Final Four Concert

LL Cool J on the stage. A good crowd out here!! #WFAAFinal4 pic.twitter.com/CWFJJw0XuE
— Ryan Wood (@RyanWoodDFW) April 5, 2014

Not so sure about that second sentence.

Above The Fold

The Final Four Taking You Into The Weekend

Texas School Bus Driver Mocks Crying Girl

Well, we are missing a big part of the story here: What was she crying about? That could change everything.

Have the flu? No mock
Dog died? No mock
Dropped candy? Mock
Just drove by horrific car crash? No mock
The Wiggles were still on when you left the house? Mock
Learned Justin Bieber got arrested? Mock
Learned Liberally Lean won't be updated that day? No mock.

It's all relative. In criminal law, where there is also a lot of crying, we call it "totality of the circumstances."  We need more information.

George W. Reveals His Paintings Of World Figures on Today Show

Putin! Those eyes!

More.

Friday Random Post: Dog Slow Motion Face Plant

I swear The Family Pup did the exact same thing last night.

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• I caught an old episode of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations last night where he visited the Ukraine and Crimea in 2011. I learned more about the place on a travel show that I did by watching the news. (Then again, I'm not sure I even knew that Chernobyl is in the Ukraine.)
• Term I haven't heard in forever: Geiger Counter
• I got hail damage to my car in Decatur yesterday -- just enough to bug me. 
• Man, the local affiliates went crazy last night with their weather coverage, but what the heck was that tie that Pete Delkus had on?
• Doing a jury trial by yourself is stressful. The government always has two lawyers at the table. Always. Edit: I always get a comment from the "speaks volumes" guy about my "win/loss" record which I only publish because he has no idea. Visit the courthouse every now and then, hoss. 
• It was Doris Day's 90th birthday yesterday. Talk about a lady who stays out of public view -- so much so I was surprised to learn she was still alive. 
• David Letterman's retirement announcement sure got a lot of publicity for a show which no one has really paid attention to for  20 years.
• Funny moment during the Fox 4 6:00 news when Steve Eager interrupted the weather gal to advise that the Denton County Sheriff's Office had confirmed a tornado had touched down near TWU. She said she wasn't "buying it". Eager, with a hint of irritation, said, "I'll tell the Denton Sheriff the bad news." But I'll give her credit. I'm not sure any sheriff's office is in a position to "confirm" a tornado.
• Was no one in the stands at the minor league park in Frisco concerned about that cloud in the distance?
• There was wailing and gnashing of teeth last night on Twitter when SMU lost the NIT final. Baylor won the thing last year with barely a whisper from the media. Obviously, a vast Methodist media conspiracy.
• Paulina Gretzky on the cover of Golf Digest. "Hey, Now."
• "There were no American troop casualties in Afghanistan or Iraq in March, for the first time since February 2003, ending 133 straight months." Thank you, President Obama, for getting us out of there.
• Guns Galore in Killeen sold the eventual murder weapons to both Fort Hood soldiers (Ivan Lopez and Nidal Hasan) who went on shooting sprees.  Talk about a literal  Merchant of Death.
• Sarah Palin on Hannity last night and she's become a parody of herself. I absolutely believe everything that was written about her in Game Change -- She's a walking Talking Points Memo.
• Crazy story in the Dallas Observer about a wheels off heavy metal small band leader who hung out in strip bars in north Fort Worth: "The Infectious Metal Head and His Dangerous Secret".
• Ticket fans: I have no idea who CBS 11's Whitney Drolen is, but apparently she is not amused by what The Musers said about her. Tweet One. Tweet Two. 
• "Brittni Colleps, the Kennedale teacher found guilty of" being an extreme "And Another", had her conviction affirmed "yesterday" by the Fort Worth Court of Appeals. (I say "yesterday" because all opinions are dated on a Thursday but aren't released on the court's website until Friday morning.)  
• My dad gave me a book entitled "Our White Boy" written by Jerry Craft -- former mayor of Jacksboro and the "first white man to play in the 'West Texas Colored [Baseball] League.'" I'm excited.

Viral Video Of The Day?

So says this news story. But I'm not sure why the comments on youtube and the news story have so much outrage.

