Summer is just around the corner, our children will be finished with school on Friday May 25, the last day of classes for Okaloosa County Schools.

If you haven't thanked your children's teachers, please thank them now. Most of our teachers go above and beyond for our children and deserve our gratitude and thanks. If you can, a little token of appreciation, homemade cookies, or a gift card and a note of thanks go a long way. I know that when I taught, I very was appreciative of every thank you card I received, they meant a lot. Teachers have a lot of stress these days, let's tell them we appreciate their efforts.

What wonderful plans do you have for the summer? Are you taking a nice vacation to visit relatives? We are so fortunate that we live in the beautiful state of Florida that has so much so offer, whether we stay here in Crestview or travel to other parts of our state. Do you plan to visit Walt Disney World, Sea World or Busch Gardens? Or do you plan to visit our beautiful beaches? Perhaps you want to take your kids to the Gulfarium, Big Kahuna's, or the Emerald Coast Zoo. We have many wonderful places to visit here at home. Perhaps you would like to volunteer at the Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge, SOCKS (Save our Cats and Kittens) or PAWS (Panhandle Animal Welfare) or some other worthy organization. There are many organizations that would love summer volunteers from responsible youth and adults.

The Air Force Armament Museum at Eglin AFB is a wonderful place that features all types of military aircraft, from World War II forward and a MOAB on display, (Massive Ordnance Air Blast, nicknamed the "Mother of all bombs." For those interested in military history, there is plenty to see and learn. I could spend two or three days there.

We have many lovely parks all over Crestview and Okaloosa County; two of those parks are Twin Hills Park in Crestview and Turkey Creek Park in Niceville. We also have wonderful rivers, so many things from which to choose.

Jim, my husband, and I would like to thank all of our hardworking teachers for another year of dedication to our children. We would also like to thank all of the substitute teachers, please know that you are very much appreciated. 

Janice Lynn Crose, a former accountant, lives in Crestview with her husband, Jim; her two rescue collies, Shane and Jasmine; and two cats, Kathryn and Prince Valiant.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Summer in Crestview

Given his first-hand experience with the massive size, pettiness, cost and overreach of deep-state government in Washington, it is time for Trump to cut about 25 percent of it. Apparently, Mueller’s special counsel team has so much money they try to fabricate testimony from Russian oligarchs.

If government continues to grow at this rate, expect 10 policemen with AR-15s knocking down your door in a pre-dawn raid over your unpaid parking ticket.

There are so many areas the government could cut workers, and it would be best done in a good economy where they could find jobs should they really want to work. My suggestion on what to cut is simple. If you can find the government “service” in the Yellow Pages, or your agency's workers are not essential enough to have to come in on a snow day in D.C., then let’s cut back.

Maybe we should start with Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. That should be the name of a convenience store, not a government agency. Duplicity and stupidity abound in government; state and local governments already police these things. What the ATF!?

I was just in Washington, D.C. and visited Mt. Vernon. It reminded me that George Washington brewed booze, hosted horse races, and raised tobacco and hemp, thus becoming the Father of Spring Break and the patron saint of Panama City Beach.

This country was founded on Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. I think it was also my high school prom theme. No government agency has ever made anything better. Prohibition spawned gangsters and the mob. “Drug wars” financially fueled Mexican gangs. Hard right-wing social conservatives agitate for such issues based on imposing their moral standard. Democrats go along because they love regulating and taxing things.

Bootleggers and Baptists is the economic principle that regulations are often supported by odd bedfellows. Baptists and other religious fundamentalists agitated for Sunday “Blue Laws” restricting the sale of alcohol. Bootleggers sold alcohol illegally, and they sold more when liquor stores were closed, thus this holy and unholy alliance. Baptists lowered the costs of political favor-seeking for the bootleggers because politicians can pose as "moral" in supporting Baptists, yet they know they are helping bootleggers.

