Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

When a former Rhome police chief didn't win the election. 

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• I would provide a gift link to this, but the Star-Telegram's website suddenly isn't allowing that function to work. Here's the regular link. 
  
  
  
• Hey! He's the "Bless Your Heart" guy. Notably, this was a non-jury trial in state court and was based on a Texas law enacted in 2021..
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Another day, another prostitution sting. This time the cops even took Fox 4's Peyton Yager along with them. I'm not sure the story came across like she thought it did. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• It's not earth-shaking, but I think it's interesting. 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• This truly is a crazy video.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Dateline Boston: "Officials took individuals from the line because the federal agency has directed its employees to halt all immigration applications for nationals from the 19 countries that already faced travel restrictions since June . . . . "
  
  
  
• The Supreme Court hears oral arguments today on an issue which kind of jumps out at you. And the case is from (checks notes) . . . Alabama.
  
  
  
• Trump held a rally last night which was supposed to be about "affordability."
• I'm not sure that's gonna do it. Video.
  
  
  
• And he keeps going more and more into Klan mode. Video.
  
  
  
  
• And there's nothing like a recently appointed federal appeals court judge, who just happened to be Trump's former personal lawyer, showing up for the rally.
  
  
  
• If your 79 year old family member posted this, you'd have an emergency family meeting. 
  
  
  
  
  
• College football is basically pro football now. And it's about to get worse with things like this happening: 
  
  
  
• New this morning: Sophie Kinsella, the best-selling author behind the "Shopaholic" book series that later became a big-screen hit, has died at 55.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

This occurred after reports that the Waco Twin Peaks Shootout had its origins in an assault that occurred at the Toy Run the year before. 

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• The local capital murder case looks like it will get lots of media coverage once the trial starts up in April.  This was from yesterday: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Lots of 17 year olds mentioned here: "A 17-year-old male was killed and another 17-year-old was injured; one 17-year-old suspect has been arrested and charged with capital murder." The story actually used the phrase "drug deal gone bad."
  
  
  
  

•  Former Colleton County Clerk of Court Mary Rebecca "Becky" Hill pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, perjury and misconduct in office. She was sentenced to three years probation. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• We are never going to see the footage of the second strike, are we? 
  
  
  
• Didn't President Biden get roasted for trying to influence social media companies? 
  
  
  
• Tariff's are costing the U.S. taxpayer in more ways than one: 
  
  
  
• The Secretary of Agriculture went full Orwellian yesterday afternoon. 
  
• David Ellison's Paramount launched a hostile takeover of Warner in an effort to out deal Netflix's bid. Oh, and this little nugget seems big: "During a December visit to Washington, David Ellison offered assurances to Trump administration officials that if he bought Warner, he'd make sweeping changes to CNN, a common target of President Trump's ire, people familiar with the matter said. Trump has told people close to him that he wants new ownership of CNN as well as changes to CNN programming."
  
  
  
• As is this nugget: "Three Middle East sovereign-wealth funds and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are among the financial backers of Paramount’s bid." 
  
  
  
• We are going full North Korean with a little racism thrown in.  Story. 
  
  
  
• Texas has a weird "resign to run law" which can get an officeholder kicked out of office if he announces that he is running for a different office with more than 1 year and 1 month left on his current term. But this is a bold move by the Lubbock County Judge to unilaterally decide a commissioner violated that law, and seems to be a stretch of whether the commissioner ran afoul of it at all.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
•  Legal nerdy stuff. If a Supreme Court justice asked you to name, off the top of your head, a case which got overruled after it had been on the books for 95 years or more, could you do it? Transcript from yesterday:
  
  
  
• Jasmine Crockett won't win, but that was a baller of an ad she fired off yesterday.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

The video of Trump and eagle during a Time photo shoot was released. 

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• Shootings in the news.
• Outside of Hulen Mall on Saturday afternoon. .
  
  
  
• Police were called out to Pandora Men’s Club, 8700 South Freeway, at 4:20 a.m. (!) Sunday. 
  
  
  
• I always complain about how local newsrooms have been gutted. Case in point: I saw this great tease only to find out from the story that the incident occurred in 2021 and the case was disposed of in court in 2022.  Absolutely nothing new has happened since then. 
  
  
  
• The craziest thing about the video is that he could have high-fived the Amazon driver who was on the way back to his truck. 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Political news this morning. Colin Allred drops out of a Senate run. U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett  is expected to launch a Senate bid this afternoon.  
  
  
  
• You could teach constitutional law by just telling your students to know who was on the court when a case was decided. 
  
  
  
• I never understand headlines like this.   I read time and time again of judicial decisions demonstrating how qualified immunity is almost impossible to overcome, and then a city just gets out their checkbook anyway. 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Wait a second.  Does the United States government just represent Elon Musk now?
  
  
  
  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Lots of buses catching fire lately.  Video.
  
  
  
• Ken Paxton sued the developers of the "Islamic housing development" north of Dallas but the "radical plot" he cites to justify it sounds a lot like the business plan of  D.R. Horton. or any other land developer.
  
  
  
  
• Trump news. 
• He basically gave himself a Dundee on Friday.
  
  
  
• Good news! We'll all be driving tiny cars. 
  
  
  
• What are we doing here? 
  
  
  
• College football observations:
• North Texas missing out of the playoffs by losing to Tulane on Friday night might turn out to be a blessing in disguise once all is said and done.
• Texas Tech could actually win the National Championship because of that defense. 
• The path of the Aggies is a brutal one. 
  
  
  
• Notre Dame (10-2) , Iowa State (8-4), and Kansas State (6-6) have all decided not to play in any bowl game. That caused a domino effect yesterday evening causing the the last bowl on the totem poll to go searching for a team. Appalachian State finally came to the rescue. 
  
  
  
• DWI cases used to be training grounds for new prosecutors to gain trial experience in the big cities. That no longer occurs because of deferred adjudication probation becoming a plea bargain option in 2019.  The Tarrant County misdemeanor courts used to be constantly busy with DWI jury trials. Now they basically sit empty on trial days.