Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

There were two links in that post to find the book about Ricky Lee Green. One link is now dead and the other from Amazon now lists one used copy of the book for sale for $1,161.  (Amazon also tells me I bought a copy on January 21, 2003, but now I have no idea where it is.)

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• The Senate tried to pass a bill yesterday making abortion legal through federal law (which would trump whatever states do if Roe were to be overruled), but it failed 49-51.
• They needed 60 votes anyway because of the filibuster rule. 
• West Virginia's Joe Manchin was the lone Democrat to vote against it. 
• Related: The Supreme Court meets today in conference, and it is the first time they have all got together since the opinion leak. 
• That's a heck of a picture of a wild fire in California from yesterday/last night.
  
  
  
• And those are some big homes destroyed. The main street that was hit was Coronado Pointe. I wanted to look at it on Google Streetview but it's gated. 
  
  
  
• Southlake PD has backed off its claim that it was a poisonous water moccasin found in a closet. They posted this on Facebook (the department does a lot of social media cutesy bits):
  
  
  
• Legal news quick hits:
• #1. The South is still being the South.  Let me tell you something, the unconstitutional prolonged detention of people after a traffic stop based upon a hunch, bringing in an inept "drug dog" to do an open air sniff, followed by a full blow intrusive inspection of every part of a vehicle, is an epidemic of Biblical proportions in all Southern States including Texas.  
  
  
  
• After the officer making the traffic stop of the lacrosse team bus was told of the drug dog "hit" by the canine officer, he said on video, "There's a bunch of dang school girls on the bus - there's probably some weed." (Bodycam video starting at around 6:40.)
• He found no weed. Or anything else. Outrageous. 
• #2 A three judge panel of the Fifth Circuit, in a 2-1 ruling, lost their minds late yesterday and reinstated Texas new (and ridiculous) law which prevents companies like Twitter and Facebook from censoring any user's post based upon the user's "viewpoint." This is an insane ruling and would be the death of the First Amendment.  Legal folks I follow who are much smarter than I am were losing their minds last night about it. This story should pick up steam in the media today.
  
  
  
• #3 A guilty plea of a Trump Insurrectionists fell through yesterday when a defendant waffled in front of the judge. This type of exchange will cause a courtroom emergency brake to be pulled every time:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• #4: The lady which was amazingly sentenced to prison for 5 years in Tarrant County for casting a provisional ballot got a reprieve yesterday as Texas' highest criminal court sent the case back to the Fort Worth Court of Appeals to determine if there was sufficient evidence on whether she "knowingly" voted illegally. 
  
  
   
• Here's what the said the Fort Worth court of appeals got wrong: 
  
  
  
• These were the prosecutors:
  
  
  
• Richard Greene of the Messenger found this old (and odd) ad in the newspaper 25 years ago where Mitchell Energy denied having "sour gas." The oddity came about after the FBI stopped alleged bombers from blowing up the plant as a diversion for robbing an armored car. But . . . 
  
  
  
• . . . it turned out that there wasn't much up of a scheme to blow it up at all as this Texas Monthly story explained. But that didn't stop the Feds from coloring it as a great Crime Fighting Adventure. 
  
  
  
• Pete Delkus says we might reach record highs several times over the next 10 days. If I'm smart enough to remember, I'm going to track and post this everyday with the actual results to see how accurate he is. 
  
  
  
• Am I missing it, or is there not much political advertising going on in the Bush v. Paxton race for Texas AG? The runoff is right around the corner. 
  
  
  
• The Dallas Observer reflects on To Catch A Predator and how it came to a crazy end when an assistant DA near the metroplex got caught up in it and killed himself as cops moved in. He ended up with a Wikipedia page.
  
  
  
• I finally got around to starting Succession. My review after Episode #1: Big thumbs up.

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

The commercial is still online. It just shows how much things have changed in ten years because now stuff like that is the mainstream.  (Willett, after transforming into an "Aw Shucks" guy on Twitter, managed to get appointed to the federal Fifth Circuit by Trump in 2017.) 

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• We've got video of the post-wreck capture of the Alabama killer who was on the run with the now deceased female jailer.  He's every bit of the 6'9" they said that he was. 
  
  
  
• Breaking inflation numbers from moment's ago: It's still bad but it has slowed. It's not just going to magically disappear overnight. 
  
  
  
• Before a jury trial was derailed yesterday in the Wise County district courtroom even before it began (the jury panel apparently saw the defendant shackled before jury selection), the ceiling above the judge's bench collapsed causing "10 gallons of water" to fall on the judge's chair. Fortunately, he wasn't sitting in the chair at the time. 
• Southlake Police were called about an actual water moccasin which found its way into a spacious closet of one of the city's homes. 
  
