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]

Why did Thomas Massie allow this bank in Lewis County to be robbed? He hates America. [84WHAS]

Please, hold your laughter. What? The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet maybe did something corrupt and people want Jack Conway to deal with it? [C-J/AKN]

Just in case you want another reason to end the death penalty in Kentucky? Take a look at this Texas case. [HuffPo]

Here’s your daily ruh ro moment! A state watchdog agency has issued charges against the former chief of tourism, alleging that he misused state resources for his own financial gain. [Bluegrass Politics]

After falling for several straight weeks, gasoline prices began shooting up across central Kentucky on Monday. So everybody is going to freak out a bit more. [WLEX18]

Here’s a look at how John Roberts ripped apart campaign finance reform and, you know, ruined the whole world. [The New Yorker]

American democracy’s most persistent old fart Ron Paul has announced that he no longer cares for democracy per se in the traditional sense of trying to “win votes” from “voters,” because this is a hard thing to do, when your platform is mostly insane. [Wonkette]

You can’t even walk around in Lexington these days without getting hit twice by vehicles and then dying. [H-L]

Just what Kentucky needed! A national news story about the lesbian couple in Lexington barred from their high school prom. [HuffPo]

The faux family association mouth-breathers who love to pervert their religion in order to push their ignorant views (fat white guys complaining about the gays – which half of them are) are freaking out that we – along with half the country – dared bring up Rand Paul’s homophobic mess. [Page One]

You can’t even go to the bank in Pike County these days without it being robbed at gunpoint. [WYMT]

Despite his 2008 call to “let Detroit go bankrupt,” presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said Monday that he would “take a lot of credit” for his impact on the U.S. automobile industry’s comeback. [HuffPo]

According to the latest polling data, a majority of Democrats support same-sex marriage. [Daily Kos]

Few have faced challenges as daunting as the one confronting Lyndon B. Johnson on November 22nd 1963. [The Economist]

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called a vote to move Senate Democrats’ legislation to extend the current Stafford student loan interest rate a political stunt meant to win over young American voters. [The Hill]

Jerry Abramson and the Beshear Administration tried to hide today’s tax “reform” meeting by asking the Legislative Research Commission to keep its cameras turned off. [Page One]

Just par for the course, really, as Jerry is keen on things like tolling bridges just to toll them. He’s got a lot of excuses. [The 'Ville Voice]

Maybe Downtown Louisville wouldn’t be in such a sorry state if all of the city’s development cash hadn’t been squandered on Cordish Cos. [FOX41]

And the Medicaid wars rage on. This is going to be another black spot on the Beshear Misadministration. [H-L]

Does no one else think it’s odd that Rick Santorum endorsed Mittens Romney at 11:00 P.M.? [HuffPo]

This 5191 documentary has everyone in a tizzy lately. Are you ready for it? [WKYT]

Why is it still a surprise that Jefferson County leads all 119 other counties in tourism dollars spent? [WFPL]

Really, we’re all shocked that it’s always about money? And that someone threatened a lawsuit because someone else dared question where a VA hospital may be built? [C-J/AKN]

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]

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]

Right? It had to be drugs. Maybe someone roofied her juice that morning. Because not even she can b.s. like that. Pretending that people in Louisville love him and suggesting that he’ll end up in the White House.

Hoo boy.

At least Steve Beshear wasn’t embarrassing:

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Be sure to check it out if you get the chance.

Two former Kentucky attorneys were properly convicted of scamming their clients out of $94.6 million from a $200 million settlement over the diet drug fen-phen in a case in which “evidence of the defendant’s guilt was so overwhelming,” a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. [H-L]

Oh, lookit, Mittens Romney’s rich buddy wants hipsters to be investors or something, for America, because they apparently caused the economic disaster. [Wonkette]

What on earth is going on in Louisville?! Fights breaking out and videos of people having sexual intercourse with a horse?!?!?! [WAVE3]

Poor old Reeeeechie Farmer just got his butt ripped – again – by an editorial board. This time, he deserved every bit of it and more. [C-J/AKN]

Mitch McConnell and the Chamber of Commerce are telling the Supreme Court to double down on Citizens United. [Think Progress]

Kentucky court workers will be furloughed three days this year, closing courthouses statewide on Aug. 6, Sept. 4 and Oct. 15, Chief Justice John D. Minton said Wednesday. [Bluegrass Politics]

Payroll provider ADP says that businesses added 119,000 jobs last month, far lower than a revised total of 201,000 jobs in March. [NPR]

Let’s take a look at the 18 most memorable Newt Gingrich moments! Put on your adult undergarment first, though. [Politico]

Why did it take almost 30 years to stop the NYPD from arresting thousands of poor, mostly black, people under three void laws? And what kind of similar situations are happening in Kentucky? [DoNY]

Big purses, sore horses and death. Large payouts to owners make it profitable for owners to field thoroughbreds that are past their prime, sometimes with fatal results. [NYT]

A Lexington attorney, who helped others defraud hundreds of people out of millions of dollars as part of a nationwide and international investment scam, was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years in prison. [WLEX18]

The wife of a North Carolina state senator reportedly told poll workers during early voting Monday that an amendment sponsored by her husband was intended partially to protect the Caucasian race. [HuffPo]

And just like that, the Mittens Romney revisionism begins. He’ll completely reinvent himself and whitewash everything. Just as his campaign staff said he would. [NY Mag]

Here’s a good look at why the nation’s children are getting dumber and dumber. It’s dineysore museum and ark park nuts like this guy. [HuffPo]

Americans – Kentuckians included – hate SuperPACs. But will they vote against them? [WaPo]

Whaaaat? ALEC and ExxonMobil push loopholes in fracking chemical disclosure rules? Surely not. [Pro Publica]

If the health care overhaul goes down, could Medicare be soon to follow? Republicans would eat that up. [NPR]

A House Republican divide in Warshington is keeping the lid on highway projects. Like the Brent Spence Bridge in Northern Kentucky. [Reuters]

Dubya’s visit to Richmond has been postponed and no make-up date has been decided upon. Ruh ro? No one seems to know why. [H-L]

Speaking of Richmond, you can’t even drive around there these days without being robbed while stopped at a traffic light. [WKYT]

Churchill Downs has been freaking out lately any time a local business uses the word “Derby.” But it sure doesn’t hesitate to attach its name to things everybody else just rolls their eyes at. [The 'Ville Voice Here & Here]

This has absolutely nothing to do with Kentucky but it kind of reminds us of Steve Henry. Tareq Salahi is trying to run for governor of Virginia. [Wonkette]

At this point, any media outlet taking Brooks Wicker seriously needs to check itself. The amount in his campaign war chest is less than Frankfort folks spend on hookers in a given five-minute period of time. It’s just sad watching his campaign. Sad. [WFPL]