Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

This turned out to be the crazy case of Fred Earl Ingerson, III who was accused of murdering Robyn Richter and Shawna Ferris who were found dead in the parking lot of the Miyako Japanese Restaurant in Granbury, Texas on June 28, 2008. It looked like the jury was hung, but they finally reached a guilty verdict after three days of deliberations. But I wasn't the only one who thought it was a weak case. The Fort Worth Court of Appeals reversed the conviction on insufficient evidence grounds. But then, in an incredibly rare act, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals decided to hear the case and reinstated the verdict in 2018. (One of the Wise County connections was that Wise County Sheriff David Walker was the brother-in-law of one of the victims. He attended the trial. The other is that one of the prosecutors on the case now works in Wise County.)  

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• The Texas open/concealed carry-without-a-license bill has hit a snag. Shockingly, yesterday the House rejected the amendments to the bill made by the Senate. Now it goes to a committee composed of members from both chambers who will try to reach a compromise, and then that comprise must be approved by the full House and Senate. I no longer know what the chances of it passing are. 
  
  
  
• Video grab bag making the rounds this week:
• Kid on kid violence that should never happen. Link.
  
  
  
• Cowboys release insane video about the 2021 schedule. Link.
  
  
  
• Tell your friends: The video of the lady putting gasoline into plastic bags is actually from 2019. Link.
  
  
  
• Elon Musk made a weird announcement last night that Tesla would no longer accept Bitcoin for payment. They guy just manipulates the market for his own gain, but somehow it is legal. 
• Stolen weather forecast. (Disclaimer: It's a Delkus forecast so take it with a grain of salt.) 
  
  
  
• Day 16 in jail:
  
  
  
• Bass infusion at Lake Bridgeport:
  
  
  
• The major six lane bridge on I-40 over the Mississippi outside of Memphis has been shut down and might be so for months. Here is why: 
  
  
  
• Grab bag of crazy quotes after yesterday's ouster of Rep. Liz Chaney:
• Mature response from a freshman Republican Congressman.
  
  
  
• Yep, that was from this guy:
  
  
  
  
  
  
• From the loneliness of Mar-a-Lago:
  
  
  
• This guy spoke up, too. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• But the big winner of the day was Rep. Andrew Clyde's (R-GA). This is called defying objective truth: “There was no insurrection, and to call it an insurrection, in my opinion, is a bald-faced lie. Watching the TV footage of those who entered the capitol and walked through statutory hall showed people in an orderly fashion, taking videos and pictures. If you didn’t know the TV footage was a video from January the 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist video.”
  
  
  
• Fox News ran a false report last night saying that construction on The Wall had resumed. They retracted it this morning when they figured out it was just the repair of a levee, not the wall, on the border. (Reporter Bill Melugin was also the original source of the fake tampon in a cop's coffee story.)
  
  
  
• Random things I did not know: A German sub sank an American ship off the coast of Mississippi in 1942 killing 26. This seems like a crazy big deal, but I don't even think it has its own Wikipedia page. 
  
  
  
• The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced their inductees yesterday, but I don't care because it seems like everyone gets into the Hall of Fame.  One major oversight, however: Wings.

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

An investigator at the courthouse and I were just talking about this case. According to the Messenger, "Chaffee, her 8-year-old daughter and Jimmy Joe Robertson, 36, of Bridgeport were northbound on Texas 101 north of Bridgeport the afternoon of May 9 when Chaffee and Robertson began arguing. Chaffee pulled the car to the shoulder, and Robertson got out of the car, crossed the median, and started walking south on the outer shoulder of the southbound lanes. He placed an emergency call to 911 operators asking for an officer to come to his location, but the line went dead before he could finish. Investigators said Chaffee, meanwhile, turned the car around and struck Robertson with her vehicle." Tammie Jo eventually received 25 years in a plea agreement.    

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• Today, the Star-Telegram has a story on the marathon executive session by the school board discussing the future of the Superintendent of Decatur ISD while the Messenger has an editorial criticizing the secrecy behind the whole thing. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• An attorney is now showing up next to Brooke Melton's name in the big Decatur drug case. That's a change from yesterday. 
  
