I doubt the WaPo reporters know where Clintwood is.

Lowell --

This has been a source of frustration for as long as I've been involved in NOVA politics (25+ years).  The only debate has been whether the Post is more Maryland-centric or DC-centric.

Bob Brink

But you know what, if the Post doesn't care about NOVA, then NOVA doesn't care about the Post.  Isn't Post circulation declining in NOVA?  Also, how influential are the Post's endorsements these days?  Not very, as far as I can tell!

From BillHobbs.com

http://billhobbs.com/2006/07/kentucky_blog_ban_update.html

kc.

July 5, 2006
Kentucky Blog Ban Update
The Christian Science Monitor updates the latest in the Kentucky state government's attempt to keep state employees from reading (some) blogs.

Central to the constitutional case - which Nickolas says he may challenge in court - is the question of whether blogs enjoy the same First Amendment protections as newspapers, which can be read on state computers. Blogs, too, discuss local policy and politics, and bloggers and state employees say they are protected by the First Amendment.
The First Amendment wasn't written to protect the rights of newspapers, it was written to protect the freedom of speech and assembly of "the people." Blogs aren't protected by the First Amendment. Bloggers are - because bloggers are people too.

The First Amendment to the U. S. Constitution:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

the excerpts from the story from the above post......
I think this was in my diary a few days back as well...some updates....

In the Monitor
Wednesday, 07/05/06

Kentucky Bans Blogs in State Offices

Bloggers and state employees are speaking out about what they say is a violation of free speech.

By Patrik Jonsson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

ATLANTA – Long-time columnist Al Cross is considered the dean of Kentucky journalism. Mostly retired from print, these days Mr. Cross details the challenges of rural journalism on a Web log or "blog."

In his view, it's the kind of up-to-date dialogue of policy issues that everyone in state government should be reading. But over the past two weeks, Cross's site became a casualty of "blacklisting" blogs as well as humor, religion, and online auction websites after it was deemed that state workers were spending too much time on the Internet.

Bloggers, the self-described Thomas Paines of the Internet age, charge that Gov. Ernie Fletcher (R) is violating their right to free speech by censoring their content from the 34,000 state employees. But others see a more subtle lesson in Kentucky's attempt to crack down on desktop dawdling, including how much bosses should do to restrict access to opinion sites - and what blocking access to blogs might mean for everything from esprit de corps to the bottom line.

"Whether in [private or public] workplaces, are you going to create a culture of mutual trust or a Big Brother 'we're watching your every move' environment?" says Zachary Hummel, a workplace attorney at Bryan Cave LLP in New York. "We now have so much more ability to monitor what employees do, the question becomes: How much of that do we want to do?"

Kentucky bloggers, especially of Democratic stripes, have been critical of Governor Fletcher's administration. One of the main chroniclers of perceived government missteps is Mark Nickolas, a Democratic political insider. After Mr. Nickolas criticized the governor in a New York Times article June 20, some 1,000 state workers who check his blog, bluegrassreport.org, could no longer log on to it at work.

Such arbitrary results open the administration up to criticism, some say, especially when the blogs of Nickolas and Cross were blocked while the conservative Drudge Report website was not.

Central to the constitutional case - which Nickolas says he may challenge in court - is the question of whether blogs enjoy the same First Amendment protections as newspapers, which can be read on state computers. Blogs, too, discuss local policy and politics, and bloggers and state employees say they are protected by the First Amendment.

"Government should defend the right of conservatives and liberals to post opinions and what [the Fletcher administration] is doing, we believe, is using the government to hurt a political web site because of its political opinion," says Charles Wells, the head of the Kentucky state employees' union. "The only ones this information is offensive to is this administration," says Mr. Wells.

But to workplace observers, Kentucky's blocking of blogs is an example of how the Internet - and the high-speed connections usually available at work - is changing how managers deal with workplace culture. "We're coming to grips with where the boundaries are," says Mr. Hummel.