Something to Talk About

The Fourth and Fifth Amendments of the United States Constitution were meant to guarantee the right of privacy in your home and person.  And freedom from searches without probable cause.  Rights ensured by due process, the legal carabiner holding all the ropes, without which no other right exists.    

But those amendments didn’t help former US Olympian David Hearn, who was arrested on June 19^th and charged with felony destruction of property for damaging the lining at the Reflecting Pool.  Paint that United States Attorney for the District of Columbia (USAO-DC) Jeanine Pirro had to admit could not be damaged as it had already peeled off.  Facts she would have possessed had she only read my blog that week—and that the government did  possess even before my reporting, having received them from the Department of the Interior (DOI) several weeks previously.  A full month before Hearn was arrested at the pool, leaving Pirro no choice but to drop the charges or face them herself. 

For perjury!

Not for denying that she read my blog, but for stating that Mr. Hearn damaged the pool’s liner, which the government’s own records  show had already been damaged by a “flawed installation by the contractor,” according to inspectors from the Department of the Interior (DOI), who reported “blistering in the finished portions” as early as May.  So that those facts were in the government’s possession when Pirro went in front of the Grand Jury, though her motion to dismiss says that she did not seek them before charging Hearn.  A violation of Hearn’s right to due process, which I suspect he’ll sue Pirro for, likely using the words of Pirro’s own motion against her, as he will when he sues for slander and defamation.  Charges which Pirro’s prosecutorial immunity will not save her from, as lying about Mr. Hearn is not part of her job.  And because while Pirro can drop the charges, doing so does not give him back his rights.   

Which can only be returned by a jury finding Pirro guilty of taking them.

The motion to dismiss is a must-read for followers of the Reflecting Pool news, with the law intermixed with our own vernacular, civil rights preserved by overspray and dry-film thickness.  More than just that blending of my two greatest geeks, the motion details what the government knew and when about the paint job at the pool—our national paint shame.  It was filed just hours after I posted my podcast for this week, explaining the double-tap drop of another episode on Wednesday, with the first updating the news from Rochester and the pool.  THE follow-up episode is dedicated to the Hearn case and details from that filing, which were extensive enough to warrant the effort.  The case has captured national attention, assuring that this paint spec will stay in the news for longer than just this cycle. 

Leaving us something to talk about while we’re having the pool unpainted.

Fighting for attention here are earnings from Sherwin-Williams, PPG and Masco, with the former two (barely) keeping up with inflation while Masco continues its decline, posting a sales decrease of 3%.  Driven in part by the ongoing struggles at Behr, which was down 4% compared to last year, a significant decrease in volume when considered with inflation.  A continuation of that trend, which since COVID has seen DIY paint consumers show disaffection for the big boxes.   

On her webcast earnings call, Sherwin-Williams CEO Heidi Petz announced an 8% price increase, to “offset raw material and other cost inflation.”  That’s on top of a 7% increase Sherwin implemented in January, making 2026 paint’s most inflationary year in recent memory.  And current events leave me trepidatious that the year is not over yet, with plenty of time for other manufacturers to follow Sherwin’s lead, which McCormick Paints did just days later.  The rest will follow quickly, leaving enough time this year for a triple-tap price increase, which I am not forecasting though that remains conceivable. 

And if those increases don’t come in the final quarter this year, they’ll come in the first of next.  Brought on by the enormous loss of oil productivity since the onset of the war, assuring continued inflation in our petrochemical raws.  Increases which will get added to the rising price of diesel, practically assuring that inflation in the price of coatings remains persistent through next year.

Or even the one after that.