7.04.2022

Random Monday Morning Thoughts





Ten years ago this 17 year old girl was found shot to death outside of a home in a high tone area of Fort Worth. The eventual story of how she ended up there turned out to be wild.  (Stories here and here.) And then it got crazier when the homeowner who found her was also found dead a few months later, hogtied and burned in his car.  You want more? His death was tied to a white supremacy group and a man in Boyd. (Stories here and here.) It's worth the rabbit trail.

  • THWMISB™

  • Friday night excitement that started in Wise County.
     

  • We had a big shooting on Saturday evening in Haltom City. Cops were called out to an incident in a residential neighborhood and, when three of them arrived, a guy opened fire. 
    • Two people are the home were dead: 33-year-old Collin Davis (found in the driveway) and 32-year-old Amber Tsai.

    • Three officers were "injured". There's a neighbor's camera that picked up the moment cops arrived, and it looks like one of the officers was hit. The police chief says three were actually grazed.

    • Six homes were hit across the street including an "elderly person" inside one of them. 
    • The shooter escaped but killed himself about a half mile away.  
  • Abortion updates:
    • The post Dobbs landscape in America seems to be getting off to a rough start. 

    • This Texas rep is out there making threats which aren't even true. 


    • All the headlines on Saturday said the Texas Supreme Court brought the pre-Roe Texas statute criminalizing abortion back to life in a late night Friday ruling.   However, there are some smart guys on Twitter who I follow who aren't so sure about that's what the ruling means. Regardless, it's just a matter of time before abortion in Texas is totally banned due to the trigger law -- although time is of the essence right now to some women out there. Fun fact: The original Texas abortion law actually was enacted even earlier than the 1920s and dates back to before the Civil War. 

  • Some people speculate she had a nose job while on the run in Costa Rica from a murder charge. I would have never recognized her. 

  • Dateline: Waco.

  • If you haven't seen the montage of the debates for Wyoming's senate seat (video - 1:58 in length) or for Arizona governor (video - 2:20 in length), you have to. The U.S. is in big, big trouble.  

  • Speaking of, the Patriot Front, the equivalent of Hitler's Brownshirts, marched through Boston on Saturday.   I'm telling you: Pay attention to what is happening out there. 


  • Sheesh. (Although Delkus didn't predict that Wise County would get rained on all day yesterday.)

  • We don't sing the Star-Spangled Banner in a manner that lets the listener know there's actually a question mark at the end. 

  • Did you know that if you are over 65 you don't have to pay your property taxes? Well, kind of. The rules are: (1) You still owe the taxes but the government can't come in and sell your home at foreclosure to make you pay it, (2) Once you pass, the government can enforce its lien for your unpaid taxes, (3) there is an interest rate of 5% for the unpaid balance, and (4) you still take a credit rating hit even though you have a legal right to withhold payment.   Overall: That doesn't sound like a good idea. 

  • I saw this update on Saturday and haven't seen anything since then. I guess he is still out there.

  • Uvalde Consolidated ISD School Police Chief Pete Arredondo has resigned from his newly won city council seat without ever attending a meeting.   You knew that was coming even though he, as is his nature, was slow to realize it. 

at 8:29 AM

7.01.2022

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts





From the DA's Office to the courts, Denton County has always seemed to be less than ideal place to work. Everyone involved just seems to be a little miserable. And just try being a defense lawyer walking into that environment. 

  • The crazy case of the coach in Wichita Falls committing suicide days after allegations of sexual abuse appeared on social media spilled over into a school board meeting last night. 
    • This headline doesn't do the meeting justice because . . . 

    • . . . the headline should be about how administrators might be getting a little nervous right now.

    • Deputies attended the meeting to keep order (and I just liked the picture.)

  • This was a heck of a story, but Costa Rica would be a great place to try and hide in (at least while it worked.)  Here's the town on Google Maps where she was found. She lived in a hostel there. I would do that.  

  • It appears that Brittney Griner's trial in a Russian courtroom is going on at this very moment. Here's a pic of her arriving for court.  (I did a quick search for that Jimi Hendrix t-shirt but couldn't find it. Edit: A faithful reader did.) 


  • GPS and robotic boats? Think of all things you could smuggle in if you could program a boat to arrive at some remote shoreline in the middle of the night. 

  • And another. There's an ill wind blowing.  

  • Christian Nationalism is full front and center now. 


  • A helicopter? They used a helicopter? Video. 

