No, Don't Do That

The Detroit Free Press: Teenage e-bikers on Oakland airport runway force plane to abort landing

Teenage e-bikers on an Oakland County airport runway last week forced a pilot to abort his landing, taking the potential perils of e-bike misuse to a whole new level.

"This is very, very dangerous," Oakland County Airport Aviation Manager Cheryl Bush said. "They aren’t respecting the impact they could have on aircraft trying to get in or out or what it could do to them."

Unfortunately, the idiots made their way in to the Oakland/Southwest Airport in New Hudson from a trail at the southeast of the airport. They then crossed a taxiway and proceeded to do wheelies on the runway, forcing a landing aircraft to do a go-round to avoid them on landing.

Not smart at all to enter airport property and then go onto an active runway and mess about. 

Morons. 

Electing Progressive Prosecutors Has Consequences

A car jacking took place yesterday in Oakland County, resulting in a woman being shot during the event. The woman was with her child at the time in the parking lot of the mall.

Click on Detroit: Man who fled after shooting woman in random Oakland County carjacking arrested following police pursuit

The Detroit Free Press:  1 shot in carjacking in Orion Township Panera, Old Navy parking lot

Fox 2 Detroit: Carjacking suspect randomly targeted mother, shot her before stealing car in Orion Township

 Do note that none of these stories identify the attacker, even as they note he is an "Ann Arbor Man" and is on probation for a prior violent offense.

Yes, you know why.

And the attack should never have been able to take place, as he should have been in jail at the time of this attack.

The Detroit News: Carjacker should have been in jail for prior violent attack, sheriff says

 The "Ann Arbor Man" was previously convicted for a crime committed in late 2024. Said assault consisted of hog-tying and suffocating a woman in Washtenaw county. He should have been in jail for the assault with intent to do great bodily harm in Washtenaw County.

But he was not.

Instead, he was released on probation, because of the Washtenaw County prosecutor's progressive policies. 

The Washtenaw County prosecutor is the woke progressive Eli Savit.   The same Eli Savit that unleashed a raft of progressive policies in the County like ending zero tolerance policies, not accepting prosecution for illegal items discovered during traffic stops and for minor offenses, and other progressive pro-criminal policies. For equity and racial justice, of course. 

This is the same person the Democrats are running for election this year as Attorney General of the State and who as Washtenaw County prosecutor.

So the criminal the progressive prosecutor let off on probation after assaulting a woman now went ahead and shot a woman. 

Democrats talk about a war on women, and they are indeed fighting it - but not on behalf of women.

40 Carried For 10

This is not a 10mm vs .40S&W post.

Instead its about the challenge I did today:  Rucking 10 miles carrying 40 pounds.

In one word:  Ouch.

Ten miles was a lot.

We drove out to Pontiac Lake Recreation Area and met up at 7:45 am.

We then did a little warm up stretching, and hit the trail.

 Beautiful clear and sunny day in the 30s, and we were soon more than warm enough as we rucked on.

 I had on a lot of safety orange as did some of the others in the group as this was an active hunting area, as well as a jogging and mountain bike area.

We passed by a few hunters and while we saw deer tracks we never saw a deer.  We were more in danger from the mountain bikers barrelling away on the trail than anything else really. The hunters we passed by all had excellent muzzle discipline and good situational awareness that there were other people in the woods, which is always nice to see.

The trail was quite rugged with many rocks and roots hiding under the leaves to trip you up. Lots of slipping and recoveries from hidden roots occurred. I did the "Don't Fall Dance" many times.

Switchbacks, and climbs, and dips added to the challenge, and we had an elevation gain of 1,219 feet during the walk.

We did a short break at 3 miles in and another at the 6 mile mark.

About 8.5 miles in,  I asked for a break as my feet and legs were killing me, feeling every rock underfoot and always fighting to maintain balance took a toll and I was starting to hit a wall. Others indicated they appreciated and needed the break as well.

A few minutes sitting down helped and I got up and carried on.

The last miles felt like they were forever, and the last was the hardest, with a lot of elevation change and even more damn rocks and roots.  The last mile was really the last mile plus making it a 10.46t mile ruck. But, no one gave up and we did it.

