7.12.2024

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

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




The bridge by the spillway by Lake Bridgeport is the tallest one in the county.

  • "AT&T said the compromised data includes the telephone numbers of 'nearly all' of its cellular customers and the customers of wireless providers that use its network between May 1, 2022 and October 31, 2022." Prepare for more spam calls. 

  • A baggage scanner being down yesterday caused a massive backlog at Love Field. Nothing showed it better than this photo from a helicopter showing people lined up outside in the heat. 


  • The humanitarian floating pier in Gaza, which cost us $240 million and never worked, will be gone.  I could have told them it's next to impossible to attach something that floats to the shore and it expect it to be stationary. (I'm an expert because I had a floating lake dock once and it was a disaster.)
     

  • Let me tell you something, there are a lot of sight-seeing helicopter crashes in Hawaii. Story.

  • The President did fine in his press conference yesterday despite a flub or two.  I still think he won't drop out of the race. And I still think all this mess and hubbub about it won't matter.

    • But Drudge, who has been anti-Trump for years, is really going hard against President Biden these days.

    • There are 17 Democrats in Congress who are now calling for Biden to drop out.  There are 260 Democrats in Congress. 
  • Shelley Duval has died. That got me thinking that this is probably one of the most iconic screenshots from a movie there is. 

  • This case is so weird. Once again, the only claim left is Jerry's counter-claim so the only reason the case is still pending is because he hasn't dismissed it. He really wants a trial?

  • Southlake ISD went to one of two federal judges in Texas who are always predictably right wing. And, in a footnote, he even cited as legal authority the right-wing Texas lawyer Jonathan Mitchell.

  • Gov. Abbott is still on the other side of the planet, and is now in Tokyo. What's the etiquette for being photographed with someone in a wheelchair? Are you supposed to stoop down? 

  • Extremely legal nerdy criminal practitioner stuff based on a new case yesterday out of Corpus Christi: 
    • Say an Information alleges an assault by a theoretical impossible way (i.e. x caused bodily injury to y by x spraying himself in the face with mace). And say the trial court sees the error after the jury is empaneled and sworn but before any evidence has been presented. He then tells the defense lawyer to make a motion (nice judge) and then dismisses the case calling it a directed verdict. 
    • Now the questions are: (1) can the State appeal the dismissal since it occurred during trial, and (2) did the trial court properly dismiss the case before the State even put on any evidence? 
    • The answer is yes and no, respectively. Now the State can fix the Information and retry the guy. 
    • The smart thing to do would have been to move for a directed verdict after the State put on the evidence. The State, if they had figured out their error, couldn't have amended the Information after trial started, and the State couldn't have appealed a directed verdict entered after the evidence is presented. 
  • 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: 5 years and 7 days.

at 8:30 AM

7.11.2024

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




A big controversy in Midland erupted as a Tilted Kilt restaurant opened. It no longer exists there as only two remain in Texas now: Killeen and Laredo. 

  • We've got a book-in photo of the D.A. up in Montague County. I'm trying to find out more about this whole deal.

  • I watched some of the Alec Baldwin trial yesterday and, just like I thought it would be, it was a prosecution trainwreck.  They seem obsessed with proving that the gun didn't malfunction and that Baldwin pulled the trigger. The defense, in opening statement, basically said "So what?" And if I heard the defense lawyer right, he said in that opening that Baldwin was handed the gun and told by the person responsible for it that it was "cold" -- and he said "cold" means not only was it not supposed to have a live round in it, but that it wasn't even supposed to have blanks in it. 


  • R.I.P. Baby Dolls in North Arlington. 


  • It's a daily competition whether a judge or a pastor will make the news. 



  • I thought President Biden was past the "he shouldn't run" controversy, but then George Clooney ignited it again yesterday.

    • This could be a white-knuckle ride at 4:30 p.m. today. "President Biden will face a moment of high stakes in his campaign for a second term on Thursday evening when he engages with reporters in an unscripted news conference at the end of a three-day NATO summit."

  • Barron showed up at Trump's rally two days ago and daddy acknowledged him. But the funny part is watching Junior in the background while it happens. Video.

  • This is a bonkers story out of Wichita Falls. 

  • The story doesn't say, but this had to have occurred in a Justice of the Peace court. Bob Gill and Miles Brissette represented the defendant who was only the plant manager.  

  • This is an interesting. He had been buried under a sheet of ice for over two decades which kept his body from decomposing.. His ID was found in the fanny pack. (Gift link.)


  • Messenger - Above the Fold

at 8:30 AM

7.10.2024

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




I noticed that Israel was bombing Gaza ten years ago.

  • Holy cow. The District Attorney in Montague County has been indicted for felony theft and "booked in and out of the Montague County Jail on Tuesday, July 9, 2024."  


    • The Bowie News obtained a copy of the indictment. It says the victim is Montague County and the theft involved money in 2022. Legal nerdy stuff: Noticeably absent, however, is any language that she committed the theft while as a public servant which would increase the range of punishment by one degree. 

    • But she responded on D.A. letterhead:

  • More than a couple of Houston folks contacted me yesterday to let me know that things down there are a heck of a lot worse than it would appear. 
  • What's up with judges these days? This one is out of Tarrant County.



  • The story of the arrest was in the news a couple of days ago but we got a photo of the officer yesterday.  But that cop is also smart enough to not wipe the blood off at all after the incident.  It makes for a better photo for prosecution. 

  • Greg Abbott, who is on the other side of the globe, got defensive yesterday.


    • It was in response to this: 
  • Ted Cruz has learned his lesson about running off to Cancun during bad weather. 

  • At the Big 12 Media Days, OSU coach Mike Gundy defended his star running back after he was arrested for DWI.:
    • Shot. 

    • Chaser.

  • "The deceased individual was found unresponsive on the Bright Angel Trail. Park officials were notified of the incident Sunday, July 7, around 2 p.m. MST. The hiker was discovered about 100 feet below the Bright Angel Trailhead."

    "Majority of the upper part of Bright Angel trail is
    visible from the canyon rim."

  • I don't know if I'm more surprised that he would say, “I don’t think he can serve four more years,” or if you can just catch Stephanopoulos casually walking along the streets in Manhattan. Video.


  • A story I can't believe is real but is.  Here's the text of the petition.  It's pretty amazing. I'd love to see a picture of these two (Fred Brunner and Melanie Sterling)

  • Bonus extremely nerdy legal stuff: The indictment in the Montague County D.A. case alleged the theft occurred "by deception."  There is no legal reason to put that in the indictment, and I know of at least four cases in the last 20 years that have been reversed because of that State screw-up. The most recent one was just last year.

at 8:30 AM
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)