  • Nerdy legal stuff: The newly-revamped-for-the-next-generation Supreme Court ignored multiple criminal cases yesterday and, by definition, became more prosecution oriented. Justice Sotomayor was not happy. Link. 

  • Legal nerdy stuff #2: I just like the way this dissenting opinion in a state criminal case this week started off. It comes out of the Waco court of appeals:

  • USC and UCLA leaving the PAC 12 for the BIG 10 went from rumor to becoming officially confirmed in just a matter of hours yesterday. That was stunning.
    • Here's the map of the new Big 10. (USC and UCLA are way over there on the left.)

    • This is funny.  Flashy LA teams showing up for games in Nebraska and Iowa. 


  • "Shout out to all the women fighting for their rights right now. I love you so much!" Moment ago on Fox and Friends. Video.

  • Keeping up with new stories about criminal cases being solved using ancestry databases coupled with DNA testing is getting harder and harder because there are so many. I saw this one out of Montgomery County, Texas this week. The detective solved the case by just "reading an article" about how easy it was. 


  • Time which has passed since the Wise County Sheriff's Office, despite having a full male DNA profile, has failed to solve the murder of Lauren Whitener in her home at Lake Bridgeport: 1,094 days.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold

at 8:29 AM

6.30.2022

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




Texas Wesleyan's law school in downtown Fort Worth was sold to the Aggies 10 years ago for $25 million.  They tried to sell it to TCU a decade earlier for $60 million.

  •  Late last night, a Tarrant County jury declined to give the death penalty for a man convicted of murdering a police officer.

    • The defendant actually took the witness stand during the punishment phase.  That led to this exchange which, although a little murky, seems like a good way to end up with a death penalty. He got lucky. 

    • It's important to note that he was not the trigger man. 
  • We've got an escapee from the Vernon hospital. He "was acquitted by reason of insanity for stabbing his father to death in Austin in 2013." That's kind of the basis for Halloween's Michael Myers.

  • This has Manhattan abuzz this morning. The Upper East Side is a nice area.

     



  • "JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A team searching a Mississippi courthouse basement for evidence about the lynching of Black teenager Emmett Till has found the unserved warrant charging a white woman in his 1955 kidnapping, and relatives of the victim want authorities to finally arrest her nearly 70 years later."  


    • Yep, she's actually alive and living in North Carolina.
    • I want to see a copy of the actual warrant, but I've not located it online anywhere.   
    • I don't expect there to be any prosecution.  
  • A brawl on a Carnival Cruise was caught on video. According to Fox News, "An alleged threesome between passengers had upset their significant others when they learned of the rendezvous." Oh, my.Video.

  • Today is the last opinion day at the Supreme Court. Two things: 
    • The first African-American female justice takes the oath today at noon. Yesterday, retiring Justice Breyer gave us a final date and time as to when he would officially leave. 

    • Very legal nerdy stuff: An opinion will come out today in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency. There is a possibility that it will be a blockbuster that could all but eliminate the power of federal agencies to issue regulations that actually have any teeth.  That would be earth-shaking, but they've saved the opinion for the last day for a reason. Justice Gorsuch is a madman against the "administrative state", believing that since only Congress has the authority to pass laws as the Legislative branch, any agency, which are all under the Executive branch, shouldn't be doing the same.  If you hear that the "Chevron deference doctrine" has been eliminated after the opinion comes out, it's a very big deal.
  • Video.

  • Rep. Liz Chaney, who should be the hands down winner of Time's Person of the Year this December, received a standing ovation at the Ronald Reagan library -- holy ground for conservatives -- as she spoke of the work on the January 6th Committee. There's hope for our country yet. "The reality that we face today as Republicans, as we think about the choice in front of us, we have to choose because Republicans cannot both be loyal to Donald Trump and loyal to the constitution."



  • Ugh. Texas Tribune story.

  • More legal nerdy stuff: The Supreme Court slapped Native Americans in the face yesterday (anyone seeing a trend here?) and Justice Gorsuch, in his dissent, was not pleased.  He cited Worcester v. Georgia from 1832 as a time with the Court was not afraid to tell the U.S. to honor its treaties. That's the case where President Andrew Jackson, later the architect of the Trail of Tears, ignored the Court and purportedly said, "[Chief Justice] John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it!" Wikipedia entry about that case.

  • I'm into season three of Succession.  I think it's fantastic. 

at 8:31 AM
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