If You Tried To Travel West on 380 This Weekend . . .

. . . this is what you saw. Near Haskell.

(Thanks, Brock.)

The Rick Perry Train Is A Rollin'

First on the cover of Texas Monthly as it considers his presidential chances. And now he's on the cover of Newsweek this week. With no realistic Republican presidential candidate to emerge yet, don't rule him out -- and I know that sounds crazy. For now.

15th Anniversary Of The Bombing

Don't you remember how stunned you were when you saw the images?

And one thing I can't find on the Internet, but I swore I read, was that during one of the memorial services a baby began to cry in the audience. The pastor, instead of ignoring the crying child, simple said, "That's OK. It sounds like the voice of angel right now."

Yep, Lake Bridgeport Is Full

That's a whopping two foot increase over the weekend. Enjoy it -- when it stops raining. This doesn't happen very often.

(Thank for the email, David)

Edit: You can see updates of the level here. And it's rising at a pretty good clip from the runoff.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• I got sick again this weekend. One second I'm fine and then the next I can't hardly walk. And then it does away within a day. Weird.
• Had an ultimate movie fail this weekend: Bought tickets to Date Night and then walked in and couldn't find two seats even remotely close together. But it was our fault for getting there so late.
• Now the family truckster is making a very weird sound. It's on its last legs.
• Last night a fight breaks out at the XTC Strip Club at Regal Row and I-35 in Dallas. Two guys then get into a taxi and leave only to get hit by gunfire from a car that followed them. One of them then removes the taxi cab driver, who was also hit, from the cab and they drive to the hospital. The cab driver then dies. And this all started about 5:00 a.m. Good grief.
• I feel bad for the NASCAR fans that camped out all weekend without seeing a single race. I'm sure they made the best of it, but that had to be a beating. Mud ain't good.
• And traffic sure seems like it would be a hassle today for Northwest High School.
• Monday morning pick me up: USC Song Girls go swimming.
• Before I got sick, I had lunch at the relatively new Pour House in Fort Worth. Not bad. Quick service. And there was a live acoustic performance going on by two gals in the middle of the afternoon who were really good.
• You see brawls after fights in Fake Wrestling but one occurred on Saturday night on CBS after an MMA fight.
• I wonder if the Lake Bridgeport "watershed" got a bunch of rain this weekend? I noticed Jacksboro got over 6".
• There's a Star Telegram story referencing the emerging "restaurant row" in Roanoke.
• I'm still recovering.

Cops Make Huge Mistake

I've been telling you there something weird about this case. This is the one we've been following all week where this kid was killed when he went home at lunch with his sister. Cops make and arrest and then today -- you never see this happen -- say they were wrong. To call him a "person of interest" means nothing. That's a made up term, and they are just using it here to cover there arses from too much bad press.

Edit: A commenter reminded me of my post below where the lady wrote on Facebook that the first guy that was arrested should have been executed immediately. Wonder if she is rethinking that.

Grandstanding

Sen. Jane Nelson has always been clueless about the practical aspects of law enforcement.

In light of the tragedies of late which involved repeat DWI offenders, she now wants to propose a law which would cause a person convicted of DWI-Second to lose their drivers license forever.

Ok, so a guy who is inclined to drive drunk after having two DWIs (and thus be subject to 10 years in prison for a third DWI) is going to be discouraged because he doesn't want to drive without a license (a misdemeanor)? Sheesh.

The Only Good Thing About Hockey

This happened, I think, the other night during the playoffs. It's just so insanely weird.

But I like the fake crying at around the 17 second mark.

Be Careful What You Ask For

A court of appeals case released last evening demonstrates how you need to always think ahead.

Robert John Gallemore was charged with Felony DWI in Wise County. Facing a range of 2 to 10 years in prison, he pled guilty before Judge Fostel and asked the judge to assess punishment. While Judge Fostel was considering the sentence, the defendant's lawyer pointed out a flaw in the indictment which actually made the case a misdemeanor (with a maximum sentence of one year in jail.) He was right. The indictment only alleged a misdemeanor. So the lawyer says, and I'm paraphrasing, "hey judge, go ahead and sentence my client for the misdemeanor offense."

The judge says that his court only has original jurisdiction over felonies, not misdemeanors. If a misdemeanor offense is committed, it has to be filed in the Wise County Court at Law. That's true, too. So the judge declares a mistrial and sets aside the defendant's guilty plea.

The DA's office then re-indicts the guy to fix the error in the original indictment and does something which probably should have been done in the first place. They discovered the defendant had twice before been to the pen, so they added two enhancement paragraphs making the defendant a Habitual Offender. This means the new punishment range was 25 years to life in prison! That's right, the case went from 2 to 10 years to 25 years to life.

The defendant objected on double jeopardy grounds (he had already been charged and pled guilty, he said) but the judge denied that motion. The defendant once again pled guilty and the judge gave him 25 years.

