12.09.2021

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




A Decatur couple had made it into the old "Cheers and Jeers" column in the Star-Telegram.   

  • I'm hearing we had a defense lawyer "aggressively" make a physical move towards a prosecutor on Monday during a hearing outside the presence of the jury in the Decatur murder trial being held this week in Jack County. I'll try to get the details. 
  • We got an unconstitutional Baby Jesus display in a Wise County government office! Someone get the ACLU on the horn! (The last time I did this, the office manager got very mad at me. Come on, we're having fun here, no?) Side note: Why is the Baby Jesus extra white?

  • This was a feel-good, and incredible, thread of pictures and video yesterday as a person was rescued from a car just feet from going over Niagara Falls. Unfortunately, she died over night.  

  • I think I like Finland politicians. 

  • When have a new arrestee in the Trump Insurrection. This time he is from Keller and not the brightest bulb in the room. 

  • The Sheriff in Clay County, who has been indicted for Official Oppression, held a nonsensical news conference where he tried to defend himself against the charges on why he held two people in jail after a JP had found no probable cause to hold them. 

    • I don't even have to say that he "allegedly" held two people after the finding of no probable cause because he actually admitted to doing it. (5:10) 
    • Instead he tried to throw the JP under the bus which made no sense to me. He claimed "the finding of no probable cause was irrelevant"  because he needed an actual order to release the couple. (8:35) That's a new one to me. A constitutionally required order finding probable cause is what gives him the authority to hold someone after a warrantless arrest. If there isn't a probable cause finding, he loses that authority. And that's what led to the indictment.
    • Legal nerdy stuff: He also seems to say that they tried to amend their affidavits to take another shot at establishing probable cause but the JP failed to rule on them.  Well, if he is of the position that he was waiting on a new probable cause determination (which I don't even think is allowed), art. 17.033(a) requires a person to be release when there has been the absence of a probable cause determination made within 24 hours. That law is in place (since 2001) to prevent a Sheriff from holding someone forever by saying, "Well, no judge has been in to make a probable cause decision, but I'm going to continue to hold the people because I don't have an order from a judge to release them."
    • But, once again, in this case there was a judge who reviewed the case within 24 hours and specifically made a no probable cause finding. But the two people were still held in jail. 
    • And anyone find it odd that the Sheriff used the official Clay County SO Facebook page and the actual sheriff's office, which is county property, for his personal defense?

  • This was a pic of Zeke before yesterday's practice, and I thought to myself that it looked like a simple, good, and probably inexpensive exercise bike. Nope. It's $1,750.

  • Thirty years ago today:

  • Hey, I mentioned the DFW advertising blitz of attorney Thomas J. Henry the other day. He's now made the front page of the San Antonio paper, and it doesn't look like it's in a good way. (Story is unfortunately behind a paywall.)

at 8:35 AM

12.08.2021

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts





Everyone was abuzz this week ten years ago about an "anti-gay ad" put out by then presidential candidate Rick Perry. I found it.   

  •  In the spirit of Christmas, a homeless man torched the Fox News Christmas Tree in Manhattan last night. 

  • With the deadline for local election filings quickly approaching, I would tell you exactly who was running for the Wise County races such as county commissioner, district clerk, county clerk, and county attorney if I was absolutely positive I had all the names. But since that information isn't available on the web, I can't. Incredible. 
  • There was a shooting in the "mall" in Killeen last night where one guy was hit "several times" but lived. The shooter is still on the run.  You would think it was a robbery based upon the photo, but it sounds like he just opened fire and left. A targeted hit? 

  • Here's a wild story that I was not familiar with. (And they do a deep dive into it with lots of links.)

  • COVID: My expert analysis for Texas data reveals that the decrease from the Summer Surge bottomed out on 11/20/21 and then the official Winter Surge began.  We cracked 3,000 in the hospital yesterday, but we are a long way from the 14,000 we reached in August.  I have no idea how high it will get. 
  • I seriously don't know what's going on here.

  • I guess we don't have to worry about Russia's 90,000 troops on the border of Ukraine after all. This is bizarre.

     
  • You've got to look for press coverage of the the Ghislaine Maxwell trial going on this week, and I find that a little surprising. This image was introduced into evidence a couple of days ago. 

  • Tell me you don't understand Texas civil law by telling me you've never heard of a General Denial.

  • Hey, just send me the document, Ok?

  • BYU fun fact: 

  • I've been told to read this book if you want to learn that FDR actually knew beforehand about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. ("It alleges that Franklin Roosevelt and his administration deliberately provoked and allowed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor to bring the United States into World War II. Stinnett argues that the attacking fleet was detected by radio and intelligence intercepts, but the information was deliberately withheld from Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, the commander of the Pacific Fleet at that time.")

  • Every bowl game, teams, date, time, location, TV info, and betting line:

  • Messenger: Above the Fold



at 8:34 AM

12.07.2021

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts





I posted this front page ten years ago so today, out of curiosity, I looked up what happened to the 69 year old Waco Tax-Assessor Collector who had been arrested for misuse of funds. He had his trial the next year when he suddenly pled guilty and begged the jury to give him probation. They did.  But the judge hit him with a 180 days in jail as a condition of that probation. (It's a weird quirk in Texas law that allows a judge to incarcerate someone up to 180 days as a "condition" when the jury has already said they don't think the person needs to be locked up.)  