But it's a pretty good law school criminal law question (and I'm making some factual assumptions) : Can a cop enter the home of a third person without a warrant to arrest a person for committing a Class C offense (disorderly conduct) when the cop didn't witness the offense?  In Texas, I believe the answer is no. (But it could be argued that the offense of evading detention occurred if the guy opened the door to the cop and the cop asked him to step outside to discuss the incident. I'd like to know what happened before the filming began.)

Hail in Decatur right now

And a lot of it.

Edit: And from later in the afternoon to the East

Several hail stones collected from the northeast portion of Denton. @NWSFortWorth @TxStormChasers #hailhell pic.twitter.com/OlwPYV8a9B
— DFW Scanner (@DFWscanner) April 3, 2014

Not Even Sure How This Idea Was Dreamed Up In The First Place

People ask why we are going to be at the Diadaloso event this year and enforce the law instead of just leaving... http://t.co/vtHAnMLZnX
— WacoPolice (@WacoPolice) April 1, 2014

First Look

Campaign Contribution Rules In The U.S. Are Silly

Yesterday, the Supreme Court struck down limitations that some states and the federal government had  imposed on the total amount of money donors could  give to all candidates. As you can see, that doesn't effect Texas since we pretty much have no limits for big money donors for state candidates.

Then there are "Super PACs" that you can donate to without limitation (Hello, Koch brothers.) They, in turn, can spend all that money in support of a candidate so long as it acts "independent" of that person's campaign.

It's all smoke and mirrors.

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• Another shooting at Fort Hood. It's so odd: The last time all I heard was "Islamic Terrorist". This time the narrative seems to be "We need better treatment for PTSD". Edit: "AP-Army secretary says Fort Hood shooter saw no combat in Iraq, was not wounded."
• I saw a broken down school bus on 287 about two miles outside of Decatur this morning. I'm not sure if there were any kids on it. 
• I ended up not obtaining a "not guilty" verdict in the criminal case yesterday, but it was a good fight. And, with an appropriate sentence of two years of probation, it was worth that fight. (But that sure seemed like a whole lot of time and expense over 1/100th of a gram of meth. But, I suppose, it's just another battle on the War on Drugs.) 
• "As a late night comedian I'm begging you. Please make this guy run for President." -- Conan O'Brien, referring to Rick Perry, while broadcasting from Dallas.
• I caught the last part of it, but NPR has a great 12 minute broadcast late yesterday on the total immunity from the IRS that TV evangelists have. They focused on several "preachers" including Kenneth Copeland. Here's a link which includes the text and a picture of Copelands $6.3 million mansion on the property of his church on Eagle Mountain Lake. Good lord. 
• Since Sunday, I have seen Michael Lewis promoting his new book on high speed training on 60 Minutes and The Daily Show and heard him on the aforementioned NPR.  And I'm still not sure what he's talking about. 
• Two nights ago the Rangers, playing their second of 162 games, drew 149,000 viewers in the metroplex while the Mavericks, in a critical game, drew 85,000 viewers.  And Mark Cuban thinks the NFL will implode? He might want to worry about the NBA. (And the Cowboys average a million per regular season game.)
• One of the craziest murder cases and trials in North Texas history will be the feature of 12 episodes on some new show on the Discovery Channel.  A Wylie housewife was acquitted of murder even though she admitted to striking her neighbor with an axe 41 times.  It was the subject of a TV movie, and I even read a book about it. (A quick Google search also revealed this long read from a 1984 issue of Texas Monthly.) Edit: Oops. It's just one of the twelve episodes. That makes more sense.
• This week, Sean Hannity is running video segments where a Fox reporter interviews scantily clad college girls on Spring Break. This, we are told, is a hard news segment to "uncover the wildness." They report. You decide. 
• Amanda Bynes turns 28 today. It's been months since she had an incident of craziness and that is totally unacceptable. 
• I really like Spring. Mrs. LL and I really work a lot on the front flower beds --  And spend a lot of time saying, "I can't believe that died!"
• "Two Dewhurst aides quit amid campaign feuding about tactics".  This guy, who absolutely is the worst politician in the world, is going to screw this up and get trounced by that nutcase Dan Patrick. 

