Divine Intervention?

One is a building with bars. The other is a building with a bar. But a very drunk woman in Paw, Paw Michigan apparently had trouble telling them apart and ended up in a southwestern Michigan jail cell.

The Van Buren County sheriff's department says a 39-year-old woman mistook the Van Buren County jail for the bar where she was trying to pick up her boyfriend. 

The department says Deputy Robert Miersma spotted the Hartford-area woman backing into the jail parking lot in Paw Paw about 2 a.m. Sunday and noticed she smelled of alcohol and appeared intoxicated.

A breath test showed her with more than twice the 0.08 percent blood alcohol to be considered drunk in Michigan. She's expected to face drunken driving charges.

It's funny in an ironic sense how our subconscious mind works. This woman clearly new that she wasn't fit to drive so she "inadvertently" turned herself in. This story although both hilarious and sad at the same time, represents the goodness of God. Who knows who how many lives would have been lost if she continued to drive that night.

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Finally Justice?!

A Florida woman who was the victim of a abuse and was still sentenced to 20 years behind bars for allegedly firing a warning shot during a dispute with her husband was granted a new trial.

The appellate court ruling erased a decision by a jury that took just 12 minutes to convict Marissa Alexander, a mother of three, of aggravated assault.

The conviction of Alexander, who is black, sparked outrage and cries of a racial double standard in light of the exoneration of George Zimmerman, a white Hispanic, for the death of Trayvon Martin, who was black. In particular, outrage aired on social media and among some lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Alexander unsuccessfully tried to invoke Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law as the same prosecutors who unsuccessfully worked to put Zimmerman behind bars told the court that she did not act in self-defense.

In granting the new trial, Judge James H. Daniel also seemed unmoved by the Stand Your Ground defense.

"We reject her contention that the trial court erred in declining to grant her immunity from prosecution under Florida's Stand Your Ground law, but we remand for a new trial because the jury instructions on self-defense were erroneous," wrote Daniel.

Alexander testified that, on Aug. 1, 2010, her then-husband, Rico Gray Sr., questioned her fidelity and the paternity of her 1-week-old child.

She claimed that he broke through a bathroom door that she had locked and grabbed her by the neck. She said she tried to push past him but he shoved her into the door, sparking a struggle that felt like an "eternity."

Afterwards, she claimed that she ran to the garage and tried to leave but was unable to open the garage door, so she retrieved a gun, which she legally owned.

Once inside, she claimed, her husband saw the gun and charged at her "in a rage" saying, "Bitch, I'll kill you." She said she raised the gun and fired a warning shot into the air because it was the "lesser of two evils."

The jury rejected the self-defense claim and Alexander was sentenced under the state's 10-20-life law, sparking outrage over how self-defense laws are applied in the state.

A Florida appellate court ruled today that jury instructions, which unfairly made Alexander prove "beyond a reasonable doubt" that she was acting in self-defense, were wrong -- and that there were other incorrect instructions that self-defense only applied if the victim suffered an injury, which Gray had not.

Today, U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Fla., lashed out at Florida State Attorney Angela Corey, who oversaw the failed prosecution of George Zimmerman and the prosecution in this case, saying, "Arresting and prosecuting her when no one was hurt does not make any sense. ... What was certainly absent from the courtroom during Marissa's trial was mercy and justice. Indeed, the three-year plea deal from State Attorney Angela Corey is not mercy, and a mandatory 20-year sentence is not justice."

Corey's office argued that Alexander, who had not been living in the home for two months leading up to the shooting, provoked the incident, and that there was no proof the garage door was broken, Alexander's rationale for not leaving the altercation. Her office offered her a three-year plea deal in the case that was rejected.

Alexander testified about three other alleged incidents of physical abuse by her husband, including one that led to his arrest. Several witnesses claimed to have seen the injuries she allegedly suffered and the final defense witness in the case testified that she met the criteria for "battered person's syndrome."

