If you ever watch "Countdown" on MSNBC, you know that, every night, Keith Olbermann chooses someone as the "Worst Person in the World." Actually, he picks three people - worse, worser (his word, not mine), and worst. On many occasions, the "worst" person is Bill O'Reilly of Fox News (and a WNEP alum!).
Anyway, I think that, tonight, Keith got it wrong. His pick for worst person was some woman in Europe who screwed up on picking lottery numbers for her group of friends. Seems they've been playing the same numbers for years, and recently, those numbers finally came up! The jackpot of $36 million was theirs at last! Except, it wasn't. The woman who bought the ticket screwed up and picked one wrong number or something, so no one won anything. A terrible mistake, I suppose, if you thought you had finally won. But, not criminal.
Which is why I say that, if Keith had called me, I would have told him to pick Jessica Hardy as today's "Worst Person in the World." Jessica Hardy is a local woman, and when she was arrested back in February, I blogged about it HERE. To summarize, Jessica Hardy ran a local chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The group raises money so that terminally ill children can have at least one wish - like a trip to Disney World or something. Hardy ran the local chapter for about nine years. And, for about nine years, she invented sick children - just made them up - and kept their "wishes" for herself. She enjoyed hot tubs, TVs, etc. - until the cops carted them out of her house.
What she did is low! Ever since her arrest, my friend and I have compared other suspected criminals to Jessica Hardy and, I can tell you, there aren't many who rate lower than her.
Anyway, today Jessica Hardy pleaded guilty to forgery and other related crimes. She will be sentenced in January or February. I don't know what her sentence will be, but I hope it's something befitting a woman who you could make a case for as the Worst Person in the World.