Klyd, God bless her! Sounds like a wonderful family occasion!

Nice, Counselor .

http://wnep.com/2014/05/19/100-year-old-celebrates-birthday-with-family-friends/

Above is a link to the brief news story about my grandmother's birthday. My mom is the lady in red, and two of my kids can be seen standing behind my grandmother at about the :18 mark.

You can also see my dad around that time in the background wearing a suit on the far right.

Kly,

She looks amazing at 100 yrs old and does seem really sharp. Oh, and the Babe Ruth, Charlie Chaplin references really puts it in perspective. That is so wonderful. I love and have grown to appreciate even more how precious these family milestones are. God bless you all!!!!




TIS

What a beautiful family, Klyd. You are a fortunate man indeed.

Thank you, SB and TIS. I always seem to learn a nugget from the past when I sit down with her. For instance, I always knew that she had eloped with my grandfather in 1935 because nobody really had big, family weddings during the depression. And I knew they had a spaghetti dinner following the ceremony with another couple, who had served as witnesses. But I didn't realize until recently that they kept their marriage secret for about a month. On the wedding night my grandfather took her back to her home and he went to his.

Another thing, for as long as I remember -going back to grade school, I think - I sometimes hum a simple tune whenever I'm feeling a little stressed. I only do this when I'm alone for some reason, and generally don't pay much attention to it.

Well, a few years ago between phone calls while I was visiting family, I hummed the jingle, and was surprised to hear my grandmother sing lyrics to the tune. I didn't even know it was a real song and asked her with some disbelief how she knew that song. She continued to sing another line or two and then told me that that was the song my mother and she sang to me when I was a baby to get me to take my naps. The name of the song was Hi Lili Hi Lo, and it was sung by Leslie Caron in a movie from the 50s. And for over 40 years I thought the tune was from me.

Kly,

Great memory of that song and your grandmother. Those are the tidbits that stay with us.

Speaking of eloping, and slightly off topic. One of my Aunts (my mom's sister, now deceased) it was told for many years, that she was kidnapped by her husband. The family kept referring to it as a kidnapping, when in reality, her family didn't like her fiance (maybe he wasn't from a good part of Sicily or something. It was a lame reason cause everyone grew to love him LOL), so they eloped. Ah the drama!!

TIS

Good story, TIS. Fascinating times indeed.

Wonderful clip Kly. Your grandmother looks in pretty good shape still.

There's still a crack of the whip left in the old girl.

More like news in Turnbull's neck of the woods -- I just heard about some AZ wildfires heading right toward him! Good luck and be safe, Turnbull!

Kly! My wife's grandmother was a Murphy...from Scranton/Dunmore as you know. I think her father was one of 14 kids. Maybe you and my wife are related! God Bless grandma. I'll be going up to the valley this weekend. I'll see if I can dig up some Murphy dirt....the good kind of course.

By: David Ovalle

dovalle@MiamiHerald.com


When Miami-Dade police busted a staggering 158 people at a South Miami-Dade cockfighting ring last month, the next step of justice could not be avoided.

They had to show up for court.

And so on Friday, in a unique and at-times frenzied morning, hundreds of defendants, their supporters and an army of private and public lawyers crowded the fourth-floor of Miami-Dade’s criminal courthouse for the arraignment.

But while packed and loud, the morning was carefully choreographed.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Ariana Fajardo traded in her small second-floor digs for the roomy fourth-floor court normally reserved for high-profile trials.

On a dolly, Miami-Dade prosecutors wheeled in seven neatly organized boxes, then handed out to lawyers spreadsheets with the names of the defendants. Info sheets passed out to lawyers described the instant offer of “pretrial diversion” – charges would dropped in exchange for $1,150 in fines and fees.

The logistical muscle flocked to court: uniformed police and corrections officers, four bailiffs, a rotating cast of Spanish-language interpreters and one sole and very stoic clerk, responsible for filing the paperwork and reviewing each file.

In the hallway, 12 Miami-Dade assistant public defenders stood atop benches, hollering in Spanish for scores of defendants – court notices stuffed in their pockets – to gather around and fill out paperwork.

“ Esto es una boberia,” said Osmany Cruz, 48, a welder on disability who was arrested that day. “This is foolishness. This is just a hobby. No one was robbing or stealing. It’s just a diversion.”

One public defender bristled at the fines being offered: “You go to a baseball game, it’s not going to cost $1,150. I doubt these people have that much money. They don’t think they’ve done anything wrong.”