In a statement, prosecutors wrote, "The defendant's conviction was reversed on a legal technicality.  We are gratified that the court affirmed the defendant's Stand Your Ground ruling. This means the defendant will not have another Stand Your Ground hearing. The case will be back in the Circuit Court in the Fourth Judicial Circuit at the appropriate time."

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Faith In His Word.

Sometimes in life we get so wrapped up in our so called problems that we forget how good God really is. We get entangled in our nonsense, stressed by our mess, and ensnared by our cares and we forget who our father is. I'm guilty of it myself. But every now and then I have to remind myself to stand on his promises, and have faith in his word.

 Hebrews 13:5 - [Let your] conversation [be] without covetousness; [and be] content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

Deuteronomy 31:8 - And the LORD, he [it is] that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.

Deuteronomy 31:6 - Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he [it is] that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

Every now and then we need to remind ourselves!

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When Hazing Turns To Sexual Assault.

Hazing is probably one of the stupidest things known to man. It  damages, and ruins lives, and it is even worse when children are involved and parents condone their dispicable behavior.

Seven members of the Sayreville New Jersey football team are facing charges for their roles in a hazing scandal that caused school officials to cancel the remainder of the season last week.

Six of the players were detained  on a bevy of charges that included aggravated sexual assault, aggravated criminal sexual contact, conspiracy to commit aggravated criminal sexual contact, criminal restraint, and hazing, Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew C. Carey and Sayreville Police Chief John Zerowski said in a news release. A seventh player was being sought so after these charges were filed.

The players ranged in age from 15 to 17 and were detained awaiting a Family Court hearing to determine whether they will be held in a juvenile detention center or released in the custody of their parents or guardians. A date had not been set for those hearings at the time of the news release.

In the release, prosecutors said there were four incidents between Sept. 19 and Sept. 29 in which at least one of the suspects held the victims “against their will, while another suspect improperly touched them in a sexual manner.” A victim also was savagely kicked in the head, the prosecutor said.

Following the arrest, Sayreville Superintendent Dr. Richard Labbe released a statement saying the school has begun an investigation into all athletic and extracurricular programs.

“In the ensuing days, weeks, and months, we will come together as a school district and greater community to harness the strength required to support the young men who may have been victimized and then to begin the healing process for our beloved community,” Labbe said in the statement.​

The arrests came on the night that Sayreville was scheduled to play Monroe on its home field for homecoming. Instead, the football-loving community continues to be rocked by more dubious revelations.

The names of the players were not being released because all are under the age of 18. One of the key next steps will be whether prosecutors seek to have any of the teens charged as an adult which would mean stiffer potential sentences. A juvenile convicted of first-degree sexual assault would face up to five years in prison.

Three of the teens were charged with aggravated sexual assault and other charges, including sexual contact, conspiracy, restraint and hazing for engaging in an act of sexual penetration on one of the juvenile victims, the prosecutor said.

The four other teens were charged with aggravated sexual assault, conspiracy, sexual contact, hazing and riot by participating in the attack of the remaining victims.

No coaches or school officials were charged.

Labbe announced during a news conference a little over a week ago that the prosecutor’s office and borough police were investigating allegations of a “significant and serious nature” within the football program. The school had canceled the previous night’s game against New Brunswick and Labbe said the decision was predicated upon information obtained from law enforcement.

Last Monday, Labbe announced he was canceling the season.

“We can set the standard right now for all kids for all school districts in Middlesex County, in the state and in the nation that we are not going to stand around and allow kids to do this to one another,” Labbe said. “We are going to start holding our students responsible for doing the right thing and reporting these kinds of behaviors. I believe with every fiber of my body that the only way we are going to stop bullying is if we get the kids to go to an adult or to the authorities.”

That decision was met with an outcry from parents and community members, who seemed to be more concerned with football than rape or sodomy, leading to a contentious Board of Education meeting the following night in which the board unanimously affirmed the decision to cancel the season.