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• The 8.2 earthquake off of Chile yesterday evening is about as big of one as I've heard about.  (And I really hadn't heard much about tsunami's until the one in the Indian Ocean ten years ago, but the entire western coastline of South America was under a Tsunami warning -- until it was cancelled without incident.)
• "Iran has chosen a former hostage-taker involved in the 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran to serve as its ambassador at the United Nations, Sen. Ted Cruz said Tuesday in vowing to bar him from entering the United States." We get to decide who other countries want as their ambassador?
• Idiocracy: Texas Motor Speedway is now offering a "Big Hoss TV Dinner" at the concession stands. And I'm not sure why a TV dinner is offered at all. 
• According to today's Messenger, Alvord's ISD may not be gone at all. The 3-3 vote not to renew his contract only means that a new contract will become effective "by operation of law" (which is a fancy way of saying "automatically".
• Sports: (1) Watched the end of the SMU NIT game last night and came away from it thinking that Bobby Knight is borderline senile, (2) The Mavs fight to make the playoffs so they can be bounced in the first round took a hit last knight, (3) The Astros beat the Yankees? (4) Tiger Woods has withdrawn from the Masters after "minor" backs surgery. A lot has changed for the guy since Elin took a golf club to his SUV in 2009.
• I'm still in my jury trial but that should end today. The Sheriff was on the jury panel (for about five minutes) in a case that involved an arrest by the Sheriff's office. He joked that he received a jury summons from himself -- which is technically true.
• The funniest moment came when the prosecutor was asking some questions to a retired pastor on the jury panel and brought up the biblical story of Doubting Thomas as an analogy. The pastor gently interrupted him by saying, "You stick to lawyering and let me do the pastoring."
• Other people on the panel: A Bridgeport lawyer, a Decatur lawyer, a DPS trooper, a guy whose daughter I dated over thirty years ago, and two current clients. (None made it onto the jury.) 
• "The debate over repealing this law is over. The Affordable Care Act is here to stay. ... In the end, history is not kind to those who would deny Americans their basic economic security." - President Obama yesterday after news that 7.1 million people had signed up for insurance under the program. 
• "Man swept away in ocean baptism still missing"

Above The Fold

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• Caution: It is the beating that is April Fool's Day. 
• So the Rangers gave up an opening day record for them of 14 runs, combined with the Phillies to give up 24 runs -- almost a major league record, and the game took over three and a half hours. And we get 161 more of them. 
• It's hard to believe The Ballpark is 20 years old. I went there for its first "open house" before a game was played there. 
• Yeah, we got the Beagle back to its owner. We probably would have kept it before we would take it to a shelter. 
• If you ever wondered what it's like to go to a soccer game in Europe (stay with me here), you should take a listen to the Ticket's Bob Sturm on this podcast.  He's been to multiple games and makes it sound like attending an NFL game is like going to the opera in comparison. 
• Ouch! The Angels hitting coach broke his femur of the ceremonial first pitch. 
• I keep hearing a radio commercial for the band Boston coming to the Allen Events Center in June. But their lead singer committed suicide in 2007.
• Is Syria still having a civil war? It dominated the news and now we hear nothing about it. 
• "Forestburg woman wanted by Crime Stoppers." I assume she no longer lives in Forestburg because it would be really hard to hide in Forestburg. 
• The Morning News has a story about elevated levels of cancer in Forestburg possibly related to fracking. Well, maybe.  It's the most confusing story ever -- see the third paragraph here. 
• The Decatur Main Street website has some pretty cool old photo's of the courthouse square -- one of them is a movie marquee advertising the movie "I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now". I'd never heard of the movie but since it was released in 1947, it does give us a time stamp for the photos. 
• "FBI, military hunt ex-Army recruit suspected of plotting 'Ft. Hood-inspired jihad'".  Both Hal Jay and Brian Estridge said on WBAP this morning, in all seriousness, that the military should never recruit anyone named "Mohammed". 
• Barring a last minute resolution, I'm out of pocket today trying a State Jail Felony case. (Some of you will know how crazy that sounds.)

