The Metro Pulse reported a few days ago that the Valarium was closing, quoting a message on their website saying that new state regulations were forcing them out of business.

The KNS uncritically copied and pasted the story to the front page of the business section with a drive-by quote from some random guy about this terrible injustice. As I read the article, I kept thinking something didn't sound right, and wondered why the reporter couldn't explain more about these new regulations and what had changed. I had meant to look in to it, but there was a big election and whatnot and I'm fatigued.

In the mean time, Cari Wade Gervin stepped up to do some actual journalism and stuff, and reports today that the whole story is BS.

Nice try, though, on the effort to blame government regulation (and the poor economy). Other venues like Sassy Anne's, Cotton Eyed Joe, and the Carousel have fortunately (I guess, having never been to any of them except maybe the Carousel 30 years ago) not fallen victim to these onerous state regulations that State Sen. Becky Duncan-Massey pledged to abolish.