tvc184

Oh!!! Another Indian tribe jumps on the bandwagon. Same song, different verse….

This is what happened… [Hidden Content]

Apparently a guy is messing with his pistol while shopping when it “accidentally” went off. Those pesky guns keep pulling their own trigger!! One article I read said that it wasn’t in a holster. I am betting that he had it stuffed in his pants and it started falling out and he grabbed it. The Plaxico Burris move….. It says 3 others shot by the ricochet. The thing must have been like a pool ball hitting bumpers!! Actually the round probably struck the floor and pieces of tile scattered and hit a couple of people in the ankle. People like this give other gun owners a bad name. That is why it should always be in a holster. Even if the holster falls out for some strange reason, the gun still will not discharge. [Hidden Content]

This seems like PNG having a nothing to lose and everything to win kind of game. PAM on the other hand has the pressure of being embarrassed. They bring in a team expected to win and having a good season against a smaller team with a new head coach. If PNG loses, especially if keeping it close, they have nothing to be ashamed about. If PAM loses……..

Maybe 20 years ago, Beaumont PD was looking to hire minorities and the union agreed to an offer. I don’t know what incentive the city offered by the union accepted it. The hiring (if I remember correctly) was a 3 tier system and it was divided something like, Blacks/Hispanics, women, White males. In some respects it is similar to Minneapolis with race based layoffs. By Texas civil service law, a department has to hire by test score. The only incentive allowed is that 5 extra points for military service. The problem was (and still seems to be) that W/Ms were consistently scoring in the top percentages. Under Texas collective bargaining laws, only the police and firefighters in the public sector are allowed to bargain. If a city is civil service (such as Port Arthur and Beaumont), there are laws in place on promotions, discipline, etc. An example is that on promotions, the testing materials must be announced at least 90 days in advance of a test (such as certain laws and books on management, police supervision, etc.) and the test must be announced at least 30 days in advance. All announcements must be in writing and posted publicly at city hall. Everyone must take the promotional test at the same time and location. Anyone is allowed to appeal questions on the test. It is a timed test and the police department does not choose the testing materials, see or choose the test beforehand and does not give the test. That is all done by civilian civil service commission. An officer by state law gets 1 point per year seniority, up to 10 years. The only point of that is there are state laws in place the regulate police operations to the extent of promotions and discipline. BUT…. by contract a union and the city can agree to disregard laws of civil service but both sides must agree. An example is that state law requires two years of experience to test for sergeant but a city (like mine) can change the state law and require 4 years of experience. Another example is a city giving additional points on the test for candidates that live in the city in addition to military service. What has all of that got to do with teachers in Minneapolis having a contract that lays off people by race? Beaumont PD as mentioned had the tier hiring system by race and sex. It was agreed to by the union. One W/M from another area department made very near the top of the test and maybe even #1 overall. The problem for him was, to be hired by the contract, a person in each other tier has to be hired first. So there had to be a Black or Hispanic and then a female. But….. the city could not fill those slots first so the W/M was rejected only because they couldn’t find a qualified female (I think). It was not even a matter of giving preference to a minority, in this case the guy was completely rejected because they could not find a qualified minority in one of the tiers. Civil service law says that the test is good for a year so a city can’t keep giving tests if they don’t like the outcome. In this case the city ended the test scores since they are not getting enough minority participation. So he sued. I believe the city’s argument was, we have a contract that the union agreed to so we aren’t bound by the law. True however…. a contract can’t overcome my rights that I did not agree to give up. From my memory, the officer won an EEOC lawsuit, got a 6 figure settlement based on race discrimination and BPD had to change their hiring practices/contract. I am fairly certain I remember that officer staying with his old department after the settlement. So a union cannot take away certain individual rights by contract. Imagine this, a police union votes for a contract to ban women from police service and the city agrees under the belief that woman should not be police officers. Would that be allowed to stand? Would such a contract overcome individual rights? I think not!! Does that apply to the Minneapolis teacher’s union? I don’t know since they are under a different federal circuit court. Unless the Supreme Court issues a different ruling, their circuit court would stand as precedent. I think a federal lawsuit “might” knock that race based part of the contract out. In my opinion….

My first car was a 1966 Ford Galaxie 509 with a 352 with a four barrel. I paid $500 for it in 1973.

The CBS News, Washington Post, Washington Times, NY Post, Daily Mail, MSN….. Have all fallen for the lie then.

The fact that Cheney was beaten is not shocking. The fact that Hagerman won 2/3s of all votes combined against 4 other candidates is very telling.

It wasn’t a hard call to make. When there are five people going for one position in an election it would be easy to think that they would have to be a runoff. If four candidates got 13% each and the fifth blew all of them away, it would still be a runoff. that is because the first place candidate would only have 48%. In this case that hope by Cheney was crushed because #1 beat her by more than 2-1. When an incumbent cannot even get 30%, not either general election, but from her own party….. I am sure the exit polling showed this was not even a contact. Cheney knew what was coming and it was only a matter pride to even had her enter the race.

I didn’t know that was in question. I know that in criminal investigations you have to prove every point to determine if it is a crime. Saying “I know he did it” isn’t enough so tests are run. Sometimes it is just to confirm what is already known.

