Rooster in Review: Endgame
But first, a quick update on SB-297 and HB-618.
As promised in Friday’s dispatch, I did some leg work on the status of SB-297, which would criminalize criticism of Israel as “ethnic intimidation.”
After talking with a well-placed source, the House added HB-618, the House’s version of SB-297, as an amendment to HB-315, a bill that would remove the requirement for townships to post notices and proclamations in the area paper of record.
HB-315 has already passed the Senate and the House. However, the House voted on Wednesday not to concur with the Senate’s latest version, which has been amended several times with other non-related subjects.
That means the legislation is headed to a conference committee between the two legislative chambers to be negotiated before it’s sent to Governor Grandpa Sleepy Tea.
I’ll have more next week as this story develops.
Christmas at the Wiggam household should be spicy
If you asked me which state legislator, in my opinion, is the most racist member of the Ohio Legislature… I would take a few seconds to think about the question before answering “State Rep. Scott Wiggam (R-Wooster).
Wiggam, like a lot of Statehouse Republicans, recently leaned into the racist fearmongering against 15,000 legal Haitian immigrants in Springfield, saying the city didn’t need any more “zero-skilled” immigrants.
That’s quite the dog whistle, considering the Springfield government and business community recruited the Haitians to work jobs that were going unfulfilled by the local populace.
And that’s even before considering that Wiggam’s son, Cal, married a Haitian immigrant who is carrying his future grandchild.
Wiggam, when asked to square this cognitive dissonance, wouldn’t even acknowledge that his daughter-in-law is of Haitian birth, simply brushing it off as “Not true. Not true.”
Whatever you say, brother! Whatever you say. Truthfully, I will miss busting this chump up regularly because he always tries, yet fails miserably, to give me the silent treatment.
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This week in Ohio Man…
I always enjoy reading about cold cases being solved because they always involve shitbags that probably thought they had gotten away with their heinous crimes a long, long time ago.
Well, one Ohio Man learned the dangers of throwing away a Starbucks cup in a trashcan at the BMV this week.
From the Department of Justice:
DAYTON, Ohio – A Sycamore Township man was arrested by federal agents today and charged with making false statements related to a 1989 rape. Officials ask anyone with information regarding this or any other similar rape to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI.
It is alleged that Frederick Louis Tanzer, 66, knowingly made a false statement to FBI agents. His home on Kenwood Road and vehicles were searched today, and Tanzer appeared in federal court in Dayton following his arrest.
According to an affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint, Tanzer was recently identified as the prime suspect in the cold-case rape. In recent months, agents collected DNA evidence from a Starbucks cup that Tanzer discarded at a local BMV. The DNA extracted from Tanzer’s coffee cup was confirmed by a forensic laboratory as a match to the DNA the rapist had left at the 1989 crime scene.
It is alleged that Tanzer made several materially false statements to federal investigators when approached today, including denying having seen or interacted with the victim on the date she was raped.
He might not be charged with the rape, but the inside of a prison cell will look and feel all the same as if he were.
This week in The Rooster…
It was another brisk week of five dispatches, a trend that will continue next week during the final week of Lame Duck Session. Pray for our state if that’s your thing. We’re going to need it.
A review of this week’s work:
How Slapshot stole Christmas. Ohio State, led by President Ted “Slapshot” Carter and Senior Vice President Katie Hall, reneged on already enacted raises for its lowest-wage employees mere weeks before Christmas.
Where the gremlins sleep. Previewing two especially heinous bills afoot in the Statehouse this week as well as revealing my final Sloopys ballot.
The art of the deal. State Reps. Terrence Upchurch (D-Cleveland) and Elgin Rogers (D-Toledo) showcased two wildly different ways to handle hostile questioning.
When the bill comes due. State Rep. Josh Williams (R-Sylvania) goes international for trying to criminalize flag planting while the Ohio Gun Owners eat shit.
Never look behind the curtain. Senator Brenner's machinations might hilariously backfire. Gun Owners of Ohio takes another loss. Joe Biden commutes the sentence of a notorious Cleveland crook and Ohio State flubs playoff presale.
Thank you for reading—even you freeloading hogs in the parking lot! We’ll do it again next week at the same time and place.
THOSE WMDs. The Gilded Age of medicine is here… How pig butchering scams work… The grift, the prince, and the twist… Trump assembles the wealthiest administration in history as CEOs poised to eat the poor… The dirty mind behind Girls Gone Wild.
That bust up made my month. Watching the Lego worm where Wiggams brain is supposed to be short circuit because he expects to never be questioned by anyone, ever, as a public official was amazing.
It’s not just that he literally has no answers lol, it’s the complete lack of juice this dude is obvs trying to compensate for… It’s gonna be hilarious when his eventual Haitian grandkids stick him in some Wayne Co rest home and forget about him.