Regulation also stifles free markets and creates barriers to entry in entrenched businesses. Consider our regulated cable TV oligopoly, where costs rise and service stinks. If you wonder why Mark Zuckerberg welcomed regulation in his business when he testified before Congress, then this explains it. Mostly regulations harm consumers and help big business to keep competitors and innovation at bay. And lobbyists fuel this injustice.

Senators have asked Major League Baseball to ban smokeless tobacco. They feel strongly that tobacco should be only be enjoyed the D.C. way: by having your cigar lit with a $100 bill from a lobbyist. Hillary would have banned cigars in the  White House for non-smoking related reasons.

Coors Stadium would be the last to ban beer. To be fair, Coors beer is so watered down it is the official beer of child custody hearings.

Think of what our FDA did to re-fuel the heroin epidemic. By pushing “legal opioids” for pain, they hooked the nation on a pill that has a street value of $200. A town of 2,900 in West Virginia got 20.8 million painkiller pills shipped to it. You’d think that town would replace Disney World as the “Happiest Place on Earth.” But, it didn’t; the pills ruined lives and increased heroin use. Leave it to our government to make heroin more cost-efficient than legal pills.

In West Virginia, being “clean and sober” just means you have showered before you head to the liquor store or to see your drug dealer.

As a libertarian, my view is: Smoke all the crack you want; just don’t expect me to pay for your rehab or not shoot you if you try to steal my lawnmower. Legalize everything and educate people so they can make informed decisions. Show pictures of Keith Richards to those who want to smoke and do drugs. Put pictures of morbidly obese people riding a Rascal scooter around Wal-Mart on Cinnabon bags. You get the idea. Educate and let idiots wean themselves out of our gene pool.

I doubt Trump will cut ATF, since he doesn’t drink and takes a dim view of it. We should be thankful he doesn’t drink; studies show that alcohol increases the size of the "Send" button by fifty percent. 

Ron Hart is a libertarian op-ed humorist and award-winning author. Contact him at Ron@RonaldHart.com or @RonaldHart on Twitter.

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This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Bootleggers and Baptists: Time to Cut Spending in Washington

Last week, there was an outbreak of tweeting in which the president decried "fake news" which, by now, we know is dog-whistle for "news I don’t like." 

He mused whether he should revoke the White House Press Corps credentials of those outlets who publish and broadcast negative stories. 

This, from a person for whom media attention has been like mother’s milk for 40 years. 

While such bloviating might play to the fan base, it is fantasy to think a ban would stop reporters from filing stories. 

If he doesn’t believe it, then he should do it. 

There isn’t a leader alive or dead who has enjoyed media scrutiny, who hasn’t complained about reporters’ questions, angles and motives. Most, however, understand why a free press is a necessity. 

From this country’s beginning, politicians have tossed choice and unprintable words at reporters, but none of any substance has ever crossed the Rubicon by describing the press as the "enemy of the people." 

That’s despot talk. 

Biggest threat

Every cause for change, every step of progress this country has made, from ending slavery to defeating dictators, was first taken up by the press. 

We’re here today because colonial-era newspapers pressed the cause for independence long before the Continental Army was organized. 

We see every day what happens in countries where there’s no such thing as a free press. It’s not a coincidence that some of the richest people on earth exert power in countries where a free press doesn’t exist. 

An officeholder who promises to serve one or two terms suddenly becomes "president for life." 

Those journalists who try to expose corruption suddenly turn up dead. 

Right now, the biggest threat to this country is not the press, but those who have figured out they can sow chaos by using that which resembles journalism just enough to fool, anger and frighten us. 

What makes us unique is that free speech is the first thing we enshrined, right out of the gate. President John F. Kennedy noted the press is the only industry specifically protected by the Constitution. 

Was the media of Kennedy’s own day derelict in not covering some of his issues? Yes. 

The current president contends the media ignores or under-reports the administration’s successes, but then steps on his own narrative because he cannot resist settling scores, real and imagined. 

It isn’t enough to tout employment statistics or possible peace with North Korea. It must be done while denigrating others.

