In writing a blog like this, we often – perhaps too often – focus on the negative things that happen in government and around the world. In a way, it is depressing because there seems to be so much out there that needs improvement. That’s why sometimes you see a post that has nothing really to do with much of anything other than giving us a break from fighting all the time about stuff.
Which brings us to the Pasco County, FL firefighters and EMT’s.
It all started one sunny day when homeowner Gene Work was laying sod down for his yard. As anyone who has laid sod knows, the work is labor intensive, exhausting, sweaty and dirty. There is also a small time frame to get the sod installed or else it dies on the delivery pallets rendering all of the sod useless and money wasted.
After laying some of the sod, Work wasn’t feeling well and came inside his home. While he rested, he wasn’t getting better and so his wife called 911. Later, it would be discovered that Work was having a massive heart attack. Pasco County firefighters and EMT’s showed up and took care of Work, rushing him to the hospital where he would later under go heart surgery.
On the way to the hospital, Work kept talking about the sod. He was worried that it would die. He was worried that his Home Owners Association would fine him for not having a yard and leaving the yard a mess.
In and out of consciousness, Melissa Work said her husband continued to worry about the grass. He had pawned his favorite gun to purchase the sod and if it wasn’t put down that day, it would all die.
“While he was having his heart attack, literally in and out of consciousness, he kept begging me to figure out the sod and have it put down because he didn’t want it to go to waste and die,” the wife wrote on Facebook. “I calmed him and kept saying ‘Jesus will help us. It’s OK. Jesus will figure this out babe.’”
They didn’t want to get hit with the HOA fines, and 30-year-old Melissa Work — who needs a bone marrow transplant — had scheduled the painful and expensive procedure for next month. But she continued to reassure him that they would be all right, that it all would work out in the end.
Here’s where the story gets good….really good: (more…)
This past Tuesday, Palm Bay resident David Kearns decided to stop in at the Brevard County Commission and say a few words.
During the public comment period at Tuesday’s County Commission meeting, Kearns quoted from a letter that was a subject of a July 3 FLORIDA TODAY story that was partly related to David Isnardi.
More: Anderson named Palm Bay acting deputy city manager, as Isnardi seeks his job back
More: Palm Bay’s deputy city manager David Isnardi resigns
David Isnardi resigned from his position as Palm Bay deputy city manager last September in the midst of an ongoing federal and state probe of the city.
The June 28 letter — from David Isnardi’s attorney, John Murphy, to Palm Bay City Manager Gregg Lynk and Palm Bay Mayor William Capote — said that Isnardi “is interested in being reinstated to his former position” as deputy city manager.
When he announced his resignation, Isnardi said he wanted to move on, and remove any taint from an FBI and Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation into activities at Palm Bay that could jeopardize his wife’s political career. Kristine Isnardi was elected as a Brevard County commissioner in 2016.
Lynk has named Andy Anderson, Palm Bay’s economic development and external affairs director, as acting deputy city manager.
But Murphy’s letter says giving David Isnardi back his former position is “an ideal way to resolve this situation without litigation.”
That didn’t sit well with Kearns, and he made his views known to county commissioners.
We have covered the Isnardi letter previously, and we don’t see any benefit from discussing it again at this time.
What we do want to discuss is Kearns’ actions and the response from the County Commission.
Frankly, we cannot fathom what Kearns was thinking when he went to the County Commission to discuss a City of Palm Bay issue. (more…)
Boron was called to the principal’s office to discuss a number detentions that Boron had not served. Before meeting with the Principal David Conrad and Assistant Principal Nathan Short, Boron turned on his cellphone to record the conversation.
The encounter went downhill from there:
Boron said he argued with Conrad and Short for approximately 10 minutes in the reception area of the school secretary’s office, with the door open to the hallway. When Boron told Conrad and Short he was recording, Conrad allegedly told Boron he was committing a felony and promptly ended the conversation.
“If I do go to court and get wrongfully convicted, my whole life is ruined,” said Boron, who lives with his mother and four siblings in Manteno, Illinois, an hour southwest of Chicago. “I think they’re going too far.”
In his petition to bring the charge, Kankakee County Assistant State’s Attorney Mark Laws wrote that Boron on Feb. 16 “used a cellphone to surreptitiously record a private conversation between the minor and school officials without consent of all parties.” Members of the Manteno Community Unit School District No. 5 board, Conrad and Short have not responded to requests for comment on the incident.
