Yesterday, the Village of Bethesda's police chief, Eric Smith, resigned. (Smith was being investigated for allegedly misusing state computer data.) The story was the 2nd most important on this morning's Wheeling Intelligencer front page. The most important story was the Wheeling-Charleston Diocese's releasing the names of accused clergy.

Google maps tells us that Bethesda, Ohio is 23.2 miles from Wheeling and a 28 minute drive.

The Bethesda story apparently bumped to page 2 what most would consider yesterday's most important national news story: the President's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, admitting that he lied to Congress about Trump's connections to Russia. The Intelligencer coverage of the Cohen story was also limited to the first 553 words of the 1318 word AP story.

Compare the Intelligencer's coverage with today's Charleston Gazette-Mail. Both papers made the clergy scandal their top story. Unlike the Intelligencer, however, the G-M put Cohen/Trump on the front page and published all of the AP story except for the final paragraph which explained why Mueller was handling the charges rather than the Southern District of New York.

Call it a coincidence if you like but here is the Intelligencer's most important front-page story the last time Michael Cohen was front-page news nationwide (when his law office was raided by federal law enforcement and numerous documents were seized) in April:

There’s a New Sheriff in the Village of Bethesda

That article took up half of the available news space and included two pictures. By the way, the Intelligencer totally ignored the Cohen story that day.

And according to the Intelligencer, what was the name of the old sheriff who was put on leave? Eric Smith.

Obviously, if it happens in Bethesda (pop. 1,246), it's big news for the Intelligencer.