6.07.2016

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts


  • I always cock an eyebrow when I hear about a "GoFundMe" page.
  • A while back I mentioned Breitling Energy and its jack-of-all-trades leader Chris Faulkner so I googled the company last night. I found this recent tidbit: "Breitling Energy Corp (OTCMKTS:BECC) has declined 90.00% since October 28, 2015 and is downtrending." (You can get a share of stock for 1.4 cents. And this lede from The New York Post from late last year: "A Texas fracking magnate stuck his personal concierge with $240,000 in unreimbursed expenses for luxury items such as his wife’s Louboutins, all while getting high and drunk at high-end clubs and restaurants, according to a new lawsuit."
  • I told you there wouldn't be any charges filed against the parents in the Gorilla Shooting Case.
  • I told you OU would win the NCAA softball championship. (They are one game away.)
  • Electronic filing of court paperwork in Texas has slowly moved to electronic transmissions instead of paper.  IBut if you were one of the handful of lucky companies to get the government contract to handle the process, you are making a fortune on fees that you get to pocket with every transaction. It actually costs more to file electronically than it did by formerly filing paper.
  • I'm convinced that the way to get rich in this country these days is to be a private company with a government contract.
  • "HONOLULU — A woman who was driving a vehicle when it plunged off a Maui cliff has been charged with murder in the death of her twin, who was in the passenger's seat."  Dear Prosecutor: Good luck with all of that.
  • Kimbo Slice was one of the first viral video sensations I ever saw and he turned it into a MMA career. He died yesterday.
  • Legendary local wrestler Fritz Von Erich started his career portraying a Nazi? (Ticket reference this morning.)
  • Funny: This Houston Astros fan at the Ranger game last night was none to pleased when Knoxie got the crowd fired up around him.
  • Strange bedfellows: When Trump makes a fundraising tour in Texas next week, he will be a guest of big time Plaintiff's lawyer Tony Buzbee (who once hired Miley Cyrus to perform at one of his parties.)   When is the last time you saw a Plaintiff's lawyer saddle up next to a conservative Republican?
  • MADD has a lot of Donald Trump in it. The organization currently has a petition online to encourage a judge to revoke a guy's probation for "alleged" failed drug tests. Who cares if he really failed the tests, right? Sheesh. 
  • Prosecution in Williamson County has been a mess. The guy who was DA and wrongfully pursued Michael Morton was sent (briefly) to jail. DA John Bradley lost an election for fighting the team who were trying to show Michael Morton was innocent (he was per DNA). And now the gal who beat Bradley lost her re-election bid and was just placed on 18 months probation by the State Bar for prosecutorial misconduct.
  • I have said this a million times: If you care one iota about criminal justice in Texas and how an unethical prosecutor can destroy lives, read the Texas Monthly award winning article on Morton.  
  • What exactly does Devon's sale of $1 billion in oil and gas resources really mean?
  • Remember the pool party in McKinney which ended up causing an overzealous responding cop to get fired? "The Texas Rangers have completed their investigation into . . .  [his] controversial handling of a raucous pool party last summer and forwarded the findings to Collin County prosecutors."  Good grief. No one was hurt. The officer got hammered by being fired. We don't need the Rangers wasting a year (and how on God's green Earth did it take a year?). We don't need prosecutors wasting their time, a grand jury's time, or a trial jury's time with it.