2.08.2014

USA! USA! USA!


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2.07.2014

Above The Fold

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Wise County Cop Cars

Missed this story (Boyd):


And someone sent this to me (Rhome):


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It's Olympics Opening Ceremony Time


And those Ruskies are sending a message!
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This Kid Might Be Sick Of The Cold Weather

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Random Friday Morning Thoughts


  • You don't see this very often: Texas man who shot a deputy executing a warrant at the man's house will not be formally charged.  There appears to be an issue as to whether he knew the officer was an officer. 
  • Olympic confusion: The Downhill. The Slalom. The Super G. The Giant Slalom. I have no idea what the difference is. 
  • Just as confusing are the past Olympic names of Lolo Jones and Hope Solo.
  • Bob Costas has a weird eye infection.
  • Snowboarder Silje Norendal is a "Hey, Now."
  • If I could golf, I'd golf Pebble Beach. If I were rich and couldn't golf, I'd golf Pebble Beach.
  • Baylor basketball thought that no one cares about: (1) Baylor's men's team is in a freefall because that's the laziest team in the history of ever, (2) Baylor's women team is pretty close to being as good as last years team because a tiny point guard has oddly taken the leadership role over from the departed Britney Griner.
  • Pete Delkus took the position last night that by a "dusting" he meant "less than an inch of snow." Come on. Admit you were wrong.  Just under an inch of real dust would be called dirt.
  • “'The average age of a skilled craftsman such as a carpenter is 49; welder. 55; plumber, 56; and stonemason, 69',” said Phil Crone, executive officer of the Dallas Builders Association. That's just a random sentence out of an article in the Dallas Morning News on the labor shortage in the housing industry. I find those "averages" hard to believe. 
  • New unemployment numbers were released this morning but I won't even mention the number to avoid the online beat down. 
  • I didn't care enough to check in on Jay Leno's last show.
  • Jacksboro became a media hub last night, but that allowed me to learn that its Faith Community Hospital had two patients.  (And does anyone ever show up to a shelter created by the Red Cross? I always see a gym with a ton of cots lined out but with no one in them.)
  • Not sure what HornedFrogBlitz.com is, but it named Decatur's Grayson Muehlstein as TCU's "Offensive MVP" in this week's signing class.  
  • Has there ever been a Wise County football player sign with a team with a larger profile than TCU?  Bridgeport's Kyle Clifton and Colin Jones as well as Decatur's Kevin Haney and James Maness all went there. I suppose Boyd's Billy Joe Tolliver and Bridgeport's Phillip Daugherty being signed by Texas Tech could rival TCU.  But didn't some Bridgeport QB make the team at Auburn in the last 1990s?



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2.06.2014

Calling All Photographic Forensic Experts (Or Guessers)




Based upon the tire tracks, did that bus do a 180? Or did it just slide back down the hill (like it appears Mr. Fed Ex did)?


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Snow Day Pick Me Up


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From Bridgeport PD


We are asking for your assistance in identifying the couple seen in this picture. They were involved in a Robbery incident that occurred on February 5, 2014. 

 At approximately 2:57 pm, Officers responded to a Robbery call in the 900 Block of Halsell Street. The two subjects seen in this photo were involved in the crime and observed leaving in a Black 4-door passenger vehicle. 

 Please contact the Bridgeport Police Department with any information concerning this incident. 

No details about the "Robbery incident" or how this picture came to light.  That part of Halsell Street would be the lower west end of downtown.
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Oh, My


KXAS needs to do some serious editing of the video, but this near death experience is amazing.
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They Are Colder In Jack County Than In Most Places


Schools without heat with other heating problems reported at the hospital and the state jail facility.

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Cop vs. Firefighter: Who Ya Got?


How do we explain the arrest of a firefighter by a police officer at the scene of an accident — after an argument over where a fire truck should park? The authorities are still discussing the incident, which took place Tuesday night on California's I-805, where a car had rolled over at the center road barrier. More.
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Not Kidding: Duck Dynasty To Sponsor NASCAR Race At Texas Motor Speedway


NASCAR - Duck Commander, the brand of the best-selling duck calls and name of the thriving family-owned company led by the Robertson clan of A&E's "Duck Dynasty" fame, has signed a multiyear agreement to serve as title sponsor of the annual spring NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. More.
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Be Careful Out There



This was either in Decatur or Brooklyn. I'm still researching it.