The defendant appealed and the appellate court, yesterday, said the district court in Wise County does indeed only have felony jurisdiction so the first indictment that alleged only a misdemeanor was void. It had no effect whatsoever so the defendant couldn't enter a guilty plea to a non-existent case. So the new indictment stands. As does a 25 year sentence.

Ouch.

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• Channel 5 News fail last night. Pretty funny.
• Local Republican Chairman Allen Williamson has a lot of clout when it comes to filling vacant judgeships -- even at the court of appeals level.
• You guys sure seem grumpy lately.
• More baseball trouble: On Wednesday, both Baltimore and Cleveland had their lowest attendance in their current stadium's history.
• Obama's tax bill was $1,792,414. If you aren't sympathetic because he made so much money, you are advocating "taxing the rich" aren't you?
• And everyone does realize, don't you, that the current income tax rate has nothing to do with Obama or the Democrat controlled Congress?
• I like Mark Davis as a radio host but he is so over the top on TV. Buddy, you don't have to yell into the mic. (Evidence: Fox 4 last night where he was interviewed after hosting the Tea Party in Grand Prairie.)
• There was a bad crash last night in Dallas where a car went off a bridge (possibly due to street racing.) Channel 5's kinda hawt Kim Fischer posted this cell phone pic of the car as it was hoisted from a creek bed. Oh, my.
• I dated a gal named Kim Fischer once.
• I'm into week six of Nutrisystem and have lost 7 to 8 pounds. I've been keeping track of it in a spreadsheet, and I may post it in the future. It's amazing how your body gets used to smaller portions.
• Months and months ago, I referenced in Random Thoughts that if you're a basketball fan you'd have to suffer through a krillion boring Mavs games only to see them get bounced in the first or second round of the playoffs. I'm sticking with that.
• I may go see Date Night this weekend. Looks funny.
• If you haven't seen all the campers out at the Speedway on race weekend, you should. It's quite the sight.
• Above the fold (not bad):

Sheesh From Today

The guy shows up three hours late for a misdemeanor court date in Tarrant County so the judge orders his bond revoked and taken into custody. The defendant then takes off.

Poor decision making on everyone's part.

Tax Day Pick Me Up

Sandra, Sandra, Sandra

I hear that "he does not need a trial" line all the time. That's insane. What Sandra is really saying is that we should allow the police to determine who is guilty and carry out the punishment with no questions asked.

Uh, and who are "people like them"?

(via Facebook)

I've Been Waiting This To Happen For Years

When Larry married this gal (hey, now), she became his seventh wife. (And part of his eighth marriage since he remarried one of wives along the way.)

But this time he stayed married for 13 years! A record for him!

(And I think her son played quarterback for BYU.)

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• Ted Nugent was on WBAP this morning. That guy is so full of it.
• Sarah Palin spoke at a Tea Party rally in Boston yesterday, and she's almost turned into a caricature of herself. She actually said, ""Yeah, let's drill baby drill, not stall baby stall – you betcha!"
• Of all the news stations, I think Fox 4 pimped the drunk Jerry Jones video the most.
• They made an arrest in the murder of the 17 year old Fort Worth boy in the Wedgewood area of Fort Worth. Maybe I'm losing my mind, but I could have sworn Fox 4 put up a book in photo of a white guy last night. (The alleged killer just happened to be black.)
• New York Times this morning: "Tea Party supporters are wealthier and more well-educated than the general public." Is that any surprise? That older white guys have more money than the young who struggle to get by?
• I've been using Chrome browser more that Firefox lately. And I haven't used Microsoft's Internet Explorer in at least seven years. But I bet most people just use Internet Explorer by default.
• Losing half your prosecutors in one week in the Wise County DA's office would cause quite the headache. (But for those that asked, there's no big scandal or controversy. Just people moving on.)
• The Right has been dogging Obama about wanting to reduce nuclear weapons. Over at bagofnothing.com, he's got a Jon Stewart video showing Ronald Reagan saying he wanted to reduce America's arsenal by "one third" and some day "eliminate nuclear weapons from the face of the earth."
• Motorcycle death in Dallas this morning. (But it's been a pretty quiet Spring.)
• Busy airports in Europe are shut down this morning due to volcanic ash from Iceland. And this includes Heathrow Airport in London. That's a travel nightmare.
• Decatur has a new strip mall up on 287 near Allsups. That sure looks like a ton of empty spaces they'll be trying to rent out. And not one is leased so far.
• The NASCAR race in Texas used to get a lot more publicity than it does now.
• Above the fold: (I may start posting the Star-Telegram instead.)

Drunk Pilot?

Taken this afternoon over Wise County.

(Thanks, Thomas.)

That's So Weird

All the past Mrs. Greens used to flinch when I barked in their ears.

Wise County DA's Office Shake Up

Assistant DA Paige McCormick is resigning to go to work for the Tarrant County DA's office.

Assistant DA Kevin Henry is resigning to enter private law practice with his wife in Denton.

(Be nice in the comments, I have to work with that office.)