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Ten years ago this week we had the tornados strike across the South with Alabama taking the biggest impact. The tornados actually occurred over a three day period with April 28, 2011 being the worse with 316 people killed that day.
- Here's what will probably end up being an award winning photo of the drug raid of a home this week in Decatur on Washburn Street.
- I've been handling drug cases for 30 years, and I've never heard of the drug "DMT." I've also never heard of the law enforcement agency named "Big Sandy SRT."
- At least 45 dead in Israel were killed when crushed at a religious festival attended by thousands. "The stampede began when large numbers of people thronged a narrow tunnel-like passage during the event, according to witnesses and video footage. People began falling on top of each other near the end of the walkway, as they descended slippery metal stairs, witnesses said." Video.
- I bet you anything that most of the deaths were caused from not being trampled but because of “compression asphyxia” -- being packed in so tightly that you simply can't breath. That's what happened at The Who concert in Cincinnati in 1979. People died even if they were in the upright position because they couldn't expand and contract their diaphragm.
- The Wikipedia list of events where people have died because of stampedes or being crushed at huge events is mind-boggling.
- There might actually be a chance that possession of a small amount of weed becomes a fine-only offense in Texas. (It still has to pass the Senate.)
- Dan Patrick announced yesterday that the Texas Senate will actually vote on HB1927 which would legalize open carry/concealed carry without a license. There's no way he let's that get a floor vote if it won't pass, right?
- Remember earlier this week when the Empower Texans backed media outlet Texas Scorecard (run by Michael Quinn Sullivan) decided to "out" a lobbyist in Austin who they accused of assaulting a "legislative staffer" with a date rape drug? Remember I said they were the only media outlet to name a suspect? Remember that I said, "They better be right"? Well, they might want to get out their checkbook. DPS announced yesterday that "we have concluded that there is not enough evidence to support these allegations and that criminal charges are not appropriate." That is, there is not enough evidence to support charges against anyone, named or unnamed. Texas Scorecard began to do damage control immediately about their error saying the guy they outed might have been "framed."
- A local Decatur attorney announced he will run for the governor. Here's the podcast by the Messenger this week where Paul Belew made the announcement.
- Weirdest part from this story: "Police said two witnesses reported seeing someone who matched Massey’s description get out of the water Tuesday morning . . . . She was reported to have stood on a bench and then gotten off, police said."
- So he's saying this was done by Trump appointee and buddy AG Bill Barr?
- Johnny Crawford, who played Mark McCain in The Rifleman, has died. I loved that show as a kid, and still get sucked into it whenever it's on. Never has a man killed so many people in justified self-defense than Mark's pa, Lucas McCain. (I once did a quick post about a Decatur resident having had his picture taken with Johnny Crawford.)
- The Bidens visited Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter yesterday.
- I was over at the courthouse the other day and talked to a friend who is going on vacation this summer. She mentioned that they would probably go by "The Noah's Ark in Kentucky." That stopped me down in a moment of confusion but, I'll be dang, there is one. I had no idea.
- Random college sports: Someone explain this play that occurred during the UT Spring Game. Video. It's the craziest throw I've ever seen.
- Time which has passed since the Wise County Sheriff's Office has failed to solve the murder of Lauren Whitener in her home at Lake Bridgeport: 665 days.
- Messenger: Above the Fold
