Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

Ten years ago I was actually industrious enough to round up prizes for the Pick 'Em Tourney. (That's not happening this year.)  I remember the day the guy who won the Lebron jersey picked it up. He was disappointed that it wasn't nicely framed behind glass. 

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• Speaking of, last chance to enter the Liberally Lean Tourney. Sign-ups shut down in a couple of hours. You boys are doing good since we've now cracked over one hundred entries. Remember, this is a tricked up scoring system that rewards upsets.
  
  
  
• I don't doubt these numbers, but I'm not sure exactly where this is happening.  Of the tons of videos we've seen, I don't think I've seen one involving a battle between two sets of soldiers. Maybe I'm just missing them. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• A "natural and necessary cleaning."  Make no mistake, it can happen there. And, based upon what we've seen in recent years, it could happen here if a certain percentage of Americans get their way. 
  
  
  
  
• Back to our simple life: Our storm risk today is a short window between 5:30 and 6:30 this evening, and then it's only at 36%.     The greater danger is a spark near a grassy field in the high winds.
• I've said it before, I don't know who Fox4Terry is, who identifies himself as a "deep night photojournalist roaming the dark streets of DFW in search of news", but he's good at his job. But I never see his photos featured on the regular Fox 4 TV newscasts.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• And another DNA case solved by identifying family members and then doing leg work. Their sheriff's office raised $4,000 and used the Texas based private firm Othram to find the match.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• This incident in San Diego is being framed as police shooting someone who attacked them with a knife.  That isn't even close to accurately telling the whole story, and it was all caught on video.
  
  
  
• A deputy shows up to serve civil eviction papers on a woman who is distraught and who just happens to be Asian.  There's a language barrier. 
• He hands her the eviction papers, and she looks at them.
• The deputy sees that the woman is holding a knife down by her side. He pulls his gun, and threatens to shoot her if she doesn't drop it. "Put the knife down or I will shoot you." 
  
  
  
• She throws the eviction papers away, and then slams the door on him.  His job is over. The papers have been served. There is nothing more he needs to do. Now just walk away. He doesn't. 
  
  
  
• Instead, an army of cops is called, including an attack dog, and then for a reason that cannot be explained, they then bust into the apartment 45 minutes after she had slammed the door. More than one of them is screaming. It is an absolute cluster. 
  
  
  
• Watch this guy's breakdown of the video. It's amazing and should be a police training video of how not to handle a situation. This is all so disturbing. 
  
  
• Heck of fire at a Walmart distribution center near Indianapolis yesterday.
  
  
  
• I wish there were more details in this story. (But "ill will" has nothing to do with hiding evidence.)
  
  
  
• The Texas legislature really stepped into criminal bail bond tinkering in the last session, and there will be an interesting development come April 1st. A "bond form" showing the name, date of birth, offense charged, bond amount, conditions or bond, and the name of the judge setting the bond will become "publicly accessible on the . . . Internet website" maintained by a state agency. And this will be for every person arrested in the State. (See Texas Government Code sec. 17.0351)
• And more bond tinkering is coming. So the government wants to set the fee in a contract between two private parties? I've got big problems with this. 
  
  
  
• I will never not watch this video on St. Patrick's Day. And I'll laugh every single year. (It's now 16 years old.) 
  
  
  
• You'll never get me to care about the NBA, but The Ticket's Bob Sturm was actually at the Mavs game in Brooklyn last night and was rolling video from the stands for the game winning shot. 

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

This happened outside of a Beaumont courthouse. I looked for a follow-up and it's pretty interesting: The shooter was actually a criminal defendant in a case being tried in that courthouse, and he was trying to kill his daughter who was a witness against him.  It's a capital offense in Texas to kill a person in retaliation for being a witness, but he didn't kill the daughter -- he missed and killed someone else. Nevertheless, he still got the death penalty for the shooting in a later trial under the doctrine of "transferred intent." (A concept you heard a lot about in law school but practically never see it used in real life.) 

Wild fact #1: The defendant actually shot at and hit his daughter "multiple times" and "then ran over her with his truck before fleeing the scene but she survived." Wild fact #2:  Cops fired 50 shots that day, but the defendant was only wounded. 

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• Hurry up and enter the Liberally Lean Tourney. We are up to 88 entries. Get down on it. 
• Lots of updates for bullet points over the last two days:
• The 25 year old who fell to his death off of a rooftop bar in Dallas was Chris Hill -- a Paradise High School graduate and employee of the City of Bridgeport. 
• The man who led police on wild police chase that started at Decatur's Quik Trip and ended up at the Oklahoma border has now been identified: "When Decatur police officers approached the vehicle, the driver, Tristan Almanzar, 26, fled, according to DPS. Troopers later joined the chase. Almanzar lived in Midlothian." He killed himself at the end of the chase. 
•  It wasn't a murder-suicide after all. It looks like a hit.
  
