And to me, the top story of the month will be the presidential election's primary, highlighted by Newt Gingrich's efforts to derail the Mitt Romney train from its Kerry-dom, Gore-ness, Dole-time, and Dukakis-tine infamy, I mean, destiny.

The overall highlight of this month was Newt saying how despicable it was for reporters to ask about his despicable behavior. And it almost worked. He knocked CNN's John King back when King asked what was on everybody's minds, but it didn't work in the long run, I believe.

In the end, he's still the crazy old coot that he always was, but he certainly made it fun.

I'm keeping watch and it appears that WXYZ was first to report of the ARREST of the accomplice in the slaying of the Grosse Pointe woman, Jane Bashara.

Others are still reporting that someone is being questioned, after walking into the police station that is. But which police station? GP, I believe.

Yes, the person walks in, sits down and talks to investigators. And now we've got breaking news. It's of course about Bashara. It's about an accomplice, maybe. It might lead to an arrest.

I just wonder where the punchline is as tv news people breathlessly try to report first that the husband has been charged. He's FAILED a polygraph, which is inadmissible in court. How do you fail it? Usually, people try to play with the polygraph (medication, for instance) and they don't get an appropriate reading.

I'm pretty sure the police are not letting themselves be quoted that he failed the polygraph. However, leaking such things may rattle a cage or two.

To me, what's most interesting is that he took the polygraph, which could mean he's telling the truth. No lawyer wants his client sitting in front of a police polygrapher, as usually they pick their own and submit the results, if they take that route.

How about we hold on a minute, bury the poor woman and see what's what. Usually, it is the spouse. Usually. But they don't charge without evidence and once they get that, we'll see what is what.

I just can't stand the blind speculation and the need to fill this void. It's like children and Xmas and JUST WAIT UNTIL IT'S CHRISTMAS!

Another wife has fallen, this time Jane Bashara of Grosse Pointe Park.

The wife was found dead in her car in Detroit, and the husband, Bob, is suspect number one, or a person of interest, depending on who's describing it.

Basically, it seems when a woman dies and there's no immediate answer, it's the husband.

Stephen Grant tried to take the public, the media and investigators for a ride, but detectives were waiting for him to crack. His actions, right up to fleeing into the snowy woods in his socks, helped prove the case.

Mark Unger tried to use science to question the science that questioned his claim that his wife fell into a shallow part of the northern Michigan lake where her body was found.

And one of the cases that take the cake, Mike Fletcher, a Hazel Park lawyer having an affair with a Macomb County judge, tried to make it appear that his wife had shot herself, when in fact it was he, a jury found, who shot her after he learned of her pregnancy.

These are three of Oakland County's biggest spousal murder cases. But it's not always the husband and until there proof that he did it, Bob Bashara should be considered a grieving husband. An absence of another explanation is not proof that he did anything.

But once there is proof, get to the trial and subsequent hanging.

Obama wants colleges to get their costs under control to reduce student debt. Republicans are talking about colonizing the moon.

Hmmm.

Wow, $21 million a year without working.

That'll cure what ails this grand old country, but it may hurt the party. I know Newt vs. Obama would have provided for some good old fashioned sparks-a-flying debates, but I can't wait for Mitt vs. Barack and the president delving into the tax returns of the super rich.

How much is enough for someone who does not want to pay a dollar more in taxes than he has to? Where will the American people fall when it comes to this fight? I'm guessing Romney is not going to get too much sympathy from regular folks, considering NBC put his two year income (without working) at $43 million. Must be nice!


AFTER THE COMMENT:

Not sour grapes. I'm happy he's got enough money that his dividends and income from investments provides $20 million a year at least. Good for him. He didn't inherit his $150 to $250 million fortune. He earned it. I just wonder how this will affect his presidential run. Do Americans like the Super Rich enough to let them become president? Or do enough Americans not mind the pampered lifestyles of the super rich to vote them into the presidential office? I think these tax returns will keep Newt Gingrich in the race much longer than he deserves, based on his popular support.

Newt, we had no idea, but the can of worms is opening. Best reason to watch tonight's interview with the second Mrs. Newt? When asked about the interview, his only answer on Today was to say his daughters had asked ABC not to air it.
Is it unethical to do so now, some wonder.
Of course it is ethical to air anytime. Should they wait until after he's president?

The photo is from rapper 50cent, who tweeted it out and restarted a feud with rap mogul Jay-Z, who had boasted about how proud he was of the baby he and Beyonce had this week.

While Jay-Z has been very public about his joy with fatherhood, 50cent's Photoshopped this twitter picture and sent it out to his five million followers.

In a very hasty and informal poll taken in the offices of TheOaklandPress.com, we rule this FUNNY with several chuckles, a couple hard laughs and one added, "Kinda creepy."

What do you think?

Personally, I think the baby looks kinda ugly, but as a father of three, I can say most babies are a little bit freaky or even ugly. They don't begin to look cute for a few months or even a year.

I just hope no one gets shot over this twitpic.

This is not about a drug test.

This one was weird, but just shows how the world is filled with different people.

