Attempted Robbery In Houston

Did that glass break because the guy ran into it or did a bullet shatter it?

Sign Abuse (And Loneliness) In Decatur Back Alley

Callback From Yesterday and DPS' Press Machine

A bus carrying 37 high school students was hit by a pickup this morning in Fort Worth. Minor injuries. https://t.co/OkbkZy174d

— Star-Telegram (@startelegram) October 18, 2016

Remember that DPS announced they would have troopers in school buses or following them for this week? Let's take a look at that announcement.

Just like there was no trooper around or in the bus that was involved in the wreck this morning in Fort Worth, DPS probably isn't doing anything different this week. And you can't say they are lying in the press release. It just said:

• troopers (plural so two would suffice) 
• in "many areas" (how vague is "many" and "areas")
• will either be 
• riding on buses OR 
• following them. 

That wouldn't take much, if anything, to satisfy the promise.  But they got the free and good PR out of it. 

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• Big 12 Expansion: Texas and OU are at a bad dinner party with the Big 12 and are just buying their time until they leave. And then expect to hear they got a quickie divorce themselves.
• We've got a fake clown on a lawn in Decatur with the sign "Free Hugs" above it. We support funny current events humor.
• Did you see the insane dripping-blood-finger from pitcher Trevor Bauer during last night's ALCS? I heard this morning that the umpires may not have had a right to keep him from playing. I could actually be an idiot on that -- I have no idea.
• Time magazine lost its mind yesterday.
  
• No one outside of their teens should utter the words "throw shade."
• "Does this microphone work?" - Jason Garrett yesterday getting frustrated with QB questions. The Dak/Romo discussion has already given me Tired Head as well. 
• For a while there was a rash of motorcycle deaths and wrong way drivers in the metroplex. It's picked up again with one on Central this morning where the wrong-way driver, identified as Lauren Cordova, 27, died along with the other car's driver, Hussein Zaybek, 23. There was a combination of both in Rowlett two days ago involving a motorcycle going the wrong way and colliding with a car.  Then there was the passenger motorcycle death in Fort Worth on early Saturday morning. 
• Late yesterday, a Wise County jury was -- for the first time to my knowledge --assessing punishment for Possession of Marijuana < 2 ounces, a Class B misdemeanor. (I think it was a guilty plea.) Court records this morning show that he was sentenced to 180 days in jail but that the sentence was probated by that same jury. The probation term is for one year. I don't see  a fine as being part of the punishment.  (Court costs will run around $300, probation fees $720, and a multi-hour "drug class" to get his license back which for some reason is suspended by the State because of any drug conviction. And I'm leaving out some other fees, costs and hoops.)
• I'm not sure I understand Hillary doing a one week ad buy in Texas. I would understand it if the buy had been done by DNC or some Democratic SuperPAC with the ads focusing on  Dallas, Houston, El Paso, and Austin because those are places Democrats lower down on the ballot can win. 
• We've got a six week trend of NFL ratings being much lower than past years.  Could Mark Cuban have possibly been right when he said the NFL was "greedy" and "Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered"?
• Let's check in on a Trump rally in Green Bay yesterday and pray this all ends soon:
  
• Moment of silence for Billy Bush. 
• The most recent text you sent is now your presidential campaign slogan. Go. 

Potential Terrorism News Out Of Austin Turns Out To Be Double Fake

UPDATE: Suspicious package was a jar of pickled okra, police determine https://t.co/Zkz8zPGdvb https://t.co/mPgEtbytiF

— Austin Statesman (@statesman) October 17, 2016

Oklahoma State Coach Has Hot Opinion On Phones

I'm not sure I follow this, but in the end we might be able to blame everything on smart phones.  Go to any location where there is a crowd with a few minutes to kill and everyone is staring into a screen. So Gundy might have a point. (And how can you disregard any words from a man who wants yelled at a reporter, "I'm a man! I'm 40!")

