Mitch McConnell once again forgets that he is the pot calling the kettle black. [The Hill]

How badly will the Time Warner transition from Insight hurt? Will lubrication be necessary for customers in Kentucky? [H-L]

Kentuckians are already familiar with the damage that can be done with outside campaign money and activity. It’s the only way teabaggers can get elected. [NPR]

What? You mean your schools are selling out to big ag like Monsanto left and right? [Mother Jones]

Trader Joe’s is opening in Lexington at the end of June and that means Lexington hipsters are pooping their pants in excitement. [WLEX18]

Thomas Massie seems to have a problem with Kentucky Open Meetings laws and the Office of the Attorney General is sniffing around. [Page One]

This mess in Colorado where bond companies get involved in pushing school construction campaigns sounds a lot like what goes on here in Kentucky. With both schools and court houses, that is. [Denver Post]

A former supervisor of the KFC Yum! Center has sued the Kentucky State Fair Board, claiming he was fired after reporting “illegal and dangerous conduct” by board employees. Which sounds just right in Louisville and Kentucky. Whistleblowers always get fired and torn apart. [C-J/AKN]

Do you live in one of the most well-read cities in America? Of course not! You live in Kentucky. [HuffPo]

The last few years has been pretty much a nonstop ride of positive safety PR for the nuclear power industry, right? I mean, this is a technology that absorbed an enormous earthquake and tsunami and barely even killed anyone/left whole towns uninhabitable/terrified the world. Heh. [Wonkette]

Police in western Kentucky are investigating the fatal shooting of a woman who worked as a counselor in a middle school. [WKYT]

Here’s the gist: Massie didn’t provide notice for at least eight meetings of the Lewis County Fiscal Court that took place in 2011. His office has been pressed since April to provide documentation and cannot do so.

So Jim Parsons filed a complaint with Massie and with the OAG, which we hear is investigating and encouraged Parsons to file the complaint.

Here’s a look at the latest letter sent to Massie from Parsons:

Pursuant to the provisions of the Kentucky Open Meetings Act (the “Act”) I hereby file this complaint that 8 meetings of the Lewis County FIscal Court in 2011 were conducted in violation of the Act. On April 17, 2011 you responded to my open records request wherein I requested copies of the notices sent in advance of 14 special or recess meetings of the Lewis County Fiscal Court that took place in 2011. However, you were only able to produce notices for 6 of those meetings and produced no notice for any of the recess meetings. Therefore, if the notices do not exist for the 8 meetings in question, it is my contention that such meetings were held in violation of the Act; and pursuant to the Act any action taken at those meetings (including the adoption of the county budget) are voidable by a court of competent jurisdiction.

The recess meetings that occurred should be treated as special meetings under the Act and, therefore, you should have issued notice for those meetings in compliance the Act’s requirements for calling special meetings.

For your information, I have included my open records request, your response and a list of the 2011 meetings of the Lewis County Fiscal Court which indicates which of the recess or special meetings that you were able to provide notice.

Should you have questions regarding this matter please contact me.

Parsons CCd the letter to Amye Bensenhaver, one of Jack Conway’s deputies.

CLICK FOR PDF

The meetings Massie provided notice for are in bold:

• Recess Meeting on 2/28/11
• Recess Meeting on 3/3/11
• Recess Meeting on 3/28/11
• Recess Meeting on 4/25/11
• Recess Meeting on 5/23/11
• Special Meeting on 5/27/11
• Special Meeting on 6/27/11
• Special Meeting on 7/22/11
• Special Meeting on 8/26/11
• Special Meeting on 9/6/11
• Special Meeting on 9/13/11
• Special Meeting on 9/29/11
• Special Meeting on 10/24/11
• Special Meeting on 11.29/11

The others? Seems he’s got something to hide for some reason.

It is our understanding, according to folks in the OAG, that the letter of complaint had to be filed with Massie before the OAG could investigate.

Update on May 17: A note to Jack Conway’s office: You can tell a reporter what you want about you not investigating or sniffing around. You can say you don’t have a valid complaint because the County Attorney hasn’t been consulted. You can’t go back on your word. That said – the CA has donated to Massie. So… let’s get real. Your office told Parsons what to do and told me what you were up to. Now do your job. The reporter may be easily snowed by you but we won’t be. We know Parsons followed – to a T – what you told him to do.

