4.28.2017

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

  • Fox News' Jesse Waters, after making the sexually suggestive comment about Ivanka Trump, has announced that he will be taking a "vacation."  That's what Bill O'Reilly announced before he fell into the abyss to never return.
  • In Waco, a criminal trial was disrupted when one of the jurors couldn't make it to court. The reason? The juror was in jail in another county on weed and controlled substance charges. Legal nerd stuff: Oddly, the case is proceeding with 11 jurors which can only occur with consent of the parties (why would the defendant consent?) or if a juror is disabled (and this doesn't seem to qualify as "disabled".)
  • The guy who got dragged off United plane by security settled with United yesterday for an undisclosed amount. Mark Davis on the radio this morning guessed it was for $5 million. That's stupid. A good standard for personal injury suits is to ask yourself: How much would you be willing to accept in order to go through what the Plaintiff went through? (And that's when liability is clear. Heck, in this case, United didn't hurt him. Security did. And it's possible a jury would think it was 100% his fault for not obeying orders.)
  • TCU football had a home and home scheduled with Ohio State. That's cool because Ohio State would come to Fort Worth. Well, no more. They've changed it to just one game at Jerry World in 2018. (And get this home and home announced by TCU with Purdue. One game will be in 2019. The other will be in 2029.)
  • Being in the U.S. illegally ("unlawful presence") is not a criminal offense. That person might be violating U.S. law, but they are not violating U.S. criminal law. 
  • NFL Draft thoughts: (1) That crowd in Philadelphia was massive. Estimates were at 70,000, and I believe it. The NFL claims 100,000. (2) Thanks, Dallas. I've been beaten down with "Taco" jokes all morning. (3) Why did the #1 pick Myles Garrett, at his home in Arlington, have the player's union banner behind him? (4) Chicago traded way too much to move up one pick in order to select a guy who will probably be a spare. (5) The most fascinating pick was be Tech's Pat Mahomes who the Chiefs traded up to get. I liked it.  (6) Watch a first round pick cuss on live TV. That man is intense. A little unhinged, but intense.
  • Richard "Racehorse" Haynes, who famously defended Cullen Davis, has died. (He represented someone from Boyd in the early 1980s on a tax evasion charge in federal court in Dallas.)
  • "There's a chance that we could end up having a major, major conflict with North Korea, absolutely." - Trump told he president Reuters.  The scary part is that I think he wants it.
  • Nutcase Alex Jones lost his child custody case.
  • Overthinking the Update: "BOARD COMMITS TO RAISES – Alvord trustees Thursday committed $120,000 to pay for raising the median pay for all district employees." What does "rais[e] the median pay for all employees" mean? "Median" means to line up all employee salaries from smallest to largest and then find the number that is right in the middle. That is, if you have 100 employees, you rank the pay, and find what the salary is for #50 which would be the "median pay for all employees." You could probably "raise the median pay for all employees" by manipulating three or four salaries.