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• "Thousands of DWI cases potentially at risk as credibility of DPS lab expert questioned" - Dallas Morning News. The guy has testified in Wise County before. (And there seems to be, or at least should be, more to the story than one incident of "conflicting" testimony. The story wasn't all that clear.)
• The Messenger's headline seemed a little matter of fact for the case just being at the indictment stage. 
  
• I'll refer to Mark Davis show on 660 AM  from time to time but I'm  worried about his radio station. Their website for the last week looks like someone forgot to pay the bill. (The home page redirects you to a page with "suspended" in the URL.)
• 
• Steve Eagar, the mild mannered Fox 4 anchor, can be a grumpy old man on Twitter. He fired off a tweet on Friday that sounded a little sensational. I called him out on it -- which is dumb on my part because twitter wars are dumb. He responded.
• 
  
  
  
  
  
• I still question that a detective just happening to drive up on a gunfight. (Dallas PD will later vaguely report that "The officer was in plainclothes driving an unmarked police vehicle at the time of the shooting.") But the officer wasn't shot in the foot. #LivingTheReclinerLife #SomewhatInaccurate
• I'll give Eagar credit -- he's an entertaining follow. Most of the reporters on the station will tweet out something like: "Taco Shells! Flour or corn!? Fav for flour or retweet for corn!" 
• In between Trump calling the election "rigged", he was able to solve a crime in record time over the weekend. 
  
• And he got a little weird this morning and is still going strong:
  
• Sports opinions: (1) I bet the Cowboys will run Elliott into the ground under his rookie contract and then let him go to free agency. It's the new NFL way. (2) I'm not sure UT's Shane Buechele can throw the deep ball. (3) They shouldn't allow blitzing in pee wee football. (4) Alabama will throttle unbeaten aTm this Saturday. (5) How much did Microsoft spend on the Surface campaign which is everywhere during an NFL game? And does anyone own a Surface? (6) Heard in the house during Packers' game: "Look, there's Jo Jo's brother-in-law." (7) I don't want to see Romo giving Prescott advice on the sidelines. (8) The Big 12 makes an expansion decision today, and know one knows what the crazy school presidents will decide. I'm not sure they do right now as they eat breakfast.
• Risky Business was on the other night. I have never thought for a second that Rebecca De Mornay was attractive. 
• Man, there are a lot of troopers: "According to the DPS, troopers will either ride on school buses or follow them as they make their rounds during National School Bus Safety Week, Oct. 17 through 21 . . . ."

It's Friday. Let's Get Out Of Here.

 "Here, kitty kitt . . . "

 I don't know. Car just got a little loose on me. 

 Makeup = Magic.

 See what happens when Sgt. Hulka is in the hospital?

"Shimmy shimmy cocoa what?"

A Metaphor For All Of Our Daily Lives

We actually do this with The Family Pup and the coffee table. For some reason, the game was nicknamed "Gimmee".

Shark Week Post

WATCH: Terrifying video captures great white shark breaking open diver's cage with diver still inside. pic.twitter.com/xomaxFjuQe

— Good Morning America (@GMA) October 14, 2016

And around the thirty second mark we have a "Now you ask?" moment.

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• In the Land of the Free, let's check in on what Denton considers illegal and will lock someone up for: 

• For the first time in fifty years, no member of the Board of Regents at Baylor will be in the homecoming parade. The reason? They don't want to face the angry masses for their ridiculous mishandling of a crisis.
• Trump sure was playing the victim of a "vast right wing/left wing/media conspiracy" yesterday. 
• For the first time ever, I paid for lawn care this summer. The verdict: Why didn't I do this sooner? 
• I didn't know that WFAA's Cynthia Izaguirre told John McCaa on the air that she was sad about the Rangers' loss "but golly, they are healthy and they've got great jobs and maybe there is next year." Hey, Izzy -- may I call you Izzy? - Don't try to cross talk about sports.  (I can't find a link.) 
• "Police in Carrollton, Texas, were surprised with a choreographed dance routine when they responded to a noise complaint." Video. I thought that story was about a group calling the cops out for the surprise but, if the story is to be believed, it was a legitimate noise complaint and not guys trying to become famous via youtube. Maybe. 
• After Ken Bone's popularity declined because of the Uber ad, it really took a hit when it was discovered what he had posted on Redditt. (He had a couple of hot criminal justice and porn opinions.)  I bet he'll turn into a Ken Bone broke bad meme today.
• "The Chico Community Volunteer Fire Department is holding Dr. Demented’s Haunted House of Mayhem . . . ." I bet they sat around the table and argued about that name for a while. And, of course, not to be confused with Dr. Demento or this 2001 thriller:
  