Inside court, Judge Fajardo patiently began calling up private lawyers, scanning the immense court calender as people buzzed in and out of court. “I’ve only got seven clients,” joked Miami defense attorney Kenneth Weisman.

The investigation began from a tip that people were gambling and selling drugs at a home in the Redland in deep South Miami-Dade.

Undercover Miami-Dade police officers, posing as customers, started dropping in and making drug buys.

Then on Thursday, April 24, armed with a search warrant, officers entered the home stumbled upon some 200 people, some armed, almost all gambling, standing and seated around a cockfighting ring that had been built in a theater-like setting.

There were so many arrests that Miami-Dade corrections staffers had to dispatch buses to haul the defendants into jail. The majority were charged with attending a fight involving animal cruelty, a third-degree felony.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/05/23/4133666/after-south-miami-dade-cockfighting.html#storylink=cpy

I hope I am as in good shape when I get to the big ton

Fisher Mansion for sale

Just $1.5 million? Let me go pull that out of my credit union savings...

Jury awards $172M to a Bronx woman after botched 911 call


A Bronx jury awarded a whopping $172 million verdict to a 29-year-old woman who was severely handicapped after the city botched a routine 911 call, The Post has learned.

The award is one of the largest of its type in New York state history, attorney Thomas Moore said.

Twelve-year-old Tiffany Applewhite was having difficulty breathing at her Williamsbridge home after a nurse administered a shot for an eye condition in 1998.

Her mother called 911 and the ambulance arrived just six minutes later, but the two EMTs who responded failed to bring necessary equipment out of the vehicle and up to the fifth-floor apartment.

The misstep was a violation of the workers’ protocol and “pivotal in Tiffany’s injuries,” Moore said.

When Applewhite went into cardiac arrest, her desperate mother asked the responders to rush her to nearby Montefiore Medical Center.

But the EMTs told her they had to wait for a special ambulance to transport the struggling child.

Unbeknownst to Mrs. Applewhite, they had not yet called for backup and help did not arrive for 20 more minutes, Moore said.

As a result of the delay, Applewhite suffered brain damage and cannot walk or talk.

“While this is a tragic case, we believe that the jury’s verdict is not consistent with the law. The city will appeal,” said de Blasio administration attorney Fay Leoussis.

“This was a tragedy that never should have happened,” Moore said.

“This poor child could have been treated and saved had the EMT workers simply followed” city protocol, Moore added.

“Instead this woman is a prisoner in her own body,” Moore said.

The award came down on Wednesday — about a week after Mayor Bill de Blasio ordered a review of the city’s beleaguered emergency response system.

Moore said the five-man, one-woman jury deliberated for two days following a three-week trial.

The jurors found the city was responsible for the woman’s life-altering injuries because the EMS workers failed to perform their most basic duties, including using a defibrillator, Moore said.

The case took 16 years to go to trial due to multiple appeals, Moore said.

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140...curity-concerns

Detroit— A controversial men’s rights group is holding its first conference in Detroit, and its host hotel wants organizers to hire police officers as security because of death threats.

The Houston-based group A Voice for Men is hosting its International Conference on Men’s Issues June 27 and 28 at the Hilton Doubletree Guest Suites Fort Shelby on W. Lafayette. Speakers will address what they say is prejudice against men, “antifeminism” and corruption of family courts.

More than 2,000 people have signed an online petition seeking to cancel the conference, and the hotel last week informed the group it needed to hire extra security.

“We have received numerous calls and threats and are concerned for the safety and well-being of our employees, our guests and your attendees,” hotel officials wrote in a letter dated Thursday to Paul Elam, A Voice for Men’s founder and publisher.

“The threats have escalated to include death threats, physical violence against our staff and and other guests as well as damage to the property.”

Elam provided a copy of the letter to The Detroit News. He said the group is in the process of spending $25,000 to hire seven off-duty Detroit police officers to work the event....

2 Russian students, studying at Newcastle University were arrested the other day and police had to safely detonate the bomb they had apparently made!! Bloody hell!!! What is going on in the world???

Scary shit

Terrible, Yogi. The kids are getting close to university age now, too. Aren't they?

Just one more thing to worry about as parents .

One shooting that was about to take place I saw recently on the news some kid had Pepper spray on him. He got the gunman with him it and saved a lot of lives. That's a cheap investment, also better then carrying a weapon on a college campus.

Burns like Hell.

