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- Texas Hospitalizations: We cracked 9,000.
- WFAA's Rebecca Lopez's mother passed away from COVID, as did the mayor-pro-tem in Grand Prairie, as did a Denton County deputy constable.
- Gov. Abbott endorsed Drew Springer over Shelley Luther yesterday. Luther was then passive-aggressive on Twitter.
- Even Bill Barr can't bring himself to stoop to the level of Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell.
- Sean Hannity was pondering a question last night. And to think they were obsessed with the conduct of President-Elect Joe Biden's son for months.
- The Ticket's Dan McDowell posted this picture of a Grapevine fitness center and their very odd COVID prevention measures for the exercise bikes.
- Having my outdoor Christmas lights on a timer makes me feel like a technological wizard.
- I feel old because every time there is any news story about any social media "influencer" I have no idea who they are talking about.
- Hey, we all get to ride dirty for a few months. Good. Mine expires this month.
- I had almost forgotten about Chris Faulkner after he was in my cross-hairs for years because of being an absolute fraud and huckster. Here's the update. He used to be a sponsor of the 660AM's podcast of the Mark Davis Show.
- Domestic violence is way up in Tarrant County which just goes to show you that fancy PR campaigns are just for show. In 2017, the D.A.'s office started a "Not In My County" promotion where elected officials from across the county posed with signs proclaiming that abuse won't be tolerated in the county.
- In other Tarrant County crime news, murders overall have surpassed 100 for the year, the most in 25 years.
- Shout out to the past Wise County elected official who just causally dropped off John Grisham's latest novel, A Time of Mercy, and then simply left. From the cover notes, it looks like Southern lawyer Jake Brigance makes his first appearance since A Time to Kill.
- Also, shout out to a stranger who dropped off for me a series of Bridgeport Index's from 1973. People just give me stuff!?
- The Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments today on whether last term's ruling that jury verdicts must be unanimous should apply retroactively. That is, if you are sitting in prison because of a non-unanimous verdict, can you get a new trial because of that recent decision? You would think the obvious answer is "yes", but that's not so. It's a tough standard and "[t]he landmark 1963 right-to-counsel decision in Gideon v. Wainwright is the only one the court has ever indicated could achieve this . . . status." (The test is whether the right at issue implicates "fundamental fairness that is implicit in the concept of ordered liberty." I've said it before: Constitutional Law is just trying to keep up with what the Supreme Court just makes up along the way.)
- Sports: The very last two games of the Southwest Conference were played 25 years ago today. Texas beat Aggie, 16-6, followed by Houston over Rice, 18-17. Fun fact: Houston and Rice, who weren't invited to the Big 12, moved their game in order to be the final game of the conference instead of the bluebloods.
(Yes, I know Arkansas left before the conference disbanded.) - Speaking of Aggie, the band tried to pull a fast one last weekend:
- Messenger: Above the Fold (with a great picture of Judge Cude.)
