5.02.2022

Random Monday Morning Thoughts






Saw this at the county courthouse back in the day. I never did find out who it was, although I didn't particularly have any desire whatsoever to meet him. 

  •  The tornado in Kansas on Friday evening, which remarkably killed no one, is the most amazing visual depiction of a twister I've ever seen. These are four videos I marked:  Here (18 seconds), here (11 seconds) here (1:18) , and here (the one which is being about the most.)

  • This contest I made up on a lark is getting kid of fun. With a huge win on Friday, 173-132, Decatur now only trails Bridgeport in early voting by a total of 704 to 694.  Only two more early voting days left. 

  • I find it mindboggling anyone would donate a cent to this publicity stunt. 

  • Troopers which are called to the border average extra overtime pay of $41,000. But some are really cashing in. A "36-year-old captain stationed in the border city of Del Rio earned roughly $164,000 in overtime" and "two other lieutenants . . .   each netted nearly $150,000 working extra hours."   Remember that the next time you have to stand in line for hours, due to being understaffed, when you have to get your license renewed. 

  • Bad Texas Sheriff. Bad Chief Deputy. "According to the Van Zandt County District Attorney's Office, Sheriff Steve Hendrix, Chief Dep. Jerry Wood and Sgt. Blake Snell were found to have witnessed ex-chief deputy Craig Shelton's use of excessive force against an inmate, identified as Nicholas Crouch, and lied to a Texas Ranger when interviewed prior in Dec 2021, according to the indictment handed up by a local grand jury." After calling the charges "baseless", the Sheriff announced his resignation. 

  • Hardly anyone is coming out and expressly saying it, but everyone is assuming the death of Naomi Judd was due to a suicide.  (The daughters said in a statement that "We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness."). They were actually on hand in Nashville last night, one day after announcing her death, to accept The Judds induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

  • This is pretty wild. The sheriff's office detention officer said she was going to drop off the inmate, who is doing 75 years on a murder conviction, at the courthouse for a mental evaluation, and then she was going to see her own doctor because she wasn't feeling well.    There was no mental evaluation scheduled at the courthouse, and she never showed up at her doctor's office. The guy would be hard to miss: He's 6' 9" tall. 

  • I'll admit I'd go nuts if the Trump Administration created a "Disinformation Governance Board." 

  • I promise you that right out of law school when I was working for a big Dallas law firm that I joined a gym in Uptown (before it was Uptown but it was still pretty high tone), and one day I looked over and saw Boris Becker right beside me with two trainers on a bench press machine.  He didn't seem to be particularly interested in working out. 

  • So the complaining witness testified to the alleged assault for prosecutors and then just got up and left the courtroom before cross-examination? Hey, I'm no constitutional expert, but that Confrontation Clause in the 6th Amendment would seem to come into play here. And the judge trying to solve that problem by telling jurors they should “strike [her testimony] from your minds as if it never happened” shouldn't be able to magically cure the problem.  

  • I've thought about this for over a week: In the April 24th Sunday edition of the Dallas Morning News, respected financial columnist Scott Burns had a step by step program on how he helped a friend retire at 62. So . . . 

    • . . . after going through several paragraphs regarding the best use of retirement plans, social security, and healthcare, it was time to talk about finding his buddy a place to retire to in Florida.  "This is exciting," I thought. How were they going to pull this off? Then came the payoff . . .  

  • It was only the second time in history that UT didn't have a player drafted by the NFL.

  • I keep hearing every one busting on Jerry Jones for drafting "another" player out of his alma mater, Arkansas, when he took John Ridgeway in the 5th round this year. But this was only the second time ever he has drafted a Razorback. The first time was Felix Jones in 2008.



at 8:31 AM

4.29.2022

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




After draft night, they got married. But no longer. Russell Wilson is hanging out with Ciara now.

 

  • I don't know much about this Jacksboro trial yet, but Jack and Wise County are in the same judicial district. (That's just a thumbnail below so clicking on it won't make it any clearer.)

  • Decatur with its first early voting win yesterday, 148-128. (Of course, it finally dawned on me that a Bridgeport resident could early vote in Decatur, but I'm guessing that would only be a few people.)

  • The CRT Hysteria Candidates were elected to the school board in Southlake, and then this new policy goes into effect. The new overlords, who are now government actors, don't want to be called out for their actions. 


  • The @DallasTexasTV Twitter account usually just posts crazy videos from the streets of the city. But for some reason, they chose to post this yesterday.  Buddy, this happens several times a day, every day. (Any chances we have an illegal search here? Or do you think the Clay County officer just happen to form a reasonable suspicion based upon his vast "experience and training"?)

