DETROIT GUITARIST CHARGED WITH PARKING ON HIS OWN DRIVEWAY

HARPER WOODS MAN CHARGED WITH PARKING ON HIS OWN DRIVEWAY

Harper Woods, Michigan- A lifelong citizen of this tiny suburb of 10,000 woke up Wednesday to find a notice in his mail box. It was a warrant for his arrest issued by Judge Roger J. La Rose. the city's district court judge. The crime? Parking his own Dodge minivan on his own driveway. The warrant listed it as a "junk vehicle" in spite of the fact that the owner, Scott Campbell, already produced copies of his valid license plate, registration and insurance, something the local police department could have found out just by running his plate. "I was told by the city attorney that this was settled, though they should have simply run the plate to begin with".

This isn't the first time this has happened, but it is the first time the city attorney has carried things to the point of issuing a bench warrant. Campbell stated that the cause of all this is his next door neighbor, who has threatened to have the judge unseated if Campbell isn't evicted from his home of 15 years and the house torn down.

The same neighbor, Carl Moore, repeatedly threatened to have the city building inspector Gerrard Owczarzak fired from his job if he didn't follow Moore's orders. "When I bought the house, the woman next door told me that all these houses were too close together and every other one should be torn down.

They drove the old woman who lived here for 35 years into a nursing home. Five families on the other side of them have moved in and out again over the past few years. Neighbors have told me they will hide in their houses just to avoid talking to Carl. I went out of my way to be nice to them, but there's no pleasing them."

Campbell will be araigned Monday morning at District Court 32-A, where his mother used to work. "She worked for the city over 20 years and has lived here over 60 years. She can't believe this is happening".
Harper Woods is the city that threw a 70 year old woman in jail for her garden, in spite of the fact that she cut it back to meet the building inspector's demands. Campbell first came to to the city council's attention when he suggested several years ago that the residents be allowed to vote on keeping the name "Harper Woods" or changing it to "Grosse Pointe Heights", a name suggested by the 1950 steering commitee before a name was chosen.

"Those people looked and acted like I had threatened to kill them. I was shocked at their anger. It was weird. I got threatening phone calls after that in the middle of the night. A number of people told me they like the idea including a couple of city officials, but this city is dangerous enough without getting the mayor and the entire city council going after you."

Australia's First Boat People

CHRISTOPHER WALKEN SINGS DELILAH!

HER BOYFRIEND MADE HER DO IT! 506 lbs POT

AP
This undated photo provided by the Drug Enforcement Administration shows Lisette Lee, who authorities arrested after allegedly flying to Ohio on a private jet with 506 pounds of marijuana in 13 suitcases.


COLUMBUS, Ohio — A California woman traveling with a bodyguard on a private jet was arrested at an Ohio airport with 506 pounds of marijuana stashed in 13 suitcases, federal authorities said.

Lisette Lee, the bodyguard and two personal assistants were arrested Monday night after the Drug Enforcement Administration got a tip that the 28-year-old woman was traveling with a suspicious amount of luggage.

After the chartered plane landed in Columbus, one of Lee's assistants and her bodyguard helped baggage workers unload some of the luggage, authorities said. It took two men to carry some of the large suitcases, which were packed with bricks of pot, and three vehicles to carry all the luggage, authorities said.

Authorities also confiscated from Lee's bag three cell phones, cocaine, marijuana, drug paraphernalia and suspected drug ledgers that showed some $300,000 in transactions.

Lee was charged with conspiracy and possession of drugs with the intent to distribute. Her attorneys, Bill Meeks and Dave Thomas, did not immediately return a message left Wednesday. She was being held without bail pending a Friday hearing.

Her bodyguard and two personal assistants were released pending possible indictments, DEA agent Anthony Marotta said.

Lee told investigators that she chartered the plane from Van Nuys, Calif., to Columbus to visit a boyfriend and transport equipment to a horse farm. She said it was her fourth such trip.

She said a friend paid her $60,000 to take more than a dozen suitcases from Los Angeles to an unattended hotel room in Columbus, stay for a few days and then bring back fewer pieces of luggage, authorities said.

Lee later told investigators that she and her entourage knew the horse story was phony and that they were likely involved with "weapons and money laundering or something," authorities wrote in court papers.

If convicted, Lee could face up to 40 years in prison and a fine of up to $2 million.

Hope it was worth the money honey.....

BP STRIKES AGAIN!

SNARKY SAILOR SAFE!!!

photo from Yachting World

A 16-year-old sailor on a round-the-world journey alone was drifting in the frigid southern Indian Ocean on Friday as rescue boats headed toward her yacht, damaged by 30-foot waves that knocked out her communications and prompted her to set off a distress signal.



After a tense 20 hours of silence, a search plane launched from Australia's west coast made radio contact with Abby Sunderland on Friday.

