Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• Lots more damage in Runaway Bay from the toronado than what we initially thought. It was all over the local TV news last night. But it did lead to this educational fact: The ranking of tornadoes (F1 to F5) is based upon damage caused and not by size or wind speed. (They said that on Fox 4 and I didn't verify it). Edit: Fox affiliate in Austin says this: "A tornado's strength cannot be determined by just looking at it. Examining the damage will give you a better idea of the strength of the tornado. This is where the Enhanced Fujita Scale comes in." So I guess that's saying you can determine speed by the damage. Something not very scientific about that. 
• Police in Waco initially said "thousands" of weapons were seized from the gunfight on Sunday. They have now revised that to 318 "and counting" (huh?) with only 118 handguns found.
• Doesn't Memorial Day seem early this year? (And the weather over the next four days is going to a beatdown for the Colonial golf tournament.)
• A Northwest ISD school bus ends up in ditch because of rain this morning along 114. (No injuries but pretty eye opening photo.)
• Hey, I haven't dogged Dennis Prager in a while. Turned him on yesterday and heard him say if "You have no hope or opportunity, it is your fault." What type of elitist hole does he live in?
• I've said it before, that new Northwest Eaton High School right passed past the Wise County line on 287 is a massive. (And it already looks like they've got four or more athletic fields installed around it. Is that artificial turf?)
• Lake Bridgeport this morning is at 828.77 which is -7.23 feet low. Now we're talking.  I think that's a sixteen feet increase this month. 
• Someone clarify this for me. The Messenger has been reporting that Denton County spends $40,000 on indigent burials while much smaller Wise County spends $30,000. Someone at the courthouse pointed out to me that there isn't much unincorporated area in Denton (meaning not part of a municipality) compared to what Wise County has so that explains the stat. But that gives rise to this question: If someone dies within a city and is indigent, does the city pay for the burial? Is a county only responsible for indigent deaths occurring in unincorporated areas?
• I've often dogged Plaintiff's lawyer Tony Buzbee (who a big Aggie who brags about multi-million dollar verdicts). But, I'll be, he has done it again.  After coming in late to a business dispute lawsuit, he got a $35 million verdict.  The story is behind a paywall, but he said he looked at some of the video depositions that had already taken place before he was hired and considered the lead defense lawyer's "sidebar comments as gratuitously ungracious." Ok, that's a shot, but he went on: "Rarely in the law practice do we have the opportunity to teach [an opposing lawyer] a lesson." Oh, my. 
• I didn't watch David Letterman's last show but I'm sure the highlights will be all over the place. For some reason I'm recalling an HBO movie about the Letterman and Leno battle to replace Carson. I remember reading that Letterman mocked the scene which showed his character in his backyard throwing baseballs at an archery target as he became angry over negotiations. "Like I would do something like that," is what I thought he said. 
• Wait. I just heard that Letterman didn't end the show addressing the audience? They did a photographic montage? You kidding me? 
• Houston District judge Ryan Patrick, son of Tea Party favorite Texas AG Dan Patrick, posted a graphic showing a pretty incredible increase in the "caseload" increase of dockets in Harris County  over the last year. But what really got my attention is that he (?) thought he had to overlay the graphic with "Increase noted in this area here" in order to explain it. 
• The great Skip Hollandsworth wrote a long read in Texas Monthly in 2007 about bikers gangs in Texas.