus. [C-J/AKN]

The esteemed KARL ROVE & CO. firm is out with its first electoral map of the season, and whoo boy does it show some kinda landslide for Barack Obama, giving him approximately 700 electoral votes. All in a push to skeer meemaw and your racist poppop into throwing cash at him. [Wonkette]

Just like that, the White House caved an scrapped child labor farm rules. So you can get back to enslaving your children. [HuffPo]

“I am very pleased to see this improvement made to the Executive Branch Code of Ethics and look forward to being able to work even more closely with the Auditor of Public Accounts in the near future,” Executive Branch Ethics Commission Executive Director John Steffen said. “I am also glad to finally have the Executive Branch Ethics Commission added to the list of agencies to whom public servants may turn for whistleblower protection.”

We’d say this is kind of a big deal.

Turns out he spent $930 for that little link. Which seems beyond silly.

The best thing, though, is that his office has already received at least one major complaint.

Take a look:

Informant Information
First Name: Chris
Last Name: Tobe

-SNIP-

Tax Fraud Details
Type: State Agency
Other Type:
Description and Information: This is a link to a 32 page document by a former SEC attorney, which proves many deficiencies in an APA report

The complaint was assigned a claim number and it looks rather official.

We’re betting this isn’t what Edelen had in mind when he launched the new link on his website. And we’re betting nothing will happen.

Businesses in Lexington are raising money for tornado victims in West Liberty. Some folks know how to do the right thing. Here’s hoping officials in Morgan County figure out how not to be corrupt and wasteful. [WKYT]

Meanwhile, shady characters in Morgan County are continuing to thieve and be, you know, awful. [H-L]

Adam Edelen launched some new page on his website that allows people to report waste, fraud and abuse. Remember, however, that you don’t have to go through his office. You don’t have to risk your livelihood or reputation. You can typically report fraud to law enforcement anonymously. And if you don’t get anywhere, you can always come to us with the guarantee of anonymity and confidence. [Click the Clicky]

It’s a little sad that Rick The Splooge Santorum is dropping out of the presidential race. Who will hate everybody now? [WaPo]

Woo, yeah, awesome sauce. Let’s let a bunch of fat, racist, white blobs march on Frankfort to keep Kentucky white and pure, amen! Because Jesus etc. [Some Gay ]

If Jack Conway can’t be trusted to investigate the shenanigans at Kentucky Retirement Systems or Kentucky Educational Television… how can he be trusted to monitor doctors’ prescriptions? [FOX41]

Maybe for Kentucky’s next act, it can do something like fire teachers for suggesting students ask permission to hold fundraisers for Trayvon Martin rather than cause disruptions without approval. [Wonkette]

You know you want to win a fancy copy of Jim Higdon’s Cornbread Mafia! Go enter ASAP and consider supporting his Kickstarter project to take the book on tour. [Page One]

As you Republicans in Kentucky continue to push Chris Christie as some savior of your dying party (yes, we know the Democratic Party in Kentucky is dead), remember that he’s a lying, fat blob who can’t count. [HuffPo]

You’re sure to be working yourself up into a froth over his upcoming visit. [Bluegrass Politics]

Turns out Greg Fischer knew MONTHS in advance about his drunk driving Metro Parks Director and he did nothing about it. Nothing but sweep it under the rug, that is. [The 'Ville Voice]

These are honest questions we and many others have.

How is it KET can avoid state government budget cuts (we’re glad they were avoided, full disclosure) with $11 million in assets at two 501 ( c ) 3 non-profits?

Three employees are paid amounts beyond their six-figure state salaries. That’s enough to raise an eyebrow or two.

Take a look at Page 7 of this KET 990:

CLICK FOR PDF

Shae Hopkins, Donna Verhoeven and Fred Engel. With Hopkins pocketing $192,000. At KET.

It’s unlikely for Adam Edelen to be able to adequately audit the agency because he’s a former board member.

Crit Luallen never touched the agency because of her own personal ties – a friendship with Ginni Fox and being listed as a reference on Hopkins’ application. And because there’s never really been any wrongdoing there.

Hal Rogers got his outfit in Somerset wired for teevee thanks to KET. One of the many reasons he continues to throw money at it and they continue to give him the reach-around. And you know the National Telecommunications and Information Administration rarely blinked at eye at giving KET cash while Rogers had a hand in funding.

With so many personal ties to the people in charge of directing cash to KET and direct, personal connections to those in charge of making sure money is spent appropriately… don’t you think it’d be a good idea for an independent source to dig in just to make sure?

We certainly do.

If nothing’s amiss, KET will welcome deeper public scrutiny with open arms. It’ll void any mouth-breather foaming and help guarantee its future success. An in-depth examination may even open the doors to more funding with ways to better spend money. And we all know Kentucky could use a bit more education and promotion.