  
  
• Conservative Liz Chaney took the House floor last night in defense of the obvious truth -- a stance that got her removed from her leadership position moments ago. It's surreal and honestly shocking how speaking against The Big Lie and Trump got her punished in today's Republican Party. "We must speak the truth. Our election was not stolen and America has not failed," she said, adding, "Remaining silent and ignoring the lie emboldens the liar."
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Maybe I missed it, but this story didn't seem to make as many headlines as I thought it would. It happened in Eden, Texas. 
  
  
  
• Colt Brennan, a fantastic college QB at Hawaii, died yesterday after a battle with alcoholism. The winner for most unusual and callous headline about his death came from the Atlanta Journal Constitution: 
  
  
  
• Didn't I just mention last week about people getting rich in the business of large commercial warehouses?
  
  
  
• I missed this story: "A Wichita Falls jury on May 3 acquitted a 28-year-old man on a charge of making threats against Congressional Democrats on Facebook -- a rare outcome in federal court. The jury deliberated for just 18 minutes before finding Gavin Weslee Perry not guilty of a single count of transmitting a threatening communication in interstate commerce."
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Random surprising occupation buried in a paragraph in this story. 
  
  

  

  Lee Jenkins, left, and Diane Andrews of Texas traveled to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but said they
   didn't go inside. (Molly Hennessy-Fiske / Los Angeles Times)
  
  

  
  
  
• Legal tidbit: A researcher into a Supreme Court decision has found this interesting note about the late Justice Scalia. He wrote a letter to the University of Virginia turning down an award it wished to give him because the school rejected all of his kids for admission. It's even a bit funny because although three of his children were rejected, he took exception to the way two of them were evaluated. The other kid must have been a real dolt. 
  
  
  
• Odd Football tidbit: In 2018, Decatur High School set the all time Texas high school record for most points given up in a single season.   Note that this stat includes even playoff games which doesn't seem fair  - the second place team on the list gave up almost as many points but only in 10 games. But normally a team who went to the playoffs doesn't end up on this list because if you are giving up lots of points, you ain't doing a lot of winning. But that's not so with Decatur that year who played in 5 playoff games while giving up an average of 45.3 points a game. Source. 
  
  
  
• Just announced: A Thursday night and the first game of the year in the NFL for the Cowboys.
  
  
  
• Messenger: Above the Fold 

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

That guy was a new Congressman, and I thought the cover was a little odd so I made a post out of it in May of 2011. Here's his current Wikipedia entry:   "Aaaron Schock resigned from Congress in March 2015 amid a scandal involving his use of public and campaign funds . . . . After he pled not guilty, prosecutors reached a deferred prosecution agreement with him in March 2019 whereby all charges against him were dropped in return for period of good behavior and payment of $100,000 in restitution.

"Schock had a voting record of consistently opposing LGBTQ rights. He came out as gay in March 2020."

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• Tiger update in Houston. His owner or caretaker, who was out on bond for murder, has been arrested. His tiger, who was last seen on his lawn and then in his truck, has not been located. 
  
  
  
• I'm surprised that Brooke Melton, the lady arrested in the big drug raid near Victory Church in Decatur, is still in jail. She's been there 14 days. Note that this is someone who hasn't been convicted of anything, but our justice system says that if you don't have money for bond, you sit in a cage. 
  
  
  
• Random Broadway news this morning:
  
  
  
• Ummkay. 
  
  
  
• Last week, protestors blocked a road in Plano in response to the death of Marvin Scott who died while in the Collin County Jail on a misdemeanor weed charge.  One guy, who got stuck in traffic, got out and went on a rant which was caught on video.  For some reason, Texas AG Ken Paxton (who is under indictment and being investigated by the feds), decided to enter the fray yesterday and come to the defense of the frustrated motorist, who just happens to be white, over the protestors, who he described as "militant BLM protestors."
  
  
  
• Israel and the Palestinians are at it again over the last few days, but I'm not sure why nine children had to die last night.  
  
