The Marion County Record and a judge in KS

I've been following the news about this raid and seizure...

Part of my interest was that the mother of the editor, a 90 year old woman, died the day after the seizure in her home, as well as the newspaper office.

Here's an NPR report giving some more background, that the judge who signed the order for the seizure had been under journalistic investigation by that very paper. Judge who signed order had 2 DUIs

"The extraordinary Aug. 11 raid drew national and international headlines because it seemed to run counter to long-established press freedoms and guarantees. Such actions are nearly unheard of in the U.S.
"It's very rare because it's illegal," First Amendment attorney Lynn Oberlander told NPR. "It doesn't happen very often because most organizations understand that it's illegal."

Ah Ha! There was some legal shenanigans happening which now have been brought to light.

"Several press freedom watchdogs condemned the Marion Police Department’s actions as a blatant violation of the U.S. Constitution’s protection for a free press. The Marion County Record’s editor and publisher, Eric Meyer, worked with his staff Sunday to reconstruct stories, ads and other materials for its next edition Wednesday, even as he took time in the afternoon to provide a local funeral home with information about his mother, Joan, the paper’s co-owner.

A search warrant tied Friday morning raids, led by Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody, to a dispute between the newspaper and a local restaurant owner, Kari Newell. She is accusing the newspaper of invading her privacy and illegally accessing information about her and her driving record and suggested that the newspaper targeted her after she threw Meyer and a reporter out of restaurant during a political event.

It wasn't the restaurant owner after all...unless she's also the judge who signed the search warrents.

Nope the judge is  Magistrate Judge Laura Viar,  And the driving record sounds vaguely familiar to the Judge's background.

There's something fishy, and it smells, in Kansas!

Today's quote:

Edgar Degas said, “If painting weren’t so difficult, it wouldn’t be so much fun.”