Random Friday Morning Thoughts

It must have been a very cool morning 10 years ago. What are those like again?

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• Breaking: Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the oldest U.S. Senator, passed away overnight. It was only two months ago she made headlines when she appeared confused at a hearing when she was told to simply vote. (Side note: She cast a vote yesterday morning.)
  
  
  
• This could have been worse. A recently fired employee went back to Vandergriff Chevrolet in South Arlington late yesterday afternoon and opened fire at the building from the parking lot. The building is closed today because it ended up being flooded when the security system activated.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The normal Republicans have to get control of the Ultra-MAGA extremists. That group demanded and caused the "impeachment inquiry" to take place at a congressional hearing yesterday as the government shutdown looms, and it was a disaster. None of the witnesses knew anything, And they all said they didn't think there were enough facts in existence to justify an impeachment. As said on Fox News, "I don't know what was achieved over these last 6+ hours." 
  
  
  
• But the funniest moment (video) of the hearing gave us this screenshot:
  
  
  
• Speaking of Ultra-MAGA, it looks like they are going to shut down the federal government this weekend, and then attempt to throw out the Speaker of the House. What a cluster. 
  
  
  
• "The county ordinance also prohibits traveling through the county or driving on its roads to obtain an abortion." So dumb. So backwoods.  
  
  
  
• Elon Musk decided to be a "reporter" at the border late yesterday. 
  
  
  
• Compare and contrast: 
  
  
  
• Aggieland is preparing its students for a future in politics. .
  
  
  
• That Grandpa Bachelor show sure is getting lots of buzz. I would give a review, but I didn't  watch it. Yet I can say that I don't think I'd pick a gal who decided to wear a track suit. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• So former pitching great (and nutcase) Kurt Schilling decided to tell the world that Tim Wakefield is battling brain cancer when it wasn't public information? “This is not a message that Tim has shared and I don’t even know if he wants it shared. But as a Christian and a man of faith, I have seen prayer work and so I’m going to talk about it,” Schilling said. “Recently, Tim was diagnosed with a very serious, very aggressive form of brain cancer.” The Red Sox quickly slapped him down:
  
  
  
• Law school sure has changed. Read this post by a guest lecturer. It's real and it stopped me down. Link (with interesting comments.)
  
  
  
• Legal nerdy stuff:  How would you like to have your 99 year jury-imposed Texas prison sentence as a habitual offender reduced to no more than 1 year in the local county jail on appeal? It happened this week. Stay with me here.
  
  
  
• A DWI is normally a misdemeanor. Even a DWI-Second is a misdemeanor. But it can be upgraded to a Third Degree Felony (2 to 10 years in prison) if you have two prior "final" convictions for DWI. 
• But that Third Degree Felony DWI can be upgraded even further to a First Degree Felony (ergo the 99 year sentence that happened here) if you have been in and out of the pen for any unrelated felony convictions at least two times before. 
• But that Third Degree DWI felony law has a weird quirk: A DWI conviction before 1985 is not a "final" conviction and can't be used for enhancement if you received probation that was not revoked. Not many people know that any more.
• In this guy's case, one of the two prior DWI convictions the prosecutor used was a 1979 DWI conviction which, the court held, wasn't "final" because he successfully completed his probation back then.  So that killed the Felony DWI conviction and made him guilty of only a misdemeanor DWI-Second. And, boom, domino-effect: Since it was now a misdemeanor DWI-Second, the fact that he was a habitual offender because of the two other unrelated felony pen trips doesn't matter. He's only subject to one year in jail for a misdemeanor. A lucky guy for a guy who hasn't been very lucky. 
• Time which has passed since the Wise County Sheriff's Office, despite having a full male DNA profile, has failed to solve the murder of Lauren Whitener in her home at Lake Bridgeport: 4 years and 85 days.