Giving some credit where due: the Columbian Rivers article has been edited.

Day before yesterday, the Columbian did a story that briefly discussed Sen. Ann “Gas Tax” Rivers' PDC fraud, wherein she deliberately over reported the amount of money deposited into her campaign account by approximately $175,000.

That's not how they presented it, of course, but that's how I see it.

The article is somewhat misleading in that initially it stated: “Big drop in amount of money listed prompts conservative blogger to raise questions,”  while also stating "Rivers filed a handful of amended reports last week that ratcheted back the campaign contribution amount after Kelly Hinton, the blogger, filed a complaint."

The first issue in the article was the order in which the number was reversed; that is, it was my complaint, that I generated, which resulted in $175,000 being removed from the accounting of Rivers campaign account.  My complaint against Rivers was in no way driven by the reduction of the number; it was in fact the reason the number was reduced… Since I filed the complaint in early October.

I emailed the reporter, Lauren Dake, explained the situation to her, and she had the sub-headline removed.

With somewhat more difficulty, I was able to show to her satisfaction… Along with further consultation with the PDC… That the reduction in the number from $255,000 to initially $80,000 and now currently just under $71,000 had nothing to do with any action on the part of Rivers, and nothing to do with the amended reports that were mentioned.

Ultimately, had the newspaper or Dake emailed me to ask me about the situation, I could’ve provided the background information that would have enabled them to avoid making these mistakes which serve to have an impact on the issue of fault and the issue of why Rivers allowed this mistake to fester in her campaign account for over a year.

Rest assured, that had the shoe been on the other foot; had the PDC been under-reporting the amount of money that Rivers actually had in her account, you can bet that it wouldn't have taken her a year to act to correct that shortfall.

Meanwhile, the story has been edited further; and while further explanation has not been provided as to what actually took place, at least the offending passages have been removed.

I appreciate the effort that Lauren Dake went through to ultimately make the article much more accurate.

That has been done with this article. While filling in the blanks by changing the article to reflect, more accurately, that the action on Rivers' part was deliberate, long-lasting, and done to achieve a desired aim would have been preferable; on the whole I am not unhappy with this outcome.

To a certain extent, both the PDC and the newspaper have been played by Sen. Rivers. Hopefully, in the future, they will take a much closer look at what she says and how she says it in response to their questions concerning her campaign conduct.

But I cannot blame them in particular, considering how astounding her political conduct since the beginning of last calendar year is actually been.

I never expected, and in fact would’ve bet my life, that nothing like this would’ve ever happened at the behest of Sen. Rivers.

Had she any integrity, she would resign effective immediately over this issue.

That she has failed to take any responsibility for the situation and failed to resign goes to the basic lack of character that must have resulted from something horrific that I can only begin to guess at.

I am quick to condemn the local newspaper for their inaccuracies, no matter the cause or the motive. Likewise I must give credit where due when an honest effort is made to correct the more glaring inaccuracies.

When asked, the newspaper actually did ultimately do what I requested they do to clarify the story and for that, as bizarre as it may sound, I actually think them.