A Heap o' Trouble, Boy

Buncombe County appears to have been the epicenter of an illegal video gambling ring in western N.C. The Asheville Citizen says this a.m. that the ring attempted to bribe Rutherford County Sheriff Jack Conner, who was at the time incidentally wearing a wire on behalf of the FBI (the whole transaction was secretly videotaped), and the briber-in-chief said he had two other sheriffs of western counties in his pocket. Who exactly, we aren't told.

Sheriff Conner was offered $10,000 up front and $1,000 a month to protect the racket.

Two former Buncombe County sheriff's deputies have already been charged with running an illegal gambling operation, witness tampering, bribing law enforcement officials, and money laundering, and the former Buncombe Sheriff, Bobby Medford, who lost his reelection bid last fall, "has declined to discuss the investigation."

We haven't heard even a whisper of a suggestion that this (or any other) gambling ring has moved into Watauga County.