Random Friday Morning Thoughts

County Judge candidates 10 years ago.

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• I got a call yesterday where someone asked, "What's going on at the courthouse? Walk outside and find out!"  The answer was a massive crane was brought into the square -- much to the delight of us small town gawkers like myself -- to begin the process of setting up scaffolding around the top of the courthouse as part of the restoration project. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• If you like court stuff, let me tell you that the DA in Georgia taking the stand to defend her affair with the special prosecutor was wildly entertaining. Thoughts . . . 
  
  
  
  
• She's extremely cocky and broke every rule of providing rambling answers. But the other lawyers failed to lay a glove on on her. She's back on the stand this morning.
• It looks like the defense has to prove that she started her affair with the special prosecutor before he was appointed in the Trump et. al. cases.  Unless the defense has some star witnesses today, they have failed to establish that.
• Did she benefit from the money the special prosecutor has earned by going with him on trips? She said no because "I paid him back in cash." I seriously doubt that.
• But I also doubt she will be disqualified, but this whole spectacle is a disaster. It's a bad, bad look. 
• This was a crazy moment at the beginning that happened while her lawyer was arguing that the DA shouldn't have to testify. The DA just walked into the courtroom and said, "That's OK. I'll do it."
  
  
  
• Trump has an actual trial date in the New York state case where he allegedly lied in a "business record" in connection with the Stormy Daniels payoff.   Of all the cases against him, it's the weakest.  Man, a "not guilty" verdict would be a gift of biblical proportions to Trump. 
  
  
  
• A coyote who is believed to have bitten some kids at a park in Arlington was caught. They actually gave him the death penalty in order to test him for rabies. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Sidenote: As a kid, the standard line when there was a story of a possible rapid animal being caught was, "They had to cut his head off and sent it to Austin to test it."  It was like a certifiable fact we all said with conviction. I have no idea if that was ever true. Edit: And I wrote this before the Ticket mentioned this this morning. 
  
  
• Breaking Russia news.  It looks like they killed a guy who is 47. 
  
  
  
• He was seen in court yesterday and seemed fine from a health standpoint.
  
  
  
• Flashback:
  
  
  
• I'm not sure what the Wise County Chief Deputy is doing at a press conference in Tyler. (I'm guessing the press conference followed the standard formula of "Drugs are flowing in but we are catching a ton of them and we just need more money to do it better.")
  
  
  
• I'm telling you, things are about to get really weird.  Here's a video example of the technology. Many more are on the official site here.  
  
  
  
• Fox News has promoted the "Biden received a $5 million bribe" in connection with Hunter and Burisma for years. We found out yesterday what was already suspected:  It was all a lie. 
  
  
  
• Here's all the times Ted Cruz promoted the lie on his podcast.
  
  
  
• Remember this case? This is the guy that Gov. Abbott shockingly said should be pardoned less than 24 hours after a jury convicted him. Pure authoritarian stuff.
  
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Tiger Woods badly shanked a shot yesterday. Video. In true Tiger fashion, he blamed "back spasms."  I would have thought he would have fallen back on "my gluts weren't firing."
  
  
  
• Legal stuff: I'm not sure the media has realized it yet, but yesterday evening the Fort Worth Court of Appeals affirmed the high profile manslaughter conviction of police officer Aaron Dean in connection with the death of Atatiana Jefferson.
• 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: 4 years and 235 days.