I was wondering why the participation in here dropped off suddenly 😂😂😂
I couldn't get any closer due to fencing. These resemble an Eastern Redbud in size and leaf shape, but have many smaller tufts of purplish flowers. It is late summer here, don't see a lot of trees flowing currently.
This is at Fayette Historic State Park in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, the house was probably built in the mid 1800's.
For anyone who can reasonably make the trip and love old houses and old towns, this is a unique place to visit. On Lake Michigan, beautiful scenery, beautiful original homes and buildings.
I have posted this sentiment here previously, and David has made similar statements over the years. Turnout is our path to national redemption.
We must defeat MAGA and the underlying authoritarian white nationalist christofascist sentiment which gives it power. We must, or we are doomed. They will stop at nothing to remain in power, and to further their disgusting, inhumane agenda.
We must overwhelm them at the ballot box, to truly be "too big to rig," to steal a catch phrase.
Squabbling over perceived imperfections of individual candidates or allied factions such as the DSA is to engage in self-defeat. For my part, I am knocking doors, confronting lies in community social media groups, and I hope I am making an impact. I have resolved to begin attending my local Democratic party meetings despite not being a Democrat, to help in what ways I can.
The point of this post is to challenge you to do the same. Get engaged somehow, help turnout the vote, even if it means swallowing your pride or supporting an imperfect candidate. If we do not act, we will live to regret it.
Classic!
The coverage page of the Facebook account Ray Rocha's Baycountylive. Photo provided by Bay County Sheriff's Office.Cole Waterman
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By
BAY CITY, MI — A Bay County “citizen journalist” convicted of using his drone to interfere with police activity has filed a federal lawsuit, alleging his First Amendment rights were violated.
Attorney Philip L. Ellison, on behalf of client Ray A. Rocha, filed the suit on Sunday, Aug. 9, in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
It names Bay County Sheriff Troy R. Cunningham and Deputy Chris Berg as defendants.
The lawsuit asks a constitutional question, Ellison said. Specifically, may the government make recording its activities a crime because police notice or dislike the presence of a civilian drone?
“The First Amendment does not disappear when a citizen uses a drone instead of a handheld camera,” Ellison said. “The federal lawsuit seeks to protect the clear constitutional line that recognizes the public’s right to document police activity while preserving actual legitimate public-safety rules.
“Made up excuses to end lawful recording simply will not fly in federal court,” he continued.
Amber Davis-Johnson, Bay County’s Corporation Counsel, said she cannot comment on pending litigation. Cunningham also declined comment on those grounds.
Rocha, 54, operates the Facebook page Ray Rocha’s Baycountylive, on which he reports police activity with use of his drone.
A jury in May found the content creator guilty of having an unmanned aircraft interfering with public safety. The misdemeanor is punishable by up to 90 days in jail and a $500 fine. It falls under the state’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems Act of 2016.
Bay County District Judge Timothy J. Kelly in June ordered Rocha to pay $575 in fines and costs and gave him credit for one day served in jail.
The suit contains two counts challenging the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Act, one on First Amendment grounds and the other on its vagueness.
Click here to read the entire lawsuit.
“Police safety is legitimate, and no one has a constitutional right to collide with, obstruct, or endanger a police aircraft,” Ellison said. “But ‘interference’ must have an objective meaning.”
The lawsuit alleges the government’s interpretation permits an officer’s subjective opinion to determine whether protected newsgathering is criminal.
Under that interpretation, the suit continues, an officer could create “interference” by diverting attention toward a citizen’s camera and then declaring that the resulting distraction interfered with official duties.
Ellison described that rationale as “circular and dangerous.”
Rocha’s conviction stemmed from him flying his drone in November 2024 while Bay County Sheriff’s deputies had their own drone in the sky to help them find wanted suspects.
Rocha hasn’t appealed his conviction nor does he intend to, the suit states. He continues to operate his drone and shares its footage on his Facebook page.
Ray A. Rocha (left) sits beside attorney Joseph M. Albosta during his sentencing hearing in Bay County District Court on June 16, 2026.Cole Waterman
Case background
About 5 p.m. on Nov. 10, 2024, deputies responded to the area of West Arnold and South Warner streets to help Bay City police find suspects who’d allegedly stolen a vehicle, ditched it, and fled on foot into a wooded area.
Deputies deployed a drone to give searchers an aerial view of the area.
As Deputy Berg flew the drone overhead, he noticed a second drone flying above the baseball diamonds at Kolb Elementary School, 305 W. Crump St.
The two drones weren’t that close to each other, but had Berg activated the “return to home” function on the sheriff’s drone, the two could have collided, he noted in his report.
The function causes the drone to either climb or descend to a predetermined altitude, then fly to where it launched from.
Berg had Bay County Central Dispatch issue a warning over city and county channels: “Any civilian drone in the area of the city incident, please land your drone as you are interfering with law enforcement drone operations.”
Concerned about a potential crash, Berg stopped flying the departmental drone. Dispatch then called the deputy and informed him video footage from the civilian drone was being livestreamed on Rocha’s Facebook page.