 

Afterwards we had a campfire and hot dogs to celebrate.

The group lead brought Teton Grass Fed Beef Hot Dogs for the group to cook over the fire, and while the hunger and effort of the ruck certainly made everything taste great, those were really amazing hot dogs.  I mean, best tasting hot dogs ever. Highly recommend.

 He also brought some non-alcoholic beverages and a pumpkin pie. All great stuff.  It was a great time with great camaraderie hanging around the fire after all the hard work.

Feet and legs are all sorts of sore right now.  But the accomplishment makes it worth it.

No, Don't Do That

No, you really can't do this:

Fox2 Detroit: White Lake Township man who fatally shot burglar charged with manslaughter 

Months after a homeowner fired shots at several individuals breaking into his detached garage in White Lake Township, the 24-year-old resident has been charged with manslaughter, assault, and two other felony counts.

The details make it even worse.

He allegedly used a 9mm semiautomatic handgun and fired two shots into the garage through a windowless locked door. As the burglary suspects fled, Knapton then fired five more shots before going inside his house. 

So, 6 teens and apparently 1 adult broke into his detached garage, which had been broken into on multiple other occasions. Clearly raising his ire. But, his response is absolutely wrong.

In Michigan, you can legally use deadly force in only three circumstances - none of which were present here. 

In addition, the garage was detached so you don't get castle privilege for that. 

Even worse, he then randomly fired through a windowless door not identifying his targets.

On top of that, He did this in a county with a very anti-gun prosecutor. 

His situation can best be described as started with an F and ending in a ed. 

Dude should have called the police and at most threw a pepper spray grenade into the garage and called it a day. 

Getting The Kid Back To School

 

With all the weather on Friday night/Saturday getting the kid back to U Florida from Michigan was quite a challenge.  

The original plan was DTW-ATL-GNV leaving at an ungodly early 4:45 am from DTW, so needing to be at the airport ugly early.

 

Fun was driving to the airport in the snow. 

Snow that not a plow had touched at all.  In fact while, driving I saw all of one plow on the entire route.

 

The roads leading to the highway were absolutely snow covered. 

The highways themselves had no lane markings visible under the snow.

 

Thankfully the snow was not slippery icy stuff but more of a packing-snow type, so while slow going, it was reasonably safe going. 

Oakland County seems to be busy spending money on DEI rather than basic competencies like snow removal.

 

DEI and other progressive gee-gaws are luxury spending that, while a waste of money, should only even be considered after you have your core competencies down pat. Sadly they're sexier to Democrats than things like safe and clean roads.

Get to the airport at 2:00 am, the flight was soon announced as cancelled due to the mess in Atlanta.  Weather will do that.

Got her rescheduled to Jacksonville (would have to have had her Uber all the way to Gainesville but it was something) and got her through security at 6am for an 8 am departure.  Should be good as a direct flight bypassing Atlanta, right?

 

Wrong.

That flight was then cancelled due to lack of crew availability due to the weather messing up the system.

 

Then, I got her rescheduled back onto a later DTW-ATL-GNV flight at 10 am, which then was pushed back to 11 am and then was announced for boarding which was a good sign.

 

The flight boarded. But there was then a 1 hour delay sitting at the gate due to Atlanta being stacked for receiving aircraft.

 

They then got clearance to go, and they were off without incident around 1pm and landed in Atlanta. The ATL-GNV flight, then got rescheduled quite a few times but they got clearance to go around 6pm and she finally got back to Gainesville.

 

Upon landing, the pilot wished them all a happy semester and “Go Gators!” which was a very nice touch.  She met friends on te plane as it was mainly students heading back and shared an Uber getting to the dorm.

Through all the delays and weather trouble, the Delta  customer service reps were super helpful in rescheduling her flights and working to get her there.  

 

Thanks to Delta, the flight crews, and all the customer service representatives for all their hard work yesterday under some very trying circumstances. 

 

Having around 2 hours of sleep and hanging around the airport for hours trying to get her home did not make me a happy camper.  But she got there safely and that's what matters.   We could not get here there earlier to beat the weather as the dorms weren't open for students to return until Saturday, which is stupid. 

