Man poses as military, solidifies reputation as creep and terrible human

Very late on this one because I just plain forgot to post after my brother sent it to me, but happy belated Veterans Day, y'all!

23-year-old Jonathan Michael Campbell of Uniontown got caught posing as military veteran...and trying to use his "status" to get into a middle school. Because apparently, being disrespectful wasn't good enough for him and he had to go and make it creepy, too.

Seriously, posing as a veteran for any reason--be it attention or in an attempt to get discounts or whatever other misguided reason these fools have for doing it--is downright disrespectful and wrong no matter what, to put it quite mildly, but my biggest concern here is what his plans were and why he wanted in there. I really feel that if not for smart, vigilant school employees and the cops, we would've been hearing about a kid getting abducted instead. Fortunately, it didn't come to that.

He went to Laurel Highlands, unannounced and unscheduled--which, duh, is a red flag to anyone. Geibel grads, remember how they always told us never to open the door for anyone, even if we knew them? This is why.

He claimed to be an Army veteran who wanted to talk to the kids about Veterans Day--again, unannounced and unscheduled. When I was in school, you know what they did when they wanted someone to talk about the military or veterans? They asked a military parent. Or teachers just talked about my dad like 1,000 times at assemblies until no one cared anymore.

“His appearance, behavior, and showing up unscheduled shed doubt on his claim to be who and what he claimed to be,” Wallace said. 

Man, what factor in an impostor's appearance could possibly tip off civilians that he wasn't who he said he was?

Campbell claimed to be from the Army but was wearing an Air Force uniform, police said. 

Yeah, that'll do it. So, in addition to being disrespectful and creepy, he's also an idiot. He was then escorted off the property and the authorities were alerted, leading to him being charged with impersonating a public servant and disorderly conduct. Oh, and he was on his way to another school when they caught him. Creepy. He said he "wanted to feel important," and while I'm sure this is a factor--especially considering he's also pretended to work at hospitals--his criminal background, which includes domestic violence and the sexual assault of a 10-year-old when he was a pre-teen himself, concerns me.

Props to Guardians of Valor for drawing attention to this story and posting this information on Campbell.

While I'm glad they were able to charge him with two crimes, I do feel something stronger needs to be put in place for those impersonating the military--Obama signed the Stolen Valor Act into law last year, which makes it a crime to lie about having received military medals or decorations, but we need to punish those who pretend to be in the military at all. As Guardians of Valor put it, people tend to inherently trust those in uniform, especially the military, which also comes with an added degree of respect. If you're going to abuse the public's trust, you deserve to be held accountable.

And as always, if something seems off, trust your instincts, research what you can, and notify the proper authorities.

Commissioners to nominate new chairman

The people have spoken! At last week's commissioners meeting, some angry rabble-rousers called for Ambrosini to be removed as chairman due to his vendetta stubborn insistence on planning a $32 million prison the other two commissioners no longer support. And the rabble-rousers, fortunately, are getting what they want.

A new chairman and vice chairman will be chosen in a meeting Thursday morning.

Zapotosky would not confirm whether his intention is to remove Ambrosini as chairman.   

“The county will be taking a step in the right direction on Thursday,” he said, declining to comment further.

This just gets messier and messier.

Speaking of $32 million, if you like what you read over here, why not support my Etsy habit and throw me a couple bucks via PayPal in that there sidebar?

We return again to that pesky jail...

Ah, yes, the jail.

I haven't been following the official news too closely, but it did come up in conversation somehow the last time I was at my parents' house in the county, specifically regarding the fact that Ambrosini is now the only commissioner in favor of the project. And by happenstance, an e-mail from reader/informant Marybeth trickled in a few days later, who recently toured the current jail.

Experts would probably know better, but the existing jail doesn't seem to be so horrible that we need a new one, especially with the hassle it's become. Don't get me wrong, the jail looks pretty terrible in pictures Marybeth passed along, but I'm not sure it's the kind of damage that warrants a whole new building. The powers that be claim repairs would be too expensive...yet a new, $50 million jail is apparently super affordable.

From the e-mail:

ALL I noted was purposeful neglect!! YEP...the jail is NO FALLING APART and beyond repair..not at all. THE roof had leaked so often....that they never repaired the ceiling...cause" it will just happen again" YEP...that's whatr the asshole guards told me when i asked why the pipe was showing and the mold/rust all around "it"....uhh...when it rains, it will just leak all over again..."...

WHY not repair the roof again? Uhh.there's no money. 

SO....they proudly showed me the light fixture dripping water into the white bucket.....it has rained that morning....and I said, "well...isn't that a potentinal fire hazard or electrical issuer? Uggg....we can't stop it.

