2.18.2022

It's Friday -- Let's Get Out of Here

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




This is a random newspaper image posting from ten years ago. There's two things of note: (1) The past D.A. who imprisoned Michael Morton in Georgetown by withholding evidence was about to have his life turn upside down, and (2) look at those gas prices. 

  • Decatur has hired a football coach from a larger school -- a school where the coach won a state championship in 2017 (beating powerhouse Aledo) and lost in overtime in the championship game last year and ended up 15-1 for the season. In eight seasons, he led his team to to an 88-19 record. That's as big of a splash of a Wise County coaching hire as I can remember. 


    • How did they pull it off? This is a pretty good explanation:

  • The Little Ball of Insurrection is free after spending 60 days in the hoosegow. No word yet on whether she dropped a few pounds as she had hoped.

     
  • In the Tarrant County D.A.'s race, we now have access to the candidates campaign financial reports for the "30 days before election" deadline, and they have some interesting tidbits. Here are the links to the reports: Mollee Westfall (which includes a $20,000 donation from one Fort Worth criminal defense lawyer) Matt "Book Banning" Krause (who received $25,000 from the West Texas Oil Men Far Right Wing PAC) and Phil Sorrells (a $20,000 donation from a "Call me first, call me last . . . " car dealer, and an insane amount of expenditures)
  • The Olympic games broke a 15 year old girl last night. Engulfed in a doping scandal brought upon her by her overlords, Russian  Kamila Valieva fell and stumbled through a performance last night only to be berated by her coach when she made it off the ice. And the NBC cameras couldn't get enough of it. 


  • Video.

  • This is real. 

  • The clubhouse at a famous golf course in Michigan burned to the ground yesterday, and the video is pretty dramatic. 

  • This is a wild story out of Midland where all the higher-ups at a Christian School were arrested for not disclosing to law enforcement an alleged sexual assault -- an assault by a student in a locker room during a "hazing incident" in January which included, ugh, a baseball bat.

  • A Wichita County deputy was indicted yesterday on official oppression and civil rights violations for "inappropriately touching a female inmate and sexually harassing her and three others by making unwelcome sexual advances." It was so bad the Sheriff had to have a news conference where he said, "I do not believe this is the end of it."

     
    • Here's a nerdy legal note: In Wichita County, when they actually have live witnesses testify before a grand jury, they will release the list of witnesses to the public. (That's actually an obscure legal requirement, but it's routinely ignored by almost every D.A. because there is no penalty for ignoring it.)

  • Today in Critical Race Theory history: The City of Memphis, TN use to had "Negro Thursdays" where African-Americans could visit the city zoo. This was in 1959.

  • Time which has passed since the Wise County Sheriff's Office has failed to solve the murder of Lauren Whitener in her home at Lake Bridgeport: 960 days.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold

at 8:29 AM

2.17.2022

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




I missed this one in the archives last week. We had a Kardashian visit Wise County. And two days later, First Lady Michelle Obama got close when she ate at the Olive Garden at Alliance Town Center in north Fort Worth. 

  • Well, I guess we know why the Cowboys PR director suddenly retired a couple of weeks ago: An ESPN bombshell was coming out. And it's a long story.


    • We should have know something was wrong when the Cowboys didn't even acknowledge his retirement on the official team website. He's like family out there. 
    • There are two allegations: The first is that he was hiding in a cheerleaders bathroom/changing room and videotaping four of the cheerleaders in states of undress. 

    • And the wildest part was the other allegation that he was caught on a live "war room feed" during the 2015 draft taking upskirt pictures of Jerry Jones' daughter. (That video isn't public but this video from that draft, at around the 1:40+ mark, seems to get pretty close as to how he could have pulled it off.)

    • This is the guy who witnessed it by watching the live stream an then notified Charlotte. 

  • The shooter, a 20 year old male, and the victim, a 21 year old female, were "former college roommates" but that's about all the information that was released. 


  • Good luck with all that.

