Trigger-happy hunter kills family dog.

As hard as they try to explain the appeal of their blood-thirsty “sport,” the fact remains that hunters seem to spend more time killing and maiming other hunters than they do actually killing wildlife. That is not a bad thing. A dead hunter is a hunter that won’t be playing god in the wilderness, killing and maiming deer and other innocent victims of their neanderthal blood-lust.

Unfortunately, hunters who are drunk and trigger-happy don’t just take aim at other hunters. There’s a good chance that in their drunken rage they will kill your family dog or other pet.

Today we have a story in the local papers about a hunter who was ostensibly trying to kill squirrels who shot and killed some family’s pet dog. The dog bled to death.

A hunter told wardens he was hunting red squirrel in a wooded area behind the Henriksens’ home when he mistook the dog for a coyote. It’s legal to hunt red squirrels and coyotes year-round.

The Maine Warden Service says charges are likely to be filed in the coming days, but that the name of the hunter isn’t being released because the case is under investigation.

I hope that we do learn the name of this moron who mistook a dog for a coyote. All I can tell you is that if he had shot and killed my dog, he’d be facing more than “charges” from the Maine Warden Service. Perhaps some other hunter will do us a favor and put this man’s carcass in the back of a pick-up truck and drop him off in my front yard.

Where are Ayla Reynolds’ paternal grandparents?

For locals here in Maine, the case of missing baby Ayla Reynolds continues to mystify and confuse. Comments at the web site for the Portland Press Herald run the gamut from the typical lifestyle-bashing of self-righteous Tea Party types who want to focus on the mother’s drug issues and other family problems, to those who seem solely and rightfully concerned about the safety of Ayla.

One question that comes up frequently concerns Ayla Reynolds’ paternal grandparents. On her mother’s side, her grandfather has been a frequent and outspoken advocate for his grand-daughter. The mother, Trista Reynolds, and other family members on that side of the family have also given interviews. We have heard absolutely nothing from Ayla’s paternal grandparents, and almost as little from her father, Justin DiPietro.

As we saw during the Casey Anthony trial, grandparents are not an aloof, objective group of bystanders but frequently are deeply enmeshed in relationships with their children and their spouses, as well as in the lives of their grandchildren. So it is not unreasonable to wonder why we have not heard from Ayla’s paternal grandparents. Not only have we not heard from them, the media has barely mentioned them, if at all.

It does not help that Justin has been AWOL from the media. He has said nothing publicly but has released two written statements through the Waterville, Maine, police department. In his latest statement, which was issued yesterday,  he says he is “innocent” and has been laying low only to keep from feeding the media frenzy about the case.

Fair enough, up to a point.

The truth is, what might have seemed a private family matter in years past is now a very public, community concern. In today’s media-saturated world, the line between public and private is not only blurred, it barely exists. And public interest in this case is not mere voyeurism. There is some of that, but I think people are genuinely concerned and emotionally involved when something like this happens to a child like Ayla.

So it makes sense when we wonder about her grandparents, where they are, what their relationship is like with the little girl, her parents, and the rest of her extended family. If Justin felt anguish at the thought that Ayla was going to be taken from him and sent to live with a mother with an addiction problem, it is not unreasonable to wonder if his parents – Ayla’s grandparents – stepped in to “rescue” this child.

Eventually, the public will have answers. Until then, we are all left to wonder: What do the grandparents know? Where are they during this crisis? Do they have Ayla?

♥

If you have any information about Ayla’s grandparents or family on Justin’s side, please feel free to post it in a comment below or email me at rake@hillaryclintonquarterly.com

 

Tamarlane Apartments, Resource Residential to residents: “Screw You!”

Today residents at Tamarlane Apartments in Portland, Maine, had to endure treacherous roadways and walkways as its management company, Resource Residential, decided to save a few bucks by not plowing the property or shoveling the snowfall that made traveling dangerous.

According to my sources, several tenants spun out on the icy road ways today. Other residents had to shovel their own walkways to keep from slipping and falling.

Although the company advertises to prospective tenants that they will plow and shovel snow, Tamarlane failed to do so today, no doubt in an effort to recoup some of the $500,000 in lost revenues Resource Residential incurred after being fined by the feds for an age discrimination lawsuit.

Word has it that the company also cancelled the traditional Christmas Santa for residents to save money.

Merry Christmas, Tamarlane!

Tamarlane Apartments management guilty of age discrimination.

"Greed is good!"

Resource Residential, the company that manages Tamarlane Apartments in Portland, Maine, was found guilty this summer of age discrimination by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

According to a news release issued by the agency, the company was fined $335,000 to settle the suit. The agency determined that Resource Residential fired older workers and hired younger, less expensive employees to save money and create a more “youthful image” for its properties.

Below is the news release announcing the ruling by the EEOC.

ATLANTA – Resource Real Estate Management, Inc., doing business as Resource Residential, will pay $335,000 to settle an age discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today.

The EEOC charged that Resource Residential, a property management corporation that manages over 12,000 units at multi-family properties in at least 15 states, including four properties in the Savannah, Ga., area, unlawfully subjected three management-level employees, ages 53, 60 and 64, to discrimination by firing them because of their ages and subsequently hiring 14 employees under the age of 40 to support its effort to create a younger image.

Such alleged conduct violates Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). The EEOC filed suit in September 2010 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process.

The consent decree settling the suit, in addition to the monetary relief of $335,000, includes provisions for equal employment opportunity training, reporting, and anti-discrimination postings. In the suit and consent decree, Resource Residential denied any liability or wrongdoing.

“We are glad to see this matter settled without protracted litigation,” said Bernice Williams-Kimbrough, director of the EEOC’s Atlanta District Office. “Employers should expect that whenever an employee’s civil rights are violated, the EEOC will protect those rights.”

“Not only is age discrimination plainly illegal, it’s unjustifiable and bad for business,” said Robert Dawkins, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Atlanta District Office. “This resolution is another step toward eradicating the practice of wasting talent simply because of age.”

Resource Residential is raising Portland’s Tamarlane rents by 20%.

"Greed is good!"

Evidently, the new corporate slogan for Resource Residential is, “Greed is good!”

According to a reliable source at Tamarlane, the property management company is planning a sneak attack and will impose rent increases of 20% or more on tenants some time this spring. The company plans on similar increases at other Resource Residential properties in Maine.

Resource Residential currently mismanages over 12,000 units in some 15 states.

My source at Tamarlane overheard a conversation in which the company said that tenants will not be informed of the increases until it is time to renew their leases. This surprise increase will be especially harsh on many of Tamarlane’s older tenants, most of whom live on a fixed income.  Also overheard is that company hopes many of the current tenants leave so they can be replaced with higher rent tenants.

The irony, of course, is that the Occupy Maine protesters in Portland have been vocal about greed on Wall Street when some of the worst forms of corporate greed are happening right here in their own backyards. Resource Residential is a shining  — tarnished? — example of the worst form of corporate greed, since many families will be uprooted in order to add a few bucks to the bottom line of a wealthy few.

Resource Residential, by the way, recently paid over $330,000 to settle an age discrimination lawsuit in which they were convicted of trying to fire older workers and higher younger employees to create a younger image.

Did we already say they are greedy bastards???