Amazon by the end of this year is expected to start delivering packages in College Station and in Lockeford, CA. I think it is interesting that they chose College Station to launch and test it. According to Amazon it was Texas A&M and the relatively small town feel of the city that brought them in. [Hidden Content] Here is a YouTube video of what looks like some fairly large drones. It is claimed to completely autonomous or send it and forget it device. [Hidden Content]

In know that I am viewing it from spending almost 4 decades as a police officer but it does seem strange if he left quickly. I have been to many house fires, some in which the homes were totally destroyed, and don’t recall seeing homeowner or resident just leave. Like, “Okay, every thing I worked for and all of my memories are gone… see y’all later”. I remember a house fire in the west side of PA where a woman’s home was destroyed. There were flames coming out of the windows on all sides. The term “totally engulfed” was appropriate. When the woman came home and saw the ongoing destruction, she was understandably extremely emotional and wanted to get into the house. I think she had a dog inside. She would have been seriously injured or killed if she had gotten within about 15 feet from the house yet she was beating on me trying to break free to run into the home. I just held onto her, telling a younger officer with me not to hit her back because she was swinging but just emotional. Instinctively you want to knock the crap out of someone hitting you. She finally and probably fortunately passed out and we called EMS for her. That is the kind of reaction a person might expect. Everyone handles things differently though.

The first qb, tall (sophomore?) had a huge arm and could sling it. His passes at times were way off mark but it might have been the wrong pattern and/or timing. A receiver breaks left and he throws right. I thought the line looked okay but they seriously looked like they needed someone to want to carry the ball. In though the second qb that came in (I think) with the first team during game like conditions, did a better job of moving the team. Was it better qb play or was the team coming together better nest the end? I might have been to shell shocked to notice and I am being serious. I think when noticing such glaring mistakes (which were plenty) it is easy to overlook the good parts. HF seemed very inspired and were getting after it. I know it is a scrimmage but next week might get ugly if some serious improvement isn’t made. Maybe last night was like throwing a cold bucket of water on someone, shockingly waking them up.

I hope that is true. Maybe everyone had a bad day at the same time.

According to news reports and comments (neither of which means anything), he was supposedly there when the fire department arrived, then left possibly with a relative. The sheriff department had to get a search warrant to search for the property because consent could not be obtained since Thomas hasn’t been seen since. Assuming that is true, it is strange. I say “assuming” and “according to news” because rumors take on a life of their own. “I heard” when it is retold becomes, “this absolutely happened”. An example is someone reading this comment by me and then saying, Thomas left immediately upon the fire department arriving. No, I heard that but it might be completely false. Maybe he didn’t leave. Maybe he was never there and someone speculated that he might have left and when it was retold…… it becomes a “fact” that he was there and left (or worse, fled) the scene.

They were in no particular order. Some serious improvement is needed in most aspects of the game. On occasion a flash of brilliance might be seen such as a great open field tackle or stuffing the line on defense and shutting down a run. Then back to sloppy play. But yes, I don’t remember seeing so many dropped passes.

Nederland has had a dedicated radio station probably since the entry 19060s. For many years at least, it has been on KLVI.

To say that he is getting blistered on Facebook would be an understatement.

A scrimmage is a glorified practice. It is supposed to allow the coach to try doing things, look at players and especially look for bright spots. These were the bright spots for Nederland: 1. These are the issues I noticed: 1. Tackling 2. Catching the ball. 3. Passing 4. Rushing 5. Blocking

Yes.

She should have been criminally charged in the same incident.

The Nederland schedule shows a scrimmage tomorrow with HF at home for 5:00/6:15. Is 5:00 the JV scrimmage?

The case I mentioned with all the media was from some kind of tip or clue. In this area alone there might be miles of waterways to search and it could turn up nothing. In the cases like in PA where the two cars were found with bodies, there will likely be no criminal charges so potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars (if not into millions) would be spent to only “possibly” (assuming any results) buy some closure for a family. I am not minimizing that relief it would be. I wish there was a cost effective way to start systematically clearing areas. Maybe have a regional team like Jefferson, Hardin and Orange Counties with the many cities all putting in money and get some task force to start searching. It could be a location a day. I mean having a dedicated team trained in the technology and purchase of the equipment. Heck, there is probably grant money. The biggest problem would be finding someone to get the ball rolling with the research into the cost of the equipment, training, number of personnel needed, etc.

About 15 years ago Texas Equusearch (I think) was searching the canal along Hwy 82 for a specific vehicle and I think they found others but not the one they were looking for. For some reason there was a lot of news media out there but I don’t remember the case. I remember the search because I stopped there briefly to watch the show and ended up talking to the media (in what I thought was a casual conversation). Unfortunately they used me for a spokesman and quoted me in the newspaper after I answered a typically stupid media question with an intentionally stupid answer. That was a lesson learned. You are never off the record with the media. I remember several other cases where vehicles were found immediately that were submerged because someone witnessed the accident (or intentional act like a person getting rid of a stolen vehicle or trying to collect insurance money) or came upon the scene at night and saw the lights/taillights glowing under water before the battery went out. Any of those would have been missing had it not been for witnesses. It would be safe to say that hundreds (if not thousands) of missing vehicles and people could be found nationwide if waterways were searched. How much resources are going to be spent and who is going to spend it? Also, it would not take dive teams to do an extremely time consuming and labor intensive job. There is plenty of underwater drones with search capable sonar and cameras. I have seen one locally owned by a private company and it has been hired locally by agencies for specific tasks. I think that I have photos of it on my phone. Again however, who is going to pay? I think a good unit might run into hundreds of thousands of dollars.

My team came out on top but it was a back and forth thriller. It was one of those games as they say, it was a shame that one team had to lose.