Michigan has been battered by the economy more than any state. I hope things turn around soon too.

I previously posted about two judges in Wilkes-Barre, who were indicted for corruption in a scheme where they received kickbacks from a juvenile detention facility. These clowns were sending unrepresented kids to detention for periods of 6 months for minor infractions where the probation office recommended only supervision. The judges' plea agreement of 87 months was rejected by a federal judge as too lenient, so they withdrew the pleas and await trial.

Hearings have been held recently, in which the DA, Probation office, and court personnel were grilled over how this practice went on unchallenged for so long. It has become very embarrasing. The judges pocketed nearly $3 million dollars. I couldn't care less about the money though because the outrageous part of this was their unjust imprisonment of hundreds, if not thousands, of kids. I have never seen a more vile episode of public corruption.

In the same county most of the schoolboard for Wilke-s Barre School district were indicted for pressuring newly hired teachers to pay them an average of $5,000.00 for their jobs. And in another story a few state legislators were indicted with staff members for funneling public funds tofor their own campaigns. They also stole public money to run an anonymous smear campaign against a local representative, who opposed pay increases for the representatives and chastised those who supported the unpopular pay hike.

The former Mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick is back in the news.
As part of his plea agreement he was required to pay the City of Detroit $6,000/month in restitution, for a total of $1 million.

Two months ago he unilaterally cut that monthly amount in half, claiming he was virtually broke, despite living in a million dollar mansion and driving a new SUV.

So the prosecutors asked for a restitution hearing. During this hearing the former Mayor claimed his wife handled all the bills and he had no idea if she worked or what the rent was.

But the hearing revealed that not only had the former Mayor received a $240,000 "loan" from supportive businessmen, but also that the FBI/IRS has been conducting an ongoing corruption probe. An FBI agent provided testimony that contradicted that of Mr. Kilpatrick.

FBI Probe

I'm not familiar with this story, Lilo. Why does he have to pay $1 million back to the city?

The former Mayor ordered the City of Detroit to pay $9 million settlement to two (or was it 3) police officers who had filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the City. The Mayor had fired them.

It came out later that the reason the Mayor fired them was that as part of a murder investigation, the officers were on the verge of getting evidence that the Mayor was having a fling with his chief of staff.

Long story short (too late ), the Mayor perjured himself at the officers lawsuit trial by denying the affair and a host of other things. All of this was revealed in racy text messages that the Mayor was evidently sending to his chief of staff and at least a handful of other women not his wife.

The prosecutor charged him with perjury and official misconduct. Rather than roll the dice and go to trial he agreed to 99 days in county jail and to pay back the City in part. Detroit needs every dollar it can get so the restitution is not just prosecutorial vindictiveness, although there's probably some of that...

When will these politicians ever learn?? You can't dip your pen in the company ink and not expect to get caught. Years ago, you could get away with it, but not any more. There's too many people who can take your picture, intercept your call, too many other ways to be exposed. And yet they never, ever seem to get it.

Once these people get a political title & power behind their name, they think they become gods and can do what they want. Shameful!!

I'm honestly just starting to believe that horndog is part of the political DNA. I really hate them all.

I think right before they take office they have to pass a course called horndogology.

Yeah, it's too bad because the former Mayor was by all accounts incredibly energetic, intelligent and charismatic. If he hadn't fired those cops and then lied under oath about it he would still be Mayor today. And he could be cheating to his heart's content.

Michigan in general and Detroit in particular is very insular politically. The Mayor comes from a political family. His mother is a Congressional Representative. His father worked for the (deceased) county executive Ed McNamara, who also gave the current governor, Jennifer Granholm, her start in politics. If the Mayor hadn't resigned , Granholm was on the verge of removing him from office.

As mentioned there is evidently an ongoing Federal investigation into city corruption-which already netted a few local businessmen, the former council President, has a local fixer going to trial and killed the career of a local TV anchor. So by this time next year I am betting that there will be more indictments, trials or plea bargains. It's not just Detroit. There's a few suburban politicians/businessmen getting caught in the undertow as well. So it goes...

