—Park and pay ... and pay: Two transportation development districts on Washington Avenue didn't pass state Auditor Nicole Galloway's smell test, so the St. Louis Development Corp. is going to investigate further.

Galloway says an audit of the districts shows they were collecting sales tax at Washington Avenue businesses to pay for public parking lots, but then charging the public an additional fee to use them.

One of the districts, formed to provide access to the 1100 Washington Avenue parking lot next to the Vangard Lofts, is led by representatives of Kansas City-based Maxus Properties. The other, the 1225 Washington Avenue district, collects sales taxes to pay for a gated parking lot north of the Washington and 13th Street intersection. It is made up of representatives of McGowan Brothers property developers.

Otis Williams, executive director of the SLDC, said his agency and the St. Louis mayor's office will investigate the districts and try to determine how to manage them better.

St. Louis taxpayers would appreciate that. Paying for parking is one thing. Paying twice is a rip-off.

—El Chapo, prison reformer: Joaqun Guzmn Loera, the Mexican drug lord known as "El Chapo," is unhappy with his living conditions, The New York Times reports. He has been confined at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City since January, after he was recaptured and extradited from Mexico after his latest escape from a Mexican prison. U.S. authorities say that Guzman's history of escapes and of running his drug operation from inside prison make it necessary to keep him locked down tight.

So he's behind bars for 23 hours a day and never gets outdoors. A solitary hour a day in the recreation room is the best he can expect. He's allowed no visitors, except for his lawyers, whom he keeps busy filing motions for relief.

One motion seeks bottled water, because Guzman complains tap water hurts his throat. Others are more serious, including one that asks a judge to allow A mnesty International representatives to visit the prison to judge its conditions.

It's hard to feel sympathy for a man who may be responsible for thousands of deaths in Mexico's ongoing drug wars. But it should be possible to keep someone confined without sinking to his level.

—Down and (fake) dirty: On Tuesday, a not-so-fashion-forward Twitter user discovered that Nordstrom is selling fake-muddied blue jeans. For $425.

The jeans, made by fashion company Prps, also have been for sale at Saks and Neiman Marcus for a while, but they didn't become a thing until Twitter discovered them on the Nordstrom website. There it says the jeans "embody rugged Americana workwear that's seen some hard-working action with a crackled, caked-on muddy coating that shows you're not afraid to get down and dirty."

—The rugged Americana workwear is made in Japan and China.: Mike Rowe, who works at tough jobs a day at a time on the TV reality show "Dirty Jobs," called the jeans "something to foster the illusion of work. The illusion of effort. Or perhaps, for those who actually buy them, the illusion of sanity."

Thus did a fake working man call out fake-muddy jeans. Only in America.

—Free speech, even for Ann Coulter: We've said it before, and we'll say it again: Free speech is a two-way street. Regardless of how college-campus progressives might feel about the firebrand conservatism of Ann Coulter, that doesn't give them a right to threaten, bully and terrorize her into silence. She was scheduled to speak at the University of California at Berkeley on Thursday, but an earlier postponement because of security threats, and continued threats Thursday, prompted her to stay away. The hard-line left must understand: The First Amendment only works when it applies equally to all points of view, not just the ones you agree with.

—Opiate of the masses, literally: A Missouri appeals court had little trouble ruling on a defendant's claim that his religious calling required him to heal "the sick, lost, blind, lame, deaf and dead members of God's kingdom" by selling heroin to them. Just as the original trial judge summarily rejected the ridiculous claim by Timothy Anderson that he sold heroin out of a "sincerely held religious belief," the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals didn't buy the argument either. A 27-year prison sentence will help Anderson rethink his justification for helping fill the ranks of the sick, lost and dead with his heroin sales.

—Ride and rate: As Missouri gives the green light to ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft, allowing them to operate free from much local regulation, St. Louis taxicab companies want a level playing field.

It's understandable that cab companies don't want to pay license and meter inspection fees or set caps on charges when the competition doesn't. But the part about extensive fingerprint background checks for taxi drivers but not for Uber and Lyft drivers is a concern. Uber and Lyft are app-based services that allow users to immediately rate drivers. While not a foolproof method to ensure good drivers, Uber drivers suffer serious consequences, including deactivation by the company, if their ratings dip.

That technology is unavailable for rating taxicab drivers. A passenger can call the company or use social media to post about a driver, but that is not as reliable a method as the one used by ride-hailing companies.

Until that's available for cab passengers, continuing to use extensive fingerprint background checks will help ensure rider safety.

REPRINTED FROM THE ST LOUIS POST DISPATCH