9.07.2022

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




Above: How it started on 9/5/12. Below: Where it went. 



  • I'm hearing about a female child's death due to a falling object at a birthday party in Rhome at a rented facility over the weekend. Paradise second grader. Edit: It's in the Update. 
  • The public access to Wise county's jail and court records, as well as the regularly updated jail list, is now back online. (They changed a URL and didn't tell anyone.) But e-filing in the county courts and district court is still unavailable as of yesterday morning. 
  • We had an interesting timeline by DPS yesterday.
    • The Texas Tribune was set to release this exposé about DPS's failure at Uvalde and Col. Steve McCraw's attempt to cover it up and deflect blame.

    • Moments before it was published, DPS  -- always in damage control and CYA mode -- suddenly announced that it is taking action against five of the troopers.  (And "taking action" is an overstatement. Nothing will happen to the 5 out of 91 troopers.)

    • Regarding the actual Tribune story, I thought these two paragraphs about who finally took charge was about as complete as I've read, especially that last sentence:

    • DPS notably put some troopers in Uvalde for the cameras yesterday.

  • Breaking news from The Washington Post last night: Nuclear secrets were recovered from Mar-a-Lago. I'm now beginning to believe Trump is actually going to be indicted. 




  • It looks like an expensive home in Colleyville went up in flames this morning. 

  • Austin's airport is completely shut down this morning because it is completely without power.  Even the terminals are dark. And they think it might be due to a construction snafu next door.

  • I kind of like commissioners and a county judge fighting in Wichita County about how much to tax people.  

  • Trump schedules a rally in Ohio for 7:00 p.m. on September 17th. Anything else going on in Ohio at that exact date and time which those people care about? 


  • When I saw this headline I thought it was referring to language interpreters. Nope. The new ruling deals with sign language interpreters for the hearing impaired. 

  • My hot legal opinion is that a hung jury should always preclude a retrial on Double Jeopardy grounds. It's not the law, but it should be: The government gets one shot at you and one shot only.

  • Kind of legal stuff: If you are interested in the Candy Montgomery axe murder case which was recently featured in a Hulu docu-drama and will get yet another one on HBO this fall, you might also be interested in this new interview of the then 27 year old second chair defense lawyer. 

  • The great images from the last time the Cowboys were on the field:

  • Messenger: Above the Fold

at 8:25 AM

9.06.2022

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts




We got to see Jerry Jones' personal eyeglass cleaner on Sunday Night Football.  And it's hard to believe that this will now be Jerry's 34th year as team owner. 

  • Number of days Wise County government's court/jail public access website has been down: Six. 
  • Students in Uvalde go back to school for the first time today. 


    • I saw a couple of seconds ago that news reporters were in Uvalde for this morning's school drop off. Look at those cars in the background. Can you imagine watching your kid walk away? 

  • Lots of gnashing of teeth about this yesterday from the left, but I don't think it's a big deal at all. The Justice Department has already seen every one of the the documents so they know whether a crime has been committed or not. Which, of course, there has been. 

  • The plunging carnival ride in India is quite the video. 

  • After Boris Johnson's resignation, the UK now has a new prime minister. She met Queen Elizabeth this morning for her formal induction. And the Queen sighting may be the bigger story because rumors of her health over the last month were not good. 

  • The Dallas Morning News has a story today about a "Sovereign Citizen" who actually received a prison sentence. He first got the Arlington cops' attention when he sent them a $5,000 bill because of his traffic stop and citation, but he really got in trouble when he lied about a past felony conviction (which he refused to acknowledge and recognize) on a firearms application. 

    • And wives, don't be like this.

  • The Ticket's Junior Miller posted this photograph of a very large tree that went down during the storms on Sunday in his neighborhood near the Greenville Avenue area in Dallas.

  • This video became widespread a few days ago, but I just saw it. The footage is wild, especially since there's audio which catches everything including when a neighbor comes up and slowly realizes what has gone down.  A grand jury refused to indict the man.


  • This Tarrant County juvenile judge seems to stay in a lot of trouble. Story.

