That meant he had to return to Macomb County, his original home, to meet with his probation officer. According to Chapman, "He did exactly as he was told." On Thursday, he boarded a bus and traveled to his appointment. Upon arrival, he was arrested for failure to register in Kent County, and was being held on $3,000 bond, according to his mom. This horrified Helen Chapman:

"Here is a young man who was trying to do the right thing. He was trying to help support his family, to earn a living and better himself," said Ms. Chapman, an educated and dignified lady.

Suddenly, she says she realized "the probation and parole system was never meant to give people freedom, but to force them to fail, all the while extorting money from the probationer."

Well, whatever the merits of this case, it would be gratifying to see more reporters, especially those who cover Macomb, look into it. For the last few months, they've devoted much time and space to analyzing the highly important issue of whether the strange, Sinatra-worshiping mayor of Warren was born in 1942 or 1944.

Something as small as the devastation of Elio Hernandez's life might be worth a story or two as well.

Wayne County update: Since my last column about the continuing saga of the vast sums paid to the CEO of the Wayne County Airport Authority, three things have happened.

We learned that Bob Ficano's crony, Turkia Awada Mullin, got even more money than we thought. Ficano then suspended two of his aides for 30 days and "fired" someone who'd already retired. Oh, yes — and the newspapers sternly came out in favor of "further inquiry."

Huh?

Robert Ficano ought to be forced to resign, now. Mullin ought to be unceremoniously fired, and the county should hire someone in her place who has actually run an airport, not held Ficano's coat.

And someone needs to appoint a task force, a grand jury and a fumigator to take apart how Wayne County does business.

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