 

But she's now safe and sound in happy warm Florida.  I'm done shoveling out from the latest snowfall and back at work. 

Is Their Election Slogan It takes A Criminal To Catch A Criminal?

The Detroit News: Oakland, Wayne Co. sheriff challengers hope voters will overlook their criminal records

When all you have to run on is your criminal record, you might as well run on that:

Amrit Kohli said he's qualified to be the Oakland County sheriff because he's been an Oakland County Jail inmate and knows what needs to be fixed.

Wayne County sheriff candidate T. P. Nykoriak said his federal conviction for stealing from a Detroit church should not prevent him from being elected as the county's top law enforcement official.

Ok then.

Kohli is a very progressive  Democrat who is on the Democrat ticket running in Oakland County against the highly popular and effective Republican Sheriff Bouchard. 

"I want to get elected, so I can disrupt the policing of the Sheriff's Office and try to make a mark of what policing can do when they're not about guns and oppression," said Kohli, who was convicted of drunk driving in 2003 and malicious destruction of property in 2004. "Police are the apparatus of oppression and have committed genocide, in my opinion."

Yeah, he's the perfect progressive Democrat defund-the-police-type to run for the position with no law enforcement experience aside from being on the criminal end of it. He is also, of course, given his everything-I-don't-like-is- genocide,  pro "ceasefire" for Gaza.

This is part of why straight-ticket voting is dumb - he'll likely get votes from Democrats in the County who do a straight ticket and don't know any batter.

We'll note that while T. P. Nykoriak is nominally on the ballot as a Republican in Wayne County, he actually has a long history of running as a Democrat for the Sheriff slot, and other positions, and possibly changes party affiliation like others change their underwear.

Both should use a white circle on a red background as their campaign flags - They both have a snowball's chance in hell of winning.

Oakland County Democrat Petty Politics

 Local Democrats tend to be rather touchy.

The Detroit News: Buss: Coulter  disparages small biz over politics: 'I won't be coming anymore'

After being hammered by Democrat Gov. Whitmer’s restaurant closures that destroyed thousands of restaurants, you can’t blame a business owner for renting out their premises for an event. Unfortunately the event turned out to be a fundraiser for the Republican challenger to Democrat County Exec Coulter.

Nice restaurant you got there, too bad if something were to happen to it, huh?

Meanwhile under progressive Democrat Coulter, property taxes have gone up 48% since 2019. We now have a county DEI office, and the County can’t properly clear snow and ice on county roads, as they are too busy doing diversity and pushing regional transit funding.

Some April Fools Jokes Are Hard To Distinguish From Reality

The Road Commission for Oakland County posted this on Facebook today:

 

The problem with this April Fool's post by the OCRC is that it is not at all out of the realm of possibility and indeed probability for the now DEI- and Democrat-driven Oakland County Road Commission to actually do something this stupid.

Maybe Quit Wasting Money On DEI Until You're At Least Competent In The Basics

The Oakland County Commission, the government that runs Oakland County recently became completely Democrat-dominated as of the last election.

Of course they've gone all in for DEI initiatives and other Dem-favored clap-trap and spending in such areas.

However, with such distractions, they've been falling down on their job to provide for basic services and core competencies that are actually needed.

Like snow removal for roads.

West Bloomfield Township and other townships in the county have their roads handled by Oakland County.

This snowstorm Oakland County has singularly and impressively failed to maintain the roads. 

Most of the major roads in the township are still snow-covered wrecks, days after the snowfall.   Many of the roads have become two-tracks where there are ruts to drive in where tires have been ,and mounds of snow and ice otherwise. Some lanes are still snow-covered and totally unusable.

Instead of getting salt on the roads when the temperatures rose these past few days (before plunging again) to get rid of the ice, they did sweet bugger all.  It appears they all took a day off for MLK day, and left the plows and salters in the yards.  Schools have been closed due to this road conditions.

While traffic circles are claimed to offer efficiency in moving traffic, when they're iced over it is another thing entirely. Nothing like moving in two directions as you go around the circle (the direction you want to go and spinning outwards from the circle at the same time).  

The snow fell Saturday. As of today, Tuesday, the roads are still sucking quite badly.  Quite simply, I've not seen the roads this bad this many days after a snowfall before.