(Man, those snow plows go fast up there.)
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Irony: Pete Delkus Mocks Someone Excited About The Weather



Edit: He's still at it. The best I can tell is that he's catching flak for predicting a "dusting" when it was a little more than that. He's in full defensive mode now.










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Random Thursday Morning Thoughts


  • That really did look like snow "dust" (as in "dusting") when it first started falling this morning. (Fox 4 was doing live shots from Decatur again this morning.)
  • The traffic sounds crazy at the entrance to Decatur High School -- one of the worst designed entrances and entry ways ever. 
  • Edit: Alvord ISD and Poolville ISD now closed.
  • Tragic fire in Chico last night but how do they not know by now whether a 14 year old boy was trapped in the house?
  • Rangers Ballpark renaming: (1) An insurance company based in McKinney? Something not very big time about that. (2) I don't mind the name being changed, I just hate the $2 graphics that they hauled out. (3) Memories of when Ameriquest held the naming rights -- yet another mortgage company which, despite rants to the contrary, was not forced to provide mortgages by the government. (4) Snow Globe Life Park?
  • I finally ate at Babe's in Roanoke. Yes, it was good. But your choices are only fried chicken or chicken fried steak? Kind of surprised they can get away with that. But I've always heard it is crowded.
  • And somehow I also ended up at Ricky Bobby's in North Fort Worth. How in the world can that place not be officially associated with (or pay a licensing fee) to the studio which own Talladega Nights? 
  • In 1977, a lady escaped a Michigan prison after serving eight months of an 18- to 24-month sentence for attempting to steal clothes from a Detroit-area store. Now 60, she has been "captured" in San Diego and is going back to prison. 
  • Texas, the nation's busiest death-penalty state, has now executed five women and 505 men. (A woman was added to the list last night.)
  • The city of Dallas is paying its new city manager $405,000 -- That's more than any other city manager in the country. And that seems insane. 
  • Channel 5 said Ethan Couch, the so-called affluenza kid, has been in detention since December 12th. Is that right? 
  • The Star-Telegram and Fox 4 are really bent out of shape of Judge Jean Boyd closing the juvenile courtroom in Tarrant County to the public over the last couple of months. You can't do that for adult trials or hearings, but that's just not that unusual for juvenile cases. 
  • A little known NBA rule was invoked last night that allowed a player who would normally have "fouled out" but remain in the game. 
  • "All-Female College Terrified by Creepy Underwear Man Statue" Don't blame 'em. 
  • The Aggies have a helicopter they used for recruiting (called, amusingly, a Swagcopter.) When UT's new coach was asked about it yesterday, he said,  “We don’t need gadgets. We’re not going to be a gadget program.” Delicious. 
 

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2.05.2014

"They Say It's Hard Out Here For A . . . . "


Link.

And, trust me, there's a couple of gold nuggets in that story.
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National Signing Day Flashback


I asked this morning who the kid was back in the day who signed his letter of intent from a hot tub.  A quick Google search revealed, I'll be dang, my entry from 2/6/08 which had this:

Thanks to Keith over at bagofnothing.com who sent me this article. . ."My view of the process has been a tad jaundiced since that day in 1989 when Dallas Carter High School's Jessie Armstead announced that he was going to Miami. At the same time, seated in a hot tub, teammate Derric Evans was all bling-blinged out, with a wine glass in one hand and a ballpoint pen in the other, signing his national letter of intent with Tennessee. "Evans, however, never quite made it to the kickoff. That summer, he and another Carter teammate, Gary Edwards, who signed with Houston, were arrested for a spree of armed robberies of video stores and fast-food joints. The judge handed Evans a 20-year sentence, seven of which he served in prison, and Edwards got 16."

 That post in 2008, by the way, had a video of Oklahoma's #1 recruit. Joshua Jarboe. That didn't turn out too well either.
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Emmitt Getting All Political

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Signing Day


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Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts



