Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• Tarrant County juries found defendants not guilty 17% of the time last year. That's truly a shockingly high number when you think about it. 
• Ticket Fans: In 1982, Mike Rhyner made Channel 8 News after would-be presidential assassin John Hinckley wrote KZEW.
• With the death of The Professor yesterday, only Ginger (80) and Mary Ann (75) remain.
• And the fictional Professor said on one episode that he had degrees from SMU and TCU.
• "LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) — A condemned Ohio inmate appeared to gasp several times and took more than 15 minutes to die Thursday as he was executed with a combination of drugs never before tried in the U.S." Keep screwing up like that and the death penalty will be abolished more quickly than it inevitably will be.
• For all the past budget fights a few weeks back, a $1.1 trillion spending bill soared through the Senate and House this week.
• And where was Ted Cruz throwing a fit about passing a budget without the repeal of Obamacare? (He is on the cover of the new Texas Monthly holding a copy of the Constitution.) I hope he runs for President simply because of the entertainment factor. And he'd get crushed. 
• Also in the magazine is an article penned by Joaquin Castro on his first year in Congress. The whole thing is online. (I wonder how they decide which articles to publish for free?)
• The judge assigned to the dead-pregnant-woman JPS case has recused herself. She didn't say the reason why. I wonder if it's because of that well known technical legal reason of  "I want no part of this political hot potato."
• If you like Major League Baseball and Jeopardy, you have to see three gals try to answer a question about a Red Sox pitcher involved in a steroid controversy who has been denied entrance into the Hall of Fame.
• Fox 4 had the video of Josh Brent at the Privae nightclub. That was one happening place.
• If the defense is trying to sell the "he was above .08" at the time of the blood test but he was "below .08" at the time of driving, good luck with all that.
• The Texas Bar Journal (horrible publication, by the way) had a section in its most recent issue where it profiled a few lawyers and asked them a series of questions including "What's the worst mistake you've ever made?"  Yeah, right. They are going to truthfully answer that? One guy responded that his worst mistake was working too hard. The correct answer for any lawyer is (1) missing a deadline or (2) being completely oblivious to an issue that could have helped your client.
• A random Bridgeport lake house in a high tone area is on the market for $849,000 but on the tax rolls for $436,000. Overpriced or undervalued?
• Obscure question: I think D Magazine's Tim Rogers really hates DMN's Steve Blow, but I could have sworn someone commented on here one time that he was just doing a bit. 
• Late yesterday, the Fort Worth Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of conviction of a Wise County man for attempted capital murder. The opinion isn't particularly interesting, but it does mention by name a Wise County deputy, trooper, and Texas Ranger. If I remember the proceedings correctly, the defendant was a nut who wouldn't listen to anyone who tried to represent him. 
• Also from the court, the government got to keep seized property of "$381,244.75 in U.S. Currency, 2000 Pontiac Grand Am, 2001 Ford Pickup Truck, and the Proceeds of the Sale of the Property Located at 2900 Kyle Cove" in Wichita Falls because the guy didn't file a brief on time. I hope there's more to the story than that. (I looked the guy up and he got a life sentence for running a convenience store that sold a ton of ingredients used to make homemade meth.)
• The lead item in the Update deals with local campaign contributions and expenditures. You can see the original documents for any candidate here.