According to a report out of the Philadelphia Daily News, a Pennsylvania woman is suing her former employer — a frozen pop maker — because she feels they fired her for wearing a fake penis to work.

Really.

She had told people she was wearing it, explaining that she was considering a sex change, according to the report's review of the lawsuit. She also said a man had been allowed to wear some women's clothes as he also took hormones; he was not fired.

Ok, I admit, when I first saw the headline, I thought this had to do with beating a drug test, and I'd love to see the woman take the jar, head to the toilet and stand there and fill up the sample. But this sounds like a social and gender issue, something more medical and psychological.

However, men are not allowed to talk about their penises at work, something I believe is appropriate. In fact, it's wrong, I believe, to even reference anything to do with your junk, and that is where she seems to have erred. She said the fake penis was concealed, yet people knew about it. She's learning about the complications that come with one of those.

Again, read more details here at philly.com.

What do you think? Was she wrongfully targeted just for her different lifestyle? Or is she just seeking an easy payday?

Keep in mind, this scenario was dreamed up in the back of the police car, but it's a shocking situation out of South Carolina, reported on in the NYDailyNews.com.

With one brother holiding the cocaine and facing another "strike," meaning a possible life sentence, he looked for a way out. His younger brother agreed.

So after the two brothers had been handcuffed and locked in the back of a police car in November after a traffic stop. The younger brother leaned over and consumed the cocaine that his brother pulled out of his hiding spot, within his buttocks.

The problem? It was an ounce of cocaine and proved deadly for the 20-year-old who was trying to save his brother a lengthy prison sentence. Now the 23 year old faces involuntary manslaughter charges.

In Michigan, a new law — delivery of narcotics causing death — is about the same as a second-degree murder conviction, meaning they can get up to life in prison.

Read more details of this case here.

I know Twitter is supposed to be different than your standard news format, whether newspaper, TV or radio.

Twitter can be conversational. It can used to question what people think about a topic. For instance, we at The Oakland Press, one of Michigan's last daily delivered newspapers, asked what people thought of the government being the ones who set standards for broadcasters.

Twitter can also be a place to have fun. I know many 'stupid criminal' stories that are perfect for the 140-character Tweet format. But mocking domestic violence? It's unfortunate that it's so easy to fire off a Tweet without thinking too much about what you're saying (see the Lion who told fans to go back to be broke and poor.)

At about 8:15 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 10, MLive tweeted about a man biting off a woman's nose, saying: "Well that's one way to solve a disagreement."

It seems rather flippant and insensitive to a story that occurred within one of mLive's communities, Grand Rapids. John Agar's story doesn't make fun of the situation, which to me sounds extremely serious. The story notes the woman, 44, will need reconstructive surgery. It also indicates that a Michigan woman who did the same thing was recently sentenced to 4 years in prison. Police could not describe the relationship between the man and woman, Agar's noted. But it appears to me that they at least knew each other, attending a party together. The 56-year-old man is jailed.

Perhaps the chaos of the scene police encountered amused the Twitter author, police finding a part of the nose after the woman called from a pay phone. To me, it sounds terrible, a woman fleeing from a residence in the cold of the night, running from a man who had just viciously attacked her.

There's nothing funny about domestic violence (or an attack against a woman, if it turns out there was no relationship between the pair). It happens again and again, and sometimes, it leads to murder. Locally, a story about a firefighter killed in a traffic accident turned as investigators learned the man was a subject of a domestic violence investigation with his wife hospitalized. The death has been ruled a suicide.

Families can destroyed by domestic violence.

Last year, too many times we reported on murder-suicides, one of which included the couple's two young children as victims of homicide. And domestic violence does not need to involve a death to be serious business.

At The Oakland Press, we report on plenty of crime. Sometimes the crimes are strange; sometimes gruesome; and yes, sometimes funny. I don't think this is the sort of story to have fun with when Tweeting.

Michigan is one of the state's apparently with a protect your castle law, allowing for deadly force if you believe you are in danger with someone who is uninvited in your home.
Good.
The map came up during the NBC Nightly News, discussing the case of the Oklahoma teenage mother who blasted an intruder with a shotgun on Christmas Day.
He died.
She didn't get charged.
His accomplice, who smartly ran from the home, was later found and has been charged with first-degree murder. Good. That's the way the cookie crumbles.
If you are committing a felony and someone dies (even your partner and friend at someone else's hand), you are on the hook for first-degree felony murder. In Michigan, that's automatic life.
Usually, they plead to second-degree, especially if not heavily involved.
But with a dead leader, prosecutors like for someone to go to prison. And if they want a trial, which sometimes is a good way to reevaluate society's values, no deal.
It's tough but fair.
That's why you don't commit felonies, as someone may die and you don't want to responsible for a first-degree murder. So many felonies are committed with the 'no one' was to be killed plan, defendants later say.

The Saints held their ground and crushed the Detroit Lions in the end on Saturday night, shattering dreams of all those who had dared to believe.
Oh well, easy come and easy go; it was fun, and it was a blast to finally be able to care about the Lions.
And they didn't blow it. No bad penalties. No crazy sub-par performances by stars. No terrible turnovers. No real stupidity. They were beat by a talented team that didn't let them win.
I had hoped that the Saints would implode and give the Lions an opportunity, but they didn't.
Will the Lions return to form and finish 5-11 or 6-10 next year, making the playoffs again two years from now. Wayne Fontes rode that cycle for a decade.

