Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• Williamson County is notorious in Texas in large part for the shocking wrongful conviction of Michael Morton where evidence conclusively establishing his innocence was withheld. The DA who fought to keep the conviction intact, John Bradley, was defeated by Jana Duty who campaigned on the Morton case. Duty's term in office was wheels off  (she spent a weekend in jail for contempt and was sanctioned by the State Bar for withholding evidence herself), and she was then defeated in her attempt at re-election. Now Duty, 54, has been found dead in a condo in Rockport after neighbors reported hearing a gunshot. Foul play is not suspected.
  
• Near Houston in a police academy class, a student had a loaded gun in his backpack which went off when he reached into it. The results were that of a magic bullet with one round firing: "Two cadets, a male and a female, were shot in their calves and the bullet grazed the third cadet."
• It is 2019 and we are still arresting people for gambling. 
  
• I always dog the Tarrant County DA's office when they have a bad week in trial so I might as well point out stellar weeks as well. The misdemeanor section went 7 for 7 this week with one remaining case in the hands of the jury. 
• Is this bad? A Rangers' starter was pulled after only managing one out last night. (And it doesn't even show his four walks -- three of which were the first three batters.)
  
• Late yesterday the Texas House voted to let people buy beer and wine at grocery stores at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday instead of noon. Rep. Springer introduced the bill by saying, "Some people like me get out of church at 11:30 and go by the store." Someone made a motion to table the bill but that failed on a vote of 64-69, and then Springer's bill passed, 99-40. (Don't ask me about the vote total discrepancies. The only thing I know about voting in the House is by watching the legislature online. They move fast. I bet any vote is open for about 30 seconds.) The alcohol law still needs Senate approval. (They didn't vote on the marijuana bill, by the way.)
  
• Someone must have the back story on the lady in the above screenshot. She's there every time the House is in session. Her job is to jump to the podium and read the title of the bill when called upon, quickly shuffle paper to someone to her right, and then go back to her standing position. 
• I've heard a former Chico ISD employee has created a couple of "rap" songs which caught the attention of that community as he named names. They were on Soundcloud but soon disappeared. I'm trying to find a new link.  
• It's unclear whether (1) it was paid, or (2) Trump broke his promise to pay it. This morning Trump denied paying it -- making it, like I said, unclear. He didn't, however, deny promising to pay it.
  
• I had the NFL Draft on as background noise last night and looked up after Devin Bush was picked by the Steelers with the 10th pick. My first thought was: Does he have a shoulder injury?
  
• And that crowd at the draft got my attention. That's insane. 
  
• I've mentioned before an obviously unconstitutional Texas law that Gov. Greg Abbott signed in 2017 which "prohibits governmental entities from contracting with and investing in companies that boycott Israel." It's unconstitutional because it is the government restricting your speech in order to get a contract. Yesterday, the first judge to review it struck it down. (I've never understand this Israel worship by far right wingers.)
• Hey, prosecutors. An ice-cream manufacturer is watching you closely.
  
• According to the Update, we had a police chase around Alvord last night which led to a "quantity of marijuana" being found. I'm wondering if that's going to be a small quantity. (I'll update here later. The online jail records should show the men along with their charges this morning but it doesn't.)