Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

At Love Field, a man was threatening officers with “a rock in each hand,” and was shot after he made “a quick approach directly at the officer.”

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• The town of Trinidad just keeps on giving. With all due respect to the judge, the fact that the warrant was all based upon an allegation of a Facebook complaint about water quality should have been a red flag. 
  
  
• Now if they had run a non-fraudulent "psychic scheme," they would be on firm ground.  
  
  
  
• If you are smart enough to never look at any social media comments under any news story about this case, congratulations. 
  
  
  
• Oh, no. 
  
  
  
• If you want proof that ICE would enforce those one-sided 287(g) agreement against any police department which signed on, see this story from yesterday's Dallas Morning News.  ICE is serious about that "under the supervision and direction" language. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• "The Texas Animal Health Commission has released an interactive map tracking cases of New World screwworm in Texas."
  
  
  
  
• We know know that the those behind the data center haven't contributed enough to Gov. Abbott. (Flashback and Compare: Abbott became a big fan of school vouchers once he received a one time $6 million campaign donation from voucher backer Jeff Yass.)
  
  
  
• Yep, he really said it.
  
   
  
  
  
• Overnight war updates. But, don't worry, "the talks are going very well." 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Gift link. 
  
  
  
  
  
• Messenger - Above the Fold

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

I don't think this Facebook feature in the print edition of the Messenger lasted very long. 

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• The Messenger has a good article recapping the Decatur City Council meeting on Monday regarding joining forces with ICE along with some great pictures. Here's one:
  
• From what I heard yesterday, the ICE proposal is dead and won't come up again. 
• But I refuse to believe the Chief of Police was behind all of this. He's too good of a guy, and too smart of a guy, for that.  But someone at City Hall thought it would be a good idea to try and steamroll this thing through by placing it on the agenda when anyone with half a brain would have known it would turn into a political cluster and a legal disaster. 
• And when the public input and open City Council discussion at the meeting began to turn south, it was a more than a little curious that the new mayor suddenly decided the council needed to go into executive session. 
• I really don't know what the defense strategy was in this case.  They had three choices (all which were amazingly submitted to the jury by the judge as options without any evidence to support them): Self defense, which would result in an acquittal, and two options which would have at least capped the possible sentence at 20 years: Manslaughter and "sudden passion" (submitted in the punishment charge). But the lawyers never really road any of those three horses. You have to pick one. 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Oh, my. 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• News alert: We are not, in fact, "close to a deal with Iran." It turns out that the Apache helicopter was taken down by an Iranian drone. In response, the U.S. struck Iran.  And then Iran retaliated against the region.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Uh, oh. We just got a numbers release on inflation. 
  
  
  
• She went crazy along the way and left Congress to run for governor in South Carolina. Last night she came in fifth.  
  
  
  
  
• He just wanted to live peacefully in retirement. 
  
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Good lord. They are going to do the UFC press conference and the weigh in at the Lincoln Memorial? 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• It's good that the Star-Telegram is still doing deep dives into stories like this. (Gift link.)
  
  
  
• New York takes its basketball very seriously. (And still manages to take a jab at the D.A.)
  
• Former Dallas Cowboys receive Lance Rentzel has died. He was forever tied to his arrest in 1970,

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

A grand jury decided to not indict two cases but, in one of the cases, the DA just planned to wait for a new grand jury and try again. 

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• After impassioned pleas from the public as well as pointed questions to the Chief of Police by at least two city councilpersons who had actually read the egregiously one-sided proposed agreement with ICE, the Decatur City Council tabled any action on allowing designated Decatur police officers to become "limited" ICE agents. It took over an hour in executive session to get there, but local democracy actually still lives. 
  
  
  
• Shout out to these four brave women of Decatur who came forward to speak against the ICE agreement. With very short notice, they came prepared with polished presentations.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• You can watch last night's city council meeting here. You can jump to the public speakers in Open Forum and/or the discussion of agenda item #5. 
• In a much more low-key affair, the Wise County Commissioners Court has begun broadcasting its meetings online for the first time. The new video page is located here where yesterday's meeting is already posted. 
  
  
  
• The jury begins deliberations today. I'd be stunned if there is anything other than a guilty verdict.  If that happens, the case will move to the punishment phase where probation will not be a legally available option for the jury. 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• We better keep an eye on this.  Side note: The Texas count is officially at four - three cows and a goat. One of the three new cases reported yesterday included a dog which tested positive at a vet's office in Andrew County but "is from a household in Lea County, New Mexico", so that state gets the "credit" for him. 
  
  
  
• The town of Trinidad remains in chaos.
  

  
  
  
• DPS wants money or they won't continue. 
  
  
  
• New this morning: Apache Down.
  
   
  
  
  
• A district judge granted a temporary injunction in Lubbock yesterday which will allow a transfer quarterback, who has admitted to gambling on games involving his own team, to play for the Red Raiders this season.  
  
  
  
• The blowback was unlike anything I have ever seen. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The NCAA immediately appealed the case but it will go to the Amarillo Court of Appeals which has four judges -- all of whom graduated from Texas Tech Law School. 
  
  
  
• It became official yesterday. Trump wants his own personal defense lawyer to run the Justice Department as his own personal law firm. 
  

  

  
  
• They're planning on not letting any members of the House who win in California this fall (and there will be a bunch of them, as always) officially take their seat in Congress, right?
  
  
  
• The Business Second™. How much more land is down there to develop? We'll never be able to get into Fort Worth again on 287. 
  

  

  
  
• The Second Business Second™. The company behind ChatGPT is going public. 
  
  
  
• Cities and towns can "ban" data centers, but counties cannot. 
  
  
  
• There appears to be actual boxes and files finally being moved into the Wise County Courthouse.