For a long time, Mr. Triplett has had things pretty much his own way in Inez, Ky., county seat of Martin County. He is the local Republican Party chairman, one of the town's most prominent lawyers and chairman of the Martin County Water Board.

        He is also, at least for the time being, legal owner of the corporate name “Mountain Citizen Inc.” Prior to Tuesday, that designation was held by the town's weekly newspaper, the Mountain Citizen. For the past five months, the newspaper has been giving Mr. Triplett fits, running a lot of stories about the brown gunk that comes out of everybody's water faucets. Actually, it only comes out brown when it comes out at all. State inspections have revealed the water system has a 50 percent leakage rate.

        For a while nobody outside of Martin County paid much attention. Mr. Triplett assured everybody there was no problem. But the paper wouldn't lay off and last month officials in Frankfort got involved. The Kentucky Public Service Commission and Kentucky Water Division issued orders to repair the system.

        Every time there is a loss of pressure in the system, which happens about once a week, the water board must issue a boil advisory. That happened so frequently that the school district taped plastic over the water fountains and issued bottled water to every kid.

        The water is safe to drink, but is “unaesthetic,” according to the Kentucky Division of Water. That means it looks, tastes and smells funny. Local restaurants sell only canned soft drinks because nobody wants fountain drinks mixed from tap water.

        According to Gary Ball, editor of the Mountain Citizen, and author of the stories, Mr. Triplett started feeling political pressure. The water board is appointed by the county's judge executive, and nobody in the local Republican power structure wants to raise the water rates and fix the system. Martin County only has 12,500 people, and more than 10,000 of them are served by the water system.

        With the Kentucky primary only a week away, and desperate to stop the paper's criticism, Mr. Triplett came up with a novel tactic: He tried to peel the name right off the newspaper's masthead.

        The Mountain Citizen is a family operation. Lisa Stayton is the owner; her brother, Roger Smith, is the publisher. A couple of other relatives help fill out the 12-person staff. Owner and publisher have been busy during the past couple years taking care of another sibling who was dying of a brain tumor. They let some of the business details slide, including the renewal of the newspaper's corporate name.

        Mr. Triplett discovered the name had lapsed and last week he filed a claim on it in Frankfort. Then on Tuesday, the day the newspaper gets printed on the press of the Appalachian News-Express in nearby Pikeville, Mr. Triplett persuaded a local judge to issue a restraining order to keep the newspaper from publishing under the name of Mountain Citizen. There was no hearing, the newspaper received the order over the fax machine.

        The Appalachian News-Express, unwilling to buck the judge's order, refused to print the Mountain Citizen. But here is where Mr. Triplett underestimated his opponents.

        Mr. Smith and his sister had just buried their brother, but they weren't about to let personal loss or small-town politicos shut down their newspaper. They found another nearby printer and came out Wednesday morning with a front page story about Mr. Triplett's chicanery.

        Mr. Triplett was unavailable to comment when I called. That's not surprising. Since news broke about his high-handed attempt to shut off criticism, the Mountain Citizen has gained a lot of friends. The Associated Press has been running the story all week. When I talked to Mr. Smith on Thursday, he said the New York Times had just interviewed him.

        “We intend to keep printing,” said Mr. Smith. “Our circulation is about 6,000, but I bet we sell a lot more copies this week.”

        I hope so. I don't know if Mr. Triplett reads the New York Times, or evenThe Cincinnati Enquirer, but I'm sure plenty of people who do will be willing to send him copies. When he sees that he has been promoted from a small-town tyrant to a national joke, I hope he realizes he can't stop this story any more than he has been able to plug the leaks in his water system.

       
        Contact David Wells at 768-8310; fax: 768-8610; e-mail: dwells@enquirer.com. Cincinnati.Com keyword: Wells.

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