The University of Michigan made history earlier this summer by hiring the first female graduate assistant on a Power Five college football staff, Mimi Bolden-Morris. Saturday was her first game.
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Right before the start of the Tigers season, I told my grandson, Nolan (7), the Tigers had traded for Austin Meadows of the Tampa Bay Rays. Nolan told me Austin Meadows was a really good player and he was excited he was going to be playing with the Tigers. I looked up Meadows’ stats from last year and I was impressed. In 2021 he had 27 home runs, 106 RBI and a 770 OPS.
Unfortunately, Meadows’ career with the Tigers went south in a hurry as he dealt with tendinitis in his Achilles, vertigo and then Covid-19. He has not played since early June. It has all piled up on Meadows mentally. On Friday he announced he is out for the remainder of the season as he struggles to get his mental health in order. Here is a statement he released on Friday which will serve as my Quote of the Day.
“This season has been an unfortunate struggle with a series of injuries and illnesses, from dealing with vertigo early on, then COVID, to bilateral tendinitis in my Achilles, then having to go through the rehab process each time.
“What I have told very few people is that I also have been struggling with my mental health in a way that has extended my time away from the game that I love so much. I’ve been dealing with this privately with a great team of professionals, but I need to continue to put in the hard work off the field towards feeling mentally healthy.
“While I’ve been back in the clubhouse the past few weeks, and plan to remain with the club through the end of the season, I am still not ready to return to the field. I am so grateful for my family, my teammates and the Tigers organization for supporting me through this. I can’t do this alone, and I hope in sharing my experience I can touch at least one person who might be going through their own struggles and encourage them to reach out to someone for help.”
Unless you’ve struggled with mental illness, especially if you struggled with it in the public glare, you can’t know the courage it took for Tigers outfielder Austin Meadows to come forth with his struggles.
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There were two major court rulings on cases I have been reporting about with regularity in my blog. Both cases had similar outcomes, in that the judge ruled in favor of the defendant.
Per the Detroit News, in the case of Nick Lyon, former Governor Snyder and other defendants in the Flint Water Crisis politically motivated prosecution by AG Nessel, the Michigan Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected Attorney General Dana Nessel’s request to appeal a lower court’s decision that required her office to use a “taint team” to independently review documents seized from state offices during the Flint water investigation.
Nessel’s office has fought the use of a taint team and estimated the team’s review could take two years and cost an additional $37 million to determine if the documents the attorney general’s office seized constituted a violation of attorney client privilege.
The Michigan Supreme Court in a brief order Tuesday denied Nessel’s application to appeal “because we are not persuaded that the question presented should be reviewed by this court.”
The high court’s refusal to hear Nessel’s appeal means that much more time will be added to the investigation and prosecution, which already hangs by a thread after the high court ruled earlier this year that the attorney general’s use of a one-man grand jury was unconstitutional.
As of July, the state had spent nearly $53 million since 2016 for both the prosecution and defense of Michigan’s top officials in the Flint water criminal and civil litigation, according to a Detroit News review of costs.
Hammoud and Worthy estimated earlier this year it would take a team of more than 100 lawyers working for “over two years” to complete the review at a cost to the taxpayers of an additional $37 million to the taxpayers.
Lyon is scheduled to appear in Genesee County Circuit Court on Sept. 13 for a hearing regarding efforts to send the criminal case against him back to a lower court. In late June, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled the Genesee County Circuit Court erred in denying Lyon’s motion to dismiss a manslaughter charge.
Former DHS Director, Jim Haveman, had this to say about the case.
At the hearing on September 13, Director Lyon’s attorneys will also be asking Judge Kelly to continue the protective order that compels AG Nessel’s office to use a taint team to review client-attorney privileged documents. Judge Kelly ordered the taint team in November,2021 and since then AG Nessel’s office has tried to get out of the requirement and has done nothing to demonstrate agreement.
September 13 is a pivotal hearing for Director Lyon. Is it the end of a nightmare or the beginning of another? Lost in all of the rhetoric and legal jockeying is the CDC report in 2019 that pointed out that McLaren Hospital has had problems with it’s water filtration system, and resulting Legionella illness since 2009. Director Lyon did not cause the deaths of the McClaren patients and did not make the decision to switch the water source in Flint. Those decisions were made by local authorities in Flint and Genesee County. The felony and misdemeanor charges against Director Lyon must be dismissed on Tuesday September 13,2022 for justice to prevail once and for all.
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In a legal victory for former president Trump as reported by the NY Times, a federal judge intervened on Monday in the investigation of former President Donald J. Trump’s handling of sensitive government records, ordering the appointment of an independent arbiter to review a trove of materials seized last month from Mr. Trump’s private club and residence in Florida.
The judge, Aileen M. Cannon of the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Florida, also temporarily barred the Justice Department from using the seized materials for any “investigative purpose” connected to its inquiry of Mr. Trump until the work of the arbiter, known as a special master, was completed.
The order would prevent, at least for now, federal prosecutors from using key pieces of evidence as they continue to investigate whether the former president illegally retained national defense documents at his estate, Mar-a-Lago, or obstructed the government’s repeated efforts to get them back.
The prosecution and the defense have until Friday to submit a list of names to serve as the special master.
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Orchid of the Day: Detroit Tiger Austin Meadows for publicly announcing his struggles with mental health during his season with the Tigers.
Onion of the Day: AG Nessel for her insistence in continuing the political prosecution of Nick Lyon and others in the Flint Water Crisis. She has been shot down twice by the Michigan Supreme Court in the last year, but she continues to waste taxpayer money on a criminal case that has already been settled in civil court for over $650 million.
Quote of the Day: See above story about Austin Meadows.
Question of the Day: Are you ready for some football? With the start of the NFL this week, football is now in full bloom.
Video/Image of the Day: Intro to Sunday Night Football