Cop vs. Firefighter: Who Ya Got?

How do we explain the arrest of a firefighter by a police officer at the scene of an accident — after an argument over where a fire truck should park? The authorities are still discussing the incident, which took place Tuesday night on California's I-805, where a car had rolled over at the center road barrier. More.

Not Kidding: Duck Dynasty To Sponsor NASCAR Race At Texas Motor Speedway

NASCAR - Duck Commander, the brand of the best-selling duck calls and name of the thriving family-owned company led by the Robertson clan of A&E's "Duck Dynasty" fame, has signed a multiyear agreement to serve as title sponsor of the annual spring NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. More.

Be Careful Out There

This was either in Decatur or Brooklyn. I'm still researching it.

(Man, those snow plows go fast up there.)

Irony: Pete Delkus Mocks Someone Excited About The Weather

Oh my! How will we survive! MT @reeek: @wfaaweather NB Loop 12 at I-30. Blowing snow causing slippery roads. pic.twitter.com/cqQifoCGIt
— Pete Delkus (@wfaaweather) February 6, 2014

Remember...I'm a trained professional. You shouldn't try to do this at home! RT @MeghanGentz: This is no longer a dusting Pete. @wfaaweather
— Pete Delkus (@wfaaweather) February 6, 2014

Edit: He's still at it. The best I can tell is that he's catching flak for predicting a "dusting" when it was a little more than that. He's in full defensive mode now.

Looks like a dusting! Drive carefully. MT @MsPurple760: @wfaaweather roads are slick in Bedford. Still coming down! pic.twitter.com/Gi7ENrJeXd
— Pete Delkus (@wfaaweather) February 6, 2014

Were you hiding in a cave the last 2 days?? RT @ShelbySkrhak: I so wasn't expecting this. @wfaaweather #snowday pic.twitter.com/ZkWWpX12IQ
— Pete Delkus (@wfaaweather) February 6, 2014

I don't forecast traffic just weather! MT @harryhunsicker: A dusting by @wfaaweather has turned into a hockey rink pic.twitter.com/FKQ9pYzGLr
— Pete Delkus (@wfaaweather) February 6, 2014

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• That really did look like snow "dust" (as in "dusting") when it first started falling this morning. (Fox 4 was doing live shots from Decatur again this morning.)
• The traffic sounds crazy at the entrance to Decatur High School -- one of the worst designed entrances and entry ways ever. 
• Edit: Alvord ISD and Poolville ISD now closed.
• Tragic fire in Chico last night but how do they not know by now whether a 14 year old boy was trapped in the house?
• Rangers Ballpark renaming: (1) An insurance company based in McKinney? Something not very big time about that. (2) I don't mind the name being changed, I just hate the $2 graphics that they hauled out. (3) Memories of when Ameriquest held the naming rights -- yet another mortgage company which, despite rants to the contrary, was not forced to provide mortgages by the government. (4) Snow Globe Life Park?
• I finally ate at Babe's in Roanoke. Yes, it was good. But your choices are only fried chicken or chicken fried steak? Kind of surprised they can get away with that. But I've always heard it is crowded.
• And somehow I also ended up at Ricky Bobby's in North Fort Worth. How in the world can that place not be officially associated with (or pay a licensing fee) to the studio which own Talladega Nights? 
• In 1977, a lady escaped a Michigan prison after serving eight months of an 18- to 24-month sentence for attempting to steal clothes from a Detroit-area store. Now 60, she has been "captured" in San Diego and is going back to prison. 
• Texas, the nation's busiest death-penalty state, has now executed five women and 505 men. (A woman was added to the list last night.)
• The city of Dallas is paying its new city manager $405,000 -- That's more than any other city manager in the country. And that seems insane. 
• Channel 5 said Ethan Couch, the so-called affluenza kid, has been in detention since December 12th. Is that right? 
• The Star-Telegram and Fox 4 are really bent out of shape of Judge Jean Boyd closing the juvenile courtroom in Tarrant County to the public over the last couple of months. You can't do that for adult trials or hearings, but that's just not that unusual for juvenile cases. 
• A little known NBA rule was invoked last night that allowed a player who would normally have "fouled out" but remain in the game. 
• "All-Female College Terrified by Creepy Underwear Man Statue" Don't blame 'em. 
• The Aggies have a helicopter they used for recruiting (called, amusingly, a Swagcopter.) When UT's new coach was asked about it yesterday, he said,  “We don’t need gadgets. We’re not going to be a gadget program.” Delicious. 

 

"They Say It's Hard Out Here For A . . . . "

Link.

And, trust me, there's a couple of gold nuggets in that story.

National Signing Day Flashback

I asked this morning who the kid was back in the day who signed his letter of intent from a hot tub.  A quick Google search revealed, I'll be dang, my entry from 2/6/08 which had this:

Thanks to Keith over at bagofnothing.com who sent me this article. . ."My view of the process has been a tad jaundiced since that day in 1989 when Dallas Carter High School's Jessie Armstead announced that he was going to Miami. At the same time, seated in a hot tub, teammate Derric Evans was all bling-blinged out, with a wine glass in one hand and a ballpoint pen in the other, signing his national letter of intent with Tennessee. "Evans, however, never quite made it to the kickoff. That summer, he and another Carter teammate, Gary Edwards, who signed with Houston, were arrested for a spree of armed robberies of video stores and fast-food joints. The judge handed Evans a 20-year sentence, seven of which he served in prison, and Edwards got 16."

That post in 2008, by the way, had a video of Oklahoma's #1 recruit. Joshua Jarboe. That didn't turn out too well either.