• Hey, I've never heard of that book but someone explain the two categories of paperback prices for it on Amazon. 
  
• The Dallas Police and Fire Pension is going belly up with the $2.39 billion fund to become insolvent by 2028. The again, if any pension fund will get saved by the taxpayers, it will be that one. (Doesn't the Fund own the high rise that reflects sun onto the sculpture museum?)
• Speaking of my healthy skepticism, the three Gainesville Clown Home Invaders were arrested. All were under 15 and the incident allegedly has something to do with the victim's son. (WBAP said this morning that the "lead" in the case came when one of the boys was identified by the victim by his clothes.  Cue the Serial theme.) And it looks like only one of them was wearing a clown mask. I'll continue my award winning investigation into these "facts". 
  
• Speaking of WBAP, sports director Steve Lamb quizzed the crew on naming the seven Dallas Cowboys to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Someone pipped up with "Emmitt Smith". Lamb said, "No."  After a brief awkward silence someone asked, "You sure this isn't a list of just quarterbacks?" Lamb said, "Nope. All time Cowboys." Oops. They eventually convinced him. 
• That kid who threw the old governor's portrait out of the Texas capitol building is a TCU student. We will continue to seek justice for Gov. Fletcher Stockdale.

That Escalated Quickly

I'm guessing "EPO" means "Emergency Protective Order".

Man, when the judge kept doubling down on the sentence it was just like that scene from The Breakfast Club where Bender keeps getting a longer and longer detention.

Is Nothing Pure? Is Nothing Sacred?

Everyone wants to know if I've decided... and I have. uberSELECT helps you ride in style like me https://t.co/HyOS8z9SRd

— Ken Bone (@kenbone18) October 13, 2016

The guy from the debate the other night embraced his new found fame and was having fun with it. Now he has sold out to The Man with this ad coming from his Twitter account.

Oklahoma CSI

Story.

And the strangest line from that story: "According to cops, multiple witnesses claimed to have seen a video of Saunders’s murder but no one has provided a copy of it." That's it. No more details. 

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• We have a home invasion by clowns story coming out of Gainesville where the victim was reportedly shot in the face with a BB gun. I cannot begin to tell you how many red flags are in this story. Something doesn't add up. 
• Trump has women coming out of the woodwork making accusations. That oddly doesn't seem like it should be news. I just kind of assumed they existed. 
• The Johnson County Sheriff's Office lost a bunch of guns and ended up paying "a deputy killer's wife" $20,000. I bet the police evidence room in general is a lot more of a wheels off place than we realize.
• "The former Texas DPS trooper who arrested Sandra Bland wants a second grand jury to reconsider his indictment." Uh, it doesn't work that way. 
• Trump is the Republican nominee and Bob Dylan an hour or so ago won the Nobel Prize in Literature. These times they are a changin'. 
• "I've done an informal poll of most of most of the offices in the courthouse and almost every woman is still going to vote for Trump" - A buddy of mine yesterday.
• Strangest metaphor I heard on the radio from a caller regarding this election: "If my daughter is at the prom and she needs a ride home and there are two choices, one a guy who is known to be a speeding and reckless driver and had a car that's beaten up or, two, a guy who is known to be sexually aggressive and has alcohol on his breath, I know which one I want her to choose." I've never been more confused in my life and the talk show host, Mark Davis, was equally confused. I still don't know which one he would have chosen. 
• Stolen from Junior Miller of The Ticket - the top five theme songs from TV: (5) MASH, (4) Magnum P.I., (3) The Rockford Files - which does sound like Styx plays it, (2) The Sopranos, (1) Sanford and Son.  That list is a total disaster. I'd start by putting the theme from Law and Order in there. 
• We've got another missing woman story in the metroplex where some man she knew is a suspect.  
• I wonder how we've never heard of any of the the hundreds of kids whose faces are on the posters in the front of Walmart. 
• I hate hockey. I don't watch hockey. I'm a hockey idiot. But even I understand the crazy news from last night that Auston Matthews, the nineteen year old #1 pick for the Toronto Maple Leafs, scored four goals in his first game.
• Speaking of magazine covers: 
  
