At The Stock Show Last Night

Above The Fold

Right In The Kisser!

NBC12.com - Richmond, VA News, Weather, Traffic

(CBS ATLANTA) – Investigative reporter Jeff Chirico took a blow to the chin while investigating a businessman charged with stealing customers’ tax refunds. A CBS Atlanta News undercover investigation found Richard Wilder, 43, of Braselton, operating a new business in Gainesville weeks after he was arrested by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office in September. Shortly after questioning Wilder, Chirico was approached by a man who called himself Donald Wilder, Richard Wilder’s father. As Chirico asked him questions about the business, Donald Wilder turned and punched Chirico in the chin, knocking him to the ground.

And So It Goes

Nice ad placement.

Story.

Edit: There is still a little meth out there despite the conviction.

Hot Sports Opinion By TCU Professor

Excerpt from Washington Post opinion piece: Sports games — some of the only events that lead Americans to set their differences aside and sit down and watch together — have become stages for large-scale patriotic theater. This is no accident; many of the militaristic rituals we see in stadiums and arenas across the country were deliberately designed to promote unity during times of crisis. But they’ve stuck around far longer than needed, making sports feel less like pastimes than pep rallies for our military or a particular war.

It really isn't that hot in my opinion, but there is some yahoo on the radio in the background who is so angry that he is saying, "There used to be a time where the professor would be prosecuted for saying something like this!"  

Budweiser Super Bowl Commercial for Sunday

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• I've always thought the X-Games were silly, but I'm going to have to come up with a better description after the death of the guy from Krum who suffered injuries in a snowmobile event. 
• The unemployment rate has ticked up to 7.9%! Presidential election conspiracy! Presidential election conspiracy!
• Dallas DA Craig Watkins said on the radio this morning that his office would match the $30,000 reward offered for the killer(s) of the Kaufman County prosecutor, and that the money would come out of seizure funds. Is that legal?
• I was in a Wise County Courthouse Security meeting over fifteen years ago, and I promise I made the statement that guards at the doors or metal detectors wouldn't protect me because I walk from the same parking spot to the same door at 8:15 a.m. every morning. 
• Clint Eastwood did the Republicans no favors at the National Convention but his daughter is a "Hey, Now."
• I used the word "boycott" at the dinner table last night prompting one family member to think it involved something about a boy and a cot. 
• There was quite the scene up at the Wise County Courthouse yesterday. After next week's trial, I'll explain. 
• It's the 10 year anniversary of the Columbia shuttle disintegrating over Texas. I've mentioned this before, but that morning I got up and turned on the TV news but the screen showed nothing more than a camera pointed at the sky with a reporter saying things like, "Some have said they saw streams of what looked like a glistening light." I swear for 30 seconds I starred at the screen and thought there had been a bizarre UFO sighting. 
• Even without knowing the back story, this apology a couple of days ago is funny: "''The derogatory comments I made yesterday were a reflection of thoughts in my head, but they are not how I feel.''
• A malfunctioning button on the TV remote control drives me nuts. 
• I've known lots of criminal defendants who gripe about how slow their case drags through the system only to want to slam the brakes on it once the case is actually set for trial.
• I've mentioned before it's absolutely legal to carry a rifle or shotgun down a public street and a group of gun advocates did just that yesterday in the Stockyards.

Is This The Person Cops Found Buried Near Wise County

This "missing person" story is poorly written, but it appears she was last seen in early 2012 at home where a murder* of another person had occurred (or would occur), and the body in that murder was found at a different location on the northeast side of Eagle Mountain Lake. I don't know exactly where the body found this week was located, but it was in that part of Tarrant County.
_________
*That murder, authorities claim, had ties to the Aryan Brotherhood. That's a coincidence because that organization, if you can call it that, has been mentioned today in connection with the Kaufman county prosecutor.

Texas (Near) Courthouse Shooting

Link.

Edit: Channel 11 says victim is DA's investigator.

Edit: WFAA says it is a prosecutor.

Edit: It's a prosecutor and it sounds like a "hit".

Edit: Fox 4 coverage and Dallas Morning News coverage.