Nearby Farmington Hills, that is in charge of its own roads, has them nice and clean and passable, as does Troy.  

The change is absolutely remarkable when you leave areas under the County's authority and reach a place still working on its core mission to its residents rather than being distracted by ideological frippery.

Democrat Math - Spend Over $100 Million to save $50 Million

Our Democrat County Executive is touting his cunning plan to save $50 million in rehab expenses of existing county government buildings by buying some buildings in Pontiac, rehabbing them, doing some demolition, and moving County government officials there.

 The Detroit Free Press: Oakland County has ignored downtown Pontiac for too long. We're reinvesting in it.

Of course, it's going to end up costing a lot more than the claimed $100 Million. Count on it.

The more you dig into it, the more it appears to not just be an attempt to help out the City of Pontiac.  Sure, by moving government employees there and paying for locating them it will boost real estate prices and  increase occupancy in a blighted downtown.  It will also boost the Pontiac's coffers as the city has an income tax and those employees will have to pay it.  

But, it also looks like this is a way also to bail the city out its longstanding trouble with the Ottawa Towers/Phoenix Center area. Now the County will be responsible for tearing down the Phoenix Center rather than Pontiac, and all the cost of rehabbing buildings in the name of "reinvesting".

One interesting part of this deal is the Towers are being purchased by the County for $19.2 million from Tarik Dinha.

Mr. Dinha apparently purchased those towers back in March 2021 for $7.1 million from the city.

That's one heckuva nice return on his investment for him for holding them for a couple years, courtesy of not just County taxpayers, but State and Federal taxpayers through use of Covid funds as well. 

It is indeed a great bailout of the City Dems by the County Dems.

This deal also bails out the City from a $6 million dollar judgment - funny Coulter doesn't mention that.

Now instead of having all of County government in one complex, where the parking is very easy, you can find everything you need in one spot, it's going to be split with some of the operations moved to downtown Pontiac.

In short, this deal is a case of the County Democrats bailing out the City Democrats -- and using your money to do it and making it less convenient for the taxpayer to access county services conveniently, while claiming they are doing it for a more noble and glorious purpose.

Stupid Criminals - The Art Of Bad Impersonation

In Michigan, impersonating a police officer is, amazingly,  only a misdemeanor on your first two  - yes two! - offenses.  It really should be a felony from the get-go, as fake cops cause no end of mischief, and reduce the public's trust in real police interactions. Again, don't try and be a wanna-be.

So our intrepid stupid criminal  - Christian Katan Mansoor, 18 - as young and dumb as they come, decided to play cop and tried to pull over another driver complete with flashing red and blue lights on his car.

Turns out, the other driver was a real police officer.

Much hi-jinks then ensued.

The officer asked for Mansoor's ID, and Mansoor went back in his car and quickly took off.  He then got chased by the real officer, then the Oakland County Sheriff deputies joined in, and after a brief foot chase he was arrested.

Nicely done by the real officers and deputies.

Not At Those Rates You Don't

So Oakland County being now Democrat-dominated, wants to do a gun "buy back" to show they're doing something.

The Detroit Free Press: Oakland County cops want to buy your gun

Those who turn in guns are to receive generic Visa-type gift cards. The amounts are $100 in exchange for a handgun, $200 for a long gun and $300 for an assault rifle, according to a news release. Those who turn in firearms will need to provide ID. The "gun buyback" is scheduled for Saturday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., at these sites:

That's certainly below market rates for just about any firearm.

Since the County never owned these firearms calling this a "gun buyback" is an abuse of the English language and a word choice to suggest only the state should have firearms.

So this is basically a nice County-run crime-gun laundering scheme, using $45,000 of our tax dollars, to let criminals get rid of guns they've stolen or used in a crime, and it also nicely encourages people to go out and steal guns for cash.  

Really great incentives there.

Or, even worse, it is an attempt to swindle people who are ignorant of the value of the firearms  to give them up for a pittance in the name of social justice and "getting guns off the street"  -- guns that aren't on the streets now.

There's certainly some potential free market opportunities here to go to the locations listed in the article and offer a tad more than what the County is offering.  After all, form looking a the guns they have displayed on the table all of them are worth more than the County's offering price.