The president of a mail order bride company has been lobbying Republicans to water down protections for abused immigrants. [HuffPo]

Lexington is still super-nervous about potential United States Postal Service closures. [WLEX18]

Anybody receive those nasty, negative robocalls from Alecia Webb-Edgington? She’s had a lot of nasty things to say about her opponents. [Alecia's Hypocrisy]

Why is the jack-booted government arresting all of these nice white supremacists?! [Wonkette]

Way to go, Morehead, this is just the sort of story you need to make the town seem awesome. [WKYT]

Way to go, Morgan County, for having one of your own stab a dog during a domestic dispute. Let’s keep it up with the backwater behavior. [H-L]

Gas prices have been falling for five consecutive weeks, defying prognosticators who said the cost would soar to a national average of $5 a gallon. [HuffPo]

Earlier today, Hershael York endorsed Gary Moore in the 4th District Congressional primary. [Press Release & Video]

Yep, let’s keep pretending mouth-breathers won’t vote on the basis of race and such. It’ll work out really well for the country. [WHAS11]

It’s always nice to see Kentucky artists getting lots of national recognition. So take a look at these ten Kentucky bands you should listen to now. [Paste Magazine]

Michele Beard Bachmann hates America so much that she has exercised her right to become a Swiss citizen. [Reuters]

Why do people choose political loyalties over facts? It’s likely not all about money and perceived superiority. [NPR]

The American Pain Foundation shut down as Senators launched an investigation of painkillers. [ProPublica]

A majority of Kentuckians favor a statewide smoking ban. Interesting that David Williams supports it and Steve Beshear does not. [WFPL]

The copilot in the Comair 5191 crash speaks in a new documentary film. [H-L]

There is a party in the pants of “Exodus International,” and nobody wants to come! And that is why the group has canceled its upcoming “Love Won Out” convention, in which ex-gay ladies show off their human male husbands, and ex-gay men show off Michele Bachmann. [Wonkette]

Let’s get something clear: Crit Luallen did have enough information from Richie Farmer’s employees to do a scathing audit like Adam Edelen did. Jack Conway even had information about wrongdoing. I know because I’ve discussed it with their staffers for years. With more than 100 people on staff, Luallen certainly had the manpower to conduct such an audit. And while we’re talking about Farmer… why aren’t we talking about corrupt former Democratic commissioners like Logsdon? [Joe Gerth]

Hillary Clinton says she wants to see a female U.S. President but that it won’t be her. [HuffPo]

Why is it so expensive to buy or sell a house in the United States? The foreigns take a hard look at it. [The Economist]

Just changing your name when you’re a mega bank with mega problems won’t solve anything. [Reuters]

Lawwwd, you can’t even rent your house out in Lexington without finding two dead bodies in it. [WKYT]

Also, you probably can’t even go anywhere in Lexington without catching the pertussis! Whatever that is. (Okay, we know it’s whooping cough, but go with it.) [WLEX18]

US hostage Warren Weinstein has pleaded with President Barack Obama to meet his captors’ demands in a video released by al-Qaeda’s media arm, says US monitoring group Site intelligence. [BBC]

Remember last week when he got our hands on that fancy letter about state payroll problems? The mainstreamers wouldn’t have seen it otherwise. Yes, we’re tooting our own horn. [Page One]

This is proof that craft beer in Kentucky is a hot ticket. Now, if only Kentucky would recognize that killing the silly label tax could seriously fatten the state coffers. [H-L]

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]

We would have been content with never considering his background. Never digging into anything. But his folks harped non-stop on a few points and his campaign has mentioned them dozens of times. So we figured it was time to poke around a bit.

Especially after his latest campaign mail piece:

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Within the letter, there’s this passage:

That’s what really prompted the research.

The letter goes on to reiterate:

• While at MIT, Massie invented a touch-based computer technology
• He and his wife started their own company
• He raised $32 million in venture capital
• He created 70 jobs
• He obtained 24 patents
• He is a successful businessman

While he’s seen success as a businessman and deserves credit, some of those claims are a bit of a stretch.

In a masters thesis at MIT titled When Machines Touch Back: Simulating–and stimulating–the most intimate of senses – filed June 1, 2005 – you can learn quite a bit. The author, Kevin Bullis, revealed:

• While in college, he became a lab assistant to a professor who’d spent years working in robotics. Massie’s ideas as a college student were incorporated into that professor’s work. Because the idea was developed in the lab at MIT, the school holds the patent.
• Massie is listed as the “co-inventor” of the first device. His professor is the other. He’s the “co-inventor” with as many as six people on other devices.
• Massie holds no patents in his own name.
• Massie and his wife started a business which only generated $220,000. He then sought out people with business experience. They invested in and took over the company. Massie was designated “Chief Technology Officer”, not president or CEO.
• Massie traveled to China to find an off-shore manufacturer for his device. (Sending jobs overseas?)
• When Massie’s business ideas were rejected by management, a huge cat fight broke out. He sold all of his stock and owned none of the business after 2002.

It would seem that he didn’t raise all of that $32 million. He didn’t solely create 70 jobs. He doesn’t hold 24 patents and was merely one part of many involved in obtaining them.

While he’s no career politician, he certainly reminds us of a guy named Greg Fischer. Particularly on the patent and business front. Because none of those specifics from the thesis – which was defended and researched – are ever part of Massie’s campaign rhetoric.

Greg Fischer-Light? New inventor of the ice machine fairy tale? Or standard political operating procedure? The story is really nice until you examine the specifics. And then you’re left with that weird Fischer taste in your mouth.

We all know that KRS is refusing to pay the attorneys of SEC whistleblower and now-former KRS board member Chris Tobe because, well, he’s an SEC whistleblower. It’s blatant retaliation.