• You don't see this very often: A Dallas judge resigned "after other justices said his work had suffered and he had anger issues while battling alcoholism and depression." (He was on the verge of being removed.) It's even odder when you learn he was an appellate judge and not a trial judge.

There's A Very Good Argument This Is The Way It Should Be Done

The UNDERHAND FREETHROW IS BACK!!#NBACHINA pic.twitter.com/Pxn5VTBIDg

— Kenny Smith (@TheJetOnTNT) October 12, 2016

The great Malcolm Gladwell had a podcast this summer discussing that, from a physically logistical standpoint, the underhand free throw gives a person much less chance of error, and he brought in the great Rick Barry to explain.

The fact that the underhand free throw isn't used today can basically be traced to one thing: People are fearful of being made fun of.

Some Details

FORT WORTH - The former Rhome police chief and candidate for Wise County sheriff is accused of threatening to climb the Rhome water tower and shoot the ex-Rhome mayor.

Brandon Davis, 41, of Justin, also is accused in a Wise County indictment of telling the ex-mayor, Louis Godfrey, that he was going to “kick” or “beat” “his ass.”

Full story.

One very interesting aspect is that "Officials with the Texas Attorney General’s Office investigated the case and presented it to the Wise County grand jury" and not the local DA's office.  The AG's office has an ominous sounding name but (1) those guys aren't day to day prosecutors and can get in over their heads way too quickly and easily, and (2) the chances of them understanding Wise County and/or Rhome are next to nothing.

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• One day there won't be magazine covers:
  
• Trump said yesterday  at the fundraiser in Dallas (per this radio gal) that our state congressperson Kay Granger sent her regrets for being unable to attend. I don't know what's going on. The Texas Tribune says her call for Trump to quit was unequivocal.: 
  
• To the Trump supporters who keep referring to his comments as "private", give me a break. He was mic'd up, on a TV show's bus, and in front of strangers and Billy Bush.
• I keep seeing the Parker County district attorney’s office expressing outrage at the Board of Pardon and Paroles for paroling a man "who served six of the 20 years he accepted for causing the death of his infant son." Hey, the DA's office knew exactly that he would have been eligible for parole by now. In fact, before now.
• Once many years ago the Messenger and I got on the same page for me to write a blog for them. They even went so far as to create and run this ad to mimic the cover of a novel. 
•                                                
• The arrest of the former chief of police of Rhome was off of a "sealed indictment".  That is, instead of a warrant being issued, an arrest made, the case reviewed by the DA, and then presented to a grand jury, the case was simply presented to the grand jury and, once indicted, a warrant was then issued. It's "sealed" to prevent the warrant from being known by the person to be arrested. Once the arrest is made, it becomes "unsealed."  
• How is Robert Jeffress still the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas?
• How can this be possible?:
  
• These are showing up on top of utility polls in Houston. What are they?:
  
• That's three questions in a row. I need answers. 
• The White House just released a report named "Preparing for the Future of Artificial Intelligence" which means I won't read it yet am now reminded of how bad the Spielberg movie A.I. was.
• It might be in the Republican's Party long term interest for Trump to get crushed. If he wins (not gonna happen), can you imagine future elections when others try to duplicate his style because it worked? 

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/community/weatherford-star-telegram/wt-news/article106367602.html#storylink=cpy