My editorial cartoon assessing recent Congressional testimony by Las Vegas’s own Kash Patel, tweaked with a little A.I.:
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A thousand words: my attempt at editorial cartooning, with some help from AI.
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The New York Times, July 13, 1975
See update at end of post
Two news organizations are among those suing the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department claiming that government agency inhibits the flow of information by charging excessive and illegal fees for public records.
I know a little bit about this kind of litigation, and not just because I am a journalist who over the decades literally has filed hundreds of public records requests (including one for my own Las Vegas water records). Why? While still in law school, I brought a lawsuit like that against my New Jersey hometown–a half-century ago. I prevailed, too.
But rather than limit my case to arcane interpretations of state law, I had added a grandiose claim. Excessive fees many times the actual cost of producing the records violated the Due Process Clause of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment. This had long been interpreted–even back then–as requiring that agencies of state government have a rational and fair basis for the actions it takes. Put another way, my argument was this: Unless the charge was expressly authorized to raise revenue–like, say, a sales or income tax–the fee had to be related to the cost of whatever service was being provided.
My case irritated some of the locals and got media attention, including an article in The New York Times (see nearby image). But before the matter went to trial, the governing body of my hometown, Haddonfield, N.J., backed down and amended its laws to reduce the cost of public record copies by upwards of 90%. There are lessons here for Las Vegas. Continue reading
Key Pittman
Washington, D.C., is all abuzz with rumors that Mitch McConnell, the senior senator from Kentucky and former Republican majority leader, is seriously ill or even worse. The 84-year-old, who in recent years has had a string of health problems, hasn’t been seen in public in weeks, amid news accounts suggesting he had a serious heart attack at his Washington home on June 14 and was even unconscious for a time. Yesterday, the political trade pub The Hill accidentally published–and retracted–what seemed to be an obituary. McConnell’s aides haven’t had much to say other than he is receiving “excellent care.”
McConnell is leaving the Senate in early January, but his illness has occasioned a fair amount of political speculation and even intrigue. If for whatever reason he can’t serve out his remaining term, it’s possible under convoluted Kentucky law there would have to be an open all-comers race for a short-term seat, the results of which could pare the narrow GOP margin in the Senate or even flip the seat. Clearly, Republicans have every electoral motive to keep a lid on news about McConnell’s medical condition.
Sort of like Nevada Democrats did in 1940 for one of their own.