Can We Take Major Mental Problems For $100 Alex?

The Detroit News: Oakland County double homicide suspect found dead by apparent suicide

“This tragic situation has now been brought to a close, and our investigators will now pivot to see if we can answer the question on everyone’s mind – why?,” Sheriff Michael Bouchard said.

Serious mental illness is screaming out as the cause for this one.  

Ruby Taverner, 22 shot and killed her boyfriend Ray Muscat and her twin brother Bishop Taverner.

Reading further in the article the mental health plot begins to thicken as one finds that Ray used to not be Ray, and Ruby used to not be Ruby:

Ruby Taverner was formerly known as Martin Taverner; Ray Muscat was formerly known as Amber Muscat, the release said.

Forget about issues, that relationship had subscriptions.

At Least Smart Enough To Not Let The Fox Into The Henhouse

While Oxford schools and school officials and their policies and decisions may (or may not - it's complicated - to be discussed in another post) bear some culpability for the shooting deaths of four students at the hands of the pretty clearly mentally ill killer, they're not completely stupid.

The Detroit Free Press: Nessel: Oxford rejected offer of independent review

No kidding, you don't invite someone who can prosecute you with criminal charges into a high-profile case where people are looking for scalps to do an "independent review" of what you did or did not do.

Attorney General Nessel is rather butt-hurt by this rejection:

"I thought, 'What better agency to conduct a special review than the Michigan Department of Attorney General?' We learned, just a short while ago, that the school district has turned down our offer and it said they're going to go with a private security firm instead to conduct an internal review."

. . .

"I'm disappointed, quite honestly," Nessel said on CNN.'

Get used to disappointment there Nessel.

Yes,  it would hardly be an independent review especially when she's stating live in a tv interview that her office can helpfully bring criminal and civil charges against the people she would be "independently reviewing".

No idea at all why Oxford School officials  wouldn't jump to take that offer, right?

Given the antics and posturing of Oakland County's progressive prosecutor in this case already, adding yet another prosecuting official into the mix, who also wants to keep her name in the headlines would hardly be conducive to a true independent review of the facts and policies that may have contributed to this event.

And Our Schools Decide To Run And Hide Once Again

Just received an announcement that our school system will be ending its hybrid model and going back to all-virtual only.

Why?  Cause they got scared.

This is because Oakland County was now declared "Red" under the new protocol with an positive Covid test rate of 25 per 100,000 people.  Yep a 0.025 percent infection rate, complete and with this rate achieved with some rather dubious tests and some bad incentives has been considered high enough to close live schools yet again.

Never mind that not a single school-aged child has died of Covid-19 in Oakland County to date.  We must shut it all down for this non-event.

While there are a few immune-compromised teachers (including an absolutely fantastic one in teaching one of my kids right now)  - the problem is already solved and she is already appropriately protected with her teaching remotely from the safety of her home even to the live class.  This can be done and should be done without closing schools and applying a little common sense to a problem that is not going away.

Let's see how much harm this panicked overreaction will cause.  There will now be further disruption - parents of younger children who just were able to start going to work again will now be unable to go to work but will have to remain home with their kids and this is going to have some bad economic and social consequences as kids won't be able to see each other or socialize normally.

Not to mention that there have not been massive outbreaks in schools recently and no real cause for this shutdown.

Apparently Biden just hasn't won fast enough for Whitmer and co to end lockdowns.

The only upside?  High School will now start at a civilized 9 am rather than 7:30 am thus letting the kids sleep in and more closely match their teenage circadian rhythms.

You Don't Often See That In A Deed

Doing a deed for a client to put her husband on the title to the property, and I came across a rather unusual restriction in the prior deed.

The property is here in Oakland County in southeast Michigan and has the following reservation of rights:

Excepting therefrom all rights to uranium and other fissionable material reserved by the United States of America, as recited in instruments recorded in ......, Oakland County Records.

Certainly not a reservation of rights that you come across in deeds everyday, and its the first time I've seen it. 

Well, Southeast Michigan is rather famous for radon gas issues, and since radon is from decaying uranium, it makes sense that there may be some decent uranium deposits lurking underneath the property, and the Feds have got first dibs on it if needed.