  • It will drop to 34 degrees by noon before we then rebound to a balmy 39 this afternoon. It will bottom out tonight at 27 degrees. 
  • Gov. Abbott has endorsed incumbent Dr. Lynn Stucky to represent Wise County as state representative. (Phil King is our former rep but redrawn lines have taken him elsewhere.)  

  • The attempted book burning, er, banning, continues. 

    • Note: Those 282 books come from a list compiled by the the originator of this crusade: Mark Krause -- a guy who is running for Tarrant County D.A.   I've said it before: If Krause wins the Republican nomination, the chances of a Democrat becoming D.A. in Tarrant County becomes a real possibility. His opponent will make it the campaign issue that he is The Book Banner. And that is something which will gain traction in moderate Tarrant County.  

  • Five feet? What is this? Top Gun?

  • Ted Cruz continues to sink to new lows. This judicial nominee, Nina Morrison, works for the Innocence Project -- a group dedicated to freeing innocent people! She has been first chair or co-counsel in cases that have freed more than 30 innocent people from prison and death row.


    • And this is part of her her work!

  • This former ESPN reporter suddenly took a hard right turn. 

  • This congressional candidate has had a bad couple of weeks.
    • First this news broke.

    • Then yesterday a law firm he once hired in an employment dispute tried to tap into his campaign funds in an attempt to collect on a $1.2 million judgment for fees he owes it. (I had to go down a rabbit trail to try and figure out how a $70,000 legal bill turned into a $1.2 million judgment in favor of a law firm after a jury trial, so I tracked down the appellate opinion. Spoiler alert: It's way too complicated.) 

  • If you are interested in Congressional races impacting Wise County, we are split in two. One half of the county is stuck with incumbent Ronny Jackson. In the other race, our new incumbent is Dr. Michael Burgess. (All this redistricting makes things complicated.)  Link to the story below:

at 8:34 AM

2.16.2022

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




The original Yahoo! story is still up about the incident at Cypress Woods High School near Houston. The coach got fired from the team, but didn't lose her day job. Anyway, while looking up the story, I learned there is now an unrelated HighfalutinHeifer.com website which has some pretty spiffy ladies' country and western wear. I guess it's not an insult to everyone. 

  • Highway 287 at the Wise/Tarrant County line was shutdown for a long time yesterday afternoon in both directions due to an 18 wheeler tanker-truck fire. By the time it was out, nothing of the cab was left but the wheel frame. 


  • Former Decatur coach Kyle Story announced his retirement yesterday.

     

  • The judge in the Sarah Palin trial had ruled, and announced, that Palin had not proven her case and would dismiss it regardless of what the jury found. The jury, unaware of the judge's ruling, agreed with him yesterday and ruled against Palin. Why the judge announced his now irrelevant ruling is weird. He could have just kept his mouth shut since there was no need at all to announce what he would do if the jury ruled in Palin's favor. 

  • I don't know how I feel about this. 

  • This sure isn't George P. Bush riding a four wheeler, but a new ad by a candidate for Railroad Commissioner brought out the pasties.  Yep. Five second video is here.


  • Liberty Institute, where only government approved ideas is the way we define "liberty." 

  • Inflation isn't just a United States problem. 

  • I watched a little of the Florida shoot-a-guy-in-a-movie-theater case, and it has had a couple of weird moments. 
    • The defense lawyer doesn't know what he is doing. Don't beat up on a disinterested eye-witness. 

    • I mentioned yesterday that the incident occurred eight years ago. Has that been a long time? Look at the very same witness compared to the way he looked eight years ago at a bond reduction hearing and the way he looked yesterday. 
      Eight years ago

      Yesterday.
  • I thought Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth were oblivious to a lot of things that happened in the Super Bowl including that spot of the ball after the third down run down at the end of the game. I don't think he got the first down, but he at least got within six inches -- maybe even closer.

    The spot had it about two feet short

  • I switched over to the UT/OU basketball game last night because I saw it had gone to overtime. I was very confused to hear the PA announcer at the arena count down the shot clock, "Five-four-three . . . " for the players to hear.  But now I know:

  • Messenger: Above the Fold

at 8:31 AM
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