  
  
• D Magazine revealed the name of the kid who "put his hands on" the mother of the Suns player. 
  
  
  
• A guy with no flying experience landed a single engine Cesena with the help of air-traffic controllers yesterday in Florida after his pilot became incapacitated. There's only a portion of the flight recording which has been released so far, but what I've heard is wild. Air Traffic had no idea where he was so they first had him follow the coastline at 5,000 feet until they could pick him up on radar.  (If you want some crazy entertainment, go watch some Youtube videos of the complete recordings of other situations like this.)
  
  
  
• Elon Musk says that he would let Trump back on Twitter.  Now that he's a private citizen, I don't have any problem with that. In fact, we need to be reminded of just how crazy he is. (One of my favorite follows on Twitter is "Old Donald Trump Posts")
  
  
  
• But check on this standard that Musk said he would use to monitor the account of Trump and others.  I cannot believe a many spends $50 billion to buy the company because he didn't like its "censorship" standards, but apparently has never given a moment's thought as to what his standards will be. "Wrong" and "bad"? That's his lofty and high-minded rule? 
  
  
  
• The last respected remaining American institution has crumbled. 
  
  
  
• Update from last night regarding my political observation about a guy from yesterday.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• There's been a lot discussion of how the Ultra-MAGA candidates have taken over Southlake ISD with the help of Super PACs, but apparently those same PACs made huge inroads in Frisco ISD on Saturday. 
  
  
  
• Emotional distress from an NFL coach? Oh, come on. 
  
  
  
• Very legal nerdy niche stuff: For you lawyers who try DWI cases from time to time, there was a rare appellate defense win yesterday out of Houston in the somewhat common situation of a person being found asleep behind the driver's seat in a car with the engine running but with the transmission in park.  State v. Espinosa, No. 14-20-00751-CR (Tex.App.-Houston[14th Dist.] 2022).  There is a dissent.
• Fun attendance and tuition facts for the new Big 12:
  
  
  
• Messenger: Above the Fold

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

I noticed the name of Jack Koslow on this sign 10 years ago and wondered if he was the same guy who was a victim in one of the most infamous crimes in Fort Worth history. Indeed, he was. And he won his election and is still on the council. 

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• This is interesting. The slew of candidates endorsed by the "Wise County Conservatives" group went 1-8 in the local elections on Saturday for city council and school board races. It's almost as if their endorsement had a negative impact. (Thanks emailer for pointing this out.)
  
  
  
  
  
• It ended badly for the deputy on the run.
  
  
   
• So what exactly did the kid do to Chris Paul's mother at the Mavericks game?
  

  

  
  
  
  
• As far as the "inebriated" aspect of this, there are reports that the kid is 16 or 18. But a minor can possess or consume alcohol so long as he is in "visible presence" of his parent or guardian.
• Two of the three people found dead at the Sandals resort in the Bahamas have been identified.  I wonder if this was a carbon monoxide related? Those kind of deaths happen all the time even in hotels in America. It always seems to have something to do with the location of a nearby pool. 
  
  
  
• This just sold for $195 million. It was bought by 77 year old Larry Gagosian.
  
  
  
• The uber-right in Texas got very excited yesterday when Gov. Abbott made a statement supporting school vouchers. (Video.) Make no mistake about it: Those who support school vouchers want private religious schools (at least Christian schools, if they have their way) to be funded with your school tax dollars.   It would be the approval of a Kenneth Copeland Newark High School, Gateway Mega-Church Elementary, or Robert Jeffress FBC Junior High getting a piece of your property tax check.  (And the latest attacks using the made up claims of CRT and "Grooming" is all part of a master plan to disparage public schools in order to steer money to religious schools.)
  
  
  
  
  
  
• A copperhead crawled into a work drawer in Midlothian and bit the man when he reached down to grab a tool. His neighbor took this photo of the critter. 
  
  
  
  
• The reporter hasn't witnessed much in his life. 
  
  
  
• After reading the story, the Texas judge might have gotten away with it it she had gone through with the contempt proceeding for the incidents which caused the lawyers to be taken into custody in the first place. But she just abandoned it. 
  
  
  
• This Trump worship by the far right of the Republican Party is weird. I mean, seriously, we have never seen anything like this campaign sign by a Nebraska governor candidate.  I don't even know what to compare it to. 
  
  
  
• I have no idea why the organist for the Texas Rangers posted this pic without an explanation, but now I want to know what happened to the fire truck.   Edit: A faithful reader says, "That photo of the fire truck is from the 9/11 Memorial in New York and it was damaged on 9/11."
  
  
  
• I saw gas prices at $4.19 at three different places this morning.