10.07.2021

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts





Photographer Joe Duty did/does some great work.    


  • Mansfield Timberview High School Shooting: 
    • It's interesting how various news media are handling the video of the "fight" which started the shooting.  The national ABC World News Tonight broadcast played it. Local WFAA, whose 6:00 p.m. news immediately followed it, didn't even mention it. Fox 4 acknowledged the video existed but didn't play it because it "hadn't been verified." 

    • There's another video where the audio picks up the shots being fired. It's chilling. 

    • The whole thing was definitely national news as it was going down.

    • This stuck with me. Buses lined up in Arlington yesterday to evacuate students due to gun violence in America. Good lord. 

    • As did this (from CBS 11):


  • This ruling from last night enjoining the Texas abortion ban will last until the Fifth Circuit gets to the office this morning. If you want to read the 113 page decision, here you go.  


    • The State appealed to the Fifth Circuit within 75 minutes.

  • The Star-Telegram has yet another story where someone's identity has been solved using "genetic genealogy." Authorities had a DNA profile from two feet which had mysteriously washed up on shore in South Carolina but couldn't find an exact match for the profile through traditional means. They (1) then "sent a DNA sample [from the feet] to a company in Texas for a genealogical profile" (2) "the lab compared the sample to databases where people voluntarily upload their DNA [like 23andMe] and found someone they believed to be a sibling", (3) they solved the case within three months by tracking down that sibling and learning she had a sister who had gone missing. 
    • That's the way it works: You use private genealogy databases to at least identify the family of the person you are looking for. Once you find the family, you use old-fashioned police work to locate the exact identify of the person you seek. 
    • The technique has been used to find the Golden State killer, solved a 1977 cold case in Fort Worth involving a killing at a bowling alley, and, as Texas Monthly featured, solved the identity of "Pecos Jane" found dead in a Texas motel pool in 1966. 
    • So how in the world has the Lauren Whitener murder case not been solved when Wise County authorities have a complete DNA profile of the person who left behind semen? 

  • Is it kind of weird we let a jury decide things like this?

  • Here's a play-by-play yesterday in the Elizabeth Holmes trial where a juror was excused right in the middle of it. 

  • This video from last week's Aggie Yell Practice was going around yesterday. It really is amazing. And it also qualifies as the worst comedy routine in the history of ever. 

  • Oh, look. Another story today. 

  • Gov. Abbott was at the border against yesterday but this time he brought nine other governors with him. Someone had an observation about the relevance of eight of them.

  • Abbott's border wall update: The project has raised $54 million.  But 98% of that came from one person: The grandson of banking tycoon Andrew Mellon.