“We cannot comment on a pending matter, and we are not authorized to release confidential student information to the press,” district Superintendent Lisa Harrod wrote in an email.
Illinois is one of a handful of states that requires consent from all parties to record.
The court ruled that the law was overbroad and violated the First Amendment right to free speech because it prohibited recording and publishing speech that was obviously not private at all, such as “a loud argument on the street,” “a political debate in a park” and “the public interactions of police officers with citizens.”
Years ago we sat in a room beneath an old gym on our college campus. It was the first class of a couple of classes on learning to be a sports official. It was not a credited course but rather training to officiate intramural sports. (The pay was much better than a minimum wage job.)
In front of us stood one of the officiating legends of NCAA. Before we even sat in that dank room, we knew of this guy. He was the head official and supervisor of officials in one of the Big 5 conferences and he would soon accept a job as head of officiating at the NCAA.
In other words, he was no lightweight in the world we were about to enter.
One of the lessons he imparted on us was rather simple.
“People that complain about others cheating are usually the biggest cheats themselves.”
As we officiated games throughout our college years and then later in life, we found that little piece of advice to be true. If a coach is complaining about a pitcher balking, they wanted us to call the balk on the opposing pitcher, but would go berserk when a balk was called on their pitcher. Holding in a football game? Same thing. Coaches wanted to disparage the other team while demanding that we never called a penalty on them.
We’ve been thinking about this as there are some accusations out there that a candidate is writing posts for this blog. We’ve covered and commented on a lot of elections over the years, and that’s a new one on us.
It’s funny that after all the stuff we went through with Facebook on our account because people attacking us wanted us to be “real people” (as opposed to the bots that are writing this post (sarcasm off)) are making these allegations from fake Facebook accounts themselves.
They demand that we be “open and transparent,” yet they don’t even bother to ask us if our posts are written by any candidate. (more…)
Are you tolerant? You probably think so. But who is tolerant in America today? Is it those on the left, or those on the right? In this video, Dave Rubin of The Rubin Report analyzes this question and shares his experience.
In case you missed it or were living under a rock, on Monday night President Trump nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh to be the next Supreme Court Justice.
Kavanaugh sits on the DC Court of Appeals, which is often described as the “second most influential court in the land” as due to its location, it hears cases dealing with Federal authority in such areas as agency regulations, scope of agencies, etc.
Judge Kavanaugh, 53, has authored more than 300 opinions during his 12 years on the D.C. Circuit — which will, together with his work as a lawyer before taking the bench, provide some grist for the opposition mill. He worked for Ken Starr on the Whitewater/Monica Lewinsky investigation, and he served in the Bush White House, in the counsel’s office and as White House Staff Secretary. He will get tough questions from senators about his work as both a lawyer and a judge.
[….]
Judge Kavanaugh has an impeccable résumé: Yale College, Yale Law School, a SCOTUS clerkship, government service (the Justice Department and White House), Biglaw practice (partnership at Kirkland & Ellis), and more than a dozen years of distinguished service on the D.C. Circuit. There are no objective or qualification-based reasons to oppose him. Judge Kavanaugh is not just brilliant but also extremely likable, and he will perform superbly at his hearings (even better than Justice Gorsuch, I predict).
Judge Kavanaugh’s extensive record has created an extensive paper trail. There will be lots of documents for the Senate Judiciary Committee to review — and it’s certain that Senate Democrats will seek to slow things down on that basis. On the other hand, insofar as Senate Democrats have already announced their opposition to the nomination — some even before the nomination was announced — it’s not clear why they would need more time to review the record. After all, they don’t need more time to review materials if they’ve already made up their minds.
This opposition before the announcement was even made is exemplified by the Women’s March : (more…)
The king wanted to go fishing, and he asked the royal weather forecaster the forecast for the next few hours.
The palace meteorologist assured him that there was no chance of rain so the king and the queen went fishing.
On the way he met a man with a fishing pole riding on a donkey, and he asked the man if the fish were biting.
The fisherman said, “Your Majesty, you should return to the palace! In just a short time I expect a huge rain storm.”
The king replied: “I hold the palace meteorologist in high regard. He is an educated and experienced professional. Besides, I pay him very high wages. He gave me a very different forecast. I trust him.”
So the king continued on his way.
However, in a short time a torrential rain fell from the sky. The King and Queen were totally soaked.
Furious, the king returned to the palace and gave the order to fire the meteorologist. (more…)