In the ensuing days, details about the nature of the alleged actions by upperclassmen on underclassmen began to emerge with the parent of a freshman player. 

In graphic and disturbing detail, the parent said upperclassmen would pin down a freshman player and then lift him up so a finger could be shoved into his rectum. Often the same finger would then be put in the player’s mouth! Chris Christie expressed outrage at the allegations and told news reporters in Trenton that, as a father of four, he was especially appalled.

“The facts as reported currently are extraordinarily disturbing and, as the father of a number of teenage athletes, the idea that that kind of conduct could be permitted  if it’s true … in a high school athletics program, or anywhere else in our state for that matter, is absolutely unacceptable,” he said.

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Just When You Thought You Heard It All News (10-18-2014)

Just because you can't take it with you, doesn't mean that someone else should take it with them.

A murder victim’s expensive, German-made watch was found on a ghoulish, grave robbing Detroit homicide sergeant, who has since been suspended.

According to the report, Sgt. Alex Vinson was in charge of a case involving an unidentified murder victim who was wearing the fancy watch, police Chief James Craig confirmed.

According to police protocol, at the time that the man's body was discovered, the watch was photographed and stored with other property in the homicide section. Then the case went cold. However, while Vinson was in advanced police training in Idaho, other detectives decided to take a second look at the case, and the watch.

It was then that they realized the watch that was mixed in with the victim’s other items was not the same, but a cheaper replacement watch.....

"We were made aware of this a few nights ago and immediately initiated an internal investigation," Craig said. "We directed [Vinson] to return home."

Vinson was allegedly seen sporting the watch during the training session and was read his Miranda rights upon his return to Michigan, last week. GOOD!

"The case in ongoing, and the sergeant has been suspended while we prepare a warrant for review by prosecutors," Craig said.

In St. Petersburg, Florida, a truck containing 18 tons of Crisco sticks headed to a grocery store chain distribution center was stolen.

St. Petersburg Police say that a tractor-trailer containing the 36,000 pounds of vegetable shortening was snatched Sunday morning.

The truck was destined for a Publix distribution center in Lakeland. Authorities said the stolen tractor was a 2005 red Volvo, with a Florida tag and had the business name of "NS Express LLC on both sides of the cab. The trailer was a white Hyundai.

So if one of your friends or neighbors starts frying chicken and baking cakes every day for the next year or so, they just might know something about this missing truck load of Crisco. Unless you're the one who happens to be frying everything in sight............

A Chinese man divorced and then sued his ex-wife for giving birth to what he called an extremely ugly baby girl.

Talk about cold blooded! 

Initially, Jian Feng accused his wife of infidelity, because he was so sure that he could never be the father of such an ugly child.

And how did he know that he isn't the one with the ugly gene? You ask.....

When a DNA test proved that the baby was his, Feng’s wife came clean on a little secret. Before they met, she had undergone about $100,000 worth of cosmetic surgery in South Korea.TALK ABOUT NIGHT AND DAY!!!!

Feng filed for divorce and sued his wife on the grounds of false pretenses, for not telling him about the plastic surgery and duping him into thinking she was beautiful. The kicker? He won. A judge agreed with Feng’s argument and ordered his ex-wife to pay him $120,000.

“I married my wife out of love, but as soon as we had our first daughter, we began having marital issues,” he said in an interview. “Our daughter was incredibly ugly, to the point where it horrified me.” 

If having ugly babies was grounds for divorce in America there would be a whole lot of broken marriages. I've seen some "rough" looking babies in my time, and somebody ALWAYS has the nerve to look at one of them and call them cute! 

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Georgia: Making Voter's Disappear!

The story starts simply enough: African-Americans and Hispanics across Georgia were registered to vote at levels lower than their white counterparts, so the New Georgia Project was started by the non-profit Third Sector Development to register new voters, concentrating on minority communities, and that is exactly what the New Georgia Project did. Young African-American men and women went on a mission to make a difference, went out to register voters.

