Thursday, June 20, 2024 Column
I'm not even back on the air yet and one local politician already fired off a nasty e-mail response to my request to talk to her about what's going on in her community. "I won't go on your show," she declared twice among several texts via Messenger.
Tonya Ketzler has a big fundraiser tonight at Redwood Lodge off Hill Road, near U.S. 23. She wants to be re-elected as Mundy Township Supervisor. She is completing her first term after previously serving as the township clerk.
Her first term as township leader ends in November and my grade for her performance so far would be an absolute "F" grade.
I first me Tonya when she operated flower stores known as Ketzler Florist. She once had locations on Hill Road in Mundy Township, Grand Blanc and Swartz Creek. All the stores are now closed up.
She was once an occasional guest at a "Mafia Club" dinner group of community leaders. I think her last visit was when she voiced opposition one night outside on the patio at Flint Golf Club about comments I made on the radio blasting her police department for arresting Mateen Cleaves on a phony charge that had big time political overtones. Let's just say the only folks who needed to be charged and thrown in prison as far as I'm concerned were some local chiefs, a few cops and several from the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office.
I predicted to her that the case would be dismissed. She was outraged, especially so when everyone at the table agreed with my assessment of things.
Frank Manley, one of America's very best defense lawyers, indeed won a dismissal at the preliminary exam stage — something of a rare event in court rooms. It essentially means he proved to a judge that the prosecutors and police had no evidence to charge Mateen Cleaves.
Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton recused his office, yet our local taxpayers got stuck with the bill as Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy staged an all-out war to put Mateen in prison. Don't let any facts get in the way of some positive big time PR. She was coming off a national scandal in the media over thousands of untested rape kits her office was sitting on. She wanted to look "tough on rape" by going after Mateen. The problem was that Flint's once national champion basketball player at MSU wasn't guilty.
My investigation proved that before Frank Manley ever staged an all-star performance to get all the charges dropped at the preliminary exam. Worthy appealed and former Genesee County Circuit Court Judge Archie Hayman overturned the district court decision by former Judge Cathy Dowd. She was eventually justified in her decision when a jury awarded a not guilty verdict.
Where does Mateen go to get his reputation back? He lost his job as an analyst on TV with the Detroit Pistons. CBS dumped him from the March Madness panel on pre-game, halftime and post-game shows. A charity he used to help hundreds of children was damaged. Who wants to hire a guy accused of rape?
Prominent lawyers reached out to me about getting their hands on Mateen's case. All of them predicted a multi million dollar case against Tonya's police department and Kym Worthy's office. I passed on the information to Frank Manley but Mateen walked away. It probably had something to do with not putting his family through more media attention. The only thing Mateen was guilty of was cheating on his wife, yet she sat in the front row at almost every day of the trial . He spoke to the media with his beautiful wife at his side.
He eventually thanked God for clearing his name and not sending him to prison for 10 years. I think he needed to thank Frank Manley and his brother Mike Manley most of all, and he did pass out rave reviews to them for their hard work on his behalf.
Tonya dodged a bullet on the Mateen case. It could have bankrupted the township, in my opinion, depending on how their insurance policy is set up. The bad publicity alone of her police costing the township thousands of dollars would have doomed her political career.
She's now apparently in hot water with residents who don't like a proposed mega site bordered by Linden Road, Jennings Road, and Elms Road and Maple Road. Tim Herman, President of the Flint Genesee Group, has been given grants by Governor Gretchen Whitmer of $1.2 million, $9.2 million and $250 million to build something there. They will let us know what it is after they get the rest of the money.
Governor Gretchen, according to media reports, has now given out more than a billion dollars to build factories to support the push for electric vehicles. She's currently featured in a TV commercial flooding the local air waves about how Michigan is leading the charge with battery plants across Michigan bringing thousands of jobs to our state because of her efforts. She doesn't mention that not a single job has been created yet because not a single plant is operating yet.
So all these plants around Michigan — funded by our tax dollars — can be owned by companies from South Korea, Taiwan or Communist China? I say let them pollute their own part of the world. Ask Atlanta how they like battery factories and semiconductor chip making factories. The city notified factory owners some time ago that they've almost drained the water supply there.