‘Breaking’ news is broken 

Media is a public service, but it’s also a business. Consumers have every right to refuse to patronize those which fail in their duty. 

But that’s not a call for a president to make. 

I recently met a Canton (Ohio) Repository reader who is concerned that news is in danger of being swallowed up by a nonstop flow of opinion, rather than straight reporting. 

She’s right. Because of a push for profits, the constant feeding of social media and fear of a 24-hour hole, cable news outlets in particular create smash-ups using with so-called experts, and the facts are getting lost in the yelling, histrionics and finger-pointing. 

Other outlets constantly tout "breaking news" as to render the term meaningless. 

Yet with all this, imagine trying to find out what’s going on in the world without people who are willing to search for information and report it. 

Now, maybe you’re thinking that wouldn’t be the worst thing. But what happens when the people you support no longer hold power? 

If the press is permitted to be harassed, threatened and bullied out of doing its job, it won’t stop with us. It will end at you trying to explain why you said what you said about the government while sitting at your own kitchen table.

Reach Charita M. Goshay at 330-580-8313 or charita.goshay@cantonrep.com.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Ban media? Be careful what you wish for

More than 50 years ago, Gideon v. Wainwright was argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court unanimously ruled that state courts are required to provide legal counsel for those defendants accused of a crime who cannot afford a lawyer.

Today, the right to counsel is firmly rooted in the American criminal justice system but the lack of funding has put competent representation at risk.

Clarence Earl Gideon was a 51-year-old drifter and petty-thief. He was charged with breaking and entering in Florida. The charge was a felony and when Gideon first appeared before the court he was without funds, without counsel and he asked the court to appoint him a lawyer.

After all, the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides, “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right … to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.”

The judge apologized to Gideon and said that Florida law only provides for counsel in capital cases. Gideon replied, “The United States Supreme Court says I am entitled to be represented by counsel.”

Gideon represented himself, was convicted and appealed to the Florida Supreme Court. His appeal was denied and his case made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court appointed a very capable attorney, Abe Fortas, to represent Gideon. Fortas would one day take a seat on the Supreme Court.

Fortas’ argument before the court was deliberate, learned and convincing. Fortas told the court that the federal government already recognized that the Sixth Amendment required the appointment of counsel for indigent defendants facing felony charges.

More than a half-century after Gideon the focus has evolved from merely the right to counsel — to the right to effective representation. That representation has turned from insuring a fair trial to ensuring effective assistance on matters such as plea bargaining and the collateral consequences of sentencing.

As states and local municipalities struggle with declining budget revenues, the more important issue today is how will public defenders and court-appointed counsel react to fewer dollars for indigent defense?

The right to effective counsel for indigent defense may be in peril.

When it comes to legal services, you get what you pay for and Pennsylvania, for instance, pays nothing. Pennsylvania stands alone among the 50 states in its steadfast refusal to allocate any money in the state budget for indigent criminal defense.

Instead, it is up to each Pennsylvania county to design, and pay for, a system to provide legal representation to the poor. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has said that indigent defendants can sue for adequate representation.

Pennsylvania is only the tip of the iceberg.

Recently, public defenders across Massachusetts demonstrated against low pay — average base salary is $47,500 a year — and their lack of collective bargaining power as state employees, according to the Huffington Post.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a class-action lawsuit against Missouri’s public-defender system.

The lawsuit is on behalf of five Missouri residents accused of a crime and involved in the state’s criminal justice system. The suit alleges that public defenders are failing to provide low income defendants with their constitutionally guaranteed right to legal counsel. According to The Atlantic, the 53-page complaint depicts an overwhelmed system in which too few lawyers are burdened with too many cases and, as a result, too little time to properly defend their clients in court.

The American Civil Liberties Union has also filed a lawsuit against the state of Nevada for allegedly neglecting the constitutional rights of low income defendants in rural counties. The suit alleges that some county judges appoint untrained, inexperienced private attorneys to defend the poor.

