Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

Kind of missed the blue state part. Still have faith in the Perry prediction. 

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• We've got another Wise County (alleged) murder. This one is wild where authorities say that a man killed his 42 year old wife and 11 year old daughter months ago and their bodies have been in a house south of Decatur for months.  It was on CR 4371 which has some really nice homes on it. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Man, for a county which hardly ever saw a murder, we've had an avalanche of them recently.
• The Wise County Sheriff's Office desperately needs a PR person. The office apparently sent out a press release about this case, but you can't find it online anywhere. And their Facebook page and other social media accounts are silent about this killing which, I'm guessing, has a lot of public interest. Plus, they have no link on their web page for  media releases. This is 2023. 
• This got my attention. Oncor had to pay the Messenger for an eight page spread today for a public notice about a massive web of powerlines going in on the southeast part of the county. They lines will run, very widely, from south of Rhome to Flower Mound. 
  
  
  
• Trump federal case news: 
• She is way in over her head: The judge in the Trump documents case, who had no prior judge experience before taking the bench in 2020, has presided over only four criminal cases for a grand total of 14 days. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Doesn't surprise me. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Here is your biennial reminder that Gov. Abbott is just grandstanding because, in Texas, every bill passed by the legislature will automatically take effect unless the governor vetoes it. Passed bills do not require his signature. 
  
  
  
• Abbott and Dan Patrick are fighting over property taxes and Abbott, as a ruse of retaliation, hasn't been "signing" Senate originated passed bills like he has those from the House. But he also has vetoed three Senate bills and has been snarky about it. 
• This is theft. According to the story, the State has allocated $7 million of your taxpayer dollars to pay private attorney's fees to prove to skeptical federal judge that its foster care system in good shape.  And $1,300 an hour is aggravated theft. The lawyer is also the wife of the way-over-the-top Fifth Circuit Trump appointed judge, James Ho.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Most of the local news had video of a concrete boom exploding in Richardson.  How much do one of those things run?  
  
  
  
• By comparison, little Wise County, right next door, is around 70,000.
  
  
  
• He's a child.
  
  
  
• Legal stuff: Yesterday, the Court of Criminal Appeals finally settled the venue question in Ken Paxton's state charges.  The indictment was handed down in 2015. 
  
  
  
• This SEC thing is going to take some time to get used to. Side note: Texas also goes to Michigan that year in a non-conference game. Brutal. 
  
  
  
• Messenger - Above the Fold

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

From the whatever-happened-to department: He received 10 years probation to a drug charge with four months in the Tarrant County jail as a condition of that probation.

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• Trump's arraignment was yesterday. This is clever: 
  
  
  
• If you've ever been arrested, Trump's appearance yesterday didn't feel like an arrest especially since he didn't have to pose for mugshot. But that's what it was -- technically at least. From the official docket of the federal court: 
  
  
  
• We had one actual arrest after the arraignment because this guy jumped in front of Trump's limo. Video.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Let's check in on Fox News from yesterday.
• This was last night around 8:00 p.m.  They've lost their minds. 
  
  
  
• And this wasn't Melania -- it was actually Margo Martin who is part of Trump's communications team who has been with him for years. 
  
  
  
  
• Of all the bluster over the charges from the Ultra-MAGA extremist crowd, one thing is clear: No one is saying he didn't do it.   Even he admits it when he says, like he did last night on TV, that he had a "right" to the documents. That is not a winning strategy. 
• Oh, good grief.
  
  
  
• Remember yesterday how I said I think Fox 4 has a Twitter bot which copies designated WFAA weather tweets and reposts them with a slight addition? It happened again several times yesterday afternoon and caught one of them immediately after it happened:
  
  
  
• I haven't mentioned the story of the Utah woman accused of killing her husband and then writing a children's book about dealing with grief, but her Google search history was released yesterday and that go my attention: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Forgot to mention this from last Friday: The doggie toy on the right is illegal so says the Supreme Court. 
  
  
  
• Big day for OU and Texas: This SEC will release football schedules for 2024 today at 6:00 p.m. CST.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

Running away from a misdemeanor probation revocation warrant eventually earned her 240 days in the Wise County jail. 

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• It's Trump surrender day at the Miami federal courthouse -- which, by the way, is a very modern courthouse. He is scheduled to appear at 2:00 p.m. CST. 
  
  
  
• Meanwhile:
  
  
  
• The majesty of sports.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Seems to be a lot going on in this criminal case out of Wichita Falls. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Law enforcement used to be so secretive about this:
  
  
  
• Local Weather Coverage Observation: Something that I noticed on Twitter is that every single time WFAA's Pete Delkus' account fires off a tweet that mentions an alert issued by the National Weather Service, that Fox 4's Evan Andrews account will then issue the exact same warning, letter for letter. (But it always adds the "Stay tuned ..." part.)  Fox 4 has to have some type of bot doing this because Andrews' tweet is always, without fail, seconds after Delkus' tweet. Example:

  

  Notice no space between the zero and the p. 

  
  
• She ain't wrong.
  
  
   
  
  
  
• Not that I care about San Francisco business news, but I wouldn't want to be a creditor on a $558 million note where my lien is on a mall. It would like having a lien on a church that defaults -- there's just not a whole lot of buyers out there for it. 
  
  
  
• Congratulations? Buddy, it would be news if an elected D.A. was left off of that list. By definition an election ensures your inclusion regardless of who you are. 
  
  
  
• Texas and Stanford played for a chance to go to the World Series last night and, tied in the bottom of the ninth and with two outs, Texas outfielders lost a fly ball in the lights. Video.
  
  
  
• Predictably, Texas took the loss well.
  
  
  
• Funny. The stadium at Iowa State has changed up its signage to welcome the four new teams to the Big 12 this fall.  But one observer noted that the logos for Texas and OU have been placed on a riveted panel which can be easily removed after the 2023-2024 season when the schools head off to the SEC. 
  
  
  
• Extremely legal nerdy stuff for criminal practitioners only: Pretend you were appointed to do an appeal on an open plea to Intoxication Manslaughter, which included a plea of true to a Deadly Weapon paragraph, and where the defendant got the maximum of 20 years. If you looked at the judgment and it did not reflect a deadly weapon finding, would you ever urge on appeal that the judgment should be reformed and the finding placed there? It happened in Dallas and yesterday the appellate court obliged. (It had to be there as a basis for the Ineffective Assistance point of error but, if that's the case, don't raise Ineffective Assistance.)  Amazingly, the State in its brief urged there not be a deadly weapon finding, but the appellate court did it anyway. This is all a head scratcher.