Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• Former Texas Congressman Jim Wright passed away yesterday. I remember seeing him for the first time on a news show when I was 16 or 17 and telling my dad that I thought he was pretty good. I think dad responded with something along the lines of, "I'm not so sure about that." 
• And I knew Wright resigned in the wake of a scandal but learned this morning (via Bud Kennedy) that he wrote a book and then had bulk sales of that book which were never delivered. But those who bought the books didn't care (and even expected) that the books would not be received  because they only wanted to donate to him. It was just a way around campaign donation rules. (I've learned he used the money to give his wife an $18,000 a year job -- not good -- but I can't find out how much other money was raised from fake sales.)
• ISIS appears to have declared war on controversial Draw A Cartoon of Muhammed organizer Pamela Geller. She doesn't seem to be concerned.  She might need a crash course in "situational awareness."
• The NFL released its "Deflate-Gate" report yesterday about whether the New England Patriots intentionally used underinflated balls in a playoff game.  All the sports talk shows were very confused about the finding that it was "more probable than not" that the Patriots organization intentionally broke the rules. That's pretty easy to understand: They probably did it. The investigators my have a belief of 51% to 49% the Patriots are guilty up to 99% to 1%. Any belief within that range is the equivalent of "more probable than not".  
• Source: Long time Tarrant County prosecutor Greg Miller is the next assistant to DA to resign under the new administration. But first, oddly, he is presenting the Grapevine officer involved shooting case to the grand jury. 
• There's a crazy capital murder case going on in Dallas about an alleged Craigslist killer.  After reading the article, the only thing jumping out at me more than the seediness of the story is that there isn't much evidence against the defendant. And this is his second trial after the first jury couldn't reach a verdict.  (Side note: It has always stunned me that double jeopardy does not prevent a retrial after the State fails to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt and a hung jury results.)
• I've always been interested in the gasoline tanker driver as he makes a delivery to a gas/station convenience store. Never really occured to me that one would be shot -- an event which happened at a QuikTrip off Bryant Irvin in Fort Worth last night. 
• It won't make it all the way to becoming law, but we had a big surprise yesterday when the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee approved a bill to make marijuana legal in Texas.  The bill is authored by Republican state Rep. David Simpson who says that marijuana was created by God and "God did not make a mistake." He may have a point. It is just a plant.