6.25.2021

It's Friday -- Let's Get Out of Here

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




This was kind of a funny headline out the the Weatherford Democrat, but the chase actually ended up in Wise County with quite the consequences.  The charge somehow got upgraded to Attempted Capital Murder, and Timothy Herring received 20 years in prison.   
  • The "action shots" of the arrests of the Wise County suspects who had been on the run are a little weird. The Wise County Sheriff's Office, who got them immediately from police in Arkansas, posted them on Facebook. And the photos didn't originate from any news media photographer. If I had to guess, I'd say they are just screenshots taken from police bodycams since it would be odd to have a law enforcement still photographer just snapping pics at that time.  But after a week of negative press, they have a suspiciously intentional positive PR feel to them.

  • An odd Texas Ranger arrest in Wise County last night for the offense of "Hindering Apprehension." This guy is listed with a home address in Rhome. A female was also arrested with an address in Boyd. 

  • The Star-Telegram updated its story on the "resignation" of Decatur Coach Mike Fuller with a photo (suitable for framing) and by publishing Fuller's salary at $122,670.44. Since the school board was forced to pay Fuller the remainder of his contract in exchange for getting rid of him, the school board burned $81,000 for no reason at all.  Think about that the next time you look down at the amount of your escrow payment on your mortgage. 

  • I'm very confused. That building in Miami, which could withstand a hurricane, just fell down? The number of missing is up to 159.

  • What a time to be alive. (This is real.) 

  • America's Mayor and Trump's long time lawyer was suspended yesterday from the practice of law in New York for lying. He's had a heck of a year. 



  • Good bit or no?

  • The Star-Telegram has another story today about Tarrant County "turning blue" with another litmus test being the upcoming administrative County Judge's race.  They cite that both Beto and Biden carried Tarrant County. I'll say it again: Tarrant County has not turned Blue. You'll know it when down-the-ballot races (where no one knows who they are voting for so they have to default to their party of choice) go to Democrats. That did not happen last November. Don't look at races like Biden or Beto. Instead just look at the district judge results last November. Tarrant County, for the time being, is clearly 53% Red and 47% Blue.:

  • This reporter got dogged to no end after she posted this. Original post with comments here. Collection of some of the best replies here. 

  • I just read about this incident in Cult of Glory: The Bold and Brutal History of the Texas Rangers.  The real story should put an end to the myth of "One Riot, One Ranger."  Four Rangers, including famed Ranger Frank Hamer, simply drove away leaving George Hughes to the hands of a mob. 

  • This looks like a good long read over the weekend from the Rolling Stone. The renegade pilot had no experience flying a plane but was able to do a loop and various stunts in a stolen commercial plane. Footage of it, as well of his audio communications with the tower, are all over Youtube. 

  • 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: 721 days.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold



at 8:33 AM

6.24.2021

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts






Mobster Whitey Bulger was finally captured 10 years ago this week after being on the run for 16 years. He would go on two receive two life sentences in federal court in 2013, but would die in 2018. He was the (loosely) basis for Jack Nicholson's character in The Departed. 

  • Man on the Run: Day 12. He's Wise County's own Whitey Bulger (at least the part of being good at hiding out).  EDIT: Captured.

    • But in connection with Royce Wood's escape story, I've noticed a little problem.
    • Yesterday the Update told me that the cops were looking for the guy's girlfriend, Tiffany Caswell. The story was even on Fox 4 News last night. 

    • Tiffany Caswell? Wait a second! That name rings a bell! And it should. This is what I wrote on the Monday morning after Wood had fled from officers the might before.  
    • So law enforcement is now looking for someone who was in the Wise County jail during the heat of the manhunt for the guy? Yep. 
    • She walked out of the Wise County Jail on Tuesday, June 15th. 

    • So was she with him at the time that he fled? Nope. "Caswell is believed to have been involved in a home invasion robbery on Coyote Trail on June 12, [Sheriff Lane] Akin told the Messenger."  So how did the cops end up arresting her on early Monday morning? How'd they come across her? I don't know. Edit: She was captured early this morning as well. 
  • In all the crazy school board news that we've had, the fact that the Bridgeport School Board President just up and quit before a meeting should have been two inch headlines. Last night, the Board accepted his resignation and, once again, voters are left in the dark as to what is going on. 

