Small towns are good, they are a nice small visible fish bowl.   We just need a viable press with decent investigative reporters to see who goes to dinner and drinks with  who, who rooms with who, who are best buds, who hangs out in who's legislative office, who dig into the background facts (historical facts)  and can remember what happened in years past. (Government employees are not the enemy, they do the peoples business and administer the laws passed by the legislature as a result they know who pressured who to pass a given bill or suggest favorable amendments,  they know the history of programs and usually who or what led to changes favorable to specific constituent groups.  That is why the legislature and political types dislike them and disparage them so regularly, they know where the bodies are buried).