How She Avoided Being "And Another" Is One Of Life's Great Mysteries

Story.

Reporter With A Somewhat Shocking Retort

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• There's all sorts of talk of Rick Perry making another run for the Presidency. If so, he is delusional.
• Police dug up a body just across the Wise County line in Tarrant County a couple of days ago. It'll hit the news in a couple of days.
• Former Aggie great from the late 1980s Darren Lewis was charged with aggravated robbery. I wonder, seriously, if watching the Aggies this year made him despondent about a better time in his life.
• Dumb question: Do none of the big name cowboys (i.e. Trevor Brazile) take part in any of the rodeos at the Stock Show?
• I was watching a college basketball with the Fourth Grader in the House last night and had to explain why teams intentionally foul in the last minute and, thus, slowing down the game. She suggested that the team who gets fouled automatically get half a point and retain possession of the ball. Not a bad idea.
• Allen High School has a band of about a billion members and had had the same band director since 1999.  He suddenly quit, became a middle school teacher, and no one will say why.
• There's a boy being held in an underground bunker by a guy who took him from a school bus after shooting the driver. You would think this would get Baby Jessica-like news coverage.
• "Tarrant County Tax Assessor Ron Wright said Wednesday that District Attorney Joe Shannon should resign because of sexual harassment charges that became public last week." That's just weird. You don't see old white Republicans in Tarrant County taking shots at fellow Republicans.
• If you ever visit one of those "Emergency Clinics" popping up around the metroplex, be prepared for a shockingly high bill. And I'm talking in the four digits kind of shocking.

Kid tries to join Baylor game tonight

Ladies!

Ouch. I'd be on the floor.

And that ref who didn't blow his whistle gives a whole new meaning to "let 'em play."

And Another - Arizona

Man, this one is really similar to the Mansfield gal that was tried in Tarrant County last year.

I'm Not Sure That Protective Order Would Do Much Good Anyway

An Ohio woman who was seeking an order of protection against her ex-boyfriend was brutally assaulted by the man inside a Domestic Relations courtroom last week, an attack that was recorded by a surveillance camera.

As seen in the above video, the attack by Rashad Greene, 30, occurred after he was briefly left alone in the courtroom with Dominique Morrow, 28, and Greene’s grandmother.

Greene and Morrow were in the Summit County courtroom for a hearing in connection with Morrow’s application this month for a restraining order against Greene, whom she has accused of making threats and abusing her. (More)

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• Gov. Perry's assertion yesterday that the multi-billion dollar Rainy Day Fund be returned to the taxpayers is nothing but smoke.
• "Five people, including two men that investigators believe to be pimps, were arrested on charges stemming from a prostitution sting in Weatherford late Friday and early Saturday. Law enforcment [sic] officers with the Weatherford-Parker County Special Crimes Unit targeted online ads on Backpage.com and FWWeekly.com advertising services." Are there too many cops in this state?
• Mrs. LL has decided that The Family Pup needs to have puppies, and a "date" was set up with another Yorkie yesterday. I'm sooooooo keeping out of this and any conversation that goes with it. 
• Jason London, who I'm not sure I've seen since Dazed and Confused, got arrested and has one of the craziest book in photos ever. 
• It was a crazy day in the metroplex yesterday: (1) A huge line of storms with hail, (2) a man shoots his co-worker to death in Grand Prairie, (3) a Fort Worth cop was shot and is in critical condition, (4) T. Boone Pickens grandson dies, (5) cops were called to a conveniences store at I-30 and Watson in Arlington last night to find three people shot, two of them "critically" and (6) the teacher turns herself in for the hit and run death of child. Whew.
• And if Pickens, a TCU student died from a drug overdose as NBC5 is speculating about, then TCU's drug reputation is getting bad.
• Has Modern Family gone horribly downhill this season?
• Amazon announced today that it is building a 1.1 million shipping center in Haslet.
• I'm stunned that the female trooper involved in the caught-on-tape intrusive searching of two women a month or so ago was fired.  DPS normally stands by their own but they sacrificed that woman.
• Thanks for all the travel tips from Monday. (But pricing travel online is enough to take the fun out of a vacation.)

