Blogger loses court case and you do, too

Former Kentucky blogger/media darling Mark Nickolas didn't mention the settlement of his blog blocking lawsuit on his new blog. After reading the settlement agreement, the reason for this becomes clear.

He lost the case, spin from a misleading press release notwithstanding.

From the settlement agreement:

"3. The Commonwealth Office of Technology employs software to filter internet
usage on state-owned computers. This software provides users the ability to block internet site categories predefined by the vendor. As part of its internet filtering policy, the previous named defendants chose to block several categories, one of which included “newsgroups/blogs.”
“Newsgroups/blogs” are defined by the vendor as containing “Web sites that enable the sharing of information such as on a bulletin board. Includes Web logs (‘blogs’) and guest book servers as well.”
4. Mr. Nickolas’s websites, bluegrassreport.org and bluegrassreport.com, are
categorized as “newsgroups/blogs” and therefore users of state computers were blocked from gaining access to them."

And you will be glad to see that the pro bono legal work provided by Ralph Nader cost the taxpayers of Kentucky $10,000.

A heads up on Fayette jail coverage

Tomorrow I will report on sworn testimony by Lexington's former Mayor Teresa Isaac and Mayor Jim Newberry in the ongoing Fayette jail scandals.

The Bluegrass Institute lives!

Two weeks after a massive hacker attack nearly destroyed the online presence of Kentucky's free market think tank, the Bluegrass Institute and Bluegrass Policy Blog are available again on the internet.

While a fairly expensive fix got the sites back up, a much larger project is underway to secure donor funding to take the organization's websites to the next level. This is in addition to generating much larger exposure for public policy solutions by expanding the efforts of the Institute in print and broadcast media.

The Institute's legislative tracking site, Kentucky Votes, was unaffected by the attack but it will also be part of the upcoming improvements that will be rolled out this summer.

By the way, if you wish to be kept updated with no nonsense daily reports on the activity of next week's special session, go to Kentucky Votes and sign up for a free account. You will get email reports first thing each morning on the prior day's legislative activity and which will keep you updated through the rest of the year as pre-filed bills are posted for the 2009 General Assembly.

Let them eat cicadas

We've heard about how bad things are getting in the newspaper business, but you probably had no idea the evil capitalists who run the Winchester Sun were making their employees eat cicadas:

Yarmuth to burn Northup without carbon capture

The Yarmuth for Congress campaign will put out a news release this afternoon attacking Anne Northup for urging Congress to allow for expanded oil exploration to meet increased demand.

The focus of the attack is the Congressional Democratic talking point that oil companies aren't drilling all their leased land now, so we should instead fine them for the leases that aren't being used. Yarmuth supports doing this.

That would be great if finding oil was as easy as dreaming up ways to steal money through taxes and fines from people who work for it.

Make no mistake, the people who are fighting against expanding oil exploration in this country will be tickled pink when they destroy domestic oil exploration completely and we further increase gas prices and our dependency on foreign nations. Yarmuth won't do it, but it would be great if he thought through his words and deeds a little before flaming Northup.

Someone tell moveon.org there is no draft

Here is a very well done, emotional, and totally misleading ad done by the folks at moveon.org:

Are you mad yet?

By now you have probably heard about Kentucky Education Commissioner Jon Draud getting caught lying about the $13,000 in extras he ordered for his taxpayer-provided car.

You may wonder why he isn't crying too hard about paying back that money after he got caught. Well, I'll tell you why.

On July 1, when HB 470 goes into effect, Draud will be laughing all the way to the bank with 40,000 little reasons not to care that you caught him in the smaller heist, with the entire legislature and Gov. Steve Beshear aiding and abetting, of course.

Purple arraignment falls next Monday

Indicted Fayette County Detention Center employees Anthony Estep, Kristine Lafoe, Clarence McCoy, John McQueen, and former employee Scott Tyree will be arraigned next Monday, June 23, at 9:30 am in US District Court in Lexington, according to court records.