Lucchese gangster asks to be released on bail in civil lawsuit

A reputed mobster wants a get-out-of-jail-free card, whining in a new civil lawsuit that a Manhattan criminal judge is unfairly keeping him in the clink as he awaits trial for assaulting his porn star ex-girlfriend.

Attorney Bruno Gioffre Jr. says he argued to Justice Charles H. Solomon that “despite having a prior criminal record” his client Thomas Gelardo was basically a model citizen who has “lifelong ties to the community” and “always returned to court” for past offenses.

Gioffre suggested a $250,000 bail supported by a condo Gelardo, 31, owns with his sister, according to court papers.

But Solomon denied bail, ordering Gelardo to stay in jail because he repeatedly violated a restraining order by obsessively contacting his former gal pal.

Gelardo called his curvaceous actress,Trista Geyer, 60 times in one day despite restraining orders, prosecutors said.

He was arrested for roughing up Geyer in November 2013 and later charged with burglary, assault, strangulation, aggravated criminal contempt and tampering with a witness.

Gelardo, who is reportedly connected to the Lucchese crime family, filed a civil suit against the Department of Correction on Wednesday claiming Solomon’s decision to keep him in the clink instead of setting bail is “arbitrary and capricious.”

The buxom bottle blonde has graced the pages of Hustler and Playboy magazines.

But Gioffre says he handed the court a tape of Geyer giving “conflicting statements as to how she was injured.”

He also told Solomon that Geyer “was uncooperative, living in Florida” and “had sent a letter to the court indicating that she did not want to pursue this matter.”

Still Solomon did not budge.

A spokeswoman from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

http://nypost.com/2014/06/12/reputed-mobster-sues-city-for-keeping-him-locked-up/

is Gelardo made?

Cheech, I googled him but didn't come up with anything. Maybe someone else on here knows.

No.

I hope everyone had a good jobbie nooner today.

Saginaw Republican seeking State House Seat.

Nice and classy. But we all make mistakes. I'm sure that the shock that he's had in the past will make him think twice before trying to pull anything like that again.

"Again, police reports state he admitted to "listening to the engine idle and masturbating."

Very sexy, I guess...half the drivers in California would be, uh, self-gratifying in traffic jams...

Was the vehicle a Woodie?

Amelia Earhart 2.0 to fly same trip as predecessor

CBS News/June 26, 2014, 1:00 PM

Seventy-seven years ago, aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart disappeared over the south pacific, attempting to circumnavigate the globe.

Today, another Amelia Earhart takes off from Oakland, California to finish what her namesake started, CBS news correspondent Barry Petersen reports.

Her parents named her Amelia Rose Earhart, and she is flying the same route that her predecessor did in 1937 -- an 18-day, 28,000-mile trip around the world.

Amelia Rose Earhart hopes to complete the journey that her namesake disappeared on./ CBS News
"They said, you know, we wanna give her a positive role model. And also give her a name that nobody will ever forget. And that's certainly been the case," Earhart said.

She took her first flying lesson when she was 21, and then found a career as a TV traffic reporter. Now her parent's decision, and her determination, are coming together as she prepares for her trip.

"We've got a small hand-held device which will allow us to send out texts and tweets through GPS satellite," Earhart said.

The cockpit remains a mostly male domain. Today women make up only about 5 percent of commercial airline pilots. To her, the voyage is as much about the future of female fliers as their past.

She recounts a conversation she had recently while taking a photograph in front of an aircraft: "A gentleman walked up and asked me if I wanted a pilot in the shot," Earhart told CBS News. "I said, 'sir, there is a pilot in the shot', and he said, 'oh, am I in it?' I said, no 'I'm going to go fly this airplane!'"

Trying to join Earhart in the 5 percent is 18-year-old Destiny Krell. Before she met Amelia, she was washing airplanes 12 hours a day to raise money for flight training.

Now she's the first recipient of a scholarship from Earhart's foundation which helps high school-aged girls who want to learn how to fly.

"I can't help it, I like altitude," Krell told CBS News.

Getting the scholarship meant lessons paid for, and following in the footsteps of her mentors: the Earharts of past and present.

"Amelia Earhart is a big, big role model, and it's such a relief to know there are role models out there that do reach out and they'll help you," Krell said. "If she can do it, I can do it!"

Earhart is just excited to honor her lineage.

"There have been times when I've momentarily thought, you know, if I had a different name, things might be a little easier," Earhart said. "But now that I've embraced it and I've said that I'm going all in, it's so much fun!"

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/amelia-earhart-2-0-to-fly-same-trip-as-predecessor/