His base will certainly applaud him, but how will this play in the rest of Michigan?

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Condo sale pending south of the Village

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313 Sound Beach Avenue, guide price $1.850 but pending after 14 days, so probably going for more. Originally built in 1879, it served as local Dr. Brock’s residence and office back in the day (50s and 60s), expanded in 1968 and converted to four condominium units in 1983. Great location, just a few hundred yards south of the school — maybe just one hundred — it will either appeal to those who adore the exciting retro look of the 60s-70s era, or those looking for an update project.

I haven’t tested it, but that does look like genuine, original formica

Vinyl cabinetry, gold bathroom trim: a winning combination then and now

Things are heating up in the frigid waters of Maine

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Fortunately, Pal Nancy has departed Colorado and is coming east to defend us

Scarborough Lifeguard Dragged Underwater by Shark Amid Growing Number of Great White Sightings

A Scarborough lifeguard was dragged five to six feet underwater by a shark before he was able to break free on Saturday, amid a growing number of recent great white sightings in the area.

[RELATED: Great Whites Are Moving Into Saco Bay — And Some Are Getting Remarkably Close to Maine’s Most Popular Beaches…]

On Saturday afternoon, a lifeguard was on a rescue torpedo in the water off Scarborough Beach State Park when his device was grabbed by a shark.

The shark pulled him five to six feet underwater before he was able to extricate himself from the strap attached to the torpedo and swim to shore.

A witness reported seeing the torpedo subsequently come out of the water shortly after the lifeguard began fleeing.

The lifeguard exited the water without further incident, and the beach was closed for approximately one hour while lifeguards and public safety personnel assessed the situation.

The incident is consistent with the recent increase in shark activity in the area.

Beachgoers are urged to avoid swimming near fish, seals, or areas where birds are feeding, avoid swimming alone, and report shark activity to lifeguards.

The Scarborough Police Department also reminded swimmers that shark activity can occur close to the shore and in shallow water.

It’s the law of unintended consequences at work: the federal Save the Seals Act of 1972 brought the grey and harbor seal population back from near-extinction, the Stop the Chinese from eating American Shark Fin Soup law in the 90s helped the sharks numbers rise again, and so, food+predators+swimmers all add up to a summer smorgasbord of fun in the Atlantic.

Exciting times.

It certainly didn’t take them long to discover and practice the first principle of communism (Updated)

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NYC first lady Rama Duwaji traveling to Syria, Lebanon — with taxpayer-funded NYPD security detail: sources

Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s wife Rama Duwaji is heading to Syria and Lebanon next month – and she’s bringing along cops assigned to the First Couple’s taxpayer-funded NYPD detail, The Post has learned.

Duwaji will be jetting to the Middle East for a trip beginning Sept. 20 to the countries on the State Department’s “Do Not Travel” list for Americans because of dangerous conditions, a source said.

The source familiar with the security detail said the first lady, who’s been described by the mayor as a “private person,” requested NYPD security – after traveling overseas last month without police protection.

Duwaji, a 29-year-old Syrian-American [anchor baby] has ties to the region and refers to herself as a “Syrian Illustrator” on her website. Her parents are Syrian Muslims originally from Damascus and now living in Dubai, where Duwaji herself was raised.

Mamdani’s office confirmed the trip and that an NYPD security detail will accompany the mayor’s wife.

The source with knowledge of the trip told The Post, “It’s not official business. It’s not doing anything for the city.”

One pro-Israel Jewish advocate opposed sending members of the NYPD to Syria and Lebanon, arguing the officers, not the Israel-bashing Duwaji, will be targets.

“We’re putting the police officers in danger. They will be viewed as the bad guys. These are war zones,” said Dov Hikind, founder of Americans Against Antisemitism and a former Brooklyn Assemblyman.

“Duwaji doesn’t need security. She will get a hero’s welcome and be protected by Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis,” Hikind said, referring to Islamic terrorists and militants.

“Duwaji will be fine.”

According to a Forbes review of the his financial disclosure filings, the new mayor has estimated his net worth as $2,000 in cash and a 4-acre parcel of land (presumably gifted him by his rich parents, as he was taking in less than $12,000 annually from his career as an aspiring rap artist) in Uganda. If he feels that he and Duwaji can afford to see her off to a family get together in the Middle East well, bless their hearts, let her go, just as she fled the US last month during the city’s celebration of our 250th anniversary to attend, first, an Islamic Women’s Retreat on Mallorca, a seaside resort event that “centered on sacred plants mentioned in Islamic texts through art, botanical workshops and spiritual reflection”, before continuing on to another Islamic women’s gathering on Corsica that celebrated Mary, mother of Jesus, as the most honored woman in Islam (how Mary, a Jew born hundreds of years before ol’ Mohammed hisself invented Islam wasn’t explained, aparently, but I’m sure they worked around that difficulty).