It will be interesting to see how much bail Judge James Todd requires, who can't make bail, and where they might be housed before trial.

Also can't help wondering who is up next. The FBI confirmed that investigation of the inmate abuse scandal continues.

Fayette jail whistleblower testifies under oath

In written court documents from his civil suit Fayette jail whistleblower John Vest (plaintiff) shed light on where the scandal is going next.

Some goodies --

I call this one "naming names."

"Plaintiff has identified the following potential witnesses to testify at the trial of this matter: Teresa Isaac, Jim Newberry, Rebecca Langston, Tim Bennett, Ashley Case, Ron Bishop, James Kammer, Capt. Brian Proffitt, Debbie Shouse, Capt. Suzanne Whittlesey, Lt. Kristine Lafoe, Sgt. Anthony Estep, Sgt. John McQueen, Lt. Shawn Campbell, Tonya Roberts, Clarence McCoy, Scott Tyree, John Steward, Phillip Chumbley, Kenneth Isaac."

Don't forget that the federal investigation is not over:

"Plaintiff has been and still is cooperating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice with respect to a criminal investigation into civil rights violations at the LFUCG Detention Center."

And if you are wondering what role former Lexington Mayor Teresa Isaac plays in all this:

"Isaac published to the media that the allegations of Vest were unfounded."

This is a very important point. Isaac can lie to the media about a lot of things, but when she tells the media falsely that someone else has lied to federal investigators, well that is a horse of a different color.

The Lexington Herald Leader reported September 29, 2006:

"We're absolutely convinced that the investigation will show there's no violations," Isaac said yesterday.
There have not been any incidents of excessive force at the jail, Isaac said. "I've reviewed the same records they've reviewed, there's absolutely nothing in there that would amount to a civil rights violation and I've been a civil rights attorney for 25years so I think I would know."

Isaac made her implausible assessment a day after federal agents removed hundreds of boxes of documents from the facility.

"Isaac's defamatory statements were made intentionally, with malice, with utter disregard for the truth, and made though she knew that her statements in this regard were false because she could not have reviewed all of the evidence seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Department of Justice at the time of her statements."

And here is where it starts getting fun:

"... in a malicious attempt to discredit the Plaintiff, Defendants Isaac and Bishop falsely reported publicly that over the past three years, the Plaintiff had been guilty of the same type of excessive force violations that he had reported to the FBI."

Kentucky taxpayers have battered wife syndrome

The Bluegrass Institute today threw cold water in the face of the state's sleeping giant of an electorate and wonders how much more of a shock is required to create a constructive uprising.

"Kentucky's unaccountable education bureaucracy spends money with insufficient oversight and fixes it's own report card every year. Kentucky's politicians increase spending on themselves and borrow by the billions when your money runs out. Secrecy in Frankfort is so entrenched, the media watchdogs can't even be bothered to push for honesty and openness. "Needy" citizens have too little accountability for their bottomless bowls of entitlements. And "economic development" bureaucrats pick business winners and losers with money they take from those who they prefer to be on the losing end."

Isn't it just about time to hit back?

Another inconvenient Lexington Jail scandal fact

The upcoming explosive civil lawsuit filed by vindicated whistleblower John Vest against the city of Lexington, current Mayor Jim Newberry, former Mayor Teresa Isaac, and others will be heard in Jessamine County.

Fayette jail scandal live

I will be on the Leland Conway Show Monday morning at 9:15 talking about the latest on the Fayette County Detention Center scandal.

Anything in particular you want to hear about?

Setting the record straight on John Vest

An anonymous, middle-of-the-night commenter on another post continued the same line of attack used by Fayette County Detention Center Director Ron Bishop and former Lexington Mayor Teresa Isaac against federal whistleblower John Vest. Here is the comment:

The day of the FBI raid on the Lexington jail, Isaac and Bishop both went on the attack against Vest. Their main contention was that Vest made up the charges of abuse on inmates to promote himself in his campaign for Jessamine County Jailer.

