11.12.18- Cast a Vote, Lose a Job
It’s one thing to cast a vote. It’s another when casting that vote costs you your job. Ask Clayton Hickey of Olive Branch, MS.
He voted his ballot just fine. His choice of clothing and viral video put him in the unemployment line. Hickey wore a t-shirt to the polls that had a Confederate Flag, a noose and the words Mississippi Justice on the front.
His shirt was not illegal at the polling place. It mentioned no candidate or cause, just what it said. But that wasn’t enough to keep him in the clear.
I wasn’t the law that got him, it was his employer. Hickey was a nurse in nearby Memphis, TN. When the employer hospital saw the photo of his shirt at the polls, he was summarily dismissed.
They deemed his behavior was beneath their standards of conduct, just like Memphis PD did when he was caught in a car with a 17 year old girl and alcohol.
Maybe he isn’t our poster child for unfairly losing a job!
11.12.18- The Election Whining
Former Congressman Patrick Murphy is whining about his vote not counting because the signature on his mail ballot did not match the one on the voter information card on file with his local Supervisor of Elections’ office.
He lays blame on an “unelected county employee” who determined the signatures don’t match, the SOE office that did not open his ballot until Election Day which, if they had opened it earlier, could have notified him to cure the signature issue and the fact that there is no remedy in law with the late opening.
How about this: Murphy could have voted on Election Day. He could have voted at an early voting site and he could have voted my mail even earlier than he apparently did.
It’s worth noting that Murphy didn’t decide to check his ballot until Election Day when he saw it was going to be close.
Mr. Murphy, there is plenty of blame to go around and it starts with you. Man up and realize the law is the law.
11.15.18- Deal or No Deal?
Deal or No Deal? Howie Mandel asked the question repeatedly on his popular game show. I am going to tell you that the answer doesn’t matter, that is, if you are dealing with the Brevard County Commission.
USSSA got a deal to take over operation of Space Coast stadium and related facilities. The sports event company and the county partnered on the revamp of facilities with both spending significant dollars.
Part of the deal was that USSSA would guarantee a certain number of hotel night stays as a result of their activities. If they failed to meet that number there were financial penalties in place.
USSSA now sees that they will not meet the rooms threshold and have asked that the deal be revamped to allow them until April to meet the number. The commission agreed.
Bad move. Brevard’s County Commissions have shown time after time that a deal is not a deal when it’s made with them…garbage pick-up bidding rules or this, it’s NO DEAL simply because the deal itself makes no matter.
11.16.18- Go Fund THIS!
At the risk of sounding like Andy Rooney, did you ever wonder about these crowd funding pages and the causes they supposedly support? I have.
A New Jersey couple and a homeless man now face charges for the scam authorities believe they perpetrated on the generous public. The woman was allegedly stranded in a bad part of Philadelphia, out of money and needed cash for gasoline.
In steps the homeless veteran who gave the gal the last $20 he had to help out. It’s Heartwarming, right? Except…
She and her boyfriend concocted the idea, got the vet to play along and then publicized his efforts on a GO FUND ME page. They collected around $400,000.
When the homeless vet didn’t get his entire cut, the investigation began. The couple says he’ll get his cash when he gets off drugs and spends the money more wisely, as they believe it should be. Greed, it kills a lot of good stories.
And this story doesn’t make any of the questions go away.