2.10.2023

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




A thirty-four minute delay. 

  • This might be a new tactic in the PR wars. If you get accused of something, just immediately go guns blazin' on the attack. He doesn't care if he collects. This is about damage control. 

  • And it looks like the guy at the top will survive Uvalde as well. Incredible. 

  • This guy got three years in prison yesterday. Not enough.

  • There seems to be a trend of defendants taking the stand in their own defense. In general, I support this strategy since the chances of conviction has always seemed to me to be significantly higher when the defendant sits silent -- despite the jury promising they won't hold that against him. Then again, sometimes the defendant's personality, or his history, gives you no choice but to recommend he not take the stand. Ultimately, it is his choice.

     
  • A faithful reader pointed out to me that the Zillow Gone Wild house in Southlake is owned by Frank Renda, the CEO of Southland Holdings. 
  • Let's check in on our crazy representative. Uh, is this called engaging in a "cancel culture?"

  • The leader of the Republican Party decided this morning that he would deny having an affair with Stormy Daniels. Go ahead, nominate him for 2024.

  • I glanced at this story about the newly elected DA in Waco who has had to recuse his office in several high profile cases currently pending because he worked as a defense lawyer on those cases. But there was one sentence in the story that floored me. The kid to the right of the DA in the photo below is Christopher Weiss. "Weiss has been in the McLennan County Jail since Nov. 8, 2017." Good lord. And now there's not even a prosecutor assigned to the case. 

    • There's something else about that story which bugs me. If the DA has a conflict of interest, that DA shouldn't be the one choosing his replacement. The court should be making that decision. 
  • Random photo of King Charles this week. 

  • It was announced last night that UT and OU would be leaving the Big 12 after the next season. They will either pay, or give up the rights to, $100 million to do so.  And this occurred on the same day that the SEC said it was distributing $49.9 million per school for its annual payout. 

  • Random legal stuff: A Wise County criminal case was affirmed on appeal yesterday by the Fort Worth Court of Appeals.  The argument that "the sentence is too long because it won't rehabiliate me" didn't work. 
  • With the heavy rains earlier this, I suppose the City of Runaway Bay again started dumping raw sewage into Lake Bridgeport . Nothing has changed there to solve that problem they announced a few months back. 
  • I've never once considered DeMarcus Ware a Hall of Famer. Seriously, those guys are suppose to "wow" you. He never wowed me.  

  • Time which has passed since the Wise County Sheriff's Office, despite having a full male DNA profile, has failed to solve the murder of Lauren Whitener in her home at Lake Bridgeport: 3 years, 220 days.

at 8:33 AM

2.09.2023

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




As stated, it was a kinkajou. James O'Bannon, was the deputy who was bit and suffered minor injuries. 

  • Last year a Denton man killed himself in a courtroom after a guilty verdict by drinking what was then an unknown liquid. We know know it was sodium nitrite which has made the headlines lately.


  • So the Republican's take over the House and the very first thing they do is hold hearings on something which all Americans have been losing sleep over: Hunter Biden's laptop and a private company, Twitter. 

    • She's becoming the face of the Republican Party. That's not good. 

    • But, in an ironic twist,  we did get the entertainment of a black woman being ask to quote a profane tweet about Trump . She complied. By way, Trump's White House asked Twitter to take it down down.

    • Side note: If you're going through cancer treatment, you get a free pass to dress anyway you want. I, too, might choose to use the Prison Mike look. 

  • I'm not sure what I think about this. Most of these are some high ranking school officials in a small district up by Wichita Falls. But one of them, a 72 year old, was only doing a temporary gig and had to post a ridiculous $20,000 bond on a misdemeanor. Heck, they are all misdemeanor charges. But if I had to make a prediction, I doubt any of them will be convicted and none will get jail time. The the alleged abuser, meanwhile, already took his own life "four days after the allegations surfaced."  


