Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

I had been given a 1984 issue of the Alvord News which I posted.  Click to enlarge. 

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• New this morning. Seems pretty noteworthy. 
  
  
  
• Back to reality (and to something that makes a delayed turkey not seem like a problem at all), a huge fire in Hong Kong occurred while you were sleeping.  The death toll has risen to 13 which seems low. 
  

  

  

  
  
  
  
• Gift link.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Dateline Brownwood, Texas. It was actually an Assistant County Attorney, but you don't see this everyday. And it was allegedly during the prosecutors plea negotiations with a defense lawyer. 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• I've got a hunch about this whole thing. "The 18-year-old Florida high school senior had been traveling on the Carnival Horizon ship with members of her blended family when her corpse was found stashed under a bed — wrapped in a blanket and covered with life jackets. Authorities have not confirmed who may have been behind her death, but court documents from an unrelated case have indicated that Kepner’s unidentified 16-year-old stepbrother, who was sharing a room with the teen at the time, is being eyed as a suspect."
  
  

  

  
  
  
  
• I bet this will be a prosecutor's nightmare. (The link is a video which shows all the kids being rounded up.)
  
  
  
• Welcome to the Autocracy. It's over.  
  

  

  
  
  
  
• The Blaze, which published her name, is in big trouble. Story. 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Crap like this spread like wildfire earlier this month.
  
  
  
  
• Happy Thanksgiving everyone. 
  
  
  
• If he wants to rename the Republican Party this morning, he might want to workshop those names a little bit. 
  
  
  
• RIP to this American hero. 
  
  
  
• UNT just learned that its coach will be leaving. Not the best timing for that announcement to be made.
  
  
  
• Messenger - Above the Fold

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

I had posted this 2015 cover of Texas Monthly back then. Little did we know that that the escalation of home values was only just getting started. 

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• A pretty slickly produced video taken from footage of the Wise County Courthouse Rededication day has been released. (YouTube link.)
  
  
  
• "The Santo Volunteer Fire and EMS department later confirmed that the driver is a member of their team, who was airlifted for emergency care."

• Story.
  
  
  
• Lots of sinning going on here  "Donald Doolittle, 58, has served as the safety director of the Gateway Community Church of Webster, about 25 miles southeast of Houston, for 10 years, according to an affidavit filed with the Harris County District Court."
  
  
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Welcome to the Autocracy.  A former Fox News weekend host, who now heads the U.S. Military, is threatening to court-martial a sitting U.S. Senator and Veteran for saying troops should not follow "illegal orders."  This follows on the heels of Trump calling for Mark Kelly's execution.  It's over.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• And that Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, just posted this: 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• The only lawyer in America that Trump could find to hire as a prosecutor to go after James Comey and Letitia James was never properly put into place:
  
  
  
• The Wall Street Journal this morning:
  
  
  
• I still don't understand why the Fort Worth Fire Department continues to send out their own photographer to take glamor shots while an actual fire is going on, and then posting them online. They did it yesterdary.
  
  
  
• Tara Reid was either drunk or unwittingly drugged at a Chicago hotel bar. And, of course, someone will take their camera out and film the immediate aftermath of it. Video.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Based upon names alone, I have found the my favorite Texas high school football playoff matchup: Katy Jordan (9-3) vs. Sheldon King (10-2), 2 p.m. Friday.  (The loser will get custody of the kids every other weekend.)

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

The lawsuit which followed the demand letter would be dismissed by a federal judge.

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• Messenger story.
  
  
  
• This is probably interesting to those who wish to wade through it: The (former) Decatur hospital sued BlueCross and BlueShield in a sweeping lawsuit. Last Thursday, the Fort Worth Court of appeals side with BlueCross and said that the case must go to arbitration instead of to a jury like the hospital wanted.  Link for opinion. (Legal nerdy folks will want to check out all the filings, including briefs, here.) 
  
  
  
  
  
• A Jack County carjacking on Sunday morning with a brief shootout at the end of a chase. The suspect was taken by helicopter to a hospital.
  
  
  
• The story doesn't have much more info than the headline. 
  
  
  
• Merry Christmas everyone! Video of gunfire being heard as band was on stage.
  
  
  
• Will the Texas new congressional maps withstand a court challenge? Friday evening, Justice Alito kept them in place for now. And I'm betting that they will survive in the end. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• I was slow to realize this, but the redistricting issue is big to Wise County. Under the old map, Runaway Bay, Lake Bridgeport, Chico and Bridgeport are in Ronny Jackson's district (TX-13).  Under the new proposed map, they are all in Brandon Gill's district (TX-26).
  
  
  
  
• My head is still spinning about the meeting between Trump and socialist New York mayor-elect Mamdani.
• In anticipation . . . 
  
  
  
• Immediately after . . . 
  
  
  
• The fallout: 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Marjorie Taylor Greene shocked everyone by announcing on Friday evening that she will leave Congress after the first of the year. “I’m not going to be Trump’s battered wife,” she said.
  
  
  
• Trump continues to speak like an Autocrat. And why not?  It's over. 
  
  
  
• SMU Jones Film Collection released this WFAA video of an interview with tellers in a bank in Alvord after a robbery in 1961. Audio kicks in about halfway through. (YouTube)
  
  
  
• Dateline: JP Court in Waco. 
  
  
  
• Dateline: Uvalde. He allegedly got mad at a UPS guy as to where he was putting his packages at the courthouse and ordered him to be arrested by a deputy. 
  
  
  
• The weed smoking DA in far West Texas is finding out that social media is not her friend.
  
  
  
• I'm dissapointed in myself for missing this last week.  Video of her performance.
  
  
  
• Art Briles is set to be the new head coach of Eastern New Mexico University.
• Trump's state media newspaper is not happy with Trump trying to give away Ukraine under the currently being negotiated "peace plan" with Russia . . .