In the Pennsylvania case authorizing indigent defendants to sue counties to ensure that public defender’s offices are more adequately funded, state Supreme Court Justice David Wecht warned, ”[T]he level of funding provided by a county to operate a public defender’s office has left that office incapable of complying with Gideon creating the likelihood of a systematic, widespread constructive denial of counsel in contravention of the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution.”

Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly & George P.C. You can reach him at www.mattmangino.com and follow him on Twitter @MatthewTMangino.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Funding woes put indigent defense in peril

Liberal rip-off business Starbucks, which made its money opening stores in only affluent neighborhoods (aka redlining), all but cried last week when one of its stores in Philadelphia had two African-American, non-paying customers arrested.

The situation got heated when the men were arrested, but thank goodness a quick- thinking Starbucks regular was able to calm everyone with the soothing sounds of a nearby Kenny G CD.

The incident illustrated the heightened racial divide of the last decade. White people couldn’t believe that black people can’t use the restroom and sit in a Starbucks as long as they like. And black people learned how much whites are willing to pay for a cup of coffee. At $9 per cup of some fancy latte drink, Starbucks stores are so white they look like a Brigham Young University study hall – except they sell caffeine.

Many Starbucks customers who saw the incident got angry. And imagine how much it takes to anger customers who regularly pay $8 for coffee they have to go fix up themselves and which they could make at home for 50 cents.

Starbucks capitulated quickly, I am sure, paying off the two guys and saying it  was closing 8,000 stores for racial sensitivity training. 8,000 stores! That’s like three blocks' worth of Starbucks in Manhattan. Where will white people without offices sit all day? When they reopen, I’d hate to be the first person to order a cup of coffee “black.” Expect alecture.

Now baristas at 8,000 Starbucks stores, who have nose-rings, ironic tattoos and $50k in student loan debt from their Gender Studies degrees, get to be lectured on race so they can then lecture customers on race. That is the mission statement of Starbucks: overcharge for coffee while lecturing customers that they are racist. It is called the “Insult to Injury” program.

Starbucks has always been leftist-politically active. Management said they were going to hire 10,000 refugees when Trump instigated his ban on travelers from terrorist countries. Imagine how they would misspell their names on their coffee cups.  They have a hard time with American names. A friend of mine told his Starbucks barista that his name was “Marc with a C.” The guy promptly wrote “Cark” on his cup. The good news is, I have heard of guys who cannot remember a date's name the next morning taking her to Starbucks so she has to say her name again as a reminder.

I thought Starbucks solved the racism problem a few years ago when it launched  the “Race Together” campaign. Remember that stellar program where baristas wrote provocative statement on cups to “start a conversation” on race relations? That way they could give customers the condescending stink-eye if they thought the customers were racist. This I know for sure. If anyone wants to start a “conversation” with you about race, he is doing two things: calling you a racist, and presuming to be morally superior to you so he can lecture you on the matter.

It hit the right tone for the Starbucks core customer who is too busy to make his own coffee at home in the morning yet still has time to listen to a state college Psych major barista opine on race en route to work. 

Starbucks is a political action committee that happens to serve overpriced coffee. They seemed like hypocrites when the Philadelphia incident happened. You’d expect this at Cracker Barrel; racism is right there in the name. But to be fair, Starbucks is not a waiting room for people to waste time. It’s a place to finish a term paper or résumé. It is a place you meet someone you don’t quite trust in your home or from whom you are buying something sketchy on Craigslist. 

You libs have to make a stand for the aggrieved parties and hit Starbucks where it hurts.  Non-paying customers should stop coming to the stores. That’d show 'em.

There will be a cost to Starbucks. In addition to lecturing employees of 8,000-plus  stores on race, it plans to open more stores in inner-city and lower middle class neighborhoods. Brilliant idea – now people in impoverished neighborhoods can have a store rob them for a change. And what better temptation would there be than the opportunity to buy $10 latte mochas every morning so they can become poor again?

