Looking back on the news from last week, the number of headlines that simply prompt me to think, “I just don’t get it,” seem far higher than normal.

Don’t get me wrong, Natchez is always good for a few bizarre stories here and there — the body found in the chimney at Natchez Under-the-Hill, a former politician who gets caught stealing public funds and still is allowed to run for office again, etc.

But last week sent yours truly scratching his bald noggin more than most.

Can state Sen. Melanie Sojourner really hold a straight face and suggest the reason she didn’t file the state-required campaign finance report is because of tornado damage at her house?

I’d have more respect for her if she’d simply said, “You know, I was busy working and simply forgot. I’ve done it now, and all is good.” Instead she suggested, effectively, “Yes, I know it was late, but I was waiting for someone to tell me exactly when my drop-dead deadline was.”

I just don’t get it.

What kind of sick person rigs up traps that would strangle and kill cats — even if the person felt the cats were nuisances?

I’ve never been a “cat person.” Our family had dogs my whole life, and we’re the proud owners of two shelter dogs. But I’d never consider killing a cat — even a wild one — in an inhumane manner.

A few years back, in our community, a man was charged with torturing a dog. He tied the dog to a tree, doused it in lighter fluid and set it on fire. That case was particularly heinous, but the disappearing and injured cats from this past week are also troubling.

Purposefully harming a relatively defenseless creature just makes no sense.

I just don’t get it.

Late last week, the people leading bankrupt Natchez Regional Medical Center decided it was finally time to reduce its payroll. That’s months after filing bankruptcy and forcing all its creditors to continue carrying the hospital’s debts while the hospital tries to finalize a sales process.

One would think if hospital leaders thought salary reductions were necessary, they would have executed a plan to drastically reduce payroll approximately a year ago.

That would have been around the time the former CEO suggested the hospital was going to close in the next two years if it didn’t sell. He may have been spot-on, but he seemed to do little to prevent the county’s largest asset from being flushed down the toilet.

All the while, more than $9.79 million in cash gained through suing its former management company was being burned as operating cash.

Now, after spending hundreds of thousands more in public hospital money, the hospital decides — “Perhaps we need to trim our payroll a bit.”

Thus one month ahead of an anticipated sale on Sept. 11, the hospital cuts pay of its staff from 10 to 20 percent.

The hospital burned buckets of cash up until now, but now, on the presumed brink of it’s death, it opts to start saving drops.

I just don’t get it.

Perhaps the headlines of the coming week will make more sense. I sure hope so.

Kevin Cooper is publisher of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3539 or kevin.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com.