Given the five indictments Thursday, we can safely set that allegation aside. The FBI isn't in the habit of letting itself be used to further a local candidate's political ambitions and only the hardest head could still insist such a thing in light of the rapidly advancing legal proceedings.

The anonymous commenter mentioned Vest's one public statement since this whole ordeal started and blames that for his current unpaid leave status with the city of Lexington. What the commenter doesn't mention is that the inmate beatings stopped immediately after the FBI raid and resumed literally within an hour after Mayor Isaac stated publicly that she had viewed the evidence and saw nothing wrong. Some people, such as this anonymous commenter, don't want you to have any idea the pervasiveness of the illegal activities and atmosphere of indimidation going on in the jail.

The truth is federal authorities wrote Vest's statement and I helped him organize a press conference after Isaac's ludicrous assessment. That is when it became clear that the cover-up went all the way to the Mayor's office and that he had to get out fast. The continuing effort to smear John Vest is not surprising, though. That kind of behavior is par for the course from desperate criminals who are used to hiding behind offices and titles and getting a pass for their activities.

Three chickens roosting, two geese a cooking...

The Fayette jail story is growing tentacles.

Jake at Page One jumps on it as only he can:

"The Fayette County Jail. Federal whistleblower. Ruh ro. Cover-ups, lies, firings, indictments, white washings. This is going to be the biggest story to rock Lexington in a decade. Mainstream media: wake up because it’s about to get crazy."

Just got a comment in on another thread saying:

"If you think third shift intake was bad. Second shift was over the top! Bowles, Herbals and the former Sgt "the mouth" Baker should start thinking. Reams got it going on too.
Admin has bailed on you and so will Risk Managment. Your ship is about to sail."

I have no idea who sent this anonymous comment, but all the names check out with multiple sources inside the facility. My best sources all started out as anonymous tips and I protect all my sources. If you know something that isn't getting out there, give me a call.

Tell the truth, Jim

The sheeple have spoken

Talk, talk, talk

Indicted Fayette County Detention Center guard Lt. Kristine LaFoe won't talk now, but she was pretty chatty as recently as last week.

When asked about the federal investigation into inmate abuse at the Lexington jail, she was telling co-workers that the investigation was going nowhere.

"That shark's belly-up. It's dead in the water," she said.

You want to stay current, don't you?

With the Kentucky General Assembly set to go in for a special session and spend a bunch of your money on June 23, wouldn't you like to have a good way to keep up with what they are actually doing?

The mainstream media is mostly giving them a pass on the details of the upcoming pension bill. But you don't have to be left out in the dark. A non-biased website that makes it easy for you to keep up on your own is www.kentuckyvotes.org.

If you sign up for a free account on Kentucky Votes, you will receive an email each day there is legislative activity (including the pre-filed 2009 bills which start appearing soon!).

Unanswered questions at the Fayette jail

There are a lot of unanswered questions about the inmate abuse scandal in Lexington. Here is one I'm anxiously awaiting the answer to:

I just sent this one.

And, the plot thickens...

Fayette jail whistleblower is the real story

The mainstream media has had twenty-four hours to get the Fayette County Detention Center prisoner abuse story right. For the most part, they failed.

While nearly every other local reporter covering the story scampered to Mayor Jim Newberry for his whitewash, WTVQ reporter Kellie Wilson took a drive out to Nicholasville and knocked on the door of federal whistleblower John Vest, who was quoted in her story.



While Newberry was busy suspending the five indictees with pay "pending an investigation," Vest remains on administrative leave without pay and without the benefit of a credible internal investigation. And all he did was present evidence to the FBI that was then dismissed sight unseen by former Mayor Teresa Isaac and FCDC Director Ron Bishop. In fact, the one official investigation so far vindicates Vest, paints Bishop and Isaac as shameless liars, and leaves observers wondering why Newberry tried to fire Vest.

That's why Vest is suing all three of them.

If you think this story has run it's course, think again.