It is Beltane once again in the northern hemisphere, time for fertility rituals and celebrations of the return of the growing season. In Pagan life, this is the time of year that belongs to the Goddess; late Autumn and Winter are the seasons of the God. On Halloween, Persephone disappears into the Underworld and to her consort, Hades, and on Beltane, she returns to the surface. Her mother, Demeter, graces the earth with plants and crops for another growing season. Fertility was celebrated at this time, and entire villages ran their herds through ceremonial fires, called bale fires, for fertility and luck. Dancing around the Maypole, during which every dancer "weaves" ribbons around a maypole while dancing, is also a very old custom. It has always been a time for parties and joy. Have a wonderful Beltane!
To follow up with some earlier posts on this site about Miranda Cain, the Marysville, Kansas teenage madam, it seems apropos to state that on Tuesday, Citizen Cain appeared in court, after pleading no contest to the charge lodged against her, and was sentenced to about ten years in prison. This is a bit sad, as the arrest took place within weeks of Citizen Cain's graduation from high school. But then, Cain trafficked an eighth grader, whom she met at school, for sex; this is the sentence one might expect.
This leaves some unanswered and very unsettling questions about the city of Marysville and Marshall County, Kansas. Marshall County has only about 10,000 people; Marysville has about 3,200. This makes Marshall County a very small community. Most of the small towns within Marshall County are not home to even as many people as were in attendance at both of the high schools attended by your ever-lovin' blogger; 1,500 students in one school, and 2,500 in the other. The school that had 1,500 students was considered a "small" school. There were students in both of these schools who drank, used recreational drugs, fought with each other, got pregnant, and skipped classes. No one was perfect. At the same time, however; yours truly was able to find friends at both schools who did not do any of the above mentioned things, but just went to class, did their homework, and otherwise led normal lives. The "problem children" were actually in the minority, not the majority. Most of them also had enough sense to straighten up and fly right by the time they graduated. At no time did yours truly ever encounter a teenage madam, pimping underclassmen! In fact, such a thing was unheard of! Keep in mind, these are schools in the suburbs of a major city on the East Coast, yet.......no teenage madams. It would not have been well received or accepted, and prosecution would have taken place without any expectation of favoritism. In the tiny city of Marysville, Kansas, there were some folks, arguing both in favor holding Cain accountable and against holding Cain accountable, who thought that Cain would not actually go to prison, because of "small town politics". Why would anyone think a thing like that, when human trafficking, prostitution, and trafficking a child for sex, are all against the law? It's almost as if..........some people have lived lives that are so isolated and removed from the real world that they think state and federal laws do not apply to them! That's a notion from which Marshall County should really try to recover. Kansas is in the very center of our great nation, and is not in a very good position to secede, in order to legalize teenage prostitution and all the other unlawful things a lot of Marshall County parents allow.
Back to those unlawful things Marshall County parents allow; a second question is brought up, here. It really seems extremely unlikely that a high school senior would wake up one morning and think to herself, "Hmm. I need money. I also enjoy taking risks and having fun. I wonder how many of the junior high kiddies would like to sell sexual favors to railroaders and others who travel and use local hotels?" Your blogger is of the opinion that an adult hand maneuvered in this whole situation, somewhere and somehow, giving Cain the idea and helping her "advertise" her services. While the sentence of ten years for Citizen Cain's role in this operation is appropriate, the fact that no one is asking about others involved, or even if others knew about it, is disturbing. She could not possibly have managed such a "business" alone. How could a high school student involved in very serious crime escape the notice of all of the adults with whom she came in contact? And who were the adults who knew about this? There must have been at least a few. Didn't this raise any eyebrows before the police put a stop to it?
Citizen Cain is not the only high school student in Marshall County, Kansas who has either committed or been involved in a serious crime. Frankfort High School, also in Marshall County, had three arrests during the 2014-2015 school year, and three of its students and one of its alumni caused a serious accident by drinking while driving during the summer of 2014. In fact, the graduating class of Frankfort in 2015 had only one child, out of twelve or thirteen children, who did not drink alcohol or use recreational drugs. A child in that class would be literally unable to surround himself with children who are not involved in crime at one level or another. A community that is demographically as small as Marshall County, which has schools that have fewer then 150 students, in some cases, should not have any problems keeping control of the schools or the students. So, where are these students learning these behaviors, and why do they think that crime is "normal"? Has Marysville or Marshall County taken a look at itself? Miranda Cain grew up in Marshall County, for the most part. She is a product of the community. How did the community produce this situation? If Marshall County refuses to seek an answer to that question, the factors that created the elements of the question will only repeat themselves.
Detective Erin Thompson, of the sheriff's department in Shawnee County, Kansas, has found her way to a paid vacation because she falsified evidence in criminal cases she investigated. Specifically, it was discovered that she stated that she had spoken with witnesses when, in fact, she had not. Now the Kansas Bureau of Investigations is investigating Officer Thompson and a number of cases that were tried in court, hinging on the false information given by Thompson.
One such case is involved the death of a five month old little boy named Caleb Stewart. His mother left him at daycare and went to work, only to pick him up at the hospital after he died at daycare. He had been placed in a closet on a dogbed, and when the unofficial "volunteer" at the daycare found him, he was not breathing. She did not dial 911, but called the actual babysitter, instead. Paramedics were not summoned for at least ten more minutes. The babysitter's boyfriend was "unofficially present", and the daycare had lost its license to be a daycare......facts which were not disclosed to Caleb's parents.
