Random Friday Morning Thoughts

Kliff Kingsbury was still living large as Texas Tech's head coach.

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• He got 60 years as part of a plea bargain, but that's basically the same as the maximum of 99 years/life.  The rule is that he must serve either 1/2 of his sentence or 30 years, "whichever is less", before becoming eligible for parole.  So there's not much difference between 60 and anything above 60. 
  
  

  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• "Two bounty hunters are in custody after a man was fatally shot near downtown Dallas Thursday morning."  Bounty hunters? They still exist?
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Excitement in Houston last night.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• But it didn't end like you would expect: With a hug.
  
  
  
• From the official White House Twitter account.
  
  
  
• The playbook for any authoritarian is to attack and threaten the media in hopes of controlling how things are reported in the future.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Story below. Legal nerdy stuff: This happens because the law says the State must be "ready" for trial within 60 days of a person's incarceration on a felony. Normally and practically, a prosecutor simply announcing ready (even if he's not) will suffice. From there, the case may not be be tried for many months or years into the future.  But you can't claim to be ready if the defendant hasn't been indicted -- the case hasn't even been filed in court. So the practice is to indict within 60 days and then announce "ready." But the consequences for dropping the ball and not getting the indictment are that the defendant is entitled to a PR bond to get out of jail. He can still be indicted and prosecuted in the future. 
  
  
  
• Collin County state rep. Jeff Leach will be challenged by "KingdomLife" pastor Brandon Burden who got national attention (and especially mine) for a crazy sermon he gave days after January 6th. 
  
  
  
• Flashback:
  
  
  
• The Business Second - "Say what?" Edition:  (Gift link.)
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Microsoft is changing the color and tone of its "Blue Screen of Death" in Windows.  Honestly, I very rarely see the current version of it any longer. 
  
  
  
• However, back in the day, this version seemed to be on a constant loop. And when that happened, the machine was completely frozen:
  
  
  
  
• In about 30+ minutes, the Supreme Court will release its final opinions of this term. Included in the cases will be Texas v. Pornhub, and one on birthright citizenship (which will actually just be about the legality of nationwide injunctions by individual district judges).
• A Wise County criminal case was affirmed by the Fort Worth Court of Appeals in an opinion released last night.  The court didn't spend a lot of time on it, but one of the issues on appeal was the judge not granting a mistrial when a member of the audience watching the trial, who was connected to the defendant, sent a Facebook friend request to a jury member during the trial. 
• Lauren Whitener Clock: 5 years and 360 days.