Well this is different. 5 San Diego banks have been robbed since August by a man in his mid 70's very frail and wrinkly, and get this, at one robbery at least, had an oxygen tank, which the police think is real and not part of his plan. He's been dubbed the "Geezer Bandit." How can this guy, if the description is true, move so quickly that he's gotten away with robbing 5 banks. Ha ha ha

TIS

http://www.officer.com/online/article.jsp?siteSection=1&id=49398

He probably melts right into the crowd out there in Looney-Land (aka California).

so thats what grandpa been doing in california

When I check my email, I get a news screen while it's loading. Yesterday, I saw a story about a father who found out that his teenage son was a pedophile who had raped a 3 year old. The father then had the boy strip down, took him outside and shot him dead while the mother pleaded for their son's life. Before I could get more details, my Inbox popped up and the news screen was gone.

I haven't seen or read anything about this since. Has anyone else, or was I having a bad nightmare??

Sadly no...
That was also in Michigan. It was in Highland Park.
There is some dispute about whether any actual sexual contact had taken place. It was the boy's sister (and father's daughter)
Detroit news article 1

Detroit news Article 2

Lilo, thank you. What a truly bizarre story, which seems to get stranger. The boy admitted to sexual contact with his sister, yet the girl shows no sign of sexual abuse? Why would this allegedly sweet boy admit to something like that if it wasn't true? And why would the father just kill him? How do you pull the trigger on your own son when he's begging for his life?

It just sounds horrible.

This is a story that makes yor skin crawl.

Now for a tear jerker. This one got to me.

Last month one of the fathers of a little girl at our elementary school died after a bout with cancer. He and his daughter (4th grade) sang a duet in a talent show. The song was "Something Stupid", and their performance was videotaped.

When she gets home after school, she throws the video in and sings along while her mom cries.

Damn Klyd. I haven't teared up like that since last time I watched *"Brian's Song."

*Guys get a macho dispensation for crying during "Brian's Song." Don't ask me why, but it's in the handbook.

Klyd, between this little girl and her dad, and your neighbor's dog that got run over and the kids were trying to call him with his cookie jar, you're freaking KILLING me!!!

There's a new teen (or tween) heart throb, Justin Bieber. He's a singer and evidently has a BIG following from these young girls. He was scheduled to appear at a local mall today, signing autographs. The mall was besieged by over 10,000 screaming kids, some of whom started lining up at 3:00 a.m. It was soon evident that the mall wasn't equipped to handle the crowd and fearing that there'd be a stampede and injuries, the police cancelled the appearance.

The local news was showing some of the coverage of the crowd - it was fucking madness!!

They were smart to have pulled the plug on the appearance.

Absolutely.

This was about 10 miles away from the shopping mall in which a Wal*Mart employee was killed last year (he was trampled to death) in the Black Friday rush (the day after Thanksgiving). I bet that memory played a factor in the police deciding to cancel the appearance.

Mixed emotions for my boys' high school.

In a semi-final playoff game for a state title against a cross-river rival, the football team lost 24-21. Trailing 24-6 in the fourth quarter, our Rams scored two tds and a two-point conversion to pull within 3, and got the ball on their own ten with a little over three minutes to play. They drove the ball down the field, but their superb kicker missed a 44 yard field goal attempt when the ball sailed wide left. It had plenty of leg.

The next day the school played for the state title in boys' soccer. It was 1-1 after regulation, and two overtime periods failed to change the score, so they and their opponents were declared state co-champions. Neither team was thrilled about the tie. One team got the trophy and the other received the gold medals.

That sucks. Why couldn't they do some sort of special event to determine a winner?

Our high school football team is actually going to the state finals for the first time in the school's history. We won the semi-finals by over 20 points, so hopefully our chances are good.

The coach's son, who had played at the high school and was also a local teacher and coach, died unexpectedly this past summer at the age of 35. I think the boys want to give the coach something to make him smile, and that has really motivated them.

They used to have a shootout to determine the state champions after 2 OTs didn't result in a winner. Apparently they did away with the shutout several years ago after a girls' state championship came after a shootout. The goalkeeper, who allowed the winning goal in the shootout, committed suicide soon after the match (I haven't exactly been a ray of sunshine in this thread lately).

Good luck to yor team, SB. I'm rooting for your coach.

Now, THAT'S ridiculous (to change the rule).

Would it have made a difference (to the gal who committed suicide) if she gave up the goal in a regular or overtime time period?

Declaring "co-winners" for a reason not having anything to do with sports performance is plain wrong.

whilst not *exactly* where i am from, this was only an hour or two away.

kangaroo tries to drown dog then fights man

one of the more bizarre things i've read!

for some reason i picture this as a horror story written by stephen king.