Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• Remember the Wichita Falls sexual assault case where the defendant's mother won the Texas Lottery and said she had spent $600,000 to hire defense attorneys Heather Barbieri and Katherine Devlin of Plano? Well, there was a hearing yesterday on a defense motion for continuance. With the defendant showing up for the hearing in a t-shirt, the elected DA at one point moved from a spectator in the gallery to go consult with the assistant DAs at counsel table. Katherine Delvin looked at him and asked, "Who are you?" Professional tip: You should know. 
• I think I've posted a video before from a couple of Waco attorneys, but they've got a new one about the confusion regarding marijuana laws in Texas. Not only is it legally sound, it's a catchy tune. I support this bit. Everyone together now!: "Nobody knows if it's pot or if it's hemp. They've got to show the THC content."
  
• I didn't even notice this storm damage yesterday on the square. 
  
• There's a Tarrant County trial going on where the former owner of The Library bar in downtown Fort Worth is alleged to have sexually assaulted a passed out customer. The act was supposedly caught on surveillance camera which was played for the jury yesterday. One of the weird things from the story: The assault allegedly happened at around 6:00 a.m. She had been at the bar about two hours. The bar closes at 2:00. 
• There has been an ongoing appellate war between some guy named Pixler and the City of Newark in Wise County. I haven't followed it very closely but late Monday the Fort Worth Court of Appeals ruled against him. You knew things were going bad for him when it began like this: 
  
• I had a couple of people send me this national article on municipalities whose traffic fine collections are high based upon either (1) percentage of total city budget, or (2) average fine per adult population. Runaway Bay, Rhome and Decatur made the list, but I really don't understand Decatur especially since it is on a major highway. Its numbers were low based upon percentage of revenues (8.5%) compared to Runaway Bay (19.1%) and especially Rhome (37.8%). 
• This really is fascinating. Many of the viral videos that inflame racial tension only become viral because of online Russian trolls spreading them. One Russian account was even responsible for the naming of a DFW lady, "Taco Truck Tammy." (WFAA had the story yesterday, but NBC reported it three weeks ago.)
  
  
  
  
• Back in the late 1990s, I was a Technical Pioneer as I went to local high school football games, videoed them, and put them on the Internet. It was a huge pain involving converting massive video files into a format that could be played. Even then a few seconds of video were massive files.  Compare that to a Star-Telegram reporter showing up at the Decatur Volleyball game last night and instantaneously sending up easily viewable clips of high definition quality. (His feed from it is here.) He also was impressed with Decatur's facilities. 
  
• Trump was mad yesterday at brown people being in the path of a storm. (The $92 billion figure is a lie, by the way.) 
  
• Greg Abbott had to fill a Texas Supreme Court vacancy so he chose a Republican who lost her most recent election. That's a pattern. 
• The Messenger has hired a reporter with street cred: Christian McPhate. He wrote for the Dallas Observer and has penned articles I've linked to and focused on before. For example:
  
• I won't even mention the Washington Post story that Trump is advising officials to "take the land" even by illegal means (he'll pardon them) to get started on the building of The Wall (the one that Mexico was going to pay for.)
• Messenger: Above the Fold.