Ron Hart is a libertarian op-ed humorist and award-winning author. Contact him at Ron@RonaldHart.com or @RonaldHart on Twitter.

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This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: The Starbuck Stops Here

It has been identified and well-documented that Crestview faces a challenge with regard to its homeless population. Many are concerned for the welfare of these individuals; others fear they may have a negative impact on the Crestview area’s future business growth.

Townhalls have been held, and citizens have been afforded the opportunity to voice concerns. However, to date, Crestview’s City Council has yet to take any substantive course action meant to address the current situation.

It would seem that the easiest course of action would be to adopt an ordinance banning the practice of panhandling altogether. Last year, nearby Pensacola attempted to do just this. 

Within days, the ACLU took action threatening the city with a long and costly lawsuit. The result: Pensacola’s city council quickly reversed their decision. In recent years, the ACLU has been able to establish the legal precedent such that total panhandling bans are deemed unconstitutional – a violation of First Amendment Rights.

Given the high probability of a successful lawsuit, a total ban on panhandling is not a realistic course of action for Crestview. There are, however, other solutions to the problem at hand. The council could adopt an ordinance banning the practice of aggressive panhandling. Often, this entails banning panhandling within 30 to 100 of ATMs and financial institutions. Panhandling while occupying medians, intersections, or at the entrances of businesses is also off-limits.

Individuals may ask for a handout, but repeated requests, following, and violent gestures and language are also prohibited. Another option the council could explore is implementing an ordinance that addresses the issue under the umbrella of charitable solicitation.

I see merit in the council establishing a Citizen’s Task Force to Address Homelessness. Much like the recent Charter Review Committee, our city’s elected officials should appoint individuals to a temporary committee tasked with developing a series of policy and procedure recommendations for the council to review.

Immediately coming to mind, such a task force could research the requirements and available sources of funding for the establishment of a homeless shelter. Perhaps such a task force could even develop draft ordinances that the city council and city attorney could review and further develop.

The point is: solutions exist. I appreciate the officials who have hosted townhalls discussing homelessness within the City of Crestview. But, it is time to take action. Townhalls yielding only complaint or more conversation are nothing more than public shows.

Additionally, with election season creeping up on us, names for our consideration are already being floated. As voters, demand that these individuals seeking office take their rhetoric beyond simply appealing to our conservatism.

We cherish our Constitutional rights, but representing a municipality requires more policy knowledge than the ability to assert one’s self as the protector of second amendment rights. Let’s keep discussing the issue but focus our conversation and effort towards taking action that moves Crestview forward.

Josh Molyneux is a Crestview resident and public administration professional.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: On homelessness in Crestview

 “The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson about a dinner guest

In preparation for James Comey’s opening act with his buddy George Stephanopoulos, I watched the movie "Chappaquiddick" on a rainy Sunday afternoon. This new movie about an old subject reminds us that when   rising Democrat party star and Chappaquiddick Swim Champion of 1968, Ted Kennedy, left a mistress to drown and ran away, the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, a DA, and law enforcement were involved in the crime and the cover-up.

If you think for one second that higher-ups at the FBI and politically ambitious US Attorneys would not lie, cheat, or conceal in order to help a political candidate, read history.

We have grown an alphabet soup of powerful agencies like the FBI, DHS, NSA, DOJ, IRS, etc. They can bully us because we invest them with immense powers to arrest and to ruin lives — with scant accountability. We allow them to operate in clubby secrecy because they tell us we have to. Why?  

With that lack of accountability, the FBI has a budget of $8.4 billion and convicts about 10,000 Americans a year. So, we pay $840,000 per conviction just for the FBI, which does not count the cost to prosecute and incarcerate. Why?

Bureaucracies grow by making whatever they do (war: The Pentagon; drug wars: the DEA; the War on Poverty, etc.) worse, not better. You do not grow a bureaucracy by solving your agency's problems.

