Fed Ed's Graffiti Artist

I debated whether to write anything at all about Allentown Fed Ed's newest cheerleader, especially since he appears to be an attention-seeker. But I decided to fill you in. His name is John-Luke Laube. After some of his more recent publicity stunts, he might want to change that to John-Luke Labotomy. He's the fellow who was charged recently with disorderly conduct and malicious mischief after deciding to paint mostly pro Fed Ed messages on the windows of several businesses. These include The Morning Call, PPL Center, Miller Symphony Hall, Billy's Diner and Starbucks. His crime, if you can call it a crime, was caught on video by Naomi Winch.

Most of us first became aware of John-Luke Labotomy late last week, when he popped up on Facebook to proclaim that "Ed Pawlowski is Innocent." He promised to prove it, too, on Friday night at 7 pm. But that never happened.

His argument essentially is that because "Allentown is on the rise," it necessarily follows that Fed Ed is innocent. This, of course, is an illogical argument. But it's a favorite among Mayors. Criticism of Mayor Sal Panto's use of false names to praise himself on social media has been equated with criticism of Easton. In Nazareth, where a Mayor was skimming from the poker machines, the wagons circled and the Mayor suddenly became Mr. Nazareth.

Though the argument was bad, I was impressed by John-Luke Labotomy's Clickable Click website. It definitely is eye-catching, and he is succinct while sounding sincere. But I was troubled by some things. He lists locations in Paris, New York and Kentucky. He lists a Paris address that is actually a four-story apartment building. He actually just registered his webpage from his home in Emmaus in June of this year. So his claim of multiple locations is a bit far-fetched.

He may have traveled in his young life, but actually lives with his parents in Emmaus.

The next thing that bothers me about John-Luke Labotomy is his LinkedIn profile claim that he's a product of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. In truth, he has no degree. He claims to have a "certification" for entrepreneurship, but all that's involved there is a four-week course lasting one or two hours per week. His real education appears to be a stint at Lehigh County Community College. He also claims to be certified as a "Platinum Multimedia Artist" by Lehigh Career Technical Institute, but I was unable to find anything like that on their website.

John-Luke has denied that he is working for Fed Ed in any way, either personally or through his various names. Fed Ed has been even more clear. "Mr. Laube is in no way shape or form employed by me or my campaign," says a Mayor indicted for, among other things, lying to the FBI.

Their claim is flatly contradicted by Yoseph Basrawi, who at one time worked with John-Luke.

Basrawi claims that last week, he ran into John-Luke at the Starbucks in Allentown. John Luke claimed he is working on Fed Ed's campaign, and even demonstrated that he has administration privileges on Fed Ed's Facebook page.

Yesterday, I repeatedly asked John-Luke to explain this relationship, telling him I had information there was one. He declined. John-Luke has played fast and loose with the truth about nearly everything. Fed Ed is himself accused of making false statements to the FBI. So there is little doubt in my mind that John-Luke is working Fed Ed's campaign, either as a volunteer or for money.

What John-Luke is doing is marketing himself and trying to appear attractive to local businesses.

I suspect he picked a lousy way to achieve that goal.