Thoughts for the Day, May 11, 2021: 1,338 wins and 40 years of coaching takes hard work and dedication.

Sometimes our legal system makes no sense to me.  This case baffles my mind.  A judge ruled that the parents of an adult child (42 years of age) must reimburse their adult child because the parents destroyed the over 2,000 xxx-rated videos worth nearly $40,000 that the adult child brought in to the parent’s house after the parents asked the adult child to not bring the videos into the house.  After the parents kicked the adult child out of the house, the parents discovered the videos and destroyed them.  The adult child sued the parents and the judge ruled in the adult child’s favor. Every family has something.

Another former UAW president was sentenced to jail today.  Former United Auto Workers President Dennis Williams was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison Tuesday for stealing from union members during a conspiracy that stripped one of the nation’s most influential unions of its clean reputation and led to prolonged government oversight. Williams is the highest-ranking UAW official sentenced during a four-year-old prosecution that has secured 15 convictions and revealed UAW leaders and auto executives broke labor laws, stole union funds and received bribes and kickbacks. Williams believed he was duped into stealing by another UAW official who assured Williams everything was on the up and up.  It didn’t take long for these guys to tarnish the reputation of a union that had a great reputation under previous leaders such as Walter Ruether and Ron Gettelfinger.

As we get closer to Governor Whitmer’s executive order to shut down Line-5 under the Straits of Mackinaw, the rhetoric is ratcheting up.  Per the Detroit News, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer warned an Enbridge executive Tuesday that if the Canadian company continued to operate in the Straits past Wednesday, the state would seek its profits if theState eventually prevails in its legal fight to revoke the pipeline’s easement. Continued operations would be considered “an intentional trespass,”.  The company, Whitmer said, “will be liable for unjust enrichment, which will require disgorgement to the state of all profits derived from its wrongful use of the state’s property.” In the meantime, Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office told The Detroit News that she had no way to enforce the easement revocation and closure order without court intervention, which her office is trying to obtain.  Enbridge has said the federal government has jurisdiction over the dual pipeline and that it would prevail in federal court.  Once this case is finally settled, I am sure it will be a required case study in most law schools across the country.

A 240-page report was issued today by the law firm U of M hired to investigate accusations of sexual misconduct by Dr. Robert Anderson’s who is accused of sexually abusing male students for nearly 30 years at the university. The report was released to the public at the same time it was received by the U of M Regents and university administration.  This is a very sad chapter in the history of the university.

Stay safe, wash your hands regularly, social distance, wear your mask properly and schedule your vaccine.

Orchid of the Day: Wayne State University’s softball coach Gary Bryce, who is retiring after 40 years and 1,338 wins, which is a Division II record.  I had the opportunity to watch Wayne State play a few times as they were in the same NCAA regional as my daughter Katy’s Southern Illinois Edwardsville team.  The first time I saw Wayne State, I was surprised at how well coached and disciplined the WSU girls were.  They were not a team to be taken lightly.

Onion of the Day:  To the CDC for continually confusing us with their conservative approach to disseminating data.  Saying that less than 10% chance Covid cases are transmitted in an outdoor setting is very misleading, when most scientific data indicate it is less than 1% when properly identifying outdoor settings. David Leonhardt, NY Times columnist.

Quote of the Day: “Saying that less than 10 percent of Covid transmission occurs outdoors is akin to saying that sharks attack fewer than 20,000 swimmers a year. (The actual worldwide number is around 150.) It’s both true and deceiving.”