  
  
  
  
• The return to normalcy continues: Lafayette Park across from the White House is now open. 
  
  
  
• Lee Greenwood has "inspired" a Bible!  (And it's only $49.99.) 
  
  
  
• A faithful reader shared this photo of a ton of bees which suddenly appeared in a yard in Decatur on Sunday. More amazingly, there was a bee expert in town who came over and wrangled them into a container and moved them out. 
  
  
  
• This meme has been showing up lately, and I absolutely agree with it. If I share something with you, it's because it has impacted me and has caused me (normally) concern. I don't want you to immediately reply with your story that you think is similar. But, man, lots of people disagree with that. They are of the position that sharing your story is expressing empathy and that's what conversations are all about. I don't know who is "right" here. 
  
  
  
• Innocent conversation between young boy and his father in a Texarkana bathroom on Sunday which I've thought about way too much:  The kid said he was frustrated while washing his hands because  the automated water faucet turned off so quickly. His dad tells him that the water will stay on so long as he keeps his hands directly under the faucet, and adds, "So why are you complaining about something that you caused?" The kid just went silent. The dad wasn't mean to him, but just matter-of-fact. And they were dressed like they had just gotten out of church. I guess there was a good teaching moment of, "Sometimes what you think is a the source of a problem is not the source at all" but it didn't come across that way. It bugged me. 
• The amount of time law enforcement has spent "protecting" us from eight-liners is laughable:

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

It looks like the sheriff's deputy was Seth Aaron Miller who was convicted and placed on five years probation with 60 days in jail as a condition of that probation. As far as my proclamation that the ME's office is nuts (something that turned out to be exactly right), I can't find a single reference to the barstool story, and the link is dead.   (http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/05/07/3058479/tarrant-authorities-eyeing-new.html)

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• I don't know why this isn't front and center of every newscast and newspaper this morning. A ransomware attack by a Russian group has shutdown a pipeline which carries gasoline and other fuel from Texas to the Northeast. It delivers roughly 45% of fuel consumed on the East Coast.
  
  
  
• Weekend Gunfire News:
• A gunman killed six members of an extended family Sunday at a birthday party at a mobile home in Colorado Springs
• One man was killed and seven other people were wounded in a shooting inside a downtown Phoenix hotel after an argument early Sunday, police said.
• Three people, including a child, were shot in Times Square on Saturday afternoon.
• The great Portuguese water dog, Bo Obama from Boyd, Texas, died late last week. 
  
  
  
• Over the weekend, Donald Trump actually called the winner of the Kentucky Derby a "junky." 
  
  
  
• The insanity continues. "The median single-family sales price set a record at $325,000, 18% higher than in April 2020." How are young people supposed to afford a house? Interest rates certainly help out, but that's offset by property taxes which kill you. 
  
  
  
• Faith healer Ernest Angley has died at the age of 99.  I watched way too much of this man on TV when I was a teenager. I struggled with being told on Sunday mornings that if I had faith the size of a mustard tree that I could move a mountain, yet knowing this man was obviously a fraud. 
  
  
  
• Seeing this question online this morning and it's a great one: Is Tucker Carlson vaccinated?
  
  
  
• It took me almost a decade, but I finally drove through the toll road on LBJ 635 in Dallas from I-35 to past Central.  It's incredible. 
  
  
  
• I was on my way to Arkansas and had to go through Hooks, Texas. You can see the high school stadium from the highway, and I wondered to myself how many people think, "That's where Billy Sims played" when they go by. I always do.
  
  
  
• Another arrest has been made in a Texas cold case using Familial DNA Searching. That is, using commercial sites like  GEDmatch, 23andme, and Ancestry.com to at least locate the family tree of a killer and then go from there. 
  
  
  
• Alvord High School's baseball team is in the playoffs and will play in the Holy Land starting on Thursday: John Paul II's field in Plano. Here's an actual satellite shot: 
  
  
  
• I'm 100 pages into Lonesome Dove.  My verdict is being formed and thus far withheld.