Dave Bondy
Politics • Culture • News
'Defund the Courts' in Genesee County, Michigan
Local mayor and chief judge upset with decision
October 20, 2023
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FLINT, Mich - The Genesee County Board of Commissioners could vote on a proposal that would close satellite court buildings in rural areas of Genesee County.

The plan comes after commissioners approved an $83 million capital improvement plan. That plan calls for the closure of the rural district court offices while spending the $83 million on the Genesee County Circuit Court, the Genesee County Jail, the county motor pool, and the Genesee County Community Action Resource Department warehouse.

The plan calls for the closing of all six of the outlying 67th District Court buildings for a savings of $21 million over a period of nine years.

Flushing Mayor Joe Karlichek says the plan was quietly passed at the September 13 meeting.

You can watch the decision being made at the link below at the 34-minute mark. Click link here to watch.

"This is a clear deception right out of the cradle, it's like the decision was already made ahead of time based on the capital improvement plan where people were just understanding what was going on, said Mayor Karlicheck.

"I understand what they are doing to save money, the way they handled this was a complete deception," said Kalicheck.

Meeting in Davison on Monday
Information about Monday Davison meeting

Karlicheck will be speaking at a special meeting Monday in Davison asking the County Commissioners to reverse their decision. He says if the County Commission doesn't reverse their decision they will be asking the commission for $175,000 per year to help fund their police departments. Karlicheck says closing the courthouses will create undo costs for all of the townships involved.

How could this impact communities? Flushing and Mt. Morris in the past year had 20,000 issues like tickets, small claims, and code enforcement violations. All of these issues would now have to be handled in downtown Flint.

For example, if you get a traffic ticket in Flushing you would have to go to downtown Flint to handle the issue instead of taking care of it in your hometown of Flushing.

Karlicheck says this consolidation serves as a public safety issue. He says residents in these six communities will now have to go to downtown Flint for anything court-related. Karlicheck says police officers will now have to go to downtown Flint which would leave communities with less police protection.

Chief Judge Christopher Odette also is not happy with the plan. Odette wrote a letter saying in part, "Please be advised that the 67th District Court is not closing in Davison and moving its operations to the McCree building in the city of Flint on November 30 or any other date ...,” the letter says. “In the future, please provide notice to the public and the court before passing meaningless illegal resolutions based on false and deceptive data.”

 

 

According to MLIVE, the capital improvement plan was drafted by Derek Bradshaw, director of the Genesee County Metropolitan Planning Commission, and Josh Freeman, director of administration for Genesee County, to address four deteriorating buildings housing various county offices that are mandated by law.

 

“We’re trying to be frugal and watch over the tax dollars,” said Ellen Ellenburg, D-Burton, and chair of the county commission told MLIVE,  “I’m hoping we can sit down (with the judges) and come up with a plan ...

“It boils down to cost,” Ellenburg said. “We don’t want to have to lay people off and I don’t believe ... we can raise taxes” to pay for the status quo.

County Commissioners are expected to hear from Judge Odette and many others during their next meeting on October 27.

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Media Doesn’t Mention Chilean National Convicted Of String of Home Invasions Was Here Illegally

PONTIAC, Mich. - Ignacio Ruiz-Saldias was sentenced to up to 20 years in prison by a judge June 16 for his role in a string of widely publicized and highly orchestrated home invasions in affluent Detroit suburbs.

Attorney General Dana Nessel identified Ruiz-Saldias as a Chilean national, as did dozens of local TV and newspaper outlets. But almost all the news outlets did not report that Ruiz-Saldias is an illegal immigrant. That’s according to Stephen Huber, public information office for the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office. According to the Oakland County jail, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has a immigration detainer on him that allows ICE to take him in custody once he is released. Huber said Ruiz-Saldias will be deported after he serves his prison sentence. Click here to read more.

 

Social Security fund could run dry ahead of earlier forecast, trustees say

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The push to net zero will send communities across the country in the dark.

MIDLAND, Mich - The energy transition to wind, solar, and utility-scale batteries is simply unworkable.

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Gilley secured a preliminary injunction last summer that stops UO Equity's account on X, formerly Twitter, from blocking his interactions or "hiding, muting, or deleting" several kinds of his posts to its account. They settled in full this spring after nearly three years in court, with UO changing some policies, but how much UO would have to pay Gilley in legal fees was still hanging. Click here to read more.

 

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In early May, President Trump fired three commissioners of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), an independent agency that protects consumers from unsafe products. One of these commissioners is Richard Trumka Jr., who responded by suing the president, arguing Trump doesn’t have the authority to remove him from his position. Click here to read more.

 

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FBI Gives Congress Intel on Alleged Chinese Plot to Create Fake Mail-In Ballots in 2020 Election
FBI intel reveals alleged Chinese effort to influence 2020 election with fake ballots.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a startling development, FBI Director Kash Patel has declassified and delivered an internal intelligence report to Congress that alleges China orchestrated a covert operation in 2020 to influence the U.S. presidential election by flooding the voter system with fraudulent mail-in ballots.

According to Just the News, the FBI intelligence—originating in August 2020—was classified and circulated among federal agencies before quietly being recalled “before [it] could be fully investigated.” The report, now in the hands of Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, outlines a plan by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to mass-produce counterfeit U.S. driver’s licenses and import them into the U.S. The objective: to establish illicit voter identities and submit ballots in favor of Joe Biden.

 

 

Director Patel stated in a message posted on X that the documents “detail alarming allegations related to the 2020 U.S. election,” and emphasized that he “immediately declassified the material and turned the documents over to Chairman Grassley for further review.”

Key takeaways from the Just the News report include:

  • A confidential FBI source in August 2020 disclosed that the CCP had begun producing fake U.S. driver’s licenses for the purpose of creating voter registrations and mail-in ballots.

  • Just the News notes that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) intercepted nearly 20,000 counterfeit driver’s licenses destined for the U.S. in mid-2020—potentially corroborating elements of the intelligence.

  • Officials familiar with the intelligence told Just the News that the report was recalled within weeks and never fully pursued, despite the CBP seizure.

  • The intelligence explicitly states that these forged documents were intended to supply mail-in ballots “to facilitate fraudulent mail‑in ballots”—allegations which, while substantiated, were abruptly recalled and never disclosed to the public.

 

Just the News's investigative coverage first surfaced the story, reporting that Senator Grassley “had first raised concerns to the bureau that the intelligence hadn’t been fully vetted… but was dismissed even though there was evidence of the fake licenses.”

In reaction, Patel applauded Grassley's vigilance, saying, “Thanks to the oversight work and partnership of Chairman Grassley, the FBI continues to provide unprecedented transparency at the people’s Bureau.” Grassley’s office confirmed receipt of the documents and indicated that further investigation is underway, with efforts focused on determining why the report was recalled and who made that decision.

Implications and Next Steps

  • The revelation of a potential CCP-backed scheme to manipulate U.S. mail-in ballots adds a new dimension to concerns about foreign interference, particularly at a time when global powers historically focused on cyber-espionage or propaganda.

  • Senator Grassley is reportedly pressing for the full intelligence file and additional documents to validate the claims and trace the decision to withdraw the report from circulation.

  • Critics of the FBI under Director Patel have seized upon the episode to call attention to past controversies, including handling of the Epstein files and questions around transparency. Supporters argue Patel is promoting an essential new era of openness.

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