Killing a journalist

Good old-fashioned investigative reporting ending the political career of an abusive public official, showing the importance of our increasingly decimated local press. Alas, this story has a tragic ending:

As one of four reporters on the investigative team of Las Vegas’s main newspaper, Jeff German wrote stories that reached nearly every sordid corner of Sin City.

Even as old-school reporting jobs dwindled, Mr. German’s watchdog articles and columns pried back the curtain on mobsters, crooked politicians, casino titans and just about anyone who misused wealth or power in the city. In the last few years, he had scrutinized lavish spending by the city’s tourism agency, claims of sexual harassment at the coroner’s office and allegations that the Las Vegas Raiders football organization had violated discrimination and labor laws.

After four decades of surviving reporting on the most unsavory characters in a city with a reputation for mob-linked murders, there was little reason to think that Mr. German, 69, would be in danger when he turned his attention earlier this year to an obscure government office where some employees claimed their boss was a bully. The article didn’t even run on the front page.

But the authorities now say that the boss in that story, Robert Telles, went to Mr. German’s home on a quiet cul-de-sac this month and stabbed him to death, months after the exposé that may have cost him re-election was published. Mr. Telles has not yet entered a plea, and his lawyer has not responded to requests for comment.

Between MAGA fomenting anti-press sentiment and the recent increase of antisocial behavior, I worry that this kind of thing is going to happen more often.