  • Far right wing candidate for Tarrant County Judge, Tim O'Hare, had a big fund raiser, and I noticed that "Patriot Mobile" was the first host listed. That's the group spending money to take over school boards with book banners. 

  • Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the massacre at the 1972 Olympic games in Munich.  I highly recommend the documentary about the event called One Day in September. It's incredible.

     
  • I'm revising my review of The Morning Show. Season 1 was very well done and thought-provoking. But Season 2, which I've now completed, was an unmitigated train wreck of bad writing. Huge thumbs down. Side note: The show also has a horrible theme song and visual intro. 
  • My record setting Stadium's Visited List gets a new addition this week: I'm going to Provo, Utah to see Baylor at BYU.


at 8:33 AM

9.05.2022

Random Monday Morning Thoughts





Text at the time: "House Fire (Wise County) Four Wise County fire departments are battling a house fire at 6769 Farm Road 51 North. The blaze is near the intersection of County Road 2625."

  • It's Labor Day, and yet again I prove I'm THWMISB™.
  • But the far right wing Wise County Conservatives (who meet in a church) want you to know that you are a Commie if you are taking the day off. 

    • It should be noted that the post is embarrassingly wrong from an historical standpoint. Yet another reason that you shouldn't ban books. 
  • Wise County's public website which has all the court and jail information has been down for five days. And when it is down, the internal system used by the jail, courts, prosecutors, and clerks is also down.   I've never seen it offline this long, and it makes me believe something is seriously wrong. 
    • I realize there is a big move from the courthouse to temporary offices going on (because of courthouse renovation), but that wouldn't explain it. The county servers are housed in the old Wells Fargo building and they aren't impacted. 
    • Ransomware attack? That's pure speculation. But it happened once before to the Sheriff's office. 
  • A junior varsity player from Dalhart:

  • Moments ago. Regardless of whether it actually happens, gas prices will go up on the news alone. 

  • Horrible death from his condo in the "Jenga building" in lower Manhattan. "The chain had said Wednesday that it will lay off approximately 20% of corporate employees, close around 150 stores and slash several of its in-house home goods brands."


  • News out of Seattle, Washington in the last 12 hours:


  • I got a very cryptic message that this new documentary on Hulu about a teacher-student relationship has a Decatur connection. I haven't watched it yet. 

  • Crazy news out of normally calm Canada.

  • On Friday, the details of the documents found (and not found) in Trump's place at Mar-a-Lago were released. He responded on Saturday by calling the FBI "vicious monsters."   We might as well call it MAGA vs. The Union now. 



  • Also on Friday, there was a hung jury over in Denton.  There's something not quite right about that case involving a former Ranger star.

  • Video of construction tumbling like a house of cards in Dallas yesterday during a storm. I'm no contractor, but I don't think that should happen that easily.

  • "Just before 3:30 am [on Friday], Engine 12 was responding to a house fire when it was involved in a rollover accident on NW 28th St on the north-side of Fort Worth. All 4 firefighters were transported to the hospital with minor injuries. No other vehicles were involved." Fort Worth is probably self-insured on stuff like this, right?


  • This was in connection with the $10,000 loan forgiveness order. You think this worked out well for them?

  • Legal nerdy stuff: Tarrant County has formally asked the AG whether a magistrate appointed by the judges can also serve as a legal advisor to those judges.  The County Auditor told the AG it was an "ongoing situation" and needed to be answered as soon as possible. The job salary for the recently posted opening was included in the request.

  • Other Tarrant County court news:

  • If you haven't seen the two plays in the final seconds that Uvalde used to win its first home game, you need to.

  • Wise County high school football highlights: (1) Decatur gave up 15 points in the last 4:37 to send the game against Wichita Falls Rider into overtime -- and then lost, (2)  Bridgeport beat Boyd in a defensive struggle, 63-62, and (3) Boyd had a Big Man Touchdown:

  • Kickoff at UCLA for the first game of the year. And the Big 10 wants them for the LA market? 

  • UT opens as a 20 point underdog against Alabama. Kickoff is Saturday at 11:00 a.m. 


at 8:29 AM

9.02.2022

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

at 2:30 PM
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)