Her boat's mast was broken — ruining satellite phone reception — and was dragging with the sail in the ocean, said search coordinator Mick Kinley, acting chief of the Australia Maritime Safety Authority that chartered a commercial jet for the search.

But the keel was intact, the yacht was not taking on water and Sunderland was equipped for the conditions, he said.

"The aircraft (crew) spoke to her. They told her help was on the way and she sounds like she's in good health," Kinley told reporters in Canberra.

"She's going to hang in there until a vessel can get to her," probably on Saturday, he said.

A lifelong sailor, Sunderland had begun her journey trying to be the youngest person to sail solo, nonstop around the world and continued her trip after mechanical failures dashed that dream.

She told searchers Friday that she was doing fine with a space heater and at least two weeks' worth of food, said family spokesman William Bennett. Support team member Jeff Casher said the boat had gotten knocked on its side several times.

Abby's father, Laurence Sunderland, thanked the Australian rescuers' quick response in sending out a search plane.



Read More Abby Sunderland's new boat arrives
Abby's Blog

STEVE JOBS AND BILL GATES STORY TIME

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY 2010

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY

PRINCESS DIANA'S BLACK DRESS UP FOR AUCTION

Yahoo News Story Princess Diana, Princess Grace and What's His Name?

LONDON – It was black and strapless, with a sassy sequined flounce at the bodice and a gloriously full, swishy skirt.

The dress was, Lady Diana Spencer thought, so grown-up, just right for her first official engagement after the announcement she was to marry Prince Charles.

But when photographs emerged of the then 19-year-old Diana emerging from a limousine at a March, 1981 charity event — all creamy shoulders and ample decolletage — there was a minor scandal over the revealing cut. According to Elizabeth Emanuel, who designed the ball gown with her husband David, they didn't realize the furor the dress would cause.



"She just looked fantastic. At that time, she was curvy. Not fat in any way, but she had cleavage — we love cleavage. And she looked great in this dress," Emanuel said in an interview Friday. "We in no way expected there to be such a reaction. And I think from that moment on, Diana became a fashion icon."

The dress had been missing for years until David Emanuel recently discovered it in a plastic bag at his home. Along with other garments worn by Diana and designed by the Emanuels, it is to be auctioned off June 8 in a sale that includes the silk chiffon blouse chosen for the Princess of Wales' official engagement portrait by Lord Snowdon, and the calico prototype used to fit her famous ivory wedding gown.

Prince Charles reportedly didn't like the ballgown she wore to the charity event, because he thought black was for people in mourning. Diana thought it was tres chic, and anyway, she had nothing else to wear.

"She was unsophisticated at that point, and when I look at the wedding dress and the black ballgown I can see a young girl's dream of the ultimate party dress or romantic dress," said auctioneer Kerry Taylor, whose eponymous firm is handling the sale. "So there's an innocence about these early pieces.

"Later on she became very svelte, very sophisticated, very elegant," Taylor said. "But here we see just a very beautiful, innocent young girl, and the clothes reflect that."

For the editors of Britain's voracious press, the dress — and the snaps of Diana in it — would kick off a long love affair with the princess.

"Up until that point, they'd seen her as a floppy-haired puppy," said Christopher Wilson, a seasoned observer who has written extensively on the royals. "And that's the moment Fleet Street fell in love with her.

"It all stretches back to that one picture."

Taylor and Elizabeth Emanuel are hopeful the collection will go to a museum — the black dress is expected to fetch between 30,000 and 50,000 pounds ($44,000 to $73,000) and the prototype of the wedding dress between 8,000 and 12,000 pounds ($12,000 to $17,000) — but understand that Diana's legacy means there's a strong chance a private collector may snap up the garments.

Despite the reaction to her ballgown, Diana liked it enough to ask the Emanuels to take it in when it became too large for her, as she was constantly losing weight. In the months leading up to her wedding, Diana's waist dropped from 26 to 24 inches, and the Emanuels decided it would be easier to just make her a new, smaller version of the dress. Elizabeth Emanuel said she doesn't know what happened to the second version.

The collection up for sale includes sketches, notes, invoices — one shows Diana's mother paid 1,000 guineas for the wedding party's dresses, which was the equivalent of 1,050 pounds — and even the handbag that Elizabeth Emanuel carried to the wedding at St. Paul's Cathedral on July 29, 1981. It still has the smelling salts the designer brought along in case her famous client felt faint. (She didn't, Emanuel said, describing Diana as the epitome of calm.)

"Diana was just fantastic. From the moment we first met her, she was just like a regular client. She was lovely, down-to-earth, very sweet, very calm, very friendly. She made a point of meeting everybody in the work room and she was just so easy to get on with," Emanuel said. "We had so much fun."