Actually, this kind of reminds me of the time my dad insisted my uncle's house was a death trap that should be condemned and I was just like, "Nothing some cleaning supplies and power tools won't fix."

Now, at this point, people questioning/disapproving of the jail is nothing new, and I'm sure our commissioners are pretty sick of it. But in the midst of it all, a plausible conspiracy theory has emerged--that the damage to the existing jail is due to intentional neglect, and I'm told everyone who spoke at the commissioners' meeting last week referenced the damage as neglect.

From that pesky meeting

Of course, if it is neglect, I guess we can assume it was done to get a new jail built...and at this point, the only supporter left standing is pretty much Ambrosini. Personally, obvious potentially intentional damage aside, I'm curious as to why he wants a new jail so bad. It certainly seems like some sort of personal agenda right now rather than a safety concern or money issue, and what I find the most personally disappointing is that a new commissioner seemed so promising.

Stay tuned, because I'm sure this isn't the end of the saga...

Murder (Mystery Dinner) in the Mountains

So, I've always wanted to go to a murder-mystery dinner. They just always sounded like a fun, interesting time to me, so when I saw a Groupon pop up for one at Christian W. Klay winery, I jumped on it...except by the time I saw it, it already sold out. But then it popped up again, I'm guessing because the winery realized Groupon promotion was a huge success.

I realized after I bought it that I probably should've check the menu first since I'm a vegetarian, but I lucked out and it was buffet. Buffet for a vegetarian usually means worst-case scenario, you'll get a veggie and probably pasta...and pasta is my favorite anyway.

I started to get antsy the day of when I looked up reviews. The winery itself scored okay, but some complained that the murder-mystery dinner was too cheesy and the food wasn't great. I say these people are mostly uppity, negative humans.

This wasn't just my first murder-mystery dinner--it was my first visit to a winery, so I'm definitely out of my level of expertise here. My experience with wine is generally having one glass, getting drunk off that, then getting really tired and wanting to take a nap. Most wines taste the same to me. I could describe moonshine a hell of a lot better than I could a wine, like a true Fayettenamese. I mean, I'm pretty sure most wineries aren't barns in the mountains like Christian Klay is, but this is Fayette County. Everything is in barns here. My aunt runs a dress shop out of a barn...and I got all my prom and formal dresses there because it's great, and you should go and tell her I sent you.

Now, a barn in the mountains in October is naturally gonna be a bit cold, but they warmed it well. We were seated six to a table, which I wasn't thrilled with initially, but it did end up being a neat way to talk to people. Everyone at our table was a first-time visitor, and they were all nice to talk to.

The night started with a wine tasting. We got to try nine wines, and my boyfriend and I kept a tally of which ones we liked. Both other couples at our table bought wine early on and offered us a taste of that, which ended up being the table favorite--Summit Mist. It's so good. I highly recommend it. My other favorite was the Raspberry Frost. We meant to buy ourselves some at the end of the dinner, but it ran a bit longer than we thought and we both had to be up for work early the next morning, so we decided we'll head back up another time. Maybe we'll get to try the Spiced Apple then, too, since they were running low and weren't offering it for the tasting.

And then we had dinner, which wasn't as terrible as online reviews suggested but wasn't necessarily impressive, either. Then again, the main draw is the wine and the murder mystery, isn't it? Especially when everyone ends up a little buzzed.

And the murder-mystery part was fun. Yes, it was a little cheesy like the other reviews said, but not so much so that it was bad or unenjoyable, especially considering it's pre-Halloween dinner theater. Actually, I thought it was the perfect level of cheesy to make it fun and not super serious. You want to enjoy the night, not feel like you're really in the midst of a murderer.

Of course, we were wrong about who the murderer was, and I blame overthinking--not the wine. We disregarded the most obvious suspect because--and this is the downfall of being bookworms and writers--we thought it was a red herring, a suspect meant to throw us off. That said, our theory as to who did it was pretty solid.

Maybe we'll do better next year and stock up on that Summit Mist.

If you want to check it out for yourself, you have the next two weekends to get yourself up there...and bring me some Summit Mist.

The Nam on Twitter: Change Purse

Someone capitalize on this, write "Fayette County Coin Purse" on sandwich bags, and rake in those profits.

The Nam on Facebook: The Many Faces of Bavarian Kreme

I doubt this is a problem unique to Fayette County, but still...

I encourage you all to join me in my quest of thinking of as many weird, potentially inappropriate alternate names for "Ovarian Bavarian Kreme" as possible.

My brother isn't thrilled about working at Dunkin' Donuts until he goes into the military...but I am!

The Nam on Facebook: Seems Legit

Courtesy of my brother's Facebook.

Maybe this business is owned and operated by whoever runs the beer trailer at the fair.