Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

Despite the weather, it's UIL Realignment Day. Decatur and Bridgeport were in the same district a decade ago.

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• Weather notes:
• We have officially entered into the Ted Cruz Cancun Watch Mode. 
  
  
  
• Highway 287 was completely shut down in Alvord around 8:30 last night due to the ice and wrecks. 
  
  
  
• The Lake Bridgeport/Twin Hills area lost power around 9:00 p.m. which was not restored until after 4:00 a.m.  Over 500 homes were left in the dark and cold. 
• The precipitation was/is pretty much like we expected with the exception that the roads aren't as slick as you would expect -- despite what they look like. Here's downtown Bridgeport early this morning: 

  

  Photo by Police Chief Steve Stanford (who is competing
  with me as the Hardest Working Man in Show Business.)

  
  
• Looking at the traffic cams in DFW this morning on the news, there aren't many vehicles on the road, but those who are seem to be moving at a pretty good clip. But there are exceptions: 
  
  
  
• When I was a kid, we had to listen to the radio and watch for the TV scroll to see if school was cancelled. It was the closest we ever came to feeling the level of angst that a college football player experiences as he waits to see if his name would be called out at the NFL draft. 
• Breaking: Looks like we killed an Big Evil Doer overnight.  There had been a $10 million reward offered for the whereabouts of the guy. 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• But the AP earlier reported that we killed some Non Evil Doers in the attack.  We also had to blow up one of our own helicopters which had become inoperable. 
  
  
  
• A former Tarrant County Justice of the Peace was convicted yesterday of lying to get a homestead tax exemption. Guess which part of the sentence makes me roll my eyes; "In Criminal District Court 3, visiting Judge Daryl Coffey sentenced Wright to four years of probation, 10 days in jail and a $2,500 fine [and] also ordered that she write in the next 90 days a 50-page essay apologizing for her behavior."  Side note: Fifty!? I'd roll my eyes if it were five. 
  
  
  
• The man who fixes stuff for the Cowboy is retiring. He came in with Jimmy Johnson from the University of Miami and has been here ever since. And he knows where all the bodies are buried. 
  

  
  
• When Jerry Jones made an appearance in HBO's Entourage, Dalrymple was by his side. 
  
  
  
• Help a defeated President stage a coup and America will reward you with an appearance on a silly prime time show on Fox 
  
  
  
• That's a lot of prosecutors, but you can never let a perceived crime crisis go to waste:
  
  
  
• Legal nerd stuff just to show just how insufferable the Fifth Circuit federal appellate court is. (Source for what follows.)
• A lawyer scheduled for oral argument asked to present it remotely due to COVID concerns. He filed a formal motion to do so.
  
  
  
• The Court said no. Ok, admittedly that's not too bad and could probably be expected.
• But when the lawyer appears to do the oral arguments and walks up to the podium, this exchanged took place. You can listen to it here. 
  
  
  
• It's just a matter of time before these things and drones are everywhere watching everything. (This article about their use on the border is from the Department of Homeland Security website.)
  
  
  
• This (embarrassing) video put out last week by LSU of its new coach dancing with a potential recruit took quite the turn yesterday when the player signed with Alabama instead of LSU.
  
  
  
• During UT's crazy basketball visit to Lubbock this week, I learned that the "Lubbock Gorilla Lawyer" was a big player in Tech promotions.  Good lord. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• I bet you had no idea the Olympics had started or that the U.S. Women's Hockey Team was playing as I post this.

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

Romney won Florida this week and the Republican nomination was sealed.  Things happen

 fast in the first two months of an election year.

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• Plummeting (seven day average): 

  

  Correction: I screwed up my "modified" chart on Monday by
  superimposing a single day total on a seven day average graph.

  
  
• Weather: My award winning weather prediction from yesterday still stands with one exception: The start of the drop in temperatures was delayed by about two hours.  We will now hit freezing at around 6:30 to 7:00 p.m. today which means we wont see the freezing rain start until after that. Snow won't begin until around 5:00 a.m. but will still taper off at noon. The net result is that this will be a slightly larger ice event than expected. I'm lowering the snow predictions to 1.8 inches. All of Wise County is going to be shut down. 
• School districts were announcing yesterday that they would be closed for Thursday and/or Friday, including Lancaster, Dallas and Garland.  I can't remember school cancellations happening two days in advance of a winter storm. 
• Delkus' projections as of this morning:
  
  
  
• It's Ground Hog Day.  To be honest, I'm not sure I knew about the time that a mayor literally killed a ground hog by dropping him. Yep, he died a few days later. Story and video.
  
  
   
• The (under indictment) Clay County sheriff is doing a Valentine's Day bit.
  