Emmitt Getting All Political

Signing Day

Going Purple: Decatur students join Grayson Muehlstein as he signs letter of intent with TCU. http://t.co/hdCbHRbx2i
— Richard Greene (@WCM_RGreene) February 5, 2014

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• It's hard to believe that Jerry Jones has owned the Cowboys for 25 years. The team had only been in existence for 29 years when he bought it. 
• It's National Signing Day. Anyone remember the Dallas kid who signed his letter of intent from a hot tub years ago?
• One feel good story is aTm honoring a scholarship offer to a kid who will never be able to play for the Aggies. 
• Radio Shack is reportedly about to close 500 stores. Does such a strategy ever work or is it just postponing the inevitable? And didn't they try to rename themselves simply "The Shack" a few years ago? 
• It's a rare day when I'm willing to watch a 30 second ad before an Internet video. I'll fight through 10 or 15 second ads, but not half a minute.
• Wrong way driver hits two squad cars in Irving last night. 
• So DMX is going to fight George Zimmerman? I don't know who DMX is but I'd be a little nervous. 
• The Ticket Boys referenced a listener this morning who suddenly died on pneumonia at the age of 32. One of his last tweets was, "I hate that I've been awake since 2:30am this stupid cough won't go away!”
• I got an email from an alleged lawyer yesterday "suggesting" that I take down the story of the girl who got arrested for not paying her bill saying it was borderline "libelous". I did since I'll take down anything that anyone has a serious objection based on accuracy. But that's the first time I've had such a request in years. (And good luck trying to remove a viral story from the Internet.)
• Today's Messenger referred to Rhome as Wise County's third largest city. That made me think Wise County is really small as opposed to Rhome being really big.
• I don't understand this letter to the editor about former judge Sharen Wilson hugging the victims of a DWI death.  Was she the judge assigned to the case? Did she reject the plea bargain? 
• That story on the front page about the Keller woman taking a plea deal is pretty interesting. It even has a youtube interview of her from her jail cell. Edit: Link fixed.

Above The Fold

Update

	Dallas Observer (@Dallas_Observer)
2/4/14, 1:02 PM Denton County Won't Have to Pay For Prosecutor's Lynching, KKK References blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/201…

My Skeptical Meter (Which is Deadly Accurate By The Way) Is Off The Charts

(CNN) -- A mysterious castaway claiming to have been lost at sea for 13 months is now safely back on land, but many questions remain about how he could have lived on his small boat for so long as it drifted across the Pacific Ocean.

The man calling himself Jose Salvador Alvarenga turned up in a heavily damaged boat on a remote coral atoll in the Marshall Islands, claiming that he had been living off fish and turtles he had caught and relying on rainwater, and sometimes his own urine, to drink. (More)

Tuesday Morning Pick Me Up

Can a gal be any hotter than this?

And, yes, you are legit.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• Got lots of emails about this lawyer ad. (By the way, I saw an ad yesterday from Jim Adler, The Texas Hammer, which had him jumping out of a helicopter to help his client. I've got to step up my game.)
• Very random thought: I'd pay money to see Toby Keith and Charlie Daniels on Glee against their will.
• Today, Ted Cruz is"releasing a six-page report on 'The Obama Administration’s Assault on Texas,' highlighting some of the legal friction points between the state and federal governments and warning that Obama has sought to expand federal power at the expense of states, especially Texas." Sheesh. 
• Once I'm done hating on Cruz, Perry, and Abbott, I'll move on to Barry Smitherman. His latest commercial appeals to the lowest common denominator. 
• The members of Motley Cure signed a “Cessation Of Touring Agreement” to prove this will be their last tour. If only it were legally binding. 
• Remember when there was a skating rink and movie theaters at Love Field? I saw Butch Cassidy and and the Sundance Kid there when I was probably 14. 
• The Winter Olympics just doesn't do it for me like the Summer games.
• Philip Seymour Hoffman thought: Go watch or read In Cold Blood and then watch him in Capote.
• As a prosecutor and defense lawyer, I've seen only one heroin case in Wise County in 20 years. You just don't see that stuff. 
• Did I hear correctly that that the autopsy of the body of the son of accused killer Arnav Dhawan showed no signs of trauma? At this point it's not a matter of having a reasonable doubt about her guilt, but I don't think she killed him. 
• Distance for Bridgeport's new UIL district mates:  Aubrey (49 miles), Celina (64 miles), Krum (35 miles), Anna (77 miles), Bonham (109 miles!)
• Would someone please go after the fact that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodall makes $29.5 million a year and that the NFL is a "non-profit" organization. That's insane. 
• I was at a drivers license hearing yesterday, and I'll swear the first lawyer up thought she was Nancy Grace. Lighten' up girl. It's an administrative hearing, not a jury trial. (And the cop she was questioning was fantastic. Even he realized she was nuts.)
• I wonder how many people who say "America is the greatest country in the world" have ever been outside of the country.
• Clean up post: I was taken to task a couple of weeks ago for saying that Jennifer Lawrence would be a "star". Hey, I meant star as in Meryl Streep not Molly Ringwald. Think about it. 
• Josh Brent's jury being made up of "five blacks, four whites and three Hispanics — 'factored that into the equation'" of the sentence of probation per Dallas D.A. Craig Watkins. I'll give him credit for admitting that. 

And The Beat Goes On

If R's get interested in legalizing marijuana to attract young voters, evangelicals will stand in the way http://t.co/xWspoknM1z
— Bud Kennedy (@BudKennedy) February 3, 2014

Tweet from WFAA TV (@wfaachannel8)

	WFAA TV (@wfaachannel8)
2/3/14, 1:47 PM Wise County sees worst of iced-over roads, but few injuries bit.ly/1fTD8bU

Oh, Come On. The Guy Might Have A Point.