  • It's hard to believe that Jerry Jones has owned the Cowboys for 25 years. The team had only been in existence for 29 years when he bought it. 
  • It's National Signing Day. Anyone remember the Dallas kid who signed his letter of intent from a hot tub years ago?
  • One feel good story is aTm honoring a scholarship offer to a kid who will never be able to play for the Aggies. 
  • Radio Shack is reportedly about to close 500 stores. Does such a strategy ever work or is it just postponing the inevitable? And didn't they try to rename themselves simply "The Shack" a few years ago? 
  • It's a rare day when I'm willing to watch a 30 second ad before an Internet video. I'll fight through 10 or 15 second ads, but not half a minute.
  • Wrong way driver hits two squad cars in Irving last night. 
  • So DMX is going to fight George Zimmerman? I don't know who DMX is but I'd be a little nervous. 
  • The Ticket Boys referenced a listener this morning who suddenly died on pneumonia at the age of 32. One of his last tweets was, "I hate that I've been awake since 2:30am this stupid cough won't go away!”
  • I got an email from an alleged lawyer yesterday "suggesting" that I take down the story of the girl who got arrested for not paying her bill saying it was borderline "libelous". I did since I'll take down anything that anyone has a serious objection based on accuracy. But that's the first time I've had such a request in years. (And good luck trying to remove a viral story from the Internet.)
  • Today's Messenger referred to Rhome as Wise County's third largest city. That made me think Wise County is really small as opposed to Rhome being really big.
  • I don't understand this letter to the editor about former judge Sharen Wilson hugging the victims of a DWI death.  Was she the judge assigned to the case? Did she reject the plea bargain? 
  • That story on the front page about the Keller woman taking a plea deal is pretty interesting. It even has a youtube interview of her from her jail cell. Edit: Link fixed.



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Above The Fold

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2.04.2014

Update

Dallas Observer (@Dallas_Observer)
Denton County Won't Have to Pay For Prosecutor's Lynching, KKK References blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/201…


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My Skeptical Meter (Which is Deadly Accurate By The Way) Is Off The Charts



(CNN) -- A mysterious castaway claiming to have been lost at sea for 13 months is now safely back on land, but many questions remain about how he could have lived on his small boat for so long as it drifted across the Pacific Ocean.

 The man calling himself Jose Salvador Alvarenga turned up in a heavily damaged boat on a remote coral atoll in the Marshall Islands, claiming that he had been living off fish and turtles he had caught and relying on rainwater, and sometimes his own urine, to drink. (More)
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Tuesday Morning Pick Me Up



Can a gal be any hotter than this?

And, yes, you are legit.
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Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts



  • Got lots of emails about this lawyer ad. (By the way, I saw an ad yesterday from Jim Adler, The Texas Hammer, which had him jumping out of a helicopter to help his client. I've got to step up my game.)
  • Very random thought: I'd pay money to see Toby Keith and Charlie Daniels on Glee against their will.
  • Today, Ted Cruz is"releasing a six-page report on 'The Obama Administration’s Assault on Texas,' highlighting some of the legal friction points between the state and federal governments and warning that Obama has sought to expand federal power at the expense of states, especially Texas." Sheesh. 
  • Once I'm done hating on Cruz, Perry, and Abbott, I'll move on to Barry Smitherman. His latest commercial appeals to the lowest common denominator. 
  • The members of Motley Cure signed a “Cessation Of Touring Agreement” to prove this will be their last tour. If only it were legally binding. 
  • Remember when there was a skating rink and movie theaters at Love Field? I saw Butch Cassidy and and the Sundance Kid there when I was probably 14. 
  • The Winter Olympics just doesn't do it for me like the Summer games.
  • Philip Seymour Hoffman thought: Go watch or read In Cold Blood and then watch him in Capote.
  • As a prosecutor and defense lawyer, I've seen only one heroin case in Wise County in 20 years. You just don't see that stuff. 
  • Did I hear correctly that that the autopsy of the body of the son of accused killer Arnav Dhawan showed no signs of trauma? At this point it's not a matter of having a reasonable doubt about her guilt, but I don't think she killed him. 
  • Distance for Bridgeport's new UIL district mates:  Aubrey (49 miles), Celina (64 miles), Krum (35 miles), Anna (77 miles), Bonham (109 miles!)
  • Would someone please go after the fact that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodall makes $29.5 million a year and that the NFL is a "non-profit" organization. That's insane. 
  • I was at a drivers license hearing yesterday, and I'll swear the first lawyer up thought she was Nancy Grace. Lighten' up girl. It's an administrative hearing, not a jury trial. (And the cop she was questioning was fantastic. Even he realized she was nuts.)
  • I wonder how many people who say "America is the greatest country in the world" have ever been outside of the country.
  • Clean up post: I was taken to task a couple of weeks ago for saying that Jennifer Lawrence would be a "star". Hey, I meant star as in Meryl Streep not Molly Ringwald. Think about it. 
  • Josh Brent's jury being made up of "five blacks, four whites and three Hispanics — 'factored that into the equation'" of the sentence of probation per Dallas D.A. Craig Watkins. I'll give him credit for admitting that. 