And A Little Different Opening Day Photo

Rangers' Response:

Good stuff

	Robert Wilonsky (@RobertWilonsky)
3/31/14, 2:11 PM The @dallasnews' Louis DeLuca is one hell of a guy. And he takes one hell of a Texas Rangers Opening Day photo: pic.twitter.com/Xnrdl8qWUc

Padres Ball Girl From Last Night

Look At This Guy Just Taking Rubber Bullets Like A Pro

Other video from a different angle and a photo of the shirtless aftermath here.  (With a funny reference to him as the "Tucson Terminator").

UConn Campus After Win Sends Them To The Final Four

Love the reaction of the cops: Let's get the heck outta here.

(Link if the above doesn't work.)

Just Gotta Post Everything, Don't Ya

WESTLAND, Mich. - It was the day after St. Patrick's Day when Colleen Cudney was called in for a random breathalyzer test.

The 22-year-old was put on probation for a drunken driving conviction in 2012. After Cudney took the test at the probation office in Westland, she logged on to Facebook and counted her blessings.

Investigators say she posted this: “Buzz killer for me, I had to breathalyze (sic) this morning and I drank yesterday but I passed thank god lol my dumba@@."

Anita Brown, a resident of Oak Park, says she didn't find Cudney's post humorous at all.

"I hope they throw the book at you young lady because it's sad that you did something like that because you could hurt someone or kill someone," Brown said.

A Westland police officer saw her post that morning and notified the probation office. When a probation officer called Cudney to return to the office for an urine test, she hung up the phone.

Probation officials say that was a violation of her probation. It was set to end in a few weeks.

An urine test would have detected if Cudney had anything to drink in the 80 hours prior to taking it, probation officials said. [Edit: I seriously question this sentence.]

Local 4 went by her house Thursday afternoon and were told no comment. Her Facebook post is sparking a lot of comments on the streets.

"People post some crazy things. They don't even think before they do anything," said Thomas Boyce, of Inkster.

Cudney is due in court on April 1st for a probation hearing. She could be sentenced to 93 days in jail.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• A Baylor student committed suicide in his car by the use of chemicals but was thoughtful enough to warn others about the presence of nitrogen sulfide by leaving a note.
• Shirley Jones turns 80 today. That's Mrs. Partridge. 
• Motorcycle death in Grand Prairie. 
• I bought birdseed for our bird bath. Birdseed, I learned, is expensive. 
• "Cop In Riot Gear Violently Blindsides Girl". (Language warning.)
• The guy charged with online solicitation last week in Wise County was initially arrested by  the "U.S. Marshals Service, Texas Rangers, Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office, Montgomery County Precinct 1, 2 and 4 constables, Conroe Police Department, Wise County Sheriff’s Department and Rhome Police Department." Did they really need that many people?
• The Messenger printed some guy's statement from a "private, neighborhood Facebook page" about the Klan in Rhome and ended up running a "clarification". The guy must have objected.  
• "Chris R" is in first place in the Liberally Lean Pick 'Em Tourney, and I'm guessing that's our DA in second place. 
• Sports: (1) I don't think former UT Offensive Coordinator Major Applewhite has a job. (2) Cliff Lee faces the Rangers today which reminds me how seedy it seems to have rented him for half a season in 2010, (3) The Eagles cut DeSean Jackson amid rumors of gang affiliation. I didn't realize he even threw up a Crips sign in the first game last year. (4) To the guy who thinks I didn't realize that the Rangers pitching staff had suffered injuries and who thinks everything will be fine once everyone heals: Just how many starts to you think the Rangers will get out of the injured Holland and Harrison and the still recovering Lewis and Feliz? (5) I ended up watching a lot of the Texas Relays this weekend -- I learned that if you had "Florida" on your jersey then you were probably very, very fast.  (6) Anyone else having trouble getting used to "Globe Life Park"?
• Think our water problems are bad? Lake Travis is 53 feet low. 
• I caught some of Something About Mary this weekend -- still a funny, funny movie. And I had no idea that Sarah Silverman was in it. 
• I rescued a lost Beagle this weekend. As I carried it back to the house my neighbor yelled, "Now that's a different kind 'taking your dog for a walk'".