It’s silly to protest this North Carolina nutjob. He’s so crazy that a protest isn’t necessary. His words do all the work for you. [HuffPo]

The paper in Lexington felt it was necessary to run a NYT piece about the 4th District race. Instead of writing about it on its own, that is. [H-L]

Here comes Mittens Romney pretending that he knows a lot about and cares about public education. [Reuters]

The feds are cracking down on food stamp fraud. We’re left wondering when they’ll start cracking down on disability fraud, which is rampant in Kentucky. [NPR]

The ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee has called on President Barack Obama to order an investigation into the case of Clarence Aaron, a federal prison inmate whose quest for a presidential commutation was the subject of a ProPublica investigation. [ProPublica]

Can you imagine what life would be like if rail travel was part of Kentucky’s reality? [Politico]

You can’t even beat somebody until their school fractures in Barbourville without being arrested these days. [WKYT]

Unemployment rates fell in 110 of Kentucky’s 120 counties in April, according to data released Thursday by the state’s Office of Employment and Training. Maybe because more people fell off the jobless rolls? [H-L]

The Kentucky Supreme Court today reversed the three murder convictions of Lloyd Hammond, who was sentenced to life without parole in 2010 for killing William Sawyers, Terrell Cherry and Kerry Williams. [C-J/AKN]

Yep, the wingnuts are all in a tizzy over the Creation Myth Museum not being the top most important vacation destination on the planet, amen. [Wonkette]

Yep, we know, the Times-Picayune is on its deathbed and is just cold producing fewer papers each week – just three days. Yep, A Kentucky Newspaper will soon be in that same boat. [HuffPo]

Senate appropriators voted 18-12 on Thursday to reinstate funding for family-planning programs abroad, setting up a clash with the House. You know Rand Paul will be losing his elfin mind over this. [The Hill]

Oh, and defending Bain.

Cute how that works.

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]

This was a dumb idea in Lexington to begin with, right? Who comes up with something like that? [H-L]

OH GOD NOW RED CHINA IS JUST COLD TAKIN OVER THE MOVIES!!!1! A Chinese conglomerate announced Monday it will buy a major U.S. cinema chain, AMC Entertainment Holdings, for $2.6 billion in China’s biggest takeover of an American company to date. [NPR]

In a time when gay satan has plagued the churches with rampant homosexual battles, a breath of fresh air has been given to those on the side of good. This story is absolutely crazy. [Wonkette]

The Kentucky Democratic Republican Party will pretend this isn’t based in reality: Obama, as we’ve noted before, has performed especially poorly in West Virginia and Oklahoma, where he took less than 60 percent of the vote. (His top opponent in West Virginia was a federal inmate in Texas, while in Oklahoma it was an anti-abortion rights activist). Obama also took just 77 percent in Louisiana, where several other candidates split up the vote. In the same vein, the Arkansas and Kentucky primaries tonight are likely to include significant numbers of Democrats spurning the president. In the former, Obama faces a one-on-one contest against attorney John Wolfe , while in the latter, he faces the “uncommitted” option. [WaPo]

A rare slip-up by lawyers has helped shed some light on a high-profile legal battle, the details of which some of the largest Wall Street firms have been fighting to keep under wraps. [The Economist]

If you’ve spent much time consuming conservative media lately, you’ve probably learned about a slow-burning “race war” going on in America today. [BuzzFeed]

Election problems were minimal by the middle of the day because next to no one showed up to vote. [H-L]

Here’s an interesting look at Joplin a year later. Is this the future for Eastern Kentucky? [HuffPo]

Late last Friday, Buzzfeed reporter and Rolling Stone contributor Michael Hastings broke what looked like a big scoop: Congress was quietly planning to lift a 64-year-old law preventing the US government from using propaganda on its own citizenry. Before the House passed its defense budget bill Friday afternoon, Hastings reported, a bipartisan group of congressmen tacked on an amendment that would “essentially neutralize” a set of time-tested guidelines “that had been passed to protect U.S. audiences from our own government’s misinformation campaigns.” [Mother Jones]

