Craziest, Perhaps Dirtiest, Little City in Florida about to Disappear

Anyone who has been in North Florida knows to slow down or just avoid Hampton, Florida. The tiny town of less than 500 people has no schools, no public services but a water department and police force, but for years, it had a golden ticket.  It had annexed a piece of Florida Highway 310 and used it for all it was worth. 

Hampton was run for and by that stretch of highway outside town  The police force existed to bust people for driving by.  The AAA warned motorists.  The AAA put up billboards and still people got stopped and hammered with tickets while crime in Hampton was rampant  Didn’t matter. There were more police per capita than just about anywhere else in the country, and thye were all out on the highway outside town. Inside town, do what you please.

Hampton racked up $1 million in traffic tickets for less than a mile of road.  That’s million with an “m” in a matter of a few years.  How’d they do it?  By doing nothing else.  Why’d they do it?  Because they could.

In a long article, CNN explores the whole, sorry mess, here.  It can be summed up in this, quote though:

The city doesn't pay its bills on time, if it pays them at all, the audit says. It doesn't balance the checkbook or withhold employee payroll taxes or hold elections when it should. It doesn't maintain insurance on city vehicles. Record-keeping is hit or miss. The auditors were told that the records they sought were destroyed by an accident or in a flood. The water meter readings? Those were "lost in the swamp."

This was perhaps the most disturbing bit of news to come out of that hearing: City officials acknowledged that petty cash and money from water customers -- the city clerk often demanded payment in cash -- were kept together in a bag. When police said he needed cash to buy drugs for "undercover investigations," it came out of that bag, Smith and Van Zant said.

No records were kept, so nobody had a clue what happened to the money -- or the acquired contraband. This much is clear to Smith: No prosecutions resulted.

In the end, the auditors unearthed a problem far deeper than speed traps and mismanagement. They found evidence of what legislators called "wholesale corruption" and "abuse of the public." The vote was unanimous: request a criminal investigation, a forensic audit and a grand jury and look into getting a special prosecutor.

It started to end when the county sheriff clamped down on the city police, a state legislator got a traffic ticket, and the mayor got busted for meth.  A serious trifecta.

So, the Florida legislature in Tallahassee is about to kill the town.  Hampton is about to cease to exist.  And folks are going to go to jail.  More should than are going to be there, though.   

22-Pound Housecat Who Trapped Pitiful Owners Now Going Full-Portland: Going to Kitty Therapy

Yesterday, the interwebs were almost broken by the story of a 22-pound Himalayan house cat who had enough and went berserk and attacked its family.  Now, most house cats know who is in charge of their homes, they just don’t always have to prove it.  This cat did.  Aggressively.  The cat in question, which is large and not terribly domesticated, had been with the family for four years before they had the audacity to breed and bring a baby in the house who did not respect the cat.  The baby then became a toddler and further annoyed the cat, pushing it over the limit by pulling the cat’s tail. The cat put the smaller member of the household back in line by scratching it.  Then the dad kicked the cat in the butt and all hell broke loose.

 

Cat does not need therapy, family needs therapy

The cat, now fully enraged that it’s place at the top of the family and its authority was not being respected, then went berserk and drove the entire family into a guest bedroom (mom, dad, baby, and dog).  The dog did not stand up to the cat, as it had obviously been put in its place before.

The family then called 911 and animal control came out with a dog snare and trapped the cat.  The news today is that instead of just letting the cat out in Yellowstone where it probably belonged, the authorities and the family went full Portland hipster and are taking the cat to therapy.

Seriously.  They are taking a 22 pound Himalayan “house” cat to therapy where some quack can talk to the cat and feed it milk and think it is convincing the cat to be domesticated.  Here is some quick advice.  The cat will simply think that the therapist is bending to its will.  That’s how 22-pound Himalayan cats think.  And I’m a cat guy.  I love cats.  But there are domesticated cats and there are cats that are a half-step from wild and this seems like one of the latter.

Here’s a protip for the family: if you have to barricade yourself in a room and call 911 to be protected from your pet, it’s not your pet.  You are its pet. 

Knights Templar Cartel Chief Apparently Killed for Second Time

The Mexican government’s battle against the Knights Templar cartel, taking over the mantle and the fight from - and for - the self-defense forces who began it in Michoacan state last year, has taken a bizarre twist for the better.  The Houston Chronicle reports that Nazario Moreno Gonzalez, whose nickname is “the Craziest One” was reported dead by the Mexican government in 2010 after a two-day gunfight during the height of the first drug war.  Back then, Michoacan state, and the La Familia Michocan cartel was the start of the war and its main target.  Gonzalez was reported killed but no body was ever recovered.

 

Nozario Moreno Gonzalez

The war moved elsewhere, up north to the border where the government took on the Zetas, the Gulf Cartel and the Sinoloa Cartel who were vying for the border crossings from Baja California all the way to Brownsville, Texas.  Meanwhile, down in Southwest Mexico, the remnants of La Familia Michoacan had regrouped into the Knights Templar and were erecting statutes and shrines to Gonzalez.  A quasi-religious cult was developed with an odd form of heretical Christianity pushed by the cartel who trafficked methamphetamine and engaged in extortion, theft, and took over the port.

When the self-defense forces started their fight for their state, not many seriously doubted that Gonzalez was actually alive.  The new Mexican government (who wasn’t involved in the earlier report) wouldn’t confirm his death, because they didn’t have a body or any proof of death.

Now there is a body.

The government has gone on the attack.  There was a shootout in Michoacan and the thought is that the man found dead was the leader of the Knights Templar, and it s actually Nazario Gonzalez this time. 

If so, it would be a huge coup for the government.  In the last year, the government, led by the Mexican Navy, has captured the country’s top drug lord, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman of the Sinoloa Cartel.  Last year, the Navy captured Miguel Angel Trevino.  This would be the third cartel chief, and one of the most powerful, if not internationally, the one who formerly had the most complete control over a geographic area of the country.

If it’s true, it’s great news.  It’s also a huge hat-tip to the self-defense forces who had the courage to start the fight with the Knights Templar that lured the government in to do its job.  The people changed this, if they didn’t get the actual collar. They set the stage and forced the hand of the government.  Courage was shown, and courage was rewarded.