  
  
• (Not) Gone Girl. The Russian reporter who protested on live TV is alive and well, and she actually appeared in court yesterday in connection with a different protest she engaged in. She was fined around $300.  I wouldn't feel too comfortable if I were her.
  

  

  
  
• This was in Andrews County last night. The golf coach was killed, but they still haven't released the number of students who have died.  But it sounds like there is at least one. Edit: Wow. Six students killed.
  

  

  
  
• And we have yet another case solved by familial/genetic genealogy DNA testing. 
  
  
   
  
• This is going on right now. Let's keep our emotions in check. It's just WWIII hanging in the balance if we haul off and do something stupid. 
  
  
   
• Profiting off of war is almost as old as war itself. 
  
• That guy is right. Fox News really does have a lot of bad graphics. 
  
  
  
• It's been 20 years and we still haven't given these guys a trial? We need to just admit that we can't prove anything but that we just feel safer keeping them locked up. 
  
• I'll admit to a little confusion about the NCAA Tournament games in Fort Worth. There are eight teams in town, but they aren't all from the same quadrant. For example, Baylor (from the East) and Kansas (from the Midwest), and who are both #1 seeds, are there. So if they both win, they won't meet on Saturday. The only way they'll ever face each other is in the championship game a month from now. Maybe that always happens and I've never noticed. 
• Sportsy. If you've ever wondered about all the small schools in the Tournament, look at how many were automatic qualifiers and where they are seeded.
  
  
  
• Messenger: Above the Fold

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

It was March Madness week 10 years ago as well. And, yep, that actually happened.

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• Come on, you slackers. Enter the 2022 Liberally Lean Pick 'Em Tourney. Time's a wastin'. 
  
  
  
• The last update I saw was that he made it all the way to the Oklahoma border on I-35 then was stopped. Shots were fired and a medical helicopter was summoned. Edit: The Update is all over it.
  
  
  
• I don't know if the margin being down to 88 votes is true, but he is now seeking a recount -- at least for the Denton County votes.  That normally doesn't work out. 
  
  
  
• This seems like a big deal. It happened at 2:00 o'clock in the afternoon on Saturday in a pretty decent looking neighborhood.  The victims have yet to be identified, and the Tarrant County ME's office strangely doesn't list them on its public website.  More pics here.  Speculation: If this happened to be a murder/suicide, that would at least explain the lack of any news of a manhunt going on. 
  

  

  
  

  

  
  
  
  
• There sure seems to be a lot stories these days that put judges in the media cross-hairs for setting bonds. And it's only going to become more prevalent since a new law requires any magistrate who sets a bond to first have his hands on a background report about an arrestee.  (Legal nerd stuff: They are called "Public Safety Reports" and required under TCCP 17.021 starting on 4/1/2022.) The "I didn't know that about him" defense for judges is about to evaporate. On the flip-side, the report is also supposed to state whether an individual is legally eligible to be released on his own personal recognizance. 
  
  
  
• For some reason, a Denton County Sheriff's Investigator was in the Sanger Police Chief's personal driveway a few months back when he backed out and struck the Chief's undercover vehicle.  The Chief figured it all out by looking at home security footage. The incident got the investigator fired because he allegedly "purchased a new liability insurance policy online from [his vehicle] approximately 4-5 hours after backing in to and damaging [a] Sanger Police Vehicle  . . .  and presenting the policy to [police] after being asked for information about the Defendant’s [vehicle] for the accident report with the intent to defraud or deceive the Progressive Insurance Company and the City of Sanger.”  
  
• The Denton Record Chronicle is all bent out of shape because Sheriff Tracy Murphree, wouldn't, as he tends to do, promptly turn over the arrest warrant affidavit which contained the facts of the case. Here's a tip: Ask for the affidavit from the judge who issued it instead of the arresting agency. 
• Incredible. 
  
  
  
• Gov. Abbott's "Task Force" on the teacher shortage is just for show. As proof, someone tracked down the work history of all of those appointed to be on it, and it turns out that none of them have been in a classroom for years. 
  
  
  
• What's it called when wealth is redistributed? Does the term change when it is only redistributed to the most wealthy? (The owner of the Bills is Terry Pegula with a net worth of $7 billion.)
  
  
  
• Let's remember the net profit of Exxon and the like next year. 
  
  
  
• Update: Gone girl. 
  
  
  
• Star-Telegram employees, who have organized, are mad that they have to pay for parking in downtown Fort Worth. The garage attached to their building charges $15 a day.
  
  
  
• And another.
  
  
  
• NFL star Lamar Jackson asked a very philosophical question yesterday after Apple released its new emojis. For some reason, I find his wording very funny. 
  
  
  
• Rural election news update: Clay County will have to have a run-off in the JP race where one of the three candidates had been disqualified. I know you were dying to know that. 
• Another reminder for the slackers. Enter here.