Over the last few months, the group submitted some 80,000 voter registration forms to the Georgia secretary of state's office, but as of last week, about half those new registrants, more than 40,000 Georgians were still not listed on preliminary voter rolls, and amazingly, there is no public record of those 40,000-plus applications, according to State Representative Stacey Adams, a Democrat.

Oh, yeah, did I mention that Georgia's Secretary of State Brain Kemp just happens to be a Republican.

The secretary's office says they have not done anything different than usual in processing the voter applications. These things take time, they say. Months and months apparently because that is exactly how long some of those forms have been sitting with the state without being processed.

That's Housini's, I mean, Kemp's story, and he's sticking to it … except this is also Kemp's story.

In closing I just wanted to tell you real quick, after we get through this runoff, you know the Democrats are working hard, and all these stories about them, you know, registering all these minority voters that are out there and others that are sitting on the sidelines, if they can do that, they can win these elections in November. But we’ve got to do the exact same thing. I would encourage all of you, if you have an Android or an Apple device, to download that app, and maybe your goal is to register one new Republican voter.

Kemp said this in July, and in September, he announced he was launching a fraud investigation into the registration drive, though the secretary's office has not produced a reason as to why the state suspects fraud.

September was also the month when the Republican whip of the state Senate complained that DeKalb County, Ga., was making it too easy for minorities to vote by allowing early voting in an area mall close to many predominantly African-American churches. The whip, state Sen. Fran Millar, announced at the time that he was "investigating if there is any way to stop this action." Essentially he was trying to find a way to stop minorities from voting.

Monday marked the beginning of early voting in a number of Georgia counties, making the case of the 40,000 missing voters all the more urgent.

To that end, Third Sector Development announced yesterday that, after weeks of fruitless negotiations with the state, they were going to court to find out the status of the missing registrations — or, more to the point, the eligibility of more than 40,000 potential voters.

And here's why this matters:

In the battle for U.S. Senate between Republican David Perdue and Democrat Michelle Nunn, the three latest polls show the race to be a statistical dead heat. The same can be said for the last two pollsinthe governor's contest between GOP incumbent Nathan Deal and Democratic nominee Jason Carter.

A tight House of Representatives race —like the one between incumbent step. John Bartow, D, and challenger Rick Allen R, in Georgia, could come down to less than 1,000 votes, and Georgia rules require the winner to net a majority of votes. 50 percent plus one. If no candidate garners a majority, there will be a runoff on January 6. This seems especially important in the Senate race, where there is a third candidate, Libertarian Amanda Swafford, who is expected to take three to five percent of the vote.

There are now about 6 million registered voters in Georgia. In 2010, the last midterm election year, a little more than 2,620,000 voters cast ballots for at least one race. Most expect the 2014 turnout to be lower. Back-of-the-envelope math would tell you that 40,000 votes would represent something like 1.5 percent of the November tallies. Could that be enough to sway results? In several key races, current polling indicates it likely would. 

If there was ever any doubt that your vote counts, this proves that it does. The trickery, deception, and outright disregard for the constitutional right of minorities to vote is not shocking or surprising at all. It's just another chapter in a dubious narrative in which fair play gives way lies, and deception.

PR

It Still Isn't Acceptable To......

1. Blast your loud, profanity laced, stupid rap music at the gas station or any place else for that matter. Yes I've listened to quite a bit of not so appropriate music in my time. But at least I had the decency to hid it!

2. Have a tattoo on your neck or your hands. Nobody is going to give you a job with the words "pink chocolate" stamped on your neck...... and YES, I've seen it before!

3. Wear your pants hanging off, showing the crack of your behind. All this does is make you look "sexy" to some booty warrior in prison.....enough said!!

4. Show up late for work each and every and and expect to get a raise. Nobody, is going to give you something for nothing. Especially if you do nothing.

5. Let your children tell you what they will and won't do. You made them. They didn't make you. Besides, how much does a 5 year old really know?