Now, according to hot rumors all over Frankfort (though no one from KRS or from Tobe’s camp will speak on the matter), the Wisconsin law firm representing KRS is claiming it won’t pay Tobe’s KRS-related legal bills because he talked to the press. Was it because of our coverage here at Page One? Or was it because of what Tobe’s attorney wrote for Forbes? Because it all seems like a convenient excuse to us.

We warned against Crit Luallen’s decision to approve the KRS gag order and now the agency is using it for retaliation against a whistleblower. A whistleblower who could potentially save the Commonwealth of Kentucky billions of dollars. You’ll recall that Luallen reaffirmed and approved the nightmare in her less-than-stellar audit:

We recommend trustees follow the KRS Board bylaws to refer all news media inquires to the Executive Director and do not discuss matters that affect KRS or the board generally with the Media

The absolute furthest thing from transparency possible.

It was such a horrible mistake – purposeful or not – on Luallen’s part that it was one of the few times we criticized her. She reached out to us. Her staff reached out to us. Current Audit staff continue to act anxious with us when the topic comes up. That’s how hot a mess it is.

Kentucky Retirement Systems and its out-of-state law firm – in documentation we’ve seen – are bringing up a portion of the Kentucky Revised Statutes KRS has itself violated for at least three years. KRS 61.645(19) (c), which we’ve written about previously.

It’s a shame taxpayers are spending mad amounts of cash for this level of corruption.

Note: the ACLU of Michigan fought gag orders against college trustees. Other individuals and groups around the country have done the same. When will someone step up in the Commonwealth of Kentucky to do what’s right?

We, as taxpayers, cannot afford to allow this Get Out Of Jail Free Card from Crit to continue to be played.

Lookit:

Bridge navigational lighting was the main topic of discussion on the opening day of public hearings Monday in the Eggners Ferry Bridge incident. The hearings were convened by the United States Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), and were held in the Paducah City Hall city commission chambers.

-SNIP-

Representatives of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet were questioned about the maintenance of the navigational lighting on the bridge in the months preceding the Jan. 26 incident. Thomas Hines, KYTC District 1 transportation engineer supervisor, testified that the bridge lighting system began experiencing problems following an allision with a vessel Nov. 15. That incident knocked one of the green navigation channel lights loose, but did not break it, he said. KYTC crews subsequently went out to the bridge “two or three times” to reset the breakers because the lights were off, Hines stated.

On Jan. 23, Hines said he received notice that all lights were out on the bridge. He decided to check it out himself, he stated, and was not able to get the breakers to hold. He then informed the Coast Guard of the lighting issue and scheduled work for the following morning. On Jan. 24, the crew was able to get the lights on the upstream side of the bridge – the side from which the Delta Mariner approached – working. Lights on the downstream side remained off, and Hines stated he informed the Coast Guard of the conditions. Work was scheduled to resume on Jan. 27, due to rainy conditions expected for Jan. 25-26, which could have been hazardous to the road crew.

-SNIP-

Coast Guard investigators questioned Hines about the proper configuration of lights on the bridge. According to Coast Guard lighting plans presented, the Eggners Ferry Bridge was to have red lights on both sides of five piers, as well as green lights above the four navigable channels. In addition, there were to be three vertical white lights over the main channel, used mostly by commercial vessels. Hines testified that he was not aware that the white lights were required until after the Jan. 26 incident, and that to his knowledge, the white lights had never been working in the entire time he had been in his position, which was at the time of the crash, a little less than a year.

A letter from the Coast Guard District 8 bridge administrator to Hines dated Dec. 15, 2011, raised concerns about the state of the lighting on the bridge, and noted that several complaints about the state of the navigational lighting had been received. The letter included the lighting plan, as well as direct mention of the requirement of having the three white lights. Hines said that he “must have missed it” when he read the letter. He added that Coast Guard officials had never specifically asked him about the white lights when he spoke with them in conversations over the phone.

Evidence was also presented that the monthly night time inspection of the lights on the bridge was not conducted in December 2011

-SNIP-

Steven Smith, highway traffic technician superintendent, stated that he was made aware approximately 18 years ago that the white lights existed and were supposed to show the main channel.

Click here to read the entire piece.

Still think the Commonwealth will get off without a hitch?

“[M]ust have missed it.” Riiiight.

And you wonder why the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet is hands-down the most corrupt agency of state government.

Heads-up to a KYTC “Information Officer” – personally attack me (Jake) or anyone raising legitimate questions about this again and see how quickly the web stretched from Junior Stotts’ driveway to Jack Dice to George Justice to Steve Beshear unwinds. You will not like it. I’ve been sitting on the story for several months. Just waiting for a slow news day/reason to waste my time. Consider this a promise because you corrupt SOBs have done enough damage to the state while the rest of Frankfort looks the other way.

Or maybe I could write about your involvement with a highway contractor in charge of painting? You know, the one ripping the state off with the assistance of KYTC personnel? The one who got caught by the Kentucky State Police thanks to a company whistleblower? Yeah. I’m sure you’d love for me to write about that before the case gets to court. Whoopsiedaisy.