The FBI apparently has had so much time and money on its hands the last few years that, having run out of people to arrest, they had time to dabble in politics. Some up-and-comer in the FBI has advanced a theory that they can indict Trump on a little-known provision in Article 865-C of the Affordable Sorghum Act of 1897. Rumors abound that the guy might be the next Democrat nominee for FBI Director.

This brings us to the poster boy for bad cops, the sanctimonious James Comey, who is out pimping his book. Its contents have been a closely guarded secret, unlike our nation’s classified emails and the leaked secrets of the FBI. Spoiler alert: he’s the hero in his own book.

Comey craves attention. There has not been a drama queen heading the FBI since J. Edgar Hoover. And at six feet, eight inches, just imagine how tall Comey would be in heels.

Comey and Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe led a culture of corruption; they leaked FBI information that helped them and then lied about it. But when someone at the FBI misleads under oath, they call it “being less than forthcoming” and “misspeaking” and “lacking candor.” When we or political enemies do it, they perp-walk them like General Flynn and ruin their lives.

To this crowd of vengeful fired FBI officials, ethics and duty are like a streetwalker reporting a customer to the cops for rape only when the john’s check bounced.

Comey wrote the exoneration of Hillary before the investigation was completed into her destroying 33,000 emails which were under subpoena, bleach-bit washing her PC, and taking a hammer to her cell phones.

But he ignored the Clinton Foundation’s Uranium One scandal, where the Clintons made money by selling 20% of our uranium reserves to Russia. Hillary said six other department heads had to sign off on the deal, but no one believes that — the Clintons would have to split their graft booty seven ways.

Where has all this weaponization of the FBI led us? Well, it just got Trump’s attorney arrested for paying off a whore and ended the attorney-client privilege. Lawyers really have had a monopoly of screwing people out of money for years, until they met their match with porn star strippers.

We should have learned from the FBI and the Special Counsel's TMZ-like witch hunt that Deep State partisans lied about a DNC/Clinton-bought and paid for Steele dossier in order to obtain a FISA Court warrant used to spy on political opponents. But what have we found out with our $20 million instead?  It turns out that Trump likes good-looking, busty blondes. And that an attorney for Stormy Daniels said, “She can describe the president’s genitalia in great detail.” Now we don’t have Michael Cohen around to give her hush money when we really need it!

Ron Hart is a libertarian op-ed humorist and award-winning author. Contact him at Ron@RonaldHart.com or @RonaldHart on Twitter.

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Write a letter to the editor.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Drama Queen James Comey Spins his Case in Comey v. Comb-over

 “The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson about a dinner guest

In preparation for James Comey’s opening act with his buddy George Stephanopoulos, I watched the movie "Chappaquiddick" on a rainy Sunday afternoon. This new movie about an old subject reminds us that when   rising Democrat party star and Chappaquiddick Swim Champion of 1968, Ted Kennedy, left a mistress to drown and ran away, the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, a DA, and law enforcement were involved in the crime and the cover-up.

If you think for one second that higher-ups at the FBI and politically ambitious US Attorneys would not lie, cheat, or conceal in order to help a political candidate, read history.

We have grown an alphabet soup of powerful agencies like the FBI, DHS, NSA, DOJ, IRS, etc. They can bully us because we invest them with immense powers to arrest and to ruin lives — with scant accountability. We allow them to operate in clubby secrecy because they tell us we have to. Why?  

With that lack of accountability, the FBI has a budget of $8.4 billion and convicts about 10,000 Americans a year. So, we pay $840,000 per conviction just for the FBI, which does not count the cost to prosecute and incarcerate. Why?

Bureaucracies grow by making whatever they do (war: The Pentagon; drug wars: the DEA; the War on Poverty, etc.) worse, not better. You do not grow a bureaucracy by solving your agency's problems.

The FBI apparently has had so much time and money on its hands the last few years that, having run out of people to arrest, they had time to dabble in politics. Some up-and-comer in the FBI has advanced a theory that they can indict Trump on a little-known provision in Article 865-C of the Affordable Sorghum Act of 1897. Rumors abound that the guy might be the next Democrat nominee for FBI Director.

