FBI Spy Plane Zeroes In on a Michigan City; 22 Felony Counts for Louisiana Official
Mark Van Scyoc / Shutterstock.com
Also: Permitting issue ruins Olympia wedding and action against predatory towing is working in Orlando.
Here’s what we’ve been reading today …
DEARBORN, Michigan: This Detroit-area city has apparently been of intense interest to an FBI surveillance program that uses a single-engine Cessna Skylane plane and “high-tech cameras and sometimes cellphone surveillance technology,” according to The Detroit News:
Flight data reviewed by The Detroit News shows increased flights over Metro Detroit in the past week with prolonged surveillance over Dearborn, a city heavily populated by Muslims and Middle Eastern residents. In all, the FBI surveillance plane has flown over Metro Detroit seven times since Friday, according to the website FlightRadar24.com.
The Cessna is linked to a Bristow, Virginia, company that a previous Associated Press investigation has linked to FBI surveillance efforts. [The Detroit News]
CHALMETTE, Louisiana: The president of St. Bernard Parish, east of New Orleans, has already been indicted four times. But David Peralta was back in court on Tuesday and was indicted on 22 felony counts, many of them related to allegations of stalking his ex-wife, Sharon Schaefer, among other eye-popping claims. As WWL-TV reports:
The counts include 11 for malfeasance, primarily in relation to allegations of soliciting campaign contributions and using parish computers in furtherance of stalking Schaefer, along with firing two employees who would have testified against him; six counts for abuse of office for allegedly making employees do his bidding for campaign fundraising and finding his ex-wife; three counts of obstruction for tampering with and deleting emails, one count of extortion for threatening his ex-wife and one count of stalking Schaefer.
The St. Bernard Parish Council approved a resolution demanding Peralta’s resignation by Friday. [WWL-TV]
OLYMPIA, Washington: An Olympia couple’s weekend wedding was ruined due to an unusual permitting issue with the wedding venue, which was being shut down on Friday by city officials because of “a disruption of an archeological site on the property,” according to The Olympian. The couple eventually got the OK to go through with the wedding at the venue but “[h]alf the guests didn’t show up because they weren’t sure if they would get arrested,” the bride’s mother told the newspaper. [The Olympian]
DENVER, Colorado: The famous Red Rocks Park and its amphitheatre has been named a national historic landmark by the National Parks Service. As Colorado Public Radio reports, the “amphitheatre is one of the nation's best-known concert venues and a functioning example of park design and planning from the Roosevelt Era.” [Colorado Public Radio]
ORLANDO, Florida: The number of cars towed in Orange County has dropped by 40 percent from November 2014 to March 2015. Why? As the Orlando Sentinel reports, new county rules implemented last November targeting predatory towing practices have been effective. “It's working. It could work better,” the mayor said, according to the newspaper. [Orlando Sentinel]
(Photo by Mark Van Scyoc / Shutterstock.com)
Michael Grass is Executive Editor of Government Executive's Route Fifty.
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