[Eric in the Ozarks]

General Joe May, AG of the Iowa Air Guard seemed to have a preference for weekend flying from Des Moines down to a certain guard hanger in Florida. The general would spend the weekend with his sweetie, then fly back Monday morning.
When the governor inquired about the use of an air guard jet, the Des Moines Register got a tip that a good story was about to break.
The general, tipped on the tip, sent a fake reporter to the gov’s Wednesday news conference to find out what the governor knew.
The paper was tipped about the general’s “spy” and his picture was page 1 in the afternoon Tribune.
The Joe May scandal lasted for months, churned endlessly by the Iowa media.

[niteowl77]

I had forgotten about May's escapades, but now that you mention it, a lot of the more provincial rags were putting it on the front page.

After 9/11, there was a buttload of federal "Homeland Security" money absolutely wasted in Iowa through pet projects of certain Iowa Democrats and their friends (which included too many IGOP at-the-trough stalwarts); I got to see firsthand how people with position and/or connections could milk the Guard (not the Air Guard in this case) and DHS. Sickening.

Mr. niteowl77