A Washington-based watchdog group says an eastern Kentucky Baptist pastor violated federal law when he urged his followers to vote President Barack Obama out of office in November. [WKYT]

Attorney General Jack Conway announced the guilty plea today of a former social worker with the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to nine felony counts of tampering with public records. Sixty-one-year-old Margaret “Geri” Murphy entered the guilty plea in Anderson Circuit Court in connection with her role as a front-line worker investigating allegations of child abuse and neglect in Anderson County. Reports of child abuse and neglect are assigned to a social worker to investigate and file a report finding the abuse or neglect is substantiated or unsubstantiated. In all nine investigations charged in the indictment, Murphy documented that child abuse or neglect was unsubstantiated.

“Margaret Murphy had a responsibility to actually investigate allegations of child abuse or neglect assigned to her, to substantiate those that merited it and take action to protect children who are living in abusive homes,” General Conway said. “Murphy not only failed these innocent children, she failed her fellow social workers who work tirelessly to protect our youngest and most vulnerable citizens.”

In pleading guilty, Murphy admitted that she falsified her reports in all nine of the investigations conducted between April 2006 and October 2010. In one false entry, Murphy stated that a man alleged to have sexually abused a seven-year-old denied the abuse during an interview with police and passed a polygraph, when in fact the man was not interviewed nor did he take a polygraph examination.

In another report of sexual abuse, Murphy admitted that she falsely documented that a father accused of sexually abusing his 11-year-old child had passed a polygraph exam, when in fact the father was never interviewed on advice of his attorney, and had never taken a polygraph examination.

In a report of sexual abuse of an infant by the mother’s boyfriend that Murphy unsubstantiated, she admitted to falsely documenting that a hair found in the baby’s diaper was found to be a canine hair rather than a human hair. New allegations of sexual abuse against the boyfriend were made after Murphy unsubstantiated the original report, and police expressed the belief that Murphy’s inaction allowed the sexual abuse to continue.

In a report that parents were providing drugs to their child, trading Food Stamp access for drugs, and not providing enough food for the child, Murphy documented that she visited the home , found no evidence of drugs, and found enough food for two weeks, including meats, vegetables, and snack food. In pleading guilty, Murphy admitted she falsified the documentation and did not ever visit the home.

Prosecution of this case was handled by General Conway’s Office of Special Prosecutions at the request of Laura Donnell, Commonwealth’s Attorney for the 53rd Judicial Circuit representing Anderson, Shelby and Spencer counties. The Attorney General’s Department of Criminal Investigations (DCI) began investigating the allegations against Murphy after receiving a complaint from a citizen who had Murphy assigned to a court case involving her family.

All nine of the charges to which Murphy pled guilty are Class D Felonies carrying a penalty of one to five years in prison each. Anderson Circuit Judge Charles Hickman set sentencing for Margaret Murphy at 9 a.m. on July 24, 2012.

One bogus worker down, no telling how many to go.

At least something serious is coming out of that mess.

Of course Paul Patton is trying to figure out a way to get even more of your tax dollars to use at his private school. [H-L]

A super PAC’s abortive plan to launch incendiary, personally charged attack ads against President Barack Obama sent a sharp warning message to candidates up and down the federal ballot: This year more than ever, they are not in control of their own destinies. [Politico]

You could fill a baseball stadium many times with the people who experts say die each year from an error, injury or infection suffered while undergoing medical treatment. Many more are harmed. [ProPublica]

After emotional appeals from parents on both sides of the case, Dharun Ravi was this afternoon sentenced to 30 days in jail and three years of probation for bias intimidation and invasion of privacy when he used a webcam to spy on his gay roommate at Rutgers University in September 2010. [NPR]

