The breakfast cereal industry is in something of a funk, but not so deep a funk that Tony the Tiger's parent company is willing to continue advertising on the Breitbart News Network.

The Kellogg Co. announced last week that it's withdrawing its advertising from the right-wing news site because it violates company guidelines by encouraging offensive behavior and is not consistent with its corporate image.

Breitbart, whose former executive chairman, Steve Bannon, is now President-elect Donald Trump's chief strategist, has embraced the "alt-right" white supremacist movement. It is known for anti-feminist, anti-immigrant and anti-gay editorial stances.

It's also known for fighting back. The lead story on Breitbart's website Wednesday said, "Kellogg's decision to blacklist one of the largest conservative media outlets in America is economic censorship of mainstream conservative political discourse. That is as un-American as it gets."

Breitbart said Kellogg was serving "bigotry for breakfast" and called for a boycott. That Breitbart is accusing someone else of bigotry must set some sort of record in the pot-calling-kettle-black sweepstakes.

Secretary of Zealotry

Speaking of right-wing zealots, President-elect Trump met Monday with David Clarke, the Milwaukee County sheriff, who is under consideration as Homeland Security secretary. This is a man who has called for rounding up as many as a million American citizens who use "jihadi rhetoric," suspending not just their First Amendment rights but their constitutional rights of habeas corpus and shipping them to the military detention site at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Clarke, who is African-American, habitually rips what he calls the "Black Lies Matter" movement. He called for "torches and pitchforks" to protest President Barack Obama's administration, and supported summoning the National Guard to put down anti-Trump protests. He has said there is "no police brutality in America," but there is a "war on police."

'Nuff said.

Washington's new model for ethics

Washington is a town that, until now, has treated ethical breaches as career-destroying pet beasts to be kept caged and hidden in the basement. In this new, post-election era, this pet not only gets to run free in the backyard, heck, it even gets to parade around on the Senate floor. We're talking about Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who announced this week that he would not recuse himself from confirmation proceedings involving Trump's nominee for secretary of transportation, Elaine Chao. She is McConnell's wife.

McConnell laughed off the notion of recusal, but this is no laughing matter. In order for Congress to perform its constitutional duty as a check and balance on the executive branch's authority, there must, in fact, be a separation of powers. Republicans who actually care about preserving one of our democracy's strongest pillars should demand that McConnell not only recuse himself from the confirmation process but on all future matters in which his wife's official duties come into play on Capitol Hill. Would their expectation have been any less if a Democratic administration were in charge?

Right protest, wrong place

St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson apparently shares our confusion about the protests that erupted downtown and along Hampton Avenue near Interstate 44 on Monday. Protesters blocked traffic and forced the shutdown of a McDonald's restaurant dining room on North Tucker Boulevard as part of a nationwide "Fight for $15" demand for a minimum-wage increase.

Why protest here? Locally, they've already won, as Dotson pointed out. In August 2015, Mayor Francis Slay signed legislation to increase the minimum wage to $11 per hour by 2018. The measure is bottled up in court.

"Our city is one of the most progressive cities in the state," Dotson told the protesters. "We already passed laws to increase the minimum wage, so why are you impacting families trying to get home to get their kids to sporting events in a community that's already heard and agrees with your message?"

The need to divert police resources to the protest sites meant that other neighborhoods were left neglected, all for a demand that, as Dotson pointed out, "our community has already said 'Yes' to."

Ain't life grand

Ken and Nancy Kranzberg upped the ante on their commitment to Grand Center this week with their decision to take over and renovate the Grandel Theatre for use by organizations such as Dance St. Louis and the Metro Theater Company.

The couple, through their Kranzberg Arts Foundation, bought the historic Cadillac Building at 3224 Locust Street in April, renamed it .Zack, after their grandson, and turned it into a performing-arts incubator. They also operate the Kranzberg Arts Center at the corner of North Grand Boulevard and Olive Street and the Marcelle Theater at 3310 Samuel Shepherd Drive.

The Kranzbergs, lifelong St. Louisans who have been married for more than 45 years, have said repeatedly that they love philanthropy and giving arts organizations the opportunity to be more daring. Grand Center, the culture scene and audiences around town benefit from their generosity.

Voting for veterans

Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, is helping cut through the red tape for patients at the Veterans Administration who need help from congressional offices.

Davis co-sponsored a bill to improve the VA claims process, which was passed by the House and now moves to the Senate. The bill would cut the VA out as a middleman when veterans seek files that members of Congress already have permission to access and release.

Davis says he has helped clear almost 1,000 veterans' claims over the four years he has been in office, and is working on 96 open cases. Anything that reduces unnecessary federal bureaucracy and improves service to our nation's veterans is worthy of support.

REPRINTED FROM THE ST LOUIS POST DISPATCH