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2.03.2014

And The Beat Goes On


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Tweet from WFAA TV (@wfaachannel8)

WFAA TV (@wfaachannel8)
Wise County sees worst of iced-over roads, but few injuries bit.ly/1fTD8bU


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Oh, Come On. The Guy Might Have A Point.

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Random Monday Morning Thoughts

  • Super Bowl thoughts: (1) We haven't seen a dud like that in quite some time, (2) Bruno Marrs was pretty good -- although Mrs. LL oddly compares him to Michael Jackson, (3) The Kids in the House had never heard of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, (4) Did you know a little Bruno Marrs was in Vegas Vacation? (5) If inside the 30 and it's fourth and less than five, go for it. Remember: Do what Art Briles would do. (6) I promise we didn't put our hand over our hearts during the National Anthem when I was a kid. (7) Frank Calindo is beginning to whip me but this was pretty funny. (8) Beer and wine cost $12, (8) Terry Bradshaw missed the pre-game because of his father's death. (9) There's snow on the ground in the Meadowlands this morning. (10) How old was that lady riding the horse as the Broncos were introduced? (11) I might spend the rest of my life wearing the coat Joe Namath sported yesterday, (12) Namath was wronged during coin flip - the official is the one who screwed up. (13) I laughed out loud at the first play -- it was just so wheels off. (14) I'm pleased that Charles Haley was left out of the Hall of Fame because he, by all reports, is a bad human being. (15) Pete Carroll and Barry Switzer are the only coaches to have won a National Championship and a Super Bowl. I love Switzer. Edit: I'm officially losing it. Yep, Jimmy Johnson. (16) I'm one of the few people who believes James Harrison's 100 yard interception return in 2009 was MVP worthy. That was a 14 point play. (14) Dez Bryant was not happy with his seat at the Super Bowl. 
  • I watched about 3/4 of the Silver Linings Playbook. It went from great to boring in record time.
  • I had forgotten that the Wright Amendment, which prevents flights out of Love Field from flying direct to anywhere other than to adjacent states, expires this Fall. I bet Southwest jumps on it with some cheap fares to Vegas.
  • I loved Philip Seymour Hoffman. (Check out his bizarre role as a gasoline sniffing addict in Love Liza if you haven't.) I would guess that substance abusers aren't doing it for fun but instead do it o numb the pain. 
  • Chris Christie, I pray, may be in big trouble over the George Washington bridge shutdown since someone is about to come forward saying he was in on it. I realized this weekend that I actually drove a rent car across that bridge in the 1990s when I went Connecticut to a Jets game to see Kyle Clifton play.
  • Paradise model's birthday.
  • Bill O'Reilly interviewing the President was pretty entertaining. But O'Reilly said beforehand that it would be a "Alpha Male versus an Alpha Male." Hey, if you describe yourself as an "Alpha Male" then you ain't one. 
  • From the Star-Telegram's Cheers and Jeers: "Jeers: To U.S. Rep. Steve Stockman for walking out on President Obama’s State of the Union message. Whether you like the president or not, the office should be respected. What Stockman did is just very bad manners." Did that happen? If so, I missed it.
  • I once said I'd get out of stock market when it hit 14,500. Maybe I should listen to the voices in my head. Then again, that would be a lot to listen to. 
  • I've accomplished 11 half marathons and have the medals hanging on the garage wall. I'm not sure I could do another one. That scares me a little bit.
  • Friday Night Sadness: Dallas Carter is now 3A?
  • I spend too much time reflecting on Baylor's football season. Years of sorrow will do that to you.
  • The Family went to the game room and watched the Puppy Bowl without me. What's the saying? "Me haz sad"?
  • Jay Leno's show ends this week. Thank goodness. That was Television Anthrax. 
  • The banal Ben Ferguson took over for Mark Davis when Davis was fired by Cumulus (which owns WBAP.) Never listen to him. But he tried to use his "status" to upgrade on American Airlines on Friday. 





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Fox 4 in Decatur

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2.02.2014

Ice Storm Fallout: It's Chaos


(Pic stolen from Facebook.)
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Random Small Time College Basketball



Pick it up at about the one minute mark.
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Wow

WSJ Breaking News (@WSJbreakingnews)
Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman found dead in Manhattan apartment. wsj.com


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