ROUND ONE
BONER CANDIDATE #1: THERE’S A PROBLEM WITH OUR PROPERTY TAX STRUCTURE
A Michigan retiree has lost a home over an $8.41 tax bill. Uri Rafaeli, 83, bought the three-bedroom house in 2011 for $60,000. He converted into a rental property, reports Fox News. A couple years later, Oakland County seized the property after mistake in taxes left him delinquent by $8.41. Notices were sent to the house, which the tenants did not forward. The house was sold for $24,500, of which Rafaeli got nothing. Rafaeli continued to pay taxes on the property even after it was seized. He didn’t realize anything was wrong until the tenants stopped paying rent. Read More
BONER CANDIDATE #2: WEIRD PRIORITIES
Prosecutors have accused a Minnesota man of using a Porsche as a battering ram to get his Nissan Altima out of an Onalaska impound lot. The La Crosse Tribune reports that Benjamin Gjere, of Lanesboro, was charged Thursday with operating a motor vehicle without the owner’s consent, property damage, theft and bail jumping. According to investigators, Gjere’s 2019 Altima was impounded Nov. 6 after he was pulled over. Surveillance video shows Gjere and an unidentified accomplice on the lot Sunday. Read More
BONER CANDIDATE #3: OKAY. WHEN I SAY CHRIS STEWART IS DUMB, HOW CAN SOMEONE TELL ME, “NO, HE’S REALLY SMART”?
Rep. Chris Stewart told Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman on Tuesday that he was wrong to equate President Donald Trump’s request for “a favor” from a foreign power with an “order” or demand. “It’s nonsense. Look, I was in the military,” said Stewart, who retired from the Air Force as a major. “I could distinguish between a favor and an order and a demand, and so could my subordinates.” Stewart, a Utah Republican who has joined his GOP colleagues in attempting to peel apart the testimony of Vindman and other witnesses in the House impeachment inquiry, said Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy have both said they understood Trump asking for a“favor” in a July phone call was a simple request, not a demand. “He never initiated an investigation,” Stewart said of the Ukrainian president. “In fact, he’s been very clear: He said I never felt any pressure at all. So you interpreted the word ‘favor,’ but the two people who were speaking to each other did not interpret that as a demand. That was your interpretation.” Read More
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ROUND TWO
BONER CANDIDATE #1: HOW MUCH DID YOU SAY THAT EMERALD WEIGHED?
PG&E Corp. says it has found suspicious monetary claims by victims of California’s wildfires, including one from a man who says a 500-pound (227-kilogram) emerald worth $280 million was destroyed at his home a year ago in the most destructive and deadliest wildfire in state history. The utility is probing duplicate or “exceptionally large monetary claims, which appear suspicious,” according to a court filing that is part of efforts to determine PG&E’s potential liability from fire-related losses and estimate damages. U.S. District Judge James Donato will probably take up the issue Monday at a regularly scheduled hearing. PG&E, which filed for bankruptcy in the face of liability over the wildfires, wants to question the owner of the emerald, who says it was destroyed in the 2018 Camp Fire that killed 86 people and razed the town of Paradise. PG&E’s equipment was found to have contributed to the blaze. In addition to seeking reimbursement for the emerald, the man and his wife submitted four duplicate claims of $4.5 million, PG&E says. Read More
BONER CANDIDATE #2: THAT’S HOW WE TREAT OUR HEROES NOW
The Army is prepared to move Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and his family onto a military base if they receive threats following his contentious testimony in front of the House Intelligence Committee Tuesday. The Wall Street Journal first reported that the Army was prepared to make the arrangements. ‘The Army will make sure he’s safe, and the Army is actively supporting any safety needs as deemed necessary,’ an official told the Journal. ‘It’s hard that he has been catapulted into the public eye. He served his country honorably for 20 years, and you can imagine this is a tough situation for him and his family,’ the source continued. Read More
BONER CANDIDATE #3: F— THESE PEOPLE. F— ‘EM.
An Ohio dad who placed a half dozen signs around his local mall about his son RJ’s birth disorders and how others could help by donating got a cruel response. The next week, placed under several of those signs was another one with a very different message: “Let the baby die.” “It shocked me,” KC Ahlers, RJ’s father, told WTVG-TV. “I mean, it really shocked me that somebody would have that kind of cruelty.” Four-month-old RJ has two birth disorders; Agenesis of the corpus callosum, which affects brain development, and Trisomy 9 Mosaic Syndrome, a chromosomal disorder, according to a GoFundMe page. Read More
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