What a week: Top cop jailed for drugs, Eric Schmitt searches for emails, internet redlining

Police chief charged with trafficking

The line between offenders and law enforcement is supposed to be pretty clear. But that ideal took a punch in the nose this week in the small town of Louisiana, Missouri, about 80 miles from St. Louis. There, Police Chief William Jones was jailed for drug dealing with his girlfriend on Wednesday. The previous night, police had arrived at Jones’ apartment to find that two of his girlfriend’s brothers had overdosed. One of them was declared dead. The other, 21, was resuscitated with an emergency dose of naloxone and survived. Bail has been set for the chef, who is now on leave, at $150,000. He was Pike County’s top city cop since late 2020.

“We were blindsided by this,” said Louisiana City Councilman Rodney Dolbeare. You think?

Eric Schmitt asks for emails from Missouri professor

We find it odd that Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt sent five email requests to a Missouri State University professor who dared to criticize the GOP nominee for U.S. Senator, as The Missouri Independent recently reported. . But we are not surprised.

The news followed revelations that Schmitt had issued open records requests in June for years of emails from professors at the University of Missouri’s medical and journalism schools.

Days after Turner blasted Schmitt on Twitter for being a “dangerous and hateful political jerk” and “anti-teacher” for suing school districts over mask mandates, Turner’s emails from the previous 90 days were wanted by the AG’s office, according to The Independent.

It sounds an awful lot like a powerful government official using his office to investigate personal critics. Apparently, dissent will not be tolerated under Schmitt’s supposedly authoritarian regime. Anyone working for state or local government who criticizes Schmitt needs to be warned: Either shut up or face the wrath of the state attorney general. Bullshit.

Turner, a former educator, used his right to free speech to criticize Schmitt’s performance at work. MSU associate professor Jon Turner’s multiple requests for records were meant to “intimidate”, Turner told The Independent.

Those damn emails. What is the GOP’s fascination with email?

Broadband speeds limited by income levels?

A new report from a nonprofit newsroom called The Markup reminds us that low-cost, high-quality internet service isn’t just a problem in rural areas.

Journalists analyzed 800,000 offers from Internet service providers in 38 cities, including Kansas City. They found that providers routinely charged poorer customers the same amount as those in wealthier neighborhoods, while offering significantly slower internet speeds.

We know. Shocking.

“Areas historically outlined in red have received disproportionately slow Internet speeds in Kansas City,” the report said. The fastest speeds were available along State Line Road, south of the Plaza; the slowest speeds were found east of Troost Avenue and in northeast Kansas City.

Internet service providers, including AT&T, challenged the report’s findings as “fundamentally flawed.” They said the slower speeds are the result of older infrastructure and federal subsidies for faster internet service are available in some less affluent communities.

We wish we had a penny every time a politician trumpeted the need for improved “rural broadband” service, paid for by taxpayers, of course. The logic is clear: high-speed Internet is not a luxury. This is essential in the 21st century.

The Markup offered an important reminder: fast internet is just as essential in the urban core as it is in the countryside. Washington needs to do more to make sure everyone has access to high-speed Internet service at a reasonable price, no matter where they live or how much money they make.