But, while this happy couple is surely to be admired for the frugality and dedication they’ve exerted to scrimp and save to afford these junkets, some taxpayers — Islamophobic bigots, no doubt — might still wish that Duwaji and Zohran dip a little deeper into their purses and cough up the funds necessary to pay for a half-dozen or so NYC cops on overtime to accompany the city’s first lady on her latest vacation. Those whiners will be the first to be lined up against the wall, ungrateful Jew-lovers that they are, though others will surely follow as the People’s Revolution unfolds.

UPDATE: Mamdani proposes, the NYP disposes: “No way are we sending our guys there”

The NYPD denied it’s sending any personnel to serve as security detail for Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s wife Rama Duwaji during her upcoming Middle East trip – an awkward rejoinder to City Hall’s claim the department “strongly” recommended she be accompanied by New York City cops.

“The NYPD does not send officers to countries with level four travel advisories for discretionary reasons not linked to investigative work,” an NYPD spokesperson insisted early Tuesday.

“It’s not official business. It’s not doing anything for the city,” a source with knowledge of the trip told The Post.

A source familiar with her security detail said the first lady, who Mamdani has described as a “private person,” specifically requested NYPD provide security following another overseas trip last month without police protection.

The mayor’s office made it seem like New York’s Finest accompanying Duwaji on her Middle East jaunt was a done deal.

“Upon the strong recommendation of the NYPD, the First Lady’s security detail will be joining her when she travels to visit family in Syria and Lebanon,” said mayoral spokesperson Dora Pekec.

But the department quickly shot down the notion in unambiguous terms.

“This is not an investigative trip, and therefore, NYPD personnel will not be traveling there for it.”

I don't think you need wear a tinfoil cap to suspect that 85 vaccine doses to cover 18 diseases might be excessive

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and once again

I’m not a huge fan of RFK Jr.’s positions on vaccines, especially those he held (and probably still holds, privately) before being appointed Health and Human Services Secretary. That said, it’s not too hard to believe that the medical profession has been too aggressively expanding the number of required vaccines for infants and young children the past two decades; at least, it should be looked at.

Trump and Kennedy Slash Recommended Immunizations for Small Kids

Partly the change stems from recognition that the U.S. recommended more childhood vaccines than any other peer nation, sometimes up to twice as many doses as those recommended in European countries. Furthermore, transparency is a much better way of ensuring public trust than mandates.

In 1980, American children following the CDC immunization schedule received 23 vaccine doses in 7 shots against 7 different diseases. In 2024, the recommended number of routine vaccines had risen to at least 84 vaccine doses in at least 57 shots for 17 diseases, plus the RSV monoclonal antibody immunization for a total of 18 diseases. This is more than other developed nations.

The scientific assessment recommends prioritizing 11 routine childhood vaccines, while preserving flexibility for parents and doctors to make individualized decisions for higher-risk children through shared clinical decision-making.

All your bases are belong to us

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Talk about burying the lede: it’s the small businesses this bill will crush that are, in my opinion, far more important than an Upper East Sider paying more for her China-manufactured Winnie-the-Pooh slippers. But anyway ….

Mamdani escalates Amazon fight, backs bill that risks price hike for customers as retailer threatens NYC move

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is throwing his support behind controversial legislation that would force Amazon and other delivery giants to directly employ thousands of drivers — despite warnings the policy will force Amazon outside the five boroughs and lead to slower, more expensive deliveries.

Mamdani on Monday backed the Teamsters-supported Delivery Protection Act, which would bar companies from subcontracting core warehouse and delivery work at last-mile facilities and require workers to be directly employed by the facility operator.

“Corporations like Amazon build billion-dollar business models by insulating themselves from accountability through a system of exploitative subcontracting,” the mayor said in a statement.

However, the legislation would foist an extra $664 per year on New York households to get their goods, according to a study by consultancy AKRF. 

“This law is just going to raise prices for consumers,” Business Council of New York State spokesperson Steve Smith told The Post on Monday.

Amazon, which works with more than 40 local Delivery Service Partners employing over 5,000 people in New York City, has warned that the legislation could prompt it to move delivery operations outside the city.

A retreat outside the city limits would result in deliveries that are not only significantly slower but also more costly, AKRF previously warned.

“We’re committed to creating good jobs, supporting our thousands of employees and local small business partners in New York City and providing fast, reliable delivery for New Yorkers,” Amazon spokeswoman Kelly A. Nantel told The Post.

“But as written, this legislation would directly undermine that commitment — threatening the small businesses that deliver to customers, putting the jobs of more than 5,000 of their employees at risk and forcing us to consider relocating delivery operations outside of the city.”