The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear an Obama administration appeal arguing that attorneys, journalists and human rights groups have no right to sue over a law making it easier for U.S. intelligence agencies to eavesdrop on foreign communications. [Reuters]

A retail renaissance? The internet and mobile phones are at long last turning boring old retail banking into an exciting industry, says Jonathan Rosenthal. [The Economist]

What’ll happen in those Whitley County elections today? Will the good old boy system further its network of corruption? [Times-Tribune]

Hal Rogers’ fancy little airport is once again coming under fire. The Feds are raising questions about services contracts at the joint. [H-L]

Nope, no one is going to vote today. Turnout is expected to be worse than, well, you can imagine. [C-J/AKN]

What happens in Laurel County when you try to break up a fight? You get hit with an ax. Obviously. [WYMT]

Rick The Splooge owes all kinds of money to his mouth-breathing folks, apparently. Is he still a thing? Why are we still talking about Rick Santorum? [HuffPo]

And that’s putting it nicely.

So let’s put on our gloves and dig in:

KRS assets fall $680 Million

The Kentucky Retirement Systems’ net assets have fallen $680 million in this fiscal year’s first nine months as investment income and contributions failed to cover rising retirement benefits and other expenses.

-SNIP-

Todd Moore, KRS accounting director, said the contributions were down about $48 million from the same time period last year because of errors in KRS’s START computer system, which was fully implemented Sept. 15.

-SNIP-

An accurate picture of the unfunded liability won’t be available until after the start of the next fiscal calendar later this year.

-SNIP-

While KRS’s assets are dropping, its liabilities are growing.

What was that, again, about KRS being completely okay and 100% solvent forever and ever?

Here’s a big mess that wasn’t discussed during the recent KRS board meeting or announced to the press by KRS. But it appeared in a fancy trade magazine:

Kentucky garners 3 midcap equity managers to run $545 million

Kentucky Retirement Systems, Frankfort, hired Geneva Capital Management, Systematic Financial Management and Sasco Capital to manage a total of $545 million in active domestic midcap equity portfolios, confirmed T.J. Carlson, chief investment officer.

-SNIP-

The retirement system’s board also committed $50 million to Wayzata Opportunities Fund III, a distressed debt fund managed by Wayzata Investment Partners, and $40 million to HarbourVest Partners VI, a buyout fund. The retirement system previously committed $75 million to each of the first two Wayzata funds and $40 million to HarbourVest Partners V, Mr. Carlson said in a telephone interview.

Why the secrecy and transparency? That’s not tough to figure out.

What stinks the most? Oh, this bit:

Todd Moore, KRS accounting director, said the contributions were down about $48 million from the same time period last year because of errors in KRS’s START computer system, which was fully implemented Sept. 15.

A tiny little $48 million COMPUTER ERROR.

Yeah.

Donors to Hal Rogers (shocker!) got a sweet deal from the government to sell them $6.5 million worth of $17,000 drip pans. All thanks to Rogers’ fancy earmarks. [NYT]

A small group of anti-war demonstrators staged a peaceful “die in” on Thursday at President Barack Obama’s election campaign headquarters in Chicago to demand an end to the war in Afghanistan and unmanned drone aircraft attacks overseas. [Reuters]

Oh, please. These Democrats are only a member of ALEC so they can go on trips for free. The same as every other Democrat and Republican in the state legislature. [WFPL]

Roger Alford spends almost every waking moment attacking this website and loving the teabaggers. So here’s more on his obsession with them. [H-L]

The Republicans are still terrified of President Barack Obama and they can’t stop foaming at the mouth. Chris Christie tried to eat everybody. And there’s no way the RPK is raising much cash with K.C. Crosbie at the helm. Won’t be long til that joint is as bad off as the KDP. [Ronnie Ellis]

In a nondescript building next to the Hard Rock Cafe in downtown Washington, a group of lawyers gathers every fortnight to bicker in public. [The Economist]

