6.30.2021

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




That was a very unclear photo from back in the day, but it reminded me that the intersection used to be a death trap with a ton of accidents happening there. Then TxDOT put in a stop light at that location. But that stop light has also been the source of irritation for years because it tends to give preference to cars coming from Business 380. You can't drive down that highway without the light turning red. It has to drive 18 wheeler drivers crazy. 

  • My Bridgeport education ciphering skills are kicking in: His salary is $191,656 which runs through June 2023 = $383,312 in property tax payments.

  • Trump tried to rob the Pentagon for his Wall charade and now Abbott, who is suddenly trying to transform his image into that of a Baby Trump, now robs from TDC.  What gives? Does no one care that the executive branch just ignores the line item budget allocations approved by the legislative branch? Side note: Abbott and Trump are going out on date today at the border. 

  • There was a road rage incident last week on I-35 near North Tarrant Parkway which left a motorcyclist dead from a gunshot. Fort Worth PD finally released a statement explaining what happened which revealed Fort Worth PD needs both a writer (it's horrible) and an editor. 


  • County Judge J.D. Clark has collected this fantastic postcard sent in 1909 with a photo of the Wise County Courthouse. 
    That is a photograph, right?

    “Dear Little Boy: How are you? I wish I could see you.  Will write you a letter some of these days. We are well. I am mad because you are not coming to see us. Aunt Eve" Note sure about the "Eve" part. It was sent to Master Edmund K. Smith in Wewoka, OK.

  • State executions in Texas have decreased dramatically, but one will occur tonight arising out of an incident in Tarrant County. A detailed recitation of the facts of the case is here.

  • Fox News' Tucker Carlson is a charlatan, and I don't believe his claim that the NSA is "spying" on him. I equally don't believe this highlighted portion of the NSA statement in response. At least I don't believe they honor that legal restriction. 

  • Your annual reminder that fireworks technology has not improved in 50 years. 
  • Mark Cuban's hiring of Cynt Marshal in 2018 was a ridiculous and obvious con job to try put out a PR disaster. (I'll never forget how she said at her initial press conference that she didn't know who Cuban was before he called her.) This, also, is a con job:

  • Sports tidbit: I couldn't believe this fact about Mississippi State who is trying to win the College World Series today.  I also couldn't believe K-State is on that short list.

  • Sports tidbit #2: The fact that we are watching a modern day Babe Ruth isn't getting enough coverage. This is amazing. 

  • Messenger: Above the Fold


at 8:30 AM

6.29.2021

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts




A lot going on here. (1) Rick Perry was governor ten years ago, (2) the law would eventually be passed in Texas in 2017, (3) I can't believe I was in favor of his veto back then, and (4) two months later he announced that he would run for President.
  • Get out your taxpaying checkbook? The superintendent makes around $180,000 a year and may have a couple of years left on his contract.  "Tax and spend" has a whole new meaning in this county lately. 

  • Random Bridgeport billboard:

  • In even more Bridgeport news, it looks like they are getting a Starbucks. 
  • I don't want to hear from a pool contractor or the president of the HOA who might have seen some aesthetically unpleasing deterioration.  I want to hear from a competent engineer. 


  • Dumb and insensitive question: Could you just walk along that public beach to look at the damage if you wanted to? You could certainly get a boat really close. 

  • I talked to a Wise County man who was at that Fort Worth gun show last weekend where a woman was shot. She'll be fine, by the way.  He said that when the gut went off, I hand full of people moved to the exits, a couple of people pulled out guns, but almost everyone else just stood around and looked. 


  • It's not quite as good as the "Archie Bunker moment" from yesterday, but an angry caller got through in this Rhome Zoom meeting. Cued up here. Side note: The councilman in the lower left hand corner isn't asleep -- his screen just froze for a while. 

  • Since 2007, the Texas legislature has allowed for police to write a "citation" in a very few misdemeanor offenses where cops had traditionally arrested you.  These offenses included possession of small amounts of weed, graffiti and misdemeanor theft.  That change in 2007 only meant one thing: Instead of being arrested and having to spend money to bond out and then go to court, you were just given a piece of paper to simply show up in that very same court. Yep, it was the same court with the same potential penalty (which included jail time). If you didn't show up, an arrest warrant could be issued (just like you hadn't shown up after bonding out.) The change in the law simply got rid of the hassle of the initial arrest and bond.
    • Fort Worth PD just announced they will implement that policy (even though they've been doing it in pot cases for years.) 

    • Local talk show host Mark Davis doesn't understand any of this. He's a moron. And he tipped his hand to this the moment he wrote "thick."

  • These kind of stories are disturbing. They had only been married since 2019.


  • Random Class C criminal case filed in Wise County yesterday that got my attention. 

  • The most frustrating thing about Supreme Court decisions is that they've grown so fact specific that they are almost worthless. The Vulgar Cheerleader case really doesn't give us any fast and hard rule. Compare cases like Miranda (1966) which didn't have any qualms about laying down a bright line.
    • Another example of this was a little publicized case released that week which said cops can't pursue a fleeing suspect into their home if that person is wanted only on a misdemeanor. But the case didn't really say that at all. It all depends on what the misdemeanor is (which doesn't help at all for future cases since there are thousands of different kinds misdemeanor offenses.) And spending 45 pages discussing it doesn't help.

