4.30.2024

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts




The Heisman Trophy winner got involved in Crab-gate. 

  •  "Three members of a U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force were fatally shot during a standoff Monday while trying to serve a warrant in Charlotte. A Charlotte police officer died hours later from injuries he suffered during the incident. Four other law enforcement officers were wounded, and the person they were pursuing was killed."


  • I really don't understand UT being so heavy handed with protestors. Scenes from Austin yesterday:










  • Compare to Columbia where protestors took over a building last night. You can't be doing that. 


    • But this is nothing compared to 1968.

  • JPS tried to kill an open records request by the Star-Telegram to get information for this story but failed.



  • Here's an example of how much the Republican party has changed. This is the county judge of Tarrant County taking sides in Republic run-offs races. Back in the day, no Republican elected official would ever take sides in a Republican vs. Republican race. But they do now.  And when they do, it is always an Ultra-MAGA extremists trying to get another ultra-MAGA guy elected. (Yep, municipal races don't have party affiliation but its generally Republican vs. Republican in them.)

  • You just knew this was coming.

     

  • Bridgeport is in the lead in the state golf tournament. The final day is today.

  • The Texas Tribune has updated its searchable database for state salaries.  Below is an overview of the salaries for DPS. The purple circle represents all the troopers. The red arrow was drawn by me and represents you know who.

  • Legal stuff: Some district and county clerks in Texas are now being sued by for not making records filed with them available to the public on “the same business day” they are received.

  • Trump has had four of the last six days off from his criminal trial. He campaigned on none of them. 

at 8:30 AM

4.29.2024

Random Monday Morning Thoughts






The auto accident taking the life of JP Terri Johnson 
dominated the news for a week back then.

  • Oklahoma, for a small state, gets pummeled by tornadoes far more than Texas does. Or it sure feels that way.
     

  • Dateline San Antonio.  Video from the crowd caught the chaos.

  • It may be the greatest unforced error of all time to admit in your own book that you personally executed your own dog because you didn't like him. 


  • Sports radio station The Freak, led by Ticket-ex Mike Rhyner, went belly up on Friday after a year and a half on the air.

    • A lawyer who represented Dan and Jake in their fight against the Ticket over their non-compete agreement says that he had been trying to arrange the purchase of the station and bring the employees with it. 

  • This might be one of the biggest loads I've ever seen towed.  And it fell its trailer and killed two people in a nearby car on Saturday near Temple. 

  • This video lived up to the bill. Anyone else but a cocky D.A. would have been arrested on the spot. Story.

  • Trump criminal trial will resume today. I would think the best way to defend it is to admit the affair and the payoffs, but argue that all the actions are not crimes. But instead, Trump is going to deny everything including that he slept with Stormy Daniels.  That's dumb. From the opening statements that I finally read: 

  • Birthday nugget about Jerry Seinfeld:

  • Random anniversary of a news story that I had never heard of. "On April 27, 1978, in one of the deadliest construction accidents in U.S. history, fifty-one workers fell to their deaths when scaffolding attached to an unfinished cooling tower collapsed in Willow Island, West Virginia."

  • NFL draft recap:

  • New NFL rule.

  • Breaking: He's back. 

  • I think Jerry Jones has now officially entered the Al Davis stage of life. He's acting a little crazier than normal. 

at 8:30 AM

4.26.2024

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




Ten years ago to the day.  That was, and still is, a shocking moment.

  • Decatur school board candidate HollyAnn Petree condemned the negative text message sent out by a PAC earlier this week which attacked her opponent.  She  called the text "disrespectful", and said that “I am not gonna lie, it felt like a punch in the gut" according to the Messenger. If she tried to stop them, it didn't work. Another one went out last night around 6:00 p.m.   

  • The absolute immunity case of Trump was argued yesterday.  Just a couple of general observations:
    • Say what?

    • This whole issue of absolute immunity could have been easily put to bed.  Trump's position is that he has absolute immunity for all official acts. That's silly. And if any other defendant had raised that exact argument without giving a back-up argument (i.e. he has at least some kind of immunity from the specific acts alleged in the indictment), he would have been booted out of court. But the case went sideways when the court greatly expanded the legal issue the moment they decided to hear it. They asked the parties to argue: 



    • Justice Alito is finally concerned that being a criminal defendant is a really, really tough position to be in.  It just took someone he likes to be on trial to finally notice. 

  • Metroplex schools are having a heck of a week. 

  • This headline doesn't match what actually happened. The prosecutor didn't "drop" the charges. Instead, the judge who was in charge of setting bond amounts found that probably cause didn't exist for an arrest. (Every magistrate who sets bond is supposed to first review an arrest affidavit and make the probably cause determination. It rarely actually occurs, though.)

  • Harvey Weinstein won his case on appeal.   Legal nerdy stuff: This was 404(b) error -- admitting prior bad acts that weren't included in the indictment. 

  • This is an embarrassing development by the Tarrant County D.A.  Leave the woman alone.

     

  • Trump's criminal trial continues today.  The first witness is still on the stand. 

  • And since it was part of a movie, it was caught on video. 


  • Horrible quality photo, but I saw a car with "Web Fire" branding on it the other day. What a flashback! It was the first and, at that time, the only Internet provider in Wise County in the mid to late 1990s.

  • This is interesting when you contemplate how much power the states with next to no population have in the Senate -- especially when it comes to the Supreme Court.

  • NFL Draft note: Despite signing Kirk Cousins to a four  year deal just a few weeks ago, the Falcons drafted Michael Penix in the first round with the eighth pick.  Everyone thinks Cousins will be upset. Sheesh. He's getting at least $100 million guaranteed of the $180 million contract. He'll get over it. 

  • 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: 4 years and 298 days.


at 8:30 AM
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