  • Correction: The guy that presumably shot and killed the Mesquite officer is alive and in the hospital. I don't know why I thought he was dead.
    • We still don't know much about what went down. So far all that has been released is Guy goes to meet Girlfriend in the parking lot and Guy's Wife follows him. Guy's Wife allegedly points gun at Girlfriend.  The officer shows up and was shot by the Guy. Guy gets shot but we really don't know how or by whom (the officer? the Wife? Self-inflicted?) 
  • There was no arrest. The government just seized her money.  How is this government theft legal? 

     
  • Good grief.
  • Random observation: I follow very random lawyers, even in other states. on Twitter who will tweet about their work just because I like seeing what they deal with. Is it a thing to study with someone on a silent zoom call in law school? Or any school?

  • The QAnon JFK nuts in Dallas showed up for the Dallas Christmas Parade over the weekend. And there were a bunch of 'em. Photos and video here.

  • Former Wise County District Clerk Lawana Snider died last week. She was a sweetheart. 
  • Why is Jacksboro's David Spiller campaigning way down in Lampasas?  Because they tricked up his district big time!
    If you were wondering, "Putters and Gutters" is a bowling alley and
    miniature golf course.
    Old District 68
    New District 68

    • Very nerdy random redistricting question: Does a district have to be one continuous geographic piece of land? Would the touching of county corners count? Shackleford and Eastland counties in district 68 seem to touch corners but, once I looked closer, it's not an actual true corner since they are offset by just a few miles where they share a border.
  • Someone help me out on this. If you read this story, it says the intensive program is for felony DWI offenders (people with two prior convictions). That's great. We've got a judge who is thinking outside the box instead of just agreeing to put people in cages.  But the guy who runs the program is a County Court at Law judge who has no felony jurisdiction. So I don't understand it.

  • It's kind of hard to tell when they are for Law and Order and when they are against it. Or maybe you can predict it. 

  • I don't know who that guy it, but he had the best view in the house.


  • Decatur hosts over 50 teams at a basketball tournament this weekend. That's a lot of buses. Below is just all of the varsity games. There's a JV schedule, too. 

  • In case you missed it, New England threw just three passes last night in the wind in Buffalo. And won. 

at 8:34 AM

12.06.2021

Random Monday Morning Thoughts




It was 10 years ago when Lauren Scruggs took a private plane ride to look at Christmas lights and, upon landing, walked into a still-moving propeller of the plane at Addison's airport. She went on to marry some guy named Jason Kennedy who used to be the host of E! apparently.    

  •  The parents of the Michigan school shooter were arrested on involuntary manslaughter charges. I'm normally not a fan of criminal prosecution for negligent and reckless conduct, but the statement the DA read on Friday outlining the facts made me change my mind. I'm not saying they need to be locked up, but something should happen. 

    • They bought the kid a handgun and, four days later, got called into school because a teacher has freaked out about threats she had discovered the kid had written (excerpt below). They were then put in a room with the kid who had his backpack with him, refused to take him home, and didn't seem to consider that he might have had the new gun with him.  And when the shooting started less than two hours later, the mom texted the kid, "Ethan, don't do it.

  • Saturday was a big day for social media posts.
    • A congressman from Kentucky celebrated the birthday of the Prince of Peace.

    • The QAnon Jewish Space Laser congresswoman must think cancer can be spread by contact to make this comparison.

    • Trump finally admitted the election was legit.

  • Bob Dole has passed away.  I was reminded of when he paid his respects to President George H.W. Bush. It was pretty moving because he was so frail. Video. 

  • The shooting death of the Mesquite police officer on Friday is awful, but authorities are extremely and oddly tight lipped about what happened in the grocery store parking lot. They haven't even publicly identified the other person (who is presumably the killer and who also died.)

  • Remember the Clay County Sheriff and Oath Keepers member who was recently arrested for Official Oppression by the Texas Rangers for holding a couple in his jail ?
    • I guessed this.

    • I was right according to today Wichita Falls Times Record News. And, yes, a deputy made the arrest of the couple as well. 

  • The Little Ball of Insurrection is crazy.  She's hoping to lose weight in prison and thinks they'll have "protein shakes." (Fun fact: In the video, she actually got on the bathroom scale and shows us that she clocks in at 170 pounds.)

  • I've been watching Baylor games all my life, and I don't think I've ever seen as exciting of a finish as on Saturday. (Here's a great video of the Baylor chaos on defense before the snap.) Oklahoma State must feel badly, but there is some consolation in knowing that even with a win they would have been shut out of the playoffs because of the way the rest of the games played out. 

  • Remember the Southlake quarterback who skipped his Senior season to enroll early at Ohio State and chase the NIL money?  Well, he has entered the transfer portal. It sounds like he visited both Tech and TCU over the weekend. (Maybe I'm wrong, but I bet he'll regret skipping his Senior year for the rest of his life. We are here for only a short time and the whole point of life is actually living it.)

  • A new state park near Palo Pinto: 


at 8:31 AM

12.03.2021

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

at 2:30 PM
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