Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• This is the perfect storm for the local media: The ice storm they've been waiting for occurring during Super Bowl week. 
• Pete Delkus was delivering the weather at 5:00 a.m. Did he go home? 
• But here's a perfect example of how he overhypes things: At 5:25 a.m. he tweeted that this "major winter storm" would continue "thru mid afternoon." Fox 4's Evan Andrews was showing the radar at the same time and saying even Dallas would be done with the storm within three hours -- and that looked so obvious to everyone (except apparently Delkus.)
• And Andrews turned out to be exactly right. 
• Sundance Square had their own private snow plows standing by. Yep, snow plows. 
• What has happened to the Dallas sanding trucks being referred to as "Ice Force One"? That was Idiocracy gold!
• You know, of the thousands of school buses in the metroplex, we've never heard of a single one being involved in an accident when an ISD decided not to close a school. 
• If you get a chance to turn on ESPN2 and catch Mike and Mike In The Morning broadcasting live from Sundance Square this morning, do it. Those boys are freezing. 
• The temperature over the next couple of days may be a bigger story than the sleet. At least the wind chill. It's already brutal out there. 
• I think it's odd that the weather guys always say things like "fortunately, we missed the big winter blast" when we all want a big winter blast.
• DFW Airport stopped all incoming and outgoing flights at 6:30 a.m. Yep, the airport shut down. I'm not sure I have any memory of that happening before. 
• (Did I get up early like I always do today? Yep.)
• Changing gears......
• The Messenger referenced that the legislative budget cuts for local ISDs could decrease their budgets by 25%. I don't think you could dramatically cut a school budget by a 1/4th without catastrophic results. 
• Barely made the news: A man on trial for capital murder was found not guilty in Tarrant County on Friday. That was basically an impossible event twenty years ago. (And it happened in District Judge Sharen Wilson'scourt -- a judge who prides herself on being extremely tough on crime. That's why we have juries between us and the government.)
• I saw a plea going on in district court yesterday with a defendant who was not a U.S. citizen. When the judge asked him if he understood that his plea of guilty could result in his deportation, the defendant said no. In fact, this was the first time he had ever heard of any potential immigration consequences. His attorney might want to do his job in the future since that warning is in the plea papers he was supposed to explain to his client. Plus, the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that it is "ineffective assistance of counsel" not to explain the specific immigration consequences regarding a plea. Made me shake my head. 
• A great video of Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric in 1994 on the Today Show asking what the Internet is. Hey, we were all in the same boat back then. (I had my first email address in 1996).
• The only news out of the Denton County No Body Murder Trial yesterday was the "victim's" brother testified that he talked to his sister on the day she headed to the defendant's house. I was more interested in the fact that the brother didn't attend the funeral for the maybe-dead-lady because he was "sick". Way to man up. Or maybe he even questions whether she is dead. 
• There are supposed to by millions marching in Egypt today. Think Israel is nervous? Cover of their leading paper follows (since most U.S. papers didn't have much to offer.)