This brings us to the poster boy for bad cops, the sanctimonious James Comey, who is out pimping his book. Its contents have been a closely guarded secret, unlike our nation’s classified emails and the leaked secrets of the FBI. Spoiler alert: he’s the hero in his own book.

Comey craves attention. There has not been a drama queen heading the FBI since J. Edgar Hoover. And at six feet, eight inches, just imagine how tall Comey would be in heels.

Comey and Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe led a culture of corruption; they leaked FBI information that helped them and then lied about it. But when someone at the FBI misleads under oath, they call it “being less than forthcoming” and “misspeaking” and “lacking candor.” When we or political enemies do it, they perp-walk them like General Flynn and ruin their lives.

To this crowd of vengeful fired FBI officials, ethics and duty are like a streetwalker reporting a customer to the cops for rape only when the john’s check bounced.

Comey wrote the exoneration of Hillary before the investigation was completed into her destroying 33,000 emails which were under subpoena, bleach-bit washing her PC, and taking a hammer to her cell phones.

But he ignored the Clinton Foundation’s Uranium One scandal, where the Clintons made money by selling 20% of our uranium reserves to Russia. Hillary said six other department heads had to sign off on the deal, but no one believes that — the Clintons would have to split their graft booty seven ways.

Where has all this weaponization of the FBI led us? Well, it just got Trump’s attorney arrested for paying off a whore and ended the attorney-client privilege. Lawyers really have had a monopoly of screwing people out of money for years, until they met their match with porn star strippers.

We should have learned from the FBI and the Special Counsel's TMZ-like witch hunt that Deep State partisans lied about a DNC/Clinton-bought and paid for Steele dossier in order to obtain a FISA Court warrant used to spy on political opponents. But what have we found out with our $20 million instead?  It turns out that Trump likes good-looking, busty blondes. And that an attorney for Stormy Daniels said, “She can describe the president’s genitalia in great detail.” Now we don’t have Michael Cohen around to give her hush money when we really need it!

Ron Hart is a libertarian op-ed humorist and award-winning author. Contact him at Ron@RonaldHart.com or @RonaldHart on Twitter.

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Write a letter to the editor.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Drama Queen James Comey Spins his Case in Comey v. Comb-over

Garden Park is the triangular-shaped piece of property at the corner of State Road 85 and Main Street. It was created when State Road 85 was put in. The City of Crestview owns this piece of property and the Dogwood Garden Club maintains it.

In the 1980s the Crestview Garden Club cleared it of weeds and debris, and landscaped the park. They maintained the park for many years until the Dogwood Garden Club began the maintenance. The city waters and mows the grass.

This is a lovely area with shady trees and beautiful flowers, along with tables and benches. Many people bring their lunches and eat in Garden Park while relaxing among the beauty.

In 2017 vandals broke the cement benches at the park. A team from the City of Crestview Department of Public Works placed the new benches, which Lowe's donated. The team then leveled the benches and the tables. Another member of the Public Works team cleans the city parks and has been invaluable in helping maintain Garden Park.

If you should see any vandalism, please notify the Crestview Police Department.

The new benches are very much appreciated. The Garden Club would like to convey their thanks for the kind donation to Garden Park. We know that the residents will once again enjoy being able to sit on benches while they eat their lunches.

In 2016, officials relocated and rededicated the Blue Star Marker in Garden Park, a fitting place for it. The marker commemorates and honors the men and women who have or are currently serving in our military.

If you are interested in gardening and would like to learn more about Garden Park and gardening in general, Dogwood Garden Club would love to have you as a member. Meetings are first Mondays during from September through May at 10:30 a.m. in members' homes. Contact Beach Campbell, 682-2691, for more information.

Janice Lynn Crose, a former accountant, lives in Crestview with her husband, Jim; her two rescue collies, Shane and Jasmine; and two cats, Kathryn and Prince Valiant.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Garden Park one site for residents to enjoy