Last Call For Horrible Bosses, NKY Edition

Two elected officials here in NKY, both defeated in November elections, made eBossWatch's list of America's Worst Bosses.

Park Hills Mayor Don Catchen and Grant County Jailer Terry Peeples – neither of whom was re-elected – deny the allegations that put them among the top 100 worst bosses.

“You can make accusations about anybody,” Catchen said Wednesday. “None of it was substantiated. I left our city in a much better position than it’s ever been.”

The Enquirer reported in August that Park Hills settled two lawsuits involving an allegation that Catchen fired the city's former female police chief, Amy Schworer, because of her gender. During depositions in the case, Catchen was also accused of making racist remarks toward black residents in Park Hills, statements Catchen vehemently denies.

Catchen was defeated in the Nov. 4 general election by write-in candidate Matthew Mattone.

A lawsuit filed in July by one current and two former jail employees accuse Grant County Jailer Terry Peeples of sexual harassment and sexual assault. It also alleged Peeples threatened the employees from going to authorities and coerced them into lying under oath.

“There’s been a bevy of lawsuits,” Peeples’ attorney, Jeff Mando, said Wednesday. “There has been no court that has found that Terry Peeples has discriminated against any of his employees. It is all bogus, and we’re going to fight it tooth and nail in court.”

Chris Hankins defeated Peeples in the Nov. 4 election for Grant County jailer.

I'm glad these two lumps of coal are gone for the New Year, frankly.  Want to see which bosses made the list where you live?  Check it out here.

Back home in NC, I see Iredell County Sheriff Phil Redmond and his sexual assault lawsuit landed him at number 6 for preying on domestic violence victims.

Way to protect and serve, Phil!

A Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good night.

Another Death In St. Louis

St. Louis County police has released video they say shows that 18-year old black teen pulled a 9mm handgun on two police officers at a gas station in the suburb of Berkeley, Missouri.  One of the officers fired his weapon several times and one shot struck and killed the teen, Antonio Martin.

The shooting happened about 5 miles northwest of Ferguson, where a white police officer fatally shot unarmed Michael Brown in August, sparking months of civil unrest.

At about 11:15 p.m. CT Tuesday while conducting a routine business check, a police officer saw two males at the side of a gas station, Sgt. Brian Schellman, a St. Louis County police spokesman, said in a statement.

The officer, whose name has not been released, approached them. Then one of the men pulled out a handgun and pointed it at the officer, Schellman said.

"Fearing for his life, the Berkeley officer fired several shots, striking the subject, fatally wounding him," Schellman said. "The second subject fled the scene."

It's difficult to see what was in the video.  It's not clear that anything happened other than Martin's arm was raised.  The police are saying that Martin had priors for armed robbery and was "known" to the Berkley cops.  Oh, and the cop's body camera was turned off.

Hmm.

What the video does show is several witnesses however: the person with Martin at the time of the shooting, and at least two people who pull up in a car to the gas station during the conversation Martin had with the two officers.

Somehow, I doubt there will be a trial.  Antonio Martin will be just another "armed thug" who "got what he deserved".  What really happened? Most likely we'll never know, right?  Never trust a government employee unless he's got a grainy picture of a black man "pointing a gun" I guess.

Meanwhile in Houston, a grand jury refused to indict a cop there for shooting an unarmed black man.

Darrell Issa's Crap-Ass Christmas

After 18 months of wasting taxpayer money, professional car thief and California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa hasn't been able to find anything at the IRS other than people who think Republicans are jackasses.

An 18-month congressional investigation into the Internal Revenue Service’s mistreatment of conservative political groups seeking tax exemptions failed to show coordination between agency officials and political operatives in the White House, according to a report released on Tuesday.

The I.R.S. has admitted that before the 2012 election it inappropriately delayed approval of tax exemption applications by groups affiliated with the Tea Party movement, but the I.R.S. and its parent agency, the Treasury Department, have said that the errors were not motivated by partisanship.

Republican lawmakers, dismissing the Obama administration’s denials, have suggested that the delays were not only politically motivated but also orchestrated by the White House.

Some of the most strident comments have come from Representative Darrell Issa, Republican of California and the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, which has issued subpoenas to compel testimony from administration officials and held a series of tumultuous hearings on the I.R.S. scandal.

Mr. Issa, who is stepping down from the chairmanship, has accused the I.R.S. commissioner of engaging in a Watergate-style cover-up and accused administration officials of obstructing his investigation.

In a parting shot, Mr. Issa released the 226-page summary of the panel’s findings on Tuesday. It said that language used in emails collected by the committee suggested that I.R.S. officials in the tax-exemption unit were trying to find ways to penalize groups they disliked.

In one email, for example, an I.R.S. official said of a conservative group, “I think there may be a number of ways to deny them,” adding, “This sounds like a bad org,” and “This org gives me an icky feeling.”

Surely somebody needs to be impeached for having an icky feeling.

And so, this version of the GOP Clown Show comes to an end, bought and paid for with millions of your tax dollars.  And because we sat home and blamed Obama, we now get another two years of the GOP Clown Show starting in January, with a different ringmaster.

Good job, America!

StupidiNews!

• A string of tornadoes ripped through Mississippi last night, killing four, injuring dozens and leaving thousands without power.
• South Korea is the latest location to take on ride share service Uber, charging the company with operating an illegal cab company in Seoul.
• A number of independent and art-house theaters will end up showing Sony's "The Interview" after all on Christmas Day as the studio has agreed to a limited release.
• A police officer has shot and killed another black teenager near Ferguson, Missouri last night, setting off another round of protests in the St. Louis area.
• The latest self-driving prototype vehicle from Google will hit public roads for trials in January, according to the company.