So, don't be going off digging up the uranium and then building your own reactors at home, ok?

No, The Democrats Going Even Farther Leftward Won't Be An Improvement For The County

Nolan Finley of the Detroit News believes it is a good thing that Oakland County's current Democrat Prosecutor Jessica Cooper lost her primary to Democrat Karen McDonald.

He should be careful what he wishes for and what he's thankful for as he may just get it good and hard.

The Detroit News: Nolan Out Loud: Good riddance Jessica Cooper

Unfortunately, unless he believes that the Democrats, by selecting an even more progressive prosecuting attorney candidate than Cooper will help persuade the county's law and order voters to go for the Republican candidate, he couldn't be more wrong.

Ms. McDonald is far more "progressive"  than Cooper, backs BLM, claims to be against "mass incarceration" - the buzzword meaning  criminals and especially criminals of a minority hue shouldn't be locked up for crimes. 

She also promises to protect "immigrants"  read illegals. 

She is also pushing the criminal justice Overton window ever leftward towards anarcho-tyranny - complete with a plan to eliminate cash bail to let offenders go free which has been such a smashing hit success in New York, if you count the number of repeat offenders constantly released after offenses to go forth and offend again and again.  No content with the elimination of cash bail, she at the same time promises to establish an Orwellian hate crimes unit.

What could possibly go wrong?

Well, the people of Oakland County will know have a stark choice between McDonald and Republican Lin Goetz for the prosecuting attorney spot.

Given how this county has been turning Blue, with an influx of former Wayne County residents who desire the same policies that made them want to leave Wayne County adopted here, that choice may not go how Finley would prefer and Oakland County residents will be the worse off for it.

Easy In-Person Voting In The Age of Covid

Went and voted in person today in the primary.

No line, there were only two other voters there at the same time I was there.

Checking in, you were requested to wear a mask, and only handle one pen and keep it with you through the entire process.

My id checked (though being n a mask it wasn't exactly a detailed check, but the drivers license matched the info on the voter registration so, it was apparently good enough).  Then in I went. 

I was then handed a ballot and headed to a voting stand to do my voting duty.

Afterwards, I put the ballot in the machine, put the pen in the container marked dirty and voila, done. 

Very easy, no big deal, and no reason not to vote in person at all.

Michiganders: Criminals Here Will Be Out Of Lock Down Long Before You Will Be

Gov Half-Whit has again decided to extended yet again the stay home order - while she foes to her her vacation home up north - epalingin t he partial reopenign ordered there to apply this weekend.

Just to keep the irony meter running, Ex-Mayor of Detroit Kwame Kilpatrick is going to be out of jail before you're out of lock down, getting an early release due to the pandemic, after serving only 7 years of a 28 year sentence for corruption. So he's getting out now instead of in 2037.

On top of that, a Federal Judge is ordering the Oakland County jail to release "vulnerable" prisoners due to the Covids, and even better, newly caught "vulnerable" criminals, no matter their crime, "vulnerable" arrestees cannot be incarcerated under the judge's order - if you're "vulnerable" you now have an automatic "get out of going to jail free card" for any crime you may now go forth and commit.

I guess they need the jail space to punish small business owners who violate Gov Half-Whit's shut down.

You can't make this stuff up.

Coronavirus Comes To Town

Well, COVID19 sure spread rather quickly, and is now hitting close to home.

One of our friend's entire family just got diagnosed with coronavirus.

Basically, they got it as one of the teachers at their school was one of the couple persons who had contact with one of the cases that had traveled internationally and was then tested and diagnosed in Oakland County with it, and the teacher gave it unknowingly to at least some of the kids in his class.

Well, their kid got it and brought it home and they all have it.

This virus certainly is not just very contagious, it's extremely contagious.

So they may have been just a tad late in closing the schools if they were trying to stop the spread, or they may have been able to head off further spread from other schools, we'll see.

Luckily, we had not seen them recently and not at all after their contact so no risk of spread to us there at least.

Basically, our friends describe having the coronavirus as being achy and fevery and tired, but basically just like other flus they have had before. They're in good spirits and doing fine.

They're on home quarantine for now. We left a supply drop for them on their porch today.