  • Man, I don't know about all this. The teacher asks for a personal interpretation of Romeo and Juliet and the kid, who appears to black, fires off the n-word a few times during his presentation.  If the kid had been acting serious about the assignment, I might have let him go on (but you've got to be a pretty bold teacher to have that attitude.) But when it quickly turned into a comedy routine, the teacher has to shut it down.  But fired? I don't know about that either. I wouldn't want to be a teacher.  Here's an unedited excerpt of it. 


  • This was pretty entertaining. She stopped down for a bit to try to angrily defend a text she claims not to remember.   

  • Fort Worth Weekly story. It names names.  


  • I don't know anything about the travel industry but that seems like a lot of lost revenue. 

  • Very nerdy legal stuff: When the Supreme Court splits 4-4 (after one judge recuses herself), this is what the full opinion will look like. It happened yesterday. The judgment of the lower appellate court will stand in those rare situations.

    • But this case gave rise to an interesting dynamic. The legal issue, which was boring -- when is a train "in use" -- but important to some people in the train industry, is now technically "undecided" by the Supreme Court.  But it really isn't: Justice Barrett recused herself because she was one of the judges who ruled in favor of the railroad on this exact case when she was on the 7th Circuit. So we actually now know how the Supreme Court will rule (5-4 in favor of a railroad) if a different case on the exact same issue were to come up again. 
  • The Cowboys first round pick was an offensive lineman. And he needed to hold against his Tulsa competition? 


  • You Maverick fans are going to be sleepy. (EST.)

  • Some guy is lobbying The Ticket this morning on Twitter for some Bryce Elder coverage. 

  • 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: 1,029 days.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold

at 8:30 AM

4.28.2022

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




That's relevant because the NFL draft is tonight. And the collective bargaining agreement is still being felt. Sam Bradford's deal in 2010 is still better than that of last year's #1 pick, Trevor Lawrence, who got a four-year deal worth $36.8 million, with $24.1 million guaranteed

  • The moment of an actual prisoner exchange is pretty cool. But you would think that released American Trevor Reed, who looked malnourished due to his hunger strike a few weeks back, wouldn't have to carry his own bag. 

     
  • I may have mentioned this once before. When I was fresh out of law school and working for a big firm, I had to cover a deposition that was being taken at Ira Tobolowsky's office in Highland Park.  I had never met the man, but after it was over he looked at me asked, "Hey can you give me a ride?" Being confused since I figured he had a car somewhere, I asked him where he needed to go, and he replied, "To the Mansion. I've got to meet my wife for dinner."  I agreed and drove the man to the high tone hotel. That's the last time I ever saw him. 

  • I heard Steven's Street Grill in Bridgeport has shut down. 
  • I kind of like this Bridgeport vs. Decatur competition. Bridgeport has a three day win streak in early voting. It was 129 to 123 on Day 3. 

  • I forgot to mention this yesterday: On Monday, the retrial of allege Dallas serial-killer-of-the-elderly, Billy Chemirmir, began but with a hitch. The first trial ended when one renegade juror held out and refused to convict. The victims' families were beside themselves back then.  So what do you think they felt on Monday when one of the jurors for the retrial, who had been earlier selected and told to report that morning, was no where to be found?  The judge had to send a deputy to find him and brought him to the courtroom after lunch. His excuse: "I forgot." 


  • Elon Musk was using Twitter last night. Yes, this is real. 

  • I'm a little surprised things like this don't happen more often. The stress can be unbearable. 

  • I remember this case because it first made news when police raided a residential home at 12405 Yellow Wood Drive in North Fort Worth. 


  • Something I didn't expect to see: Decatur lawyer and former governor candidate Paul Belew promoting hot dogs on WFAA.

  • The Baylor student paper continues to surprise. 

  • In looking at a map of the city limits of Decatur and the line of its "extra-territorial jurisdiction", I noticed that the land the Wise County Sheriff's Office is oddly cut out of the city limits but in its extra-territorial jurisdiction instead.  The county courthouse, however, is not cut out at all. I have no idea why, nor do I know what any of that means.  

  • This story is a big bag of nothing. From my estimation (and I looked pretty hard into this once), those the three donated machines will probably cost $75 to $100 a month in electricity to run (including air conditioning costs but excluding the cost of a dedicated office space) with the amount of bitcoin mined fluctuating greatly between $0 and $120 per month. It's a six month project. 

  • College football is so wild these days. I just watch Gerry Bohanon, who led Baylor to a 12-2 record and a Sugar Bowl win last year, last Saturday in Baylor's Spring Game and then, three days later, he's gone. (His backup is better, however, and credit to Baylor's coach for making the decision right now instead of waiting until the Fall. That gave Bohanon a chance to enter the transfer portal which has a deadline of May 1st.)

  • Holy cow, there is a database of the salaries of school employees in Texas. Here's Decatur ISD. (Credit to a faithful reader for the link.) I think there is a limited number of free searches until you have to pay.

at 8:30 AM
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