Yes, the Lions can win on Saturday, but will they?

I think they will and here's why:

They are due. Of course, they've been due for a while and making the playoffs is a nice step forward after a dozen years away, but it would be a surprising jump to win a game and I think they will do so.

The Saints have blown it before and they'll blow it again. They had a nice progressive run, losing in NFC finals before winning the Super Bowl after a history that was worse than the Lions. Then they stumbled in Seattle. Another roadbump is possible.

It's Saturday night. Strange stuff happens. The full moon hits at 12:34 a.m. Sunday, an hour or so after the Lions shock the Saints. I wanted to say shock the NFL, but everyone knows the Lions can score and everyone knows that anything can happen in the NFL. nuff said.

Anything can happen at any time. It just takes a bit of patience and you'll get to see something magical.

Everyone, it seems, has been asked to do more with less, and now that the military has been brought into this realm, it seems that we will have to continue this trend.

Anyone who complains about this and does not support any sort of tax hike is ignoring reality. We all are doing more with less, or at least most of us are. And considering that the military is one of the biggest expenses, it must do more with less.

She's known as the Human Barbie, so this shouldn't surprise anyone.

Yet, there is still a shock value in hearing that Sarah Burge gave her young daughter, Poppy, an $11,000 voucher so one day she could get liposuction, according to a report in the HuffingtonPost.com. It's all part of making her daughter's dreams come true, she said.

Read the Closer here.

Read the Huffington Post piece here.

Burge knows some think this gift is inappropriate, but she defended her decision in an interview with the UK tabloid, Closer, saying: "She asks for surgery all the time. She wants to look good and liposuction is one of those procedures that will always come in handy."

Wow. I have a 7-year-old daughter. I guess this makes it easier to get her that cell phone.

Oh and if you think this gift is going too far. The mom, who is known as a surgery addict herself, has already bought her daughter a new set of boobs, with a voucher for breast augmentation that can be redeemed when she turns 18 - if she wants the new pair.

I wonder, is there a place for the state to step in? Is she setting her daughter up to hate her looks? I always hesitate to bring in the state in parenting issues, but this seems so extreme. The daughter is a believer, happy to be able to change herself if she's not happy.

Again with Cobo.

This time, there's not much of a fight over funding, and I've yet to hear any details, but I've long thought that the Detroit water system should get its billion-dollar upgrade before any kind of massive upgrade to Cobo just for the auto show.

It appears this upgrade is for about $300 million, which is more reasonable. It's ok to improve the venue, and they get the auto show, which is nice for Detroit, for another five years. And they call it what they want, but in January, downtown Detroit is not vibrant. It's cold and miserable. Now, in the summer, perhaps vibrant.

Let's just not forget the water system.

Politics. Is it too late for Christie to join up after all?

All of 2011 seemed geared towards 2012 and here we are. Mayans be damned (I hope).

No surprise that Romney fared well, but Rick Santorum came out of nowhere, except, this was the first vote so it's not fair to say out of nowhere. You can't count the polls.

With Michele Bachmann out and Herman Cain blasted out of the water, it's back to a good old boys club with Newt and Perry continuing onward. I wonder if Huntsman is hanging on for a long haul and a surprise win or two to pit him as a third once the 'real' conservative is anointed.

However, I will still say that this collection of loose nuts and screwballs (as they seem at times) will not be able to beat the most unpopular president in a long long time. Both Bushes actually seemed better liked personally than Obama near the end of their first terms, even though H.W. ended up losing in 1992.

I don't know if it will be a conservative or a polished politician (Romney), but a Romney-Obama matchup is like a Packers-Saints match up in the NFL, a good looking offensive show. I don't think Romney can out-Obama Obama. Plus, Obama's been consistent.

No, they are not idiots and I'll start out my Happy New Year blog with a call for great quarterbacks everywhere to make sure they are teammates with a great kicker.

Andrew Luck had set his team up for a nice New Year's Day win when, oops, his kicker blew it. Georgia's kicker helped MSU finally win a bowl game for Mark Dantonio. And Virginia Tech's third-string kicker almost completed a heroic turnaround but then...he blew it, allowing U-of-M an 11-win season and a big-time bowl win.

And U-M is usually the team with the great QB but terrible kicker.

Which leads us to poor Jason Hanson, who is a great kicker and has long been a great kicker. He's teamed with a pretty good quarterback, Scott Mitchell, who flamed out quickly. Hanson played along side the great RB Barry Sanders but together, lacking a good defense and a consistent passing game, they could win no championship. Now, Hanson has Matthew Stafford, but it is late in Hanson's career. Hanson missed a should-have kick on Sunday in Green Bay. It may have changed game at end, but who knows.

This year is tough, but a championship is possible with a strong passing game, some defensive strong play and good luck. But they have to hurry, before Hanson ages too much more.