8.29.2019

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts


  •  "Look at all these people . . . . They are probably going all across the country to beautiful places." No, it's not a busy weekend at airports because it is Labor Day. And, no, they aren't going on vacation. It's just a normal Thursday morning at Love Field. (And WFAA is the worst at making their employees post on social media and, for some reason, demand frightening close ups.)
  • When I'm wrong, I'm wrong. Despite my prediction, the Tarrant County DA's office was able to get a conviction of two defendants who were tried together in one misdemeanor trial. Normally, that would be a cluster.
  • Here's an email I received from a trusted source: "Melinda Westmoreland, chief prosecutor of the Tarrant County DA’s Special Victims Unit (formerly CACU) turned in her notice today. She is quitting in order to become yoga instructor for the Dallas Cowboys.  I’m not joking." She's been pretty successful and recently prosecuted Danita Tutt who was accused to almost causing the death of  her son by faking illnesses and making him undergo needless surgeries. Hey, if Andrew Luck can walk away, so can everyone else. More power to her. 
  • Random silliness:
  • "The wife, child, and mother-in-law of a pitcher in the Tampa Bay Rays organization were killed in a southern Virginia town Tuesday, and police arrested the brother-in-law of minor league baseball player Blake Bivens." And his apprehension was almost as bizarre as the crime. (Quick loading video in the link.)
  • Uh, oh. He's mad at State TV because it's not State TV enough. (Three years ago we would have thought even a city councilman was unfit for office for believing that a news organization owed him loyalty like an employee. Now it's just another day from the highest office in the land.)
  • The Bexar County DA had a case indicted and then reviewed the file with one of his assistants. He then lost his re-election bid and thought it would be OK to then be the defense lawyer for the guy.  Amazingly, it took a court of appeals yesterday to tell him that's moronic. (They didn't expressly say "moronic" but should have.)
  • The Dallas Morning News unveiled a new website design this morning and it's great. They claim it loads three times faster and I believe them. Now I'm looking at you Star-Telegram. Let's start by not having a video unrelated to the story (and I didn't want or or ask for)  autoplay when I click on a story causing the whole page to act like I'm downloading a DVD. Heck, I don't even want any video at all. 
  • A guy from Willis, Texas met a pretty hot gal online and quickly married her. His son then started snooping around about her background and found that she was currently married to "several" other guys. She then got indicted for bigamy. The guy filed for divorce. Now a judge has ordered him to pay $73,000 in temporary spousal support. I've got a lot of questions. 
  • I have no reason to doubt the medicinal effects of marijuana. I have a ton of reasons to doubt the effectiveness of the current wave of CBD products being hawked on every corner. (But, unlike conventional wisdom, I support the "placebo effect." If that phenomenon causes you to believe the pain has gone away, why isn't it just a powerful as an actual drug?)
  • Texas DWI law changes dramatically for those arrested on Sunday: They will be able to receive deferred adjudication (a probation without a conviction) if the prosecutor is reasonable enough to offer it. In order to get deferred, an ignition interlock must be a condition of the probation. That's a fair trade off. (One of the weirdest changes in the DWI law was a mandatory fine of $3,000. But it was written in such a way that it only applies to a "final conviction" which means there was no type of probation and a person simply did jail time. So you can avoid the outrageous new fine with a probation. But, at the same time, if you receive  deferred adjudication it is considered a "conviction" for enhancement purposes if you get charged with DWI in the future. You think it's fun trying to explain all this?)