Even the NAACP has decided it doesn’t hate the gays and supports gay marriage. [Reuters]

And Maryland has decided that the gays can now get gay divorced. So. Get ready for all kinds of gay fighting. [BBC]

The Paulbots are slowly beginning to eat each other alive. It’s almost interesting watching them foam at the mouth now that their overlord has admitted permanent defeat. [Politico]

When MaryAnn Nellis tried to pay for groceries on April 14, her credit card was declined. Later, she said, she found out why: Her credit card company, Capital One, had flagged an earlier purchase as potentially fraudulent. The problem? A $5 donation to Friends of Scott Walker, the Wisconsin governor’s campaign committee, Nellis said. [ProPublica]

This whole “war on coal” scam is near-death. Almost no one believes there’s actually an effort to kill coal forever. The mouth-breathers like Bill Bissett and the Kentucky Coal Association continue to push that non-sense and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars attacking anyone who dares question mountaintop removal or dares suggest the world consider other energy options. [The Hill]

I’ll Have Another overtook Bodemeister, blazing down the stretch to win the Preakness in the final strides Saturday and keep alive his hopes of winning the Triple Crown. [NPR]

Nope, Chris Christie didn’t rip his suit while in Lexington. He apparently ripped Barack Obama. Or tried to. But it was really tough to stand at the podium for a long time. [H-L]

The Obama administration on Thursday ordered hefty tariffs on solar panels imported from China, arguing the Chinese goods are sold below fair-market place and are endangering the U.S. clean energy industry. [Slate]

Comment on Kentucky will likely be a bit boring tonight on KET at 8:00 P.M. Eastern. But you should consider watching it anyway. Scheduled guests: Joe Gerth, Donna Groves, Amanda Van Benschoten’s replacement. [KET]

Can you imagine Steve Beshear – a man who can’t even say the word “gay” – doing this? Kansas Governor Sam Brownback apologized on Thursday to blacks for segregation in his state in the last century as he marked the anniversary of a ruling that struck down segregation in schools. [Reuters]

This is what you have to look forward to in the Fourth District, Kentucky! A candidate whois so embarrassingly ill-informed that a KET host has to school him and a candidate who wouldn’t know what hypocrisy was if it slammed into her special interest-driven face. [Page One]

The renewed focus on President Barack Obama’s controversial pastor is reviving the issue that neither presidential campaign wants to discuss directly: race. But the differing reactions Thursday from Obama aides and Romney officials to revelations about a planned ad campaign linking Obama to Rev. Jeremiah Wright shows that Obama has more to gain than Romney if race enters the 2012 campaign. [Politico]

Could this be the counter revolution? Fusty old retail banking faces its biggest shake-up in 200 years. [The Economist]

While you’re spending thousands of dollars on vacation this summer? Don’t forget those in Kentucky – especially children – who need your immediate help to avoid hunger. Yes, this is a real and serious problem in the Commonwealth. [FOX41]

This is the first story the Herald-Leader has run, really, about the 4th District Congressional race. And you wonder why voter turnout is going to be abysmal. [H-L]

Some obese white guys are freaking out over where President Barack Obama was born. Again. Because why not? [Wonkette]

Louisville makes this list of the most religious cities in America. Northern Kentucky also makes the list, kinda. [HuffPo]

One of Greg Fischer’s legacies will be the failure of Louisville Metro Animal Services. The latest embarrassing move (out of thousands – literally) only solidifies that. [The 'Ville Voice]

Let’s pretend this isn’t a complete waste of time and taxpayer dollars. Starsky, from Starsky & Hutch, was busted for having gross weed in Bowling Green. [WKYT]

So what’s the latest?

A super-expensive “white paper” attacking the Sierra Club.

Take a look:

CLICK FOR PDF

Bill Bissett wishes desperately that he could be accepted by everybody as a non-spinster. But. Uh. As long as the KCA is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on crap like this? We’ll continue to believe they’re full of it.