Meanwhile, a Bay City officer saw Rocha in the west parking lot of Kolb Elementary, operating his drone. He approached Rocha and asked him to land his drone, saying he was giving away officers’ location in their attempts to nab their suspects.
“I am only landing my drone under threat of arrest,” Rocha replied, according to the officer’s report. “Anything I can see, I can stream.”
The officer didn’t outright order Rocha to cease flying his drone but asked if he would do so voluntarily. Rocha was “adamant” he would not land the drone without being arrested, reports state.
The officer didn’t arrest Rocha and the “encounter ended amicably,” according to Ellison’s lawsuit.
Berg returned to headquarters and watched the footage on Rocha’s page. The footage featured audio of Rocha repeatedly stating he knew police “had their drone out” as he was listening to a scanner. At one point, the audio captured Central Dispatch urging the civilian drone to land, reports state.
Rocha told his audience he wasn’t interfering with anything, then zoomed in on the sheriff’s drone to show “how far away he was,” reports state.
The audio also recorded the city officer asking Rocha to land his drone and Rocha’s response of only being willing to do so if threatened with arrest.
The deputy reviewed several of Rocha’s other videos, including one of a traffic crash in the parking lot of the Good Samaritan Rescue Mission, 713 Ninth St. The weather was rainy with a low cloud ceiling, the deputy noted.
FAA rules mandate a drone have at least three miles of visibility, at least 2,000 feet horizontally from clouds, and at least 500 feet below the cloud ceiling.
As Rocha had a Cash App account on his Facebook page through which visitors could send him money, it appeared he was operating his drone as a business, requiring him to adhere to FAA rules, the deputy wrote.
Rocha testified on his own behalf during his trial. He said he did not obtain Remote Pilot Certification from the FAA to operate commercially though he received donations.
Appears to come from large, tall tree with deeply furrowed bark. Probably 36 inches thick and 80 feet tall. Leaves are very high and appear to be shaped more like hackberry leaves. There were several of these leaves at the base of this tree and nothing nearby I could see to be an alternative source of the leaf. Southern Michigan USA
Can we ALL -meaning everyone opposed to fascism- please be done with AIPAC forever now? Pretty please?
I work in law enforcement on a scuba dive team. We are getting ready to get into ice diving. I have access to several chainsaws from the recovered property which I can repurpose for the team, and there is a very wide variety from big saws with long bars to small saws with small bars.
I'm not not so worried about the brand, they are all husky and stihl, more curious about do I need a bigger saw, is a shorter bar better, etc. I have cut plenty of wood but never ice.
Gen X really showing up in this poll.
I will be very interested in the exit polling data coming out of this race. The contrast between a grass roots campaign and a special interest donor campaign grows more stark with every passing day.
Is El-Sayed winning independents by 27% as big of a deal as I think it is? Feels to me like the most important data in the poll. Poll can be found at https://emersoncollegepolling.com/michigan-2026-poll-abdul-el-sayed-leads-haley-stevens-for-democratic-us-senate-nomination/
Dear mods: This is NOT a repost.
The progressive candidate, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, wins independents by 27 points. And that is exactly how he will beat Mike Rogers in the general.
Link to poll methodology in article. 4.1% margin of error, which is poor IMO.
Still, betting markets now have Dr. El-Sayed over 80% likely to win this primary. That last debate was the beginning of the end for Stevens.
Looking at all you 'blue no matter who' folks....
I'VE GOT RECEIPTS
Michigan is the LEAST competitive battleground state. The Economist's election models project Dems to win the general election by 7%.
Yet another reason electability should be low on concerns of primary election voters, who should just focus on who they themselves prefer as the nominee.
(article is paywalled) https://www.economist.com/interactive/2026/us-midterms/prediction-model/senate
I've been in here for months now pointing out that we in Michigan haven't elected a Republican US Senator since 1996. Especially as this race is divided among economic populist policy, which is a much stronger Democratic position in general, the race won't be close.
I expect Abdul to win by 5-10 points depending almost entirely on youth turnout in the general election. Both McMorrow and Stevens will endorse him in the general.
I am looking for a subject in a mixed hardwoods/grassland/swamp over a couple hundred acres. subject may have died from an overdose yesterday afternoon. It is summer here with highs in 80s-90s over the next couple days.
How long before I could expect to see a heat signature from the corpse?
Edit: Thanks for the responses. I ended up finding him a couple hours after making the post in an area we didn't search last night, quite a ways from the 'most likely' area we were working from last night. I got out early enough the IR was still useful, which is how I found him. I consider it very lucky I found him, just being very slow and methodical, scanning my best guess area from multiple angles as low as I dared to fly. He was under trees but near a clearing and I caught him on an angled view. Better lucky than good, as they say.
For science's sake I'll reveal the following. He was deceased and likely deceased since last night given other info we have received. He was about 2 degrees Celcius warmer than the surroundings according to the drone, and my best guess is I found him about 14 hours after TOD and at around 9AM.