Erin Thompson did not find anything criminally amiss in the scenario. Neither did Chad Taylor, the District Attorney in Topeka. His office hung up on anyone who called with questions about the case. Many questions were never properly answered in Caleb's case, and discrepancies between the findings of the autopsy and the statements made by those present when Caleb died were never explained. Hopefully, when the Kansas Bureau of Investigations conducts its probe of Detective Erin Thompson's cases, they will find some answers for Caleb's parents.
Hey Laura, there is something you should at least try to recognize. I would never have known about your son and the vandalism he committed in Marshall County, Kansas, in the summer of 2013, had you not scrambled so desperately to blame someone else for the damage to your vehicle. Do you think that those whose assistance you sought in making false accusations were quiet about what you said? Think again! And.....as a freak of happenstance.....I just happened to be present when your son's victim confronted you. You did not even appear to remember the incident, or his connection to it; but he remembered! How on earth do you forget the destructive behaviors of your own progeny toward your constituents, anyway? Aren't you even the slightest bit embarrassed? If not, you should be. It is also quite clear that you neglected to pay off all of your son's classmates in exchange for silence. Most of them were too young, at the time, to be legally held to a contract; but do you seriously expect them not to talk when your son brags about his own unlawful behavior, as if it were an amusing pastime for him? Don't be so unrealistic.
You also need to be aware that our state and federal authorities are not the "Poetry Police", charged with a sweet and sparkly mission of making the internet and the world of printed words a pleasant and wonderful place for you! You appear to have no reservations about destroying reputations, lodging false accusations, fracturing families, or ruining lives. Are you really that surprised when others desire to see you and yours held accountable for your lies and wrongdoing? If you seriously think that dishonesty is a good approach for your job, you need to develop a thicker skin. As an elected official, you do not have the same protections from liable or slander that the rest of the world enjoys; and if you harm others, people are going to talk about it.
And Laura, where's this farm to which you refer every year, when you do your taxes?
The missing family of this post, Rebecka Lorentsen and her two children, have been located. They had merely moved, but had not informed anyone, and were living in a different town.
Rebecka Lorentsen and her two children, fifteen year old Donald Lorentsen and seven year old Ember Schultz, disappeared from Salina, Kansas on March 31. The three were en route to Salina High School, via City Go bus, and never made it to their destination, or back to their home. Their pictures appear below; if better pictures become available, they will be shared. Anyone with information is asked to call the Salina Police Department at 785-826-7210 and ask for Detective Mangels, Detective Everette, Officer Venables, or Officer Adams.
According to the Marysville Advocate, Tom Bennett, of an engineering company called B.G. Consultants, has stated that Marshall County, Kansas has more "holy" stop signs than any other county in Kansas. He also informed the county attorney, Laura McNish, that each stop sign will cost $80.00 to replace. McNish responded with the observation that Marshall County is spending money to put up new signs that could be "vandalized the very next day". Imagine that, in a county where the magistrate judge turns a deaf ear to complaints about drunk teenagers who drive on sidewalks! One would almost think McNish actually cares about destruction of property!
While taking shots at road signs is definitely a form of entertainment for less intelligent types, and unacceptable behavior anywhere, Laura McNish has certainly got a lot of nerve to complain about either destruction of property or the waste of government funds. This quotewas made at a Marshall County Council meeting in 2013:"EQUAL PROSECUTION. CM
spoke about an example of a juvenile crossing private property cutting
donuts with a vehicle. She talked about prosecution and restitution and
asked why some people are singled out for the exact crime and some are
not. CA McNish said Municipal Court has no jurisdiction over juveniles.
CM asked CA McNish to comment on fair and equal prosecution in town. CA
McNish said he has been more than fair. No decisions were made." A council member had found it odd that the son of the Marshall County attorney had driven the Marshall County attorney's vehicle through a farmer's cornfield, destroying property, and had largely gotten away with it. The young man later boasted in school, to all who would listen, that he could do whatever he pleased because his parents are elected officials in Marshall County. He was not charged with a crime, as other juveniles are in those situations. His classmates have also expressed surprise that he felt perfectly comfortable using a vehicle to plow into mailboxes in Marysville. He was even a bit of a behavioral problem in school, but never sanctioned or assisted, because his parents did not want him "labeled". That said, what's good for the county attorney's family is probably what many parents in Marshall County feel is good for their own families, and when a kid destroys government property, responsibility is the last thing many of the parents take. Can anyone blame them? Look at the example set by Marshall County's attorney!
Any taxpayer who is concerned about the waste of tax dollars should be aware that Laura McNish is extremely fond or perusing the internet while sitting in her taxpayer funded chair in Marysville's taxpayer funded office. At times when there are actual issues which require the attention of a county attorney, she is so enamored of social media that entire days slip by, while she engrosses herself in one person's Facebook or Google media. Does this sound unbelievable? Click this link! Any real problem, from a murder to a bullet-ridden stop sign, will take a back seat to Laura's interest in matters online. "The rest of us have to pay so someone can have a childish moment", she whines, states the Marysville Advocate. How many childish moments has Marshall County funded for the county attorney? According to the tracker for this site, on April 18, 2013 taxpayers paid the bill for 1,380 childish moments for Laura McNish.
Hopefully, the future will see no more vandalism in Marshall County and many more responsible uses of guns, government property, and taxpayer funded time.