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Stupid On Halloween!

Halloween is known to bring up some pretty problematic (and sometimes very racist) themes in America, and one Oklahoma woman was particularly affronted when she noticed her neighbors’ atrocious Obama tombstone.

According to the report, Jamilla Phillips of Edmond was “absolutely offended, and apalled when she saw the fake tombstone across the street on her neighbors’ property. “He is the president of the United States and it actually is about respect," she said. "It’s a total respect thing because this person is still alive.”

However, to the Dockens family it’s just a funny joke, one they’ve put up for the past three years and had never heard any complaints about until Phillips, who recently moved into the area, voiced her complaints.

“My family and I made them a few years ago back when it was a big deal, questions up about Obama's birth certificate,” Dwayne Dockens said. “And we made all these ourselves, so just thought it was kind of humorous and, you know, went ahead and put him in there as well.”

He is sorry, that some people are offended, but he doesn’t plan on taking it down. In the minds of many, the first African-American president of the United States is not worthy of the same respect and honor that past presidents have been afforded. President Obama has been treated like a piñata, beaten, proded and poked as if their is some sort of grand prize for doing so.

As for Phillips, she’s still concerned about what kind of message the tombstone gives, especially to children. 

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COLUMBUSING!!!!

Columbusing is the appropriation or theft of anything that does not belong to you without giving credit or making reference to origin. Pretty much the same way that Columbus "discovered" America, even though native Americans already lived and thrived there. In other words, Columbusing is cultural thievery. 

Here are just a few pop culture examples in honor or should I say dishonor of Columbus Day.

1. Elle Magazine has decided that Timberland boots will be “the Birkenstocks of fall.” That may very well be true, but Timberlands have been a style staple in my closet and in the closets of just about everybody that I know for about 30 years. In fact, "Timbs" as they are effectionately known in some circles were just as popular if not more popular than Air Jordans at one time. Now they're being part of a high-fashion "trend alert" just because they went from the feet of rappers to those of celebrities.

2. The Los Angeles Times got in on the Columbusing action by declaring cornrows a fashion trend. Never mind the fact that Black people have been wearing corn rows since 500 BC. They decided to name Bo Derek, Kristen Stewart and Rita Ora as examples of the “new” cornrow trend, it’s almost as if Ingrid Schmidt, the author of the piece, went out of her way to find any example of cornrows that weren’t black. Derek is cool, but her 1970s style choices are not relevant to today’s popular culture.

3. This one is pretty ridiculous. But nowhere near as ridiculous as the notion that Columbus discovered America.

Big Butts..

Patricia Garcia of Vogue magazine declared, “We're officially in the era of the big booty." But if you were raised by a Black woman, are related to a bunch of Black women, been around a lot of Black women, and are married to a beautiful black woman like me, like I am, you've always been in the era of the big booty. Black women have ALWAYS had them. Unless Garcia has never ventured outside, it is baffling how she can believe that the big booty is a new trend. Seems like big derrieres are in style only when they begin to "pop up" in other cultures.

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One Of The Worst Slumlords In America

Slum: 

Often, slums. a thickly populated, run-down, squalid part of a city, inhabited by poor people.

Any squalid, run-down place to live. 

Slumlord:

a landlord who owns slum buildings, especially one who fails to maintain or improve the buildings and charges tenants exorbitant rents.

New York city's worst landlord lives in a $1.2 million suburban grand mansion with an in-ground pool, a sweeping front lawn and a circular driveway about 30 miles north and a world away from a rat-infested building she owns in the Bronx, one of the fives boroughs that make up New York City.

Robin Shimoff’s brick home has seven bedrooms, spans 7,000 square feet and is located in an outer lying suburb called Rockland County. The palatial home features four full baths and a multicar garage.

But Shimoff also owns 13 buildings and has amassed a whopping 3,352 violations through the end of August, earning her the shameful crown of the city’s worst slumlord, according to Public Advocate Letitia James, who released the “Worst Landlord” list last week.

