Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

A 17 year old from Aledo called 911 on October 4, 2012, saying, “Uh, I just killed my mom and my sister . . . . I felt like they were just suffocating me, in a way . . . .Obviously, you know, I’m pretty, I guess, evil.” He would ultimately receive a 45 year sentence.

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• The Messenger has an incredible story today, but the headline needs to be "City of Runaway Bay Is Dumping Raw Sewage Into Lake Bridgeport!"   And the sub-headline needs to be their seemingly callousness and indifference about it. It's basically, "Someone needs to give us millions of dollars to fix this problem or it's gonna happen again -- too bad."  This should be a big story in the metroplex which ends up with that water. And how's the EPA not coming down on them? Good lord: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• What was this around New Fairview yesterday afternoon? 
  
  
  
• Hey, Wise County Sheriff's Office: Your online PDF of the jail roster is not updating. 
• Elon Musk again agrees to buy Twitter after discovering that signing a formal agreement actually means something. 
  
  
  
• The guy who caught Aaron Judge's homerun ball last night seems a little jerky. I could be wrong. We've already learned that he's a VP at Fisher Investments and married to Bri Amaranthus who was on the 22nd season of The Bachelor in 2018.
  
  
  
• Trial out of Denton. Seems like a prosecutor screw-up. Click to enlarge.
  
  
  
• Another suicide. Something weird is going on.
  
  
  
• People are camped outside of the school administration building in Uvalde.
  
  
  
• Obviously, a very important warning for parents. Let the word go forth.
  
  
  
• And another.
  
  
  
• Very, very nerdy legal stuff for criminal practitioners only: You ever have a problem where you want your client's property returned after his arrest when it wasn't seized by a search warrant? Can you get the magistrate who set the bond to do it? We've got an answer from at least one court yesterday: No.  A magistrate's duty at the beginning stages of a criminal case are limited to the right to an "examining trial." And an examining trial, which is to determine if probable cause exists before there is an indictment, gives the magistrate no right to return property.
• The case is out of Houston which has the unusual practice of filing a felony "complaint" with the district court immediately after the arrest which will ultimately get the indictment. That's weird to me. In any event, it was a district judge who ruled the property should be returned but, the appellate court said, since there was yet to be an indictment the judge was only serving the role of a magistrate at that point so his authority was limited to that of an examining trial court. 
• Side note: I kind of like that "complaint" practice. At least in Harris County, if you can get an examining trial it would be in front of the district judge who will ultimately have the case. Also, that procedure of filing a "complaint" with that district court makes it clear that any bond modifications (which are a bit of the wild west anyway) are handled by that judge as well.
• Side note for the common man: Examining trials are rare in most counties. Once their is an indictment, that right goes away.  So a "Motion for an Examining Trial" is basically a "Motion to Guarantee Indictment In The Next Few Days." 
• One more: I think Dallas County may have that complaint-filed-with-district-court practice. I'll see in the news them having mini pre-indictment trials before a judge from time to time.  
• Messenger - Above the Fold

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

The Rangers were forced into a one-game playoff with the Orioles -- which they lost -- only because of a season ending collapse that culminated in a bizarre final regular season game against the A's. In that game, they also blew a 5-1 lead because Josh Hamilton dogged it and dropped a fly ball in the fifth inning. Video of it here. (Below, Manager Ron Washington confronted Hamilton in the dugout after the drop.) Here was Hamilton's Biblically-based quote after the season ending playoff loss to the Orioles: “If anyone will not welcome you or listen to you in your hometown, leave that town and shake the dust off your feet.''

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• A Bridgeport High School student was killed over the weekend in a one car wreck on CR 1308. That's a narrow paved road running north of 380 from Bridgeport proper.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Gov. Senate candidate Herschel Walker, who has campaigned on a no-exception pro-life platform, got busted last night when a former girlfriend came forward who had the actual receipts of when he paid for her abortion. Herschel immediately denied it which no one believes. (Even his emergency appearance on Hannity was laughable.)
  
  
  
• Then his son went scorched earth. Oh, my: 
  
  
  
• A protestor ran onto the field last night during Monday Night Football and then got crushed by a player.  That got real close to a helmet to skull hit -- something which is probably not the best idea. Videos here and here. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The smartest thing to do would be simply to deny you fell asleep. Has Trump taught politicians nothing?  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Gov. DeSantis nice, clean, and white rubber boots got some attention yesterday as he inspected Hurricane Ian damage.
  