It takes 22,000 gallons of water to cool down a single chip and rinse away all the toxins. So where do the toxins go? The climate change folks pushing to do away with gas engines are worried about the climate — just not draining out water supply and ruining the groundwater with poison toxins for homes around the mega site. A battery factory is also a huge offender of polluting the soil of their neighbors with their runoff of toxins.
I might mention that claims of creating thousands of jobs to support the EV industry is hogwash. The average battery factory in the U.S. employs 92 people. That's a fact from the Battery Manufacturers Association of the United States. Jobs in battery factories have declined by 2.1% over the last five years and the estimate is that they will employ between 10% and 15% fewer people over the next five years.
Dealers say they can't sell electric cars. The average American can't afford them yet. If a battery goes bad, it's almost as much as a new car to replace it.
Plus, answer this for me. The federal government was handing out warnings earlier this week because of the extreme heat. We were told to conserve using air conditioning because the overload on power grids may short-circuit us into darkness. That's with EVs making up less than 1% of registered vehicles in most US states, and accounting for less than 1% of all vehicles sold in the country in all of 2023. So what would happen if the climate change PAC funding Gretchen's local TV commercials gets their way and we do away with gas-powered engines for our vehicles?
We pollute our soil around the plant for a man-made disaster that will make the Flint water crisis look like a little league event. We drain the water supply over the next five years, so then what?
So if the average battery plant employs only 92 people and only 24,340 are currently employed by 500 chip factories around the USA, how are we to believe these claims that thousands of jobs will be created in Mundy Township? My math computes to about 48 jobs for a chip factory and 92 for a battery factor. The trade-off is ruining our earth with these plants to save the earth from being ruined by gas engines?
With $260 million of our tax dollars going to Tim Herman's non-profit group?
Yeah, Tonya expect me to see you tonight at your fundraiser. I won't be paying $1,250 for a dinner to chip in for your campaign. Anybody who does should have their business boycotted by our residents of the Metro Flint regional area.
I will be out front talking to the good people with picket signs.
So you don't want to go on my radio show to defend your part in all this? Well, I have list of former politicians who can tell you how that went for them. Talk to your residents by answering media questions — especially from The Morning Gazette Radio Show — or go back to being a flower store lady.
I hear you hired one of ex Burton Mayor Paula Zelenko's folks to work in your office. Ask her how her old boss liked the public pressure when we turned the attention of our microphones on her goofy leadership ways. My investigation led to State Police asking Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton for a warrant on felony charges of changing a union document to reward her campaign manager with a big raise for a union position as Chief of Staff. State Police alleged that she changed the document from "is a union position" to "is not a union position."
The State Police investigation confirmed our declaration that the document didn't match old contracts of other former union members after she presented it to her Burton City Council. They voted 7-0, by the way, to demand a State Police investigation into my radio show claims. The six-year statute on that crime has almost run out, yet Prosecutor Leyton still has the document sitting on his desk. That's the comment on about a half dozen times I've asked Chief Deputy Prosecutor John Potbury about it .
Better yet. Read the recent story in the Detroit News about Prosecutor Leyton ignoring warrants from State Police troopers he called "liars" who were "too unreliable to put on the witness stand." The episode was touched off by our push to have former Flint Township Clerk Kathy Funk arrested for tampering with ballots. She pleaded guilty, yet got probation and was ordered to write an apology. Yet five elections were impacted by her illegal actions?
By the way, why is Prosecutor Leyton allowed to have the biggest campaign sign possible on Linden Road a few months before signs are allowed? I guess he won't want to charge himself for violating the state law that sets forth that it must be 45 days before election day. Campaign finance laws also require a posting on who paid for the sign. That's the law.
I guess the law doesn't matter around here. Ask Mateen Cleaves. Ask Burton residents who wanted Mayor Zelenko locked up. Ask all the hundreds who called my show and wrote letters demanding that Kathy Funk be locked up.
Yeah, I can't wait to get back on the radio.
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Mike Killbreath appears on Metro Flint News/Talk Radio via The Morning Gazette Radio Show weekday mornings from 8 am until 9:30 am. He's an award-winning newspaper columnist and investigative reporter who is the former long-time owner of the local Metro Flint area chain of 14 newspapers. This fall will be his 50th year as a journalist. He also hosts a new weekly national TV show known as The American Crusaders on cable TV and various OTT TV live streaming platforms.
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