- It's been a while since the Denton County Sheriff's Office has shot and killed someone. "The individual, identified as 58-year-old Kenneth Wayne Jones, reportedly pointed a handgun at deputies and failed to comply with commands."
- You knew this was coming. (PDF of lawsuit is here.)
- We had something wild happen in federal court yesterday that transpired so quickly that barely anyone had time to notice. Here's the headline, but there's more to it than that. Stay with me here.
- For over twenty years, Texas law has said that undocumented aliens who had been in the state for a set amount of time and had been accepted for enrollment by the University of Texas, would be assessed a tuition rate equal to that of Texas residents who were also U.S. citizens. Without the law, they would instead pay the "out-of-state" tuition rate.
- You don't like the law? Ok, you get the Texas legislature, controlled by Republicans then and now, to repeal it. But the current legislature just tried to do that but was unsuccessful.
- So what happened yesterday? Pam Bondi's Justice Department filed a lawsuit in federal court claiming the Texas law was unconstitutional.
- But here's the shocker: Texas AG Ken Paxton, who took an oath to defend any Texas law in court, immediately agreed with the Justice Department.
- A judge would have every right to ask "What's going on here?" and make an independent ruling as to whether the law is really unconstitutional or whether this was just a sham lawsuit to kill a law by bypassing the legislature (which it is).
- But the judge didn't do it in this case! The Justice Department had filed the lawsuit in the Wichita Falls Division of the Northern District of Texas so that it would automatically be assigned to the Trump-friendly judge named Reed O'Connor. That judge amazingly immediately signed a Final Judgment - not just a temporary injunction - killing the law and declaring it unconstitutional. The whole case went from start to finish in under four hours!
- And look how Paxton insanely frames what happened in his press release:
- You may like the result, but that process should scare you to death. And we'll see more of it. It's yet another sign that "It's over."
- Speaking of. The last time this happened there were protests at airports. Now we just shrug.
- Elon's assault on Trump and his "Big Beautiful Bill" continues.
- And according to the Congressional Budget Office yesterday, Elon is right.
- ProPublica did a big piece on this guy last night, but I can't get over that John Belushi eyebrow.
- That's a big tree. Those are rescue worker in yellow.
- I noticed a Wise County Aggie baseball player has hit the transfer portal. But the beginning of that second sentence from Sports Illustrated is a doozy:
- In a bizarre moment last night in the collrhr softball world series, the Evil Empire was able to score the ultimate winning runs off an unhittable Texas Tech pitcher with a two run hit on the fourth pitch of an an intended intentional walk. Video.
- Messenger - Above the Fold
Rick Perry announced this week he would run for president, and the polling at the time (above) showed the race a free for all.
- We knew that Wise County rep Andy Hopper famously failed to get the votes for the Wise County Water District bill, but a member of the Senate tried to help us out by having the same bill introduced in that chamber. (SB 1359) It remained alive after the House shot down Hopper, and was actually then passed by the Senate and sent to the House for approval. Alas, it died there in committee.
- The Messenger had breaking Decatur restaurant news last night.
- We knew it would happen eventually: Elon has turned on Trump for trying to crush the U.S. with more debt because of his "Big Beautiful Bill" now pending in the Senate.
- And to think that a few MAGA folks had been on the verge of buying a Cybertruck.
- Trump has yet to return fire at Elon.
- Now Marjorie over in the House says she wished she had read the bill because she would have voted against it.
- Now we see what was really going on:
- County Judge Tim O'Hare, who once cost Farmer's Branch millions of dollars due to his racist policies as mayor, engineered the gerrymandering of the Tarrant County commissioners court yesterday. The change will ultimately cost the only black female county commissioner her job in the next election.
- And immediately after the vote to gerrymander the boundaries, the five-time-married guy, who just exited the Texas House, announced that he intends to to take that seat.
- That guy who was caught on Monday tried to pull off a Saddam Hussein spider hole.
- The rains didn't hit everywhere in the metroplex last night but, when they did, they came down in buckets.
- Two police officers from different small towns in Denton County were indicted over something less than the crime of the century.
- The war on being woke sure does feel a whole lot like acting woke.
- And there's more coming so as to not leave out blacks, jews, Hispanics, and more
- As a prosecutor, you might not want to fire off a tweet proclaiming someone guilty of a crime before you receive the case file which, upon review, will cause you to determine there was no crime.
- There's way too much Kevin Hart on my TV.
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And the fact that she would became a voice for the conservative movement is almost as shocking.
- Oh, my. In Haltom City yesterday. No serious injuries.
- A guy jumped off a bridge onto Central Expressway in Dallas yesterday during rush hour traffic.
- Isn't the CIA supposed to be a secretive instution by its very nature?
- When this acting head of FEMA made his first address to the agency, I knew he was a goofball. He proved it again yesterday. (He has since said he was just joking.)
- Chart of number of social media posts made by Trump: First term vs. Second term.
- The Business Second™. I'm already convinced.
- Legislature quick hits
- Judges got a 25% raise yesterday, with base pay increasing to $175,000. Wise County rep. Andy Hopper voted against it.
- It was never enforceable anyway.
- A long term conservative House rep from North Texas has retired. He now has time to dedicate to his fifth marriage.
- Will he or won't he? All eyes are on Gov. Abbott to see if he will veto the All-THC-Is-Illegal bill. I think he might do it.
- Talk about a lawyer not wanting to go to court. (Gift link.)
- Legal stuff: If you are a law enforcement officer, an example of how not to act on the witness stand was on display yesterday in the Karen Read retrial. Video.
- I told you last week that college softball is fantastic, and the OU/Tech game last night is Exhibit A. Down to their last strike, OU homered to tie it up (video) only for Tech to win it at their next at bat. They now face the Evil Empire in the finals in a best of three series.
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