Opponents of the bill planned to mount their own show of force Monday, with package delivery workers and small-business owners planning a 1 p.m. press conference in East Harlem to urge city leaders to reject the measure.

The New York Delivers coalition said its members will gather at Thomas Jefferson Park to argue that Intro 518 threatens thousands of delivery jobs and small businesses while raising costs for New Yorkers.

The coalition claims as many as 10,000 city delivery jobs could be at risk if the legislation passes, including an estimated 3,500 last-mile delivery jobs in Harlem and four adjoining Council districts.

New York Delivers also said 82% of the last-mile delivery workforce does not have a college degree, and 84% is non-white. The group plans to feature delivery workers and small-business owners who say the legislation threatens their livelihoods.

Amazon says the legislation threatens the small businesses that deliver its packages and could prompt it to consider relocating delivery operations outside the five boroughs.Christopher Sadowski

Rudy Cazares, a New York City native who operates an Amazon Delivery Service Partner and is also a FedEx contractor, told The Post the legislation would put him out of business.

“I would be shutting my business down. I have no business,” Cazares told The Post.

He said he currently employs roughly 130 people and hires more during peak times like the holidays. His drivers start at $23.75 an hour, with more experienced drivers earning as much as roughly $27 an hour, he said.

“All my employees are W2, either full time or part time with benefits, paying payroll taxes,” Cazares said.

He pushed back on the notion that companies like his merely provide a buffer between Amazon and its drivers, saying his company hires its own employees and operates its own vehicles.

“They control the sorting of the packages. They stage them for us. We pick them up and we go deliver them,” Cazares said of Amazon.

He acknowledged that Amazon pushes its delivery partners to find efficiencies, including through technology, but argued that city officials should address concerns about the system without eliminating the businesses themselves.

“There’s been no dialogue that includes the small businesses that are the ones making this happen,” Cazares said.

“This direct hire mandate will eliminate every small business out there that delivers packages for any business,” he added.

Not mentioned by the Teamsters Union or the DSA’s Mayor, is the amazing success of Amazon’s Delivery Service Program, that, by subsidizing startup costs and providing technical support and guidance, has helped literally thousands of individuals, many of whom are minorities, to start their own businesses and grow them, because socialists just hate it when their peons escape the plantation and end thir existence as wards of the state.

When the program was first started some years ago, reviewing what was being offered and its opportunity for growth: $10,000 investment, they’d arrange financing for vehicle purchases, nand bam! — you’re in business — I considered enlisting my daughter to join me in forming one; I never did act on that idea, but had son John still been alive, I would have pursued the idea; it’s that good a deal.

So as I said, it’s no wonder our country’s enemies want to shut it down.


The Delivery Service Partner (DSP) program is designed to empower leaders who want to launch and operate their own delivery business.

We’re looking for hands-on owners with grit who want to hire and motivate a high-performing team of delivery associates. You don’t have to have logistics experience, but it’s helpful to have great customer service skills and experience managing a team and budget.

Sometimes, in order to understand why a house won't sell, it pays to look at the big picture

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4 Mercia Lane, almost-in-Belle Haven, is back on the market today at $2.995 million. That’s an improvement, at least in current dollars, over the $2.650 million ($3,632,342) 2005 price it failed to sell for in 2005-2006, so we’ll see. Perfectly nice house, as I recall from touring it back then, but with one problem:

It has a lovely pool, for instance, in a bucolic setting:

A magnificent (looking) side yard:

And a view from the tippy top of the chimney that, looking south, is very pretty:

But alas, look north, young man, and you’ll spot the problem; hear it, too.

Great moments in real estate pricing

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121 Round Hill Road Greenwich

121 Round Hill Road is new again today, this time priced at $4.995 million, presumably because they couldn’t sell it at its May price of $4.895. It’s land sale, — 2. 3 acres — and supposedly shovel ready, what with town approval for a 10,000 st. of house already designed by the seller’s architect. The trouble with the latter is that buyers rarely want to use the seller’s plan, they want to build to their own taste, and rarely are they willing to pay extra for yours.

The pricing history here has been … er, erratic.:

$4.5 02.07/2025

$4.3 05/15/2025

$4.895 0508/2026

$4.995 08/10/26

PrimeSites, Inc., of Lincoln Nebraska, currently holds title, and as you can see from FWIW’w exclusive photograph above, they’ve brought in a band of Cornhuskers to remove the one of the causes of buyer resistance. FWIW’s photographer reprts that work is proceeding slowly, but surely, and estimates a (de) completion dater of no later than 2028.

Orchard Place Contract

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29 Orchard Place, “adjusted” price, $3.945 million (started at $4.195 in May), is under contract. 1932 house, expanded/renovated in 2017, it sold for $3.8 million January 2023 on an asking price of $3.4.

Here’s a video from that 2023 sale, if you’re curious; nothing’s changed.