  
  
• They go to Tennessee (!!!) to recruit troopers?
  
  
  
• Legal nerd stuff: The Supreme Court granted a cert petition yesterday to decide the scope of section 230 which protects Internet companies from lawsuits for what is published on their sites by others.  And it was still granted despite having a huge typo in the very first sentence. 
  
  
  
• Legal nerdy stuff #2: Does Brady, the requirement that exculpatory evidence be turned over to the defense, apply to cases resolved by a plea bargain? I always thought it did, but apparently that isn't a settled question. The Supreme Court is being asked to decide it, and the petition doing so puts Williamson County, Texas once again in the cross-hairs:
  
  
  
• This ad keeps showing up on my Twitter timeline. What the heck is that supposed to be? 
  
  
   
  
  
  
• Double header today in Arlington. I'm beginning to think he's not going to do it. 
  
  
  
• Ticket fans only:  The Dallas Morning News had an article/opinion piece last night about The Ticket's new competitor, the horribly named "The Freak", which features former Ticket exes taking on the station. There were two quotes which raised eyebrows.
• From Mike Rhyner on why he joined the new competitor:
  
  
  
• The reaction of Corby Davidson, Rhyner's old partner:
  
  
  
• That photos on the front page below, taken by the woman's son, really confused me so I went exploring. The story (free) was originally in the Washington Post. He went a long way to retrieve his stranded mother from her home but decided to record it all in a look-at-me GoPro video.  At one point in that video, published with the story, he has her laid out on a table behind him as he does his own-self interview.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

Remember that game next time someone says he should be in the Cowboys' Ring of Honor. And the single playoff win. (I don't hate the guy -- just think he was average.)

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• Saturday: Police in Indonesia fire tear gas to stop the storming of the field. A stampede broke out and as a result we've got more people killed than in Hurricane Ian.
  
  
  
• Remember that sailor accused of the billion dollar arson of the ship in San Diego? He was found not guilty. So either he didn't do it and/or I continue to believe that proving a fire was intentionally set is next too impossible.  Heck, I think even determining that a fire was intentionally set is basically impossible.
  
  
  
  
• Just a message that Democracy is Dead. Totally normal. (From Saturday's rally, And the fact he's even doing those rallies is very, very weird.) 
  
  
  
• A recent Wise County case that was in the Messenger made it to the big city paper. And I was told it was the "Hollywood Knowledge" questions on KCSC this morning (although I don't know what that means.)  
  
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Ted Cruz filming himself buying beer and talking to the camera is the most cringe-inducing thing you'll see all day.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Follow-up from last week: (1) So a Florida sheriff can just go on Good Morning America and falsely proclaim "hundreds" are "definitely" dead from the hurricane and we just give him a pass? (2) Here's the probable cause affidavit of the warden of an ICE facility shooting immigrants. 
  
  
  
• I've never so wanted to go near a boat in my life. 
  
  
  
• It's pronounced fen-tuh-nil and not fent-ah-null.  It's the new nuclear. 
• I'm not sure why the AP decided to drop a bombshell article about Ken Paxton on a bury-the-news Friday afternoon. 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• This was in Ohio, and it may be about as mad as I've ever seen people. Video - Extreme language warning. And those weights being popped out of the fish is quite the sight.
  
  
  
• The Price is Right on Friday:
  
  
  
  
• This photo was on the cover of the Dallas Morning News on Sunday. It's a curious choice, but there's a lot subtly going on there. 
  
  
  
• If you've got 42 seconds, listen to play-by-play man Tim Brando try to guess this puzzle during the UT game. 
  
  
  
• College football: (1) I'm not convinced TCU is for real, (2) OU's defense is shockingly bad, (3) Jimbo Fisher's Aggies have the name record as the fired Kevin Sumlin, 37-16 (4)  Baylor's all yellow uniforms should be burned, (5) Never bet college football, (6) Opening Big 12 lines:
  
  
  
• Aaron Judge's last chance to break the American League and Yankee home run record in Arlington. Four games beginning tonight.