  • I'm not sure if I'm the editor of a paper in Washington state where the temperature his 115 degrees, that I'd put a photo with the story showing a guy acting like it's fun experience. 
at 8:30 AM

6.28.2021

Random Monday Morning Thoughts




About 10 years ago, it was still pretty rare for Wise County law enforcement to get a warrant for blood in every DWI case. Now it happens all the time, even in misdemeanor DWI cases, if a person doesn't "voluntarily" consent to the taking.    
  •  Overnight: And the fighting never ends. 

  • Boyd High School has solved its football head coaching problem by just hiring Decatur's defensive coordinator.  Is this the beginning of the fallout due to the forced resignation of Mike Fuller, Decatur's head coach, a few days ago? (Fuller broke his Twitter silence by showing support for the new Boyd coach.) 
  • A faithful reader sent me this "Archie Bunker moment" of a recent Rhome City Council meeting. It is at 1:48:20 and should be cued up here. 

  • Runaway Bay had its fireworks display last weekend, but during the day they brought in a helicopter which buzzed boaters with some low flying over Lake Bridgeport. (Facebook video.) 

  • Derek Chauvin received 22 1/2 years in prison on Friday, but it was a weird moment when he briefly spoke and said to George Floyd's family that "there will be additional information that will be of interest to you." No one seems to know what that means. 

  • This stunt, during Stage 1 of the Tour De France, did not turn out well. You can see the 100 person pile-up that it caused in this Youtube video.


  • The little Trump Insurrectionist Real Estate Agent out of Carrollton has a new boyfriend. 

    • Speaking of, using the first plea bargain as a guide, she's probably just looking at three years probation. 
  • I've mentioned the Indian Restaurant, Punjabi Dhabba, in between Alvord and Decatur, and I'm getting reports it is packed oftentimes by people from the metroplex because it is so "authentic."  
  • We are literally wearing out highways to spend our money in other states. 

  • Fake Redneck Anti-Vaxxer takes shot at Fake Redneck.

  • Something seems wrong with Washington and Oregon. 

  • A hammer thrower got everyone worked up over the weekend. 

  • We don't know any more than we did last week . . . 

at 8:30 AM

6.25.2021

It's Friday -- Let's Get Out of Here

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




This was kind of a funny headline out the the Weatherford Democrat, but the chase actually ended up in Wise County with quite the consequences.  The charge somehow got upgraded to Attempted Capital Murder, and Timothy Herring received 20 years in prison.   
  • The "action shots" of the arrests of the Wise County suspects who had been on the run are a little weird. The Wise County Sheriff's Office, who got them immediately from police in Arkansas, posted them on Facebook. And the photos didn't originate from any news media photographer. If I had to guess, I'd say they are just screenshots taken from police bodycams since it would be odd to have a law enforcement still photographer just snapping pics at that time.  But after a week of negative press, they have a suspiciously intentional positive PR feel to them.

  • An odd Texas Ranger arrest in Wise County last night for the offense of "Hindering Apprehension." This guy is listed with a home address in Rhome. A female was also arrested with an address in Boyd. 

  • The Star-Telegram updated its story on the "resignation" of Decatur Coach Mike Fuller with a photo (suitable for framing) and by publishing Fuller's salary at $122,670.44. Since the school board was forced to pay Fuller the remainder of his contract in exchange for getting rid of him, the school board burned $81,000 for no reason at all.  Think about that the next time you look down at the amount of your escrow payment on your mortgage. 

  • I'm very confused. That building in Miami, which could withstand a hurricane, just fell down? The number of missing is up to 159.

  • What a time to be alive. (This is real.) 

  • America's Mayor and Trump's long time lawyer was suspended yesterday from the practice of law in New York for lying. He's had a heck of a year. 



  • Good bit or no?

  • The Star-Telegram has another story today about Tarrant County "turning blue" with another litmus test being the upcoming administrative County Judge's race.  They cite that both Beto and Biden carried Tarrant County. I'll say it again: Tarrant County has not turned Blue. You'll know it when down-the-ballot races (where no one knows who they are voting for so they have to default to their party of choice) go to Democrats. That did not happen last November. Don't look at races like Biden or Beto. Instead just look at the district judge results last November. Tarrant County, for the time being, is clearly 53% Red and 47% Blue.:

  • This reporter got dogged to no end after she posted this. Original post with comments here. Collection of some of the best replies here. 

  • I just read about this incident in Cult of Glory: The Bold and Brutal History of the Texas Rangers.  The real story should put an end to the myth of "One Riot, One Ranger."  Four Rangers, including famed Ranger Frank Hamer, simply drove away leaving George Hughes to the hands of a mob. 

  • This looks like a good long read over the weekend from the Rolling Stone. The renegade pilot had no experience flying a plane but was able to do a loop and various stunts in a stolen commercial plane. Footage of it, as well of his audio communications with the tower, are all over Youtube. 

  • Time which has passed since the Wise County Sheriff's Office has failed to solve the murder of Lauren Whitener in her home at Lake Bridgeport: 721 days.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold



at 8:33 AM
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