  
  
• Tarrant County DA candidate Matt Krause, who has never tried a criminal case before a jury, has released a TV commercial. It is just as bad as his experience, and it has an extreme car salesman feel to it.
  
  
  
• You've got to spend a second to figure out how it works, but this is a great website of searchable campaign contributions for candidates in Texas, and it is up to date. Here's a screenshot for a search of Rep. David Spiller (R-Jacksboro).
  
  
  
• The West Texas oilmen who used to run the Empower Texans PAC, Farris Wilks and Tim Dunn, have money to burn. They have given governor candidate Don Huffines, who stands no chance, $1 million.  They are now funneling the money through a PAC called "Defend Texas Liberty" which they have donated $4.3 million to since January 1st.  That PAC has given $50,000 to Texas House candidate Shelly Luther. 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• If you seen the billboard in Decatur for little known governor candidate Kandy Horn, you aren't the only one.  
  
  
  
• Today's Messenger pays a lot of attention to a recent Rhome City Council meeting where at least one audience member was thrown out. I haven't watched it, but the whole video is here. (Thanks emailer.)
  
  
  
• The Washington Football team, moments ago, announced their new name, but yesterday a television helicopter with a fantastic zoom lens was able to peer in a window at FedEx Field to spoil the announcement.   Video.
  
  
  
• Kinda legal nerdy stuff: There was a major legal error yesterday in the pleading of Brian Flores, the fired Dolphins coach who has sued the NFL for discrimination. 
  
  
  
• Criminal justice guru Grits for Breakfast is spot on with this observation:
  
  
  
• I'm really surprised Texas or Florida hasn't passed a law to ban Black History Month. Seriously. 
• Messenger: Above the Fold

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

This was a pretty funny video. A guy was holding a press conference about a casino accident,

and a bus driver just pulls up and shuts it down because they were blocking her

way. I've got it cued up for you. 

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• Everybody listen up. I've got my preliminary weather projections from the Liberally Lean Weather Lab beginning tomorrow:
• The temperature never goes up. It will be 56 degrees at midnight tonight and goes down from there.
• We hit the freezing mark at around 4:30 p.m. tomorrow.
• The rain begins early in the afternoon. I think freezing rain and sleet begins around 6:00 p.m. That will continue four hours until around 3:30 a.m. when it turns to snow. It'll continue to snow until it tapers off around noon on Thursday. I'll put amount of snow at 2.2 inches. 
• Thursday morning, as it is snowing, it will be 17 degrees. Our high will be 22 degrees with no sun at all that day. 
• Conduct yourselves accordingly. 
• The trickiest part is trying to figure out how much will be snow and how much will be ice.  Delkus thinks this:
• Ice:
  
  
  
• Snow:
  
  
  
• I guess this works. They sprayed 287 on Sunday. 
  
  
  
• Is this trial just going to be a swearing match? Here is the key sentence: "The accuser, who is now an adult, told police the abuse happened on three occasions between 2004 and 2006. They were between 4 and 6 years old at the time." The alleged victim came forward in 2019. 
  
  
  
• Wise County is in a new House District which it shares with Denton, and we have inherited an incumbent named Dr. Lynn Stucky. The Dallas Morning News has endorsed him calling him a "serious" and "effective" conservative, and says bluntly: "Republicans have a clear choice here. They should vote for the serious conservative who has shown he can do the job. That is Dr. Lynn Stucky."  As to his opponent, they pointed out that one of his ideas for border security "was somehow engineering the Rio Grande to increase its water depth."
  
  
  
• Cancel culture? In a sample of 100 school districts in Texas, they reported they had one total request to ban a book all last year. Through the first four months of this school year, that number is 75.
  
  
  
• A former Texas prosecutor and Baylor Law School graduate, Katie Nielsen, has been "publicly reprimanded" for hiding evidence. She was fired in 2019 as outlined in this pretty scathing story. I'm a little more concerned about the fact she was prosecuting and innocent man: 
  
  
  
  
• Trump is ranting about something this morning, but it's interesting he is now putting January 6th in quotes. 
  
  
  
• In Copperas Cove near Waco, seven students were arrested for "riot participation" after a basketball game on-court brawl a couple of weeks ago. Now fans have been banned for the rest of the year.  The video is not that bad. 
  
  
  
• Man, I've been preaching this for a while.  DPS acts like a campaign lapdog for Gov. Abbott.  
  
  
  
• Tech fans greeted the UT bus last night ahead of tonight's game. Video. (Warning: Tech mother's would not be pleased with the language of those young men.)
  
  
  
• While listening to CBS News at the top of the hour on radio, one of their top stories was a "brawl" at a Golden Corral involving 40 people in Erie, Pennsylvania. Here's the video.