Following up on yesterday's story, the Malheur County Sheriff has announced that he has closed the investigation into county officials' allegations of "criminal conduct in reporting" by the staff of the Malheur Enterprise.

The allegations stemmed from the reporters' use of the officials' personal email addresses and phone numbers to reach them for comment on economic development issues.

The sheriff reviewed the emails forwarded to him by the county officials and found that they were devoid of any threats, an element of the criminal offense alleged (harassment or telephone harassment).

This is great news for the reporters at the Malheur Enterprise, but the UK Kernel, the WKU College Heights Herald, and Spencer County resident Lawrence Trageser are still locked in legal battles with the public agencies they dared to expose to public scrutiny through the use of the open records law.

One day after it was reported, the Malheur Enterprise's problems are at an end. Not so for two newspapers and a private citizen in Kentucky. For them, the end is nowhere in sight.