    • Thought: The statute has a very vague standard that requires a report if the educator has  "cause to believe" that abuse occurred. I've not researched that. I don't know if it means "a reasonable belief" or if a person has to personally believe the allegations are true. Or if there is any discretion at all.  But, regardless, that's a very difficult position to be placed in that the allegations alone, even if false, could cause someone to kill themselves and definitely can destroy their lives. 
  • Tarrant County's now three headed far right-wing dragon (the County Judge, DA, and Sheriff) are holding press conferences to appease the MAGA hardliners to solve a problem that doesn't exist.  That's a waste of money.


  • Random sheriff arrest.

     

  • The death toll in Turkey is now up to 17,000. Sheesh. But after every natural disaster, I occasionally remind myself that the death toll after the 2004 Tsunami reached over 220,000. That's hard to grasp. 
  • Let's check in on Fox News:

  • That kid . . .

  • Michael Irvin was taken off the air as a host at the NFL Network after an "incident" in a hotel. I'm surprised that he called into The Fan to give his side of the story. The good: He said he never touched her, other than a handshake, during a one minute interaction in a hotel lobby. The bad: He basically admits he was so drunk he didn't remember the interaction. Audio. 

     
  • I mentioned the other day a $20 million Southlake home that was featured on the "Zillow Gone Wild" twitter account. The Dallas Morning News had a story about it today. Things I learned: (1) it has 24 HVAC systems, and (2) it is owned by "commercial developers." I'm wondering if they are industrial warehouse investors.  

  • Quite the "fight" in the seats at the Dallas Stars game last night. Language warning. 
  • Legal nerdy stuff: We have a rare case of an appellate court agreeing with the trial judge's decision to dismiss a felony indictment because of prosecutorial vindictiveness. 
  • Messenger: Above the Fold


at 8:30 AM

2.08.2023

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




This case always bugged me -- although it did give rise to one of the all time great photos above. But I think some kind of rare post-trial deal was struck in this case. I can't remember. 

  • Scenes from the State of the Union:.
    • Bono and Paul Pelosi (wearing a hat to cover where his head got crushed with a hammer.)

    • A mysterious cane kept showing up on the screen as it was raised. 

    • Parents of the deceased Tyre Nichols.

    • Brandon Tsay, who disarmed the shooter responsible for killing 11 people in Monterey Park, California

    • Krysten Sinema being Krysten Sinema.

    • After heckling, she had go try and kill 101 Dalmatians. 


  • I don't exactly know what all is going on in Godley (story below), but here's a video of the last city council meeting where Mayor Acy McGehee stands up and yells "Silence!" to the crowd. (Go to around 30:30). It makes Rhome look civil.


  • This is just a drop in the bucket of the amount of fraud that went on in the Payroll Protection Program. 

  • Tarrant County Commissioners voted to buy a $340,000 tank for the Sheriff's Office yesterday . . . . oh . . . excuse me . . . I'm being told . . . 

  • Yesterday Trump was promoting allegations that Ron DeSantis is a pedophile. And he did it twice. Things are going well. 

  • This is a real score from last night. In a basketball game. Involving Weatherford. (And Weatherford is now 19-1 on the year.)

  • Follow-up from yesterday
    • Regarding the 10 year flashback I had about model/SMU player Miles Crosby, a faithful reader tells me that his brother is Maxx Crosby, a productive defensive lineman for the Las Vegas Raiders. 
    • Another faithful reader reminded me that the Texas state senator who was arrested for DWI yesterday morning has been in trouble before. 

  • Fun fact: The City of Colleyville has two Wise County guys in charge of major departments. Michael Miller (Decatur class of '88) is the Chief of Police, and the Fire Chief is Bridgeport's own Mark Cantrell.
  • This is weird out of Corpus Christi. I was trying to figure out what evidence was "lost" but no one really knows. It sounds like there was a "box or two" delivered to the D.A.'s office from the police, but now the D.A. can't find the boxes. And, truly, no one has any idea what the boxes contained. (Legal nerdy stuff: The order said that it was dismissed because of the "Richard Miles Act" which doesn't make sense -- that's a requirement the police turn over all evidence they get their hands on.) The DA will appeal. They'll win. 


  • First photo of a big junk of the Chinese balloon being plucked out of the ocean:

at 8:32 AM
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