• Todd Entrekin is the sheriff of Etowah County in Alabama. He makes $93,000 a year. He and his wife have a 4 bedroom house with a pool on the Gulf Coast between Pensacola and Mobile, 330 miles from his Gadsden office. Altogether they have $1.7 million in property in Alabama. He pays for yard work for himself and his parents with checks from the “Food Provision” account for the county jail. In a recent financial disclosure, he indicated that he has received $750,000 in additional income from “Food Provision.” This week we was voted out of office by a 2-1 margin to a candidate promising not to use those funds for his personal income. It appears that the people of Etowah County don’t like to pay taxes for jail food that goes into the sheriff’s pockets instead. People seem to feel so entitled these days. • The Finan family of Indiana spent three years scamming Amazon. They would order electronics, claim that it was damaged or broken, and get a free replacement. Then they would sell them. They created hundreds of fake accounts, stole $1.2 million in merchandise, and made $750,000. They will spend the next six years in federal prison for fraud. Some people seem to feel so entitled these days.
• We knew that Facebook user data was accessed by Cambridge Analytics prior to the 2016 national elections. Shame on them, FB said. Then we found that FB shared customer data with other US tech companies. Hmm, not so much the victim, FB? Then we learned that they shared it with 4 Chinese firms. Okay, no doubt about it. FB is a sieve, piping your info to anyone who pays. And now we hear that some privacy settings may have been changed. Oops! People, I love seeing y’all here, but this place is a public square. Act accordingly.
• The US is putting tariffs on Canadian (and European and Mexican) steel. The president can’t do that just because he’s concerned about trade imbalances, so he has to call it a threat to national security. Canada’s PM said, “Hey, we’re no military threat to you!” and POTUS replied, “Didn’t you guys burn down the White House?” Um, no. That was a different country. While I admit to being a free trade fan, I don’t mind some brinksmanship to try to keep a level playing field. I do object to having to learn alternate histories. We were not allowed to put whatever we wanted on history tests when I was in school. I might still be a bit upset about that. Mom likes to say, “Don’t confuse me with the facts. I’ve got my mind made up.”
• Burton TX is a small town west of Brenham on 290. This week the state bank was robbed at gunpoint by a heavy-set middle-aged white male. The suspect was nattily attired in a cowboy hat, sunglasses, and a painter’s mask. It appears that he hasn’t missed any meals. My neighbor Bob Ray thinks he might have driven his own pickup to the bank. People feel entitled to rob banks? Really?
• Trugreen is a Memphis-based lawn and weed care company. They’ve published a list of ten cities where they want to increase sales, disguised as a list of cities with the most lyme disease problems. Here you go: Chicago, Hartford, Boston, New Monmouth NJ, Wash DC, Rapid City SD, Boise, Dayton, Pittsburgh, and St Louis. Some cities seem to feel so entitled these days. The CDC reports that infections transmitted by ticks, mosquitos, and fleas are up 30% since 2004.
• Five years ago, a fossilized dinosaur skeleton was found in Wyoming. It’s 70% complete but we don’t know what species it is. Recently it was sold to an anonymous British business man for $2.4 million. It will be loaned to a museum and studied by scientists, who are appalled that a person with $2.4 million feels entitled to own a dinosaur skeleton.
• On 29-May, Micheal Rotondo drove away from his parents’ home in Camillus NY, just west of Syracuse. It would be a common rite of passage for a son to move out of his parents’ home, but this son is 30. He was offered a financial incentive to leave within 30 days. That passed. So his parents took him to court, where he told the judge he felt like he was entitled to stay for six more months. The judge didn’t agree and Mr Rotondo moved out. Well, sort of. He left at 8am well in advance of a noon deadline from the court. He was back a while later to get his Legos out of the basement. His folks wouldn’t allow him in. He called the cops. The Legos were found by the folks and brought out to him. He should move to Alabama and run for sheriff.
• It would end there, as a story about another Peter Pan who didn’t want to grow up, except for the impact it had on Mike Rotondo of Albany NY, who is also looking for his own place. He kept receiving messages from the media around the world, and assuring them that he loves his parents and isn’t involved in any legal actions. All of the Michael Rotondos in upstate New York are on notice.
• Wait, we’re not done. For several hours on Christmas Day, the South Carolina lottery produced about 71,000 tickets that were winners. It was a tic-tac-toe game to get 3 christmas trees in a row, and these tickets had 9 trees – you couldn’t lose. About $1.7 million got paid out before the state stopped paying and researched the basis for the other $71 million in prizes. Coding error by the Greek company that did the computer work for the lottery. After five months of review the state has decided to refund the $1 purchase price of each ticket. Believe you me, there are lawyers all over this one. Now we’re done.