Random ad from this week's Messenger. Another church.

If Sen.Ted Cruz Wrote This, It's Going To Be A Wild Ride

Complete letter.

A Couple Of Unrelated "Wows"

In Case Your Phone Isn't Ringing

Media Day At The Superbowl

Mrs. LL's Television Debut In "Dallas" Last Night

The back of her head made it.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• 730 South of Decatur is shut down right now due to a jackknifed tractor trailer. 
• Got to love the guy who tried to impersonate a fire marshal in order to avoid a $10 cover charge at the Glass Cactus in Grapevine.
• Todd Staples was on the Mark Davis Show this morning. He's the Texas Ag Commissioner running for Lieutenant Governor. He's also a guy who refers to himself in the third person to a nauseating degree.
• What a weird day: We've got a Red Flag Warning for potential fires with an 80% chance of rain as well. 
• The guy who shined a laser into a Dallas PD helicopter was described as was described on Fox 4 News last night as wearing only boxers and smoking a cigarette. Heather Hays tried to make a joke out of it but everyone laid out on her.
• The Tarrant County DA is taking heat for the "no fault" settlement of a sexual harassment claim. But, as expected, the taxpayer spokesman for his office was defending him in a "statement" released to news outlets. However, that statement is conspicuously absent from the archive page of news releases.
• When a dispatcher sends out a "second tone" to a local fire department in Wise County, does that mean no responded to the first?
• That monkey that Iran says it sent into space may be the saddest looking monkey ever. 
• The conservatives don't sound too excited about proposed immigration reform. 

From My Email Bag

Former Texas Ranger "Josh Hamilton stuck his head in my mom's car last night. probably more to the story but that's all I know."

Say what??????

I've Got To Get Me These Shorts!

Director Kevin Smith (Clerks, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back)

Park Cities Kid Kills A Pig

Reed Graff is a second-grader at Armstrong Elementary in Highland Park, and presumably enjoys a good juice box, some down time with a video game, and the finest of cookies. He also likes shooting feral hogs with guns as big as him.

There's nothing particularly remarkable about this video other than the unusual bags under the kid's eyes and his gun safety habit of sticking his head in front of the the barrel. 

Our Dog Is This Dumb And This Happy

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• We saw Zero Dark Thirty this weekend. Review will be forthcoming, and I'm definitely in the minority on this flik. 
• Any suggestions about the Florida beaches in the Panhandle?
• There was a time in my life that dogs really did disgust me. Now I kind of want one around me at all times. 
• We were watching some awards show last night, and I tried to shut down the house (unsuccessfully) because the great and white haired Dick Van Dyke was receiving a lifetime achievement award. Afterwards, Mrs. LL said, "I can't believe they didn't show any of the clips from him in the Naked Gun movies."  It might have been the most awkward household moment ever.
• Former WBAP host Mark Davis is becoming a borderline religious zealot nut.
• A bat attacked a college basketball game this weekend. 
• The lack of football began to sink in this weekend. Not that I'd watch it if it were on, but I just like to have the option. 
• The Brazilian nightclub fire fire that killed at least 238 people was horrific. (Irrelevant Side Note: All club-goers that got out seemed to not have shirts on.)
• I've heard that in north Fort Worth a former huge grocery store is being converted into a "satellite church" for crazy pastor Ed Young's Fellowship Church. That means he'll be broadcast on a screen. Idiocracy.
• Dallas debuts tonight. Mrs. LL will be in the crowd scene when Sue Ellen makes a campaign appearance. (Unless the scene ends up in the cutting room floor which would also mean that Mrs. LL will end up on the living room floor.)
• I forgot to mention that at the Stock Show I met a lady who seemed to be in charge of "Bond's Ranch" as in the Bond's Ranch that is the basis of Bond's Ranch Road. 
• The Obama re-election and the Benghazi story petering out may put the Far Right in therapy.
• I'm seeing a headline that a person was arrested in Dallas for shining a laser at a Dallas Police Department helicopter. Without reading the story, how in the world could they ever find him?