    • The Messenger's Austin Jackson also posted a pic from last night's Bridgeport school board meeting. That's a heck of a crowd. And I can't quite make it out, but I think I see a T-shirt that equates social distancing to the USSR's Hammer and Sickle. 
      Right there in the middle.
      Zoomed in.

  • Greatest rumor I heard yesterday as to who would become the next Decatur head football coach: Art Briles. The plan is so crazy that it just might work. (He voluntarily resigned as head coach of Mount Vernon High School in December of last year.)
  • Speaking of coaches, I ran across this story of a successful one who grew up in Bridgeport. He's getting a new gig near Houston after "16 years at Cedar Park near Austin, including the last six as head coach, where he led the Timberwolves to a 71-10 overall record, a 2015 Class 5A state championship and a 2020 Class 5A state final appearance." How'd we let him get away?

  • I just predicted this would happen.  Only crazy Justice Thomas thought the government should be allowed to punish a kid for off-campus speech. Good for her, though. But remember, The Bong Hits for Jesus students walked so The Cussing Cheerleader could run. 

  • Not optimal.

  • You'll see news of a Miami condo collapse overnight. Here's the video of it happening. So far they are reporting only one dead. I don't know how that's possible. This photo doesn't do it justice. The video does. 

  • Speaking of crazy, John McAfee has died in a Spanish jail.  I highly recommend this documentary on him (but prepare yourself for a couple of shocking moments):

  • According to the Fox News regular news division, President Joe Biden's popularity has increased.  Tucker Carlson reacted accordingly. 



  • Random travel tidbit: I've always seen pictures of the landmark in Key West which marks the southern most point in the United States. Yesterday, I saw a photo of what it looks like during the day. It's next to a street and there's a line. That's not what I expected.



  • I've started watching Deadwood for the first time. Someone also suggested that they thought I'd like Boardwalk Empire. 


at 8:30 AM

6.23.2021

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




It was a big June storm on June 21, 2011 which blew off a roof of some condos in Runaway Bay. It was the lead story on almost all of the metroplex news stations.    They even sent a helicopter out.

  • Man on the Run: Day 11. He's Wise County's own Houdini.

  • I feel for the Messenger some weeks because there's just not that much news to print. Not so today. They've got three great front page stories. One involves the Decatur coach firing fiasco, the other is about how the Boyd School Board got caught off guard when a coach they voted to hire abruptly said, "No thanks," and the third one concerns complaints about the Bridgeport school superintendent. We've got School Board Chaos all over Wise County. 
    • You can't read the Decatur coach story without wondering if there was an Open Meetings violation. I'm not saying there was one, but School Board president Thomas Houchin's attempted explanation as to why there was no discussion in open session as requested by Fuller's lawyer, raises all sorts of red flags that deserve answers. 
  • How many 11 man high school football teams are there in Texas? Current open coaching vacancies:

  • The Sixth Street Shooting in Austin took a turn yesterday when the cops announced they arrested the wrong people. 

  • Marijuana news - compare and contrast:
    • Nineteenth state:

    • Meanwhile, in Texas, we put an NBA player in a cage because he had a little bit of weed in a grinder. (To make it worse, it was the Aggie Police who got him.)


  • The Dallas Observer has a story on a new BBQ joint in Jacksboro.  It's God inspired. 

  • White people protesting over Critical Race Theory that they don't remotely understand and which isn't even being taught is very 2021. There was a big march in Fort Worth yesterday. 


  • Big day for the Official Liberally Lean Girl.

  • When a grand jury doesn't indict someone, 99 out of 100 times it means the D.A. told them to not indict the person. Grand juries are kind of like "executive session" for prosecutors when they want to get rid of a case. 

  • This is a wild story that Dateline would have a hard time keeping to an hour episode. The wife and son of an assistant DA were gunned down outside there home, but the case has all sorts of cryptic tentacles. The now dead son was awaiting trial on a Boating Intoxication charge that resulted in death, and now somehow investigators think the murders might be related to and a 2015 case where another teenager was found dead on a county road.  It's a mess.

  • If you didn't see the Suns beat the Clippers on an in-bound alley-oop pass with 0.09 seconds left last night, here ya go. 

  • Messenger: Above the Fold

at 8:30 AM
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