Sportzzz

- The Aggies and the Razorbacks have agreed to a 10 year deal to play in the new Cowboys stadium. Cool. (I haven't driven by that stadium in a year but I heard it's massive.)
- With a win over Tech on Saturday, Baylor should make the NCAA tournament. It'll be the first time in 20 years. And, yeah, it'l probably just be a one-and-done appearance, but it'll be weird to see the Bears' name on all the brackets.
- Most random of salary notes: Boston Red Sox reliever Jonathan Papelbon agreed to a one year deal last week. Is he good? You bet. He had 37 of 40 saves last year with a 1.85 ERA. He also saved 3 of the 4 World Series games for the Red Sox. So his salary for next year? $750,000. Yep. That's it. Baseball players make a ton of money as free agents, but unfortunately for Papelbon, he's two young to be a free agent. That comes in two years. (As comparison, his back-up, who almost got booed out of Boston last year because he couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, made $6,000,000.)

Some Laws Even I've Never Heard Of

Breast feeding scandal in Denton. World stops turning. But mom is kind of hot.

Snow Talk

So the morning courthouse conversation brought up this issue: One fine lady on the second floor proclaimed that Decatur had more snow in either 1987 or 1988 than this weekend. I was working in Dallas back then so I couldn't refute it. I doubted it, but couldn't back it up.

Unavoidabley Detained This Weekend

- I really hate moving the clocks forward. It happens every year at just about the time I'm comfortable waking up early. - Stumbled across real guys playing tackle football with pads on at Pennington Stadium on Sunday. Something called "The American Eightman Football League." - I watched Eastern Promises. It's kinda good. - I noticed three knuckleheads decided to go canoing (sp?) last night on the Parker/Wise County line and had to be rescued. - I'm reading Slaughterhouse Five (nope, never read it before.) - This video isn't as good as the "Don't Have Maps/Such As" video, but it's pretty good.

And Another

Crystal Wells, 33, has pled guilty to the very strange charge of "Unlawful Transaction With A Minor" which apparantly means "Sex With a 15 Year Old Boy" in Kentucky. She'll be sentenced later but the prosecutor is recommending five years in the hoosegow.

I can't pass judgment on this young lady because the picture is so blurry. Sheesh. We can allocate all these judicial resources to this prosecution but we can't get a picture that doesn't look like it was taken in a sauna? I'm leaning towards a short probation, but the prosecutor better get me a better picture quick or I'll let her out with time served.

If There Had Been A Photo Contest, This Would Have Won

I call it, "Man skis down 'Mount Decatur'" (this morning.) Gold. Pure gold.

(Thanks emailer Joel.)

Edit: And then someone tricks it up . . .

Hey, Now

Do U Want 2 Meet?

The Fort Worth Court Of Appeals always releases its weekly opinions on Friday, and I'll normally take a look at some of them (for my real job). Although not legally significant, the opening of one of the opinions today got my attention:

Samantha Lezark was murdered in her bedroom on the evening of January 5 or the morning of January 6, 2003 . . . . The medical examiner determined the cause of death to have been strangulation by a coaxial cable wrapped around her neck three times and tied with a square knot. A bloody fire extinguisher lay next to Lezark'ss body, and her head had contusions consistent with being hit by the fire extinguisher. There were no signs of forced entry into the house. A palmprint on the coaxial cable was identified as that of [Defendant] Kristopher Kyle Russell, and his fingerprint and his DNA were found on the fire extinguisher. [Russell's] partial latent thumbprint was also identified on a laser pointer found on Lezark's bed. [He] testified at trial that he had met Lezark in an Internet chat room in late November 2002 and had entered into a sexual relationship with her by mid-December.

Note to self: Cancel Saturday date plan.

Garbage News

Uh, if your garbage in Decatur isn't picked up this morning in a timely manner, now you know why. (Parking lot behind Sweetie Pie's Ribeyes.)

Bad Aggie

I was watching this on Wednesday night as the Aggies beat Baylor soundly (as Baylor does everything it can to stay OUT of the NCAA tournament.) But when your up by a ton with seconds left, do you really think its appropriate to bounce the ball off the backboard and dunk it? Now if Baylor had been ahead and had done the same thing, I'd call it an "exclamation mark" because "our team just got a little excited." But the Baylor reaction to the dunk was not very First Baptist Church-like.

Friday Morning Pick Me Up

Sure, some people cried this week when Brett Favvvvarrrrraaaaa retired from the Packers, but I wept over the retirement of long time figure skater Katerina Witt. Sure she sinned a little bit when she got neekid for Playboy in the 1990s but I'm willing to forgive her for that - after hours of examining the photos, I have now classified them as "art."

(And see the connection? It's icy outside. Katerina skated on ice. That, my friends, is good journalism on my part. You won't see stuff like this in the Update.)

Holy Cow - It Was A Blizzard!

(Photo credit: Paul Wood)
(Photo credit: Robert Morgan)

Variety of photos from today (many reader submitted) on Flickr here.

Keep 'em coming. (blog2[at]wisecounty.com)

Edit: School closings for Friday are here.

I'm Declaring A Triple Blizzard Warning

This is at 12:25 p.m.

You know, I think were actually in for a pretty big snowstorm.

Edit: Courthouse closing at 1:00 p.m.

Edit: Paradise ISD is shutting down at 1:15 p.m. (But call to verify). I suppose other schools may be doing the same.

Edit: These are the largest snowflakes I've ever seen. Seriously.

Edit: It just keeps coming. (And, as some of the comments point out, the traffic stories sound like a nightmare.) If you have any good photos, feel free to share at blog2[at]wisecounty.com

The Worst Winter Blast Since The Last Winter Blast

Yeah, I can mail it in by simply uploading the radar for all of us to look at. But me loves me some snow. The inner child in me demands the snow. If I'm not out in my suit and tie making snow angels by 6:00 p.m., this will probably go down as the most disappointing day in my life. And if Lari Barager isn't up here standing on the courthouse steps, then Fox 4 has turned its back on the county that loves it so. Edit: At 11:18 a.m., we've had snow for about 15 minutes. And the bigger picture Texas radar seems to indicate that a heck of a lot more is coming.

Hey, Now

That's Channel 5 traffic reporter Tammy Dombeck in the middle. Her co-worker, weatherperson Rebecca Miller, isn't in the picture. And, as a side note, Miller has been fired. Right before the greatest weather day of the year.

Edit: Ok! Ok! You guys can stop with the comments about, well, you know. We get the point.

Worst News Report Ever . . .

. . . by me: Did I just hear something on WBAP about an assistant Decatur principal skydiving today for some good cause?

No Way

It's weird how when you read a story about someone you don't know you just assume it's true. But if you know the person, you can often have just the opposite reaction.

Case in point: Tarrant County Judge Elizabeth Berry is facing heat because an email which allegedly bore her signature (a cursive jpg signature that she never uses) had this in it:

"Judy, we will talk in-depth later about the Reggie issue. I agree with you, though. I am not at all satisfied. Who does that fat [N-word] think he is anyway? We will handle him one way or another!"

I know Elizabeth. Elizabeth is a friend of mine. Elizabeth is no racist. (Funny story about our first meeting here.) Disclaimer: I practice law in only Wise and Jack Counties and never appear before her in Tarrant County.

The Dallas Morning News story basically gives you enough information to conclude that the allegations aren't true. And you would think that, at the very least, the email could be traced back to a particular computer at a particular day and time which should clear her name. In the meantime, she gets her name associated with the "N word". Not good times.