Investigative reporter's from The New York Daily News visited one of the worst buildings in Shimoff’s portfolio. It’s an 86-unit building on Decatur Ave. near Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. The News spied a basement play area for kids that featured a brightly colored alphabet stenciled into the filthy floor.

Just inches away sat a trap for rats.

“It looks like a dungeon here,” said tenant Jasmine Rodriguez, 31, pointing at a gaping hole in the wall where she says menacing rodents roam freely near the children’s play spot.

Above the play area hang electrical wires and gas meters. The walls are pocked and peeling. “Day Care” is scrawled in fluorescent pink on a doorway.

As of Friday, Shimoff’s building on Decatur Ave. where the basement day care center is located had amassed 275 open code violations, including 26 considered most serious, city records show. Open violations include plaster in danger of collapse and scalding water “throughout” an apartment.

In two apartments the city has denied Shimoff’s recent request to postpone cleaning up toxic lead paint.

Shimoff’s company, 3525 Decatur Avenue LLC, has reduced the number of violations since Aug. 31 — the cut-off point for data to be included on the worst landlord list. But as of Friday, there were still 2,490 open violations, including 458 deemed by the city Department of Housing Preservation & Development as most serious.

In some of Shimoff’s buildings, tenants have gone to court again and again to force repairs. The city has been forced to obtain warrants to gain entry to properties to clean up lead paint or turn on heat in the depths of winter.

The issues in these buildings go back years, mostly because they were owned previously by her slumlord father, Jacob Selechnik, who also managed to rack up hundreds of violations in the years he ran things, records show.

The public advocate’s list singled out an amazing 6,800 buildings across the city that have accumulated significant numbers of code violations per unit. The list presents a catalog of miseries — collapsing ceilings, busted boilers, rodent infestation and toxic lead paint.

Many of these landlords have been on this list since James’ predecessor, Bill de Blasio, started it four years ago when he was public advocate. Some of the landlords on the list live in the city, but others live far away from their properties, relying on building managers, porters and superintendents to deal with what some tenants say is a never-ending list of repairs.

“Some of these landlords are absent landlords,” said James. “They don’t see (the conditions) and we visited some of these units and it breaks your heart. A lot of these residents are seniors, immigrants, and there’s a lot of children.”

Shimoff, for one, lives far away in the leafy Rockland County suburb of Monsey. She and her husband bought their mansion in an upscale neighborhood in the early 1990s with a $260,000 mortgage.

Shimoff did not return numerous calls seeking comment. But the building manager assigned to oversee her properties, Jose Peña, agreed to answer questions.

Last week he said the number of violations listed by James has been reduced dramatically in the last few weeks. He emphasized that Shimoff is on top of the situation, aggressively assigning workers to fix what’s broken.

“She does visit the buildings and she knows what’s going on and what she’s inherited,” Peña said. “We have tons of work crews doing work every day.”

Over on Decatur Ave., however, tenant Rosemary Cabrera, 58, says Shimoff may as well be a ghost — like an urban legend.

“Nobody’s ever seen her,” she said.

Cabrera says her two-bedroom apartment has been in need of repairs for years with persistent water leaks that cause the ceiling to collapse repeatedly. On Friday she burst into tears as she pointed out mold creeping into the corner of her bathroom ceiling — an indication that the leak had returned yet again.

And there are other persistent problems. The bathroom sink ran continuously, the spigots unable to stop the flow. And she said Con Ed cut off her gas for two months after the used stove the landlord provided shot flames up to the ceiling.

Shimoff should be sentenced to live an an apartment in one of her own slum building's for at least one week, because fines and money mean nothing to someone who's wealthy. Experience is the best teacher, in order for Shimoff to understand what it's like to live in a rat infested slum she has to experience it. It is then and only then that she will see the humanity behind the names on her list of tenants. No one should ever be allowed to live the American dream at somebody else's expense.

PR