Monthly Archives: June 2024

media news

Retirement allows for mind expansion

As I ponder the direction my life is taking since retirement arrived nearly a dozen years ago, I am left to consider one of the benefits of all this free time.

It allows me to expand my mind.

My noggin had been cluttered and filled with daily responsibilities associated with putting out a newspaper every day. I spent nearly 37 years in various capacities as a print journalist. I was on deadline every one of those years. I started out as a sportswriter; I gravitated to a general assignment reporter; then I became an editorial writer; then I became the editor of an editorial page.

I held that last job description for more than 25 years before I was (more or less) shown the door on Aug. 31, 2012. I have enjoyed a grand time ever since. The final years of my journalism career became decidedly less “fun” than they were for the entire time preceding the final laps I took.

That was then. I have been liberated from the daily grind and have walked with my head held high into a new world that allows me to expand my noggin just a bit beyond where I thought it was possible.

Blogging has been a marvelous avocation for me to pursue. I am allowed to speak my mind without “bosses” setting boundaries for me to avoid crossing. I do follow the rules of good taste and I have avoided libeling anyone with my blathering about this and that.

All told, my new career as a blogger has been a mind-expanding experience. How much more expansion is in store for me? Hey, I’ll just presume the sky is the limit.

legal news

Will nominee show up at RNC?

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Given what I believe is happening with regard to convicted felon Donald Trump’s post-conviction antics, it is fair to wonder about this possibility.

It is that the 45th POTUS might be unable to attend the Republican Party nominating convention that will launch his candidacy against President Joe Biden.

Trump is going to be sentenced for the conviction handed down by the jury in NYC on 34 counts relating to an illegal hush money payment to an adult film actress, Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels.

Sentencing occurs July 11. Four days later, GOP convention delegates will meet in Milwaukee to nominate Trump for another run for the White House.

Judge Juan Merchan has wide latitude here. He could sentence Trump to jail time; he could sentence him to probation. He could impose an immediate jail term; he could say Trump can wait several weeks before reporting to the slammer.

Suppose he gets jail time. Suppose the judge orders the 45th POTUS to report immediately to the hoosegow.

That means the GOP convention will nominate an individual who is in jail, serving time for felonies committed that sought to hide an extramarital tryst. Trump denies even knowing Clifford, let alone having sex with her in the hotel room years before running for POTUS in 2016.

He paid her 130 grand anyway. Go figure.

Oh, and he’s now been calling the judge a crook, the jury was rigged, the prosecutor was biased against him.

A judge usually looks for signs of contrition in criminal defendants. He is not getting a hint of it from this defendant.

Republican convention delegates, though, are blind to the reality that they are facing … that their next presidential nominee is a felon.

local news

Who can use the pool?

Some interesting chatter has emerged on a Facebook neighborhood page to which I belong … so I think I will weigh in gingerly on the subject at hand.

It involves the use of a community swimming pool built in our Princeton neighborhood.

I live in the Arcadia Farms subdivision. Our neighborhood is administered by a homeowners association, to which we pay dues each year. Those dues go toward maintaining the pool for use by the residents who pay them.

Some fellow Princeton residents believe the pool should be open to all residents in our part of the city. Our neighborhood is surrounded by other developments, with unique names and they, too, answer to HOAs that are different from the HOA that receives our dues.

I do not intend to sound snotty about this, but the pool — I believe — is reserved for those of us who live within our subdivision. I merely would suggest that those who live in nearby residential developments that lack a community pool should contact their HOA and ask about the feasibility of building a pool where they live.

This likely is an age-old dispute that has blown up in other areas with HOA-managed community pools. There might not be a suitable solution, one that would settle the disagreements. I am just trying to lend a bit of context and perspective.

local news

Site faces its fate

All reporters have sources who tell them things off the record and it falls on the reporter to decide on the veracity of what they hear.

Well, today I heard something that bears repeating. It involves that monstrous boondoggle under construction on US Highway 380 in Princeton, Texas. Well, the term “under construction” is a term of art of sorts.

The apartment complex hasn’t seen any construction activity for several months. I now am hearing that Princeton City Hall is preparing to bulldoze the project if the developer doesn’t produce a workable plan to resume construction … and soon.

I understand that the city will seize ownership of the site and then commence its razing.

For the ever-lovin’ life of me I cannot see how the project can continue. It’s a 360-unit “luxury apartment” complex that has gone fallow. The developer and the general contractor got into some sort of snit and the contractor walked off the job. Since then, the apartment complex, with its interior floor plans exposed to ferocious weather elements has been pummeled by rain, wind, hail, a bit of snow.

My own humble view tells me the project cannot be resurrected. It’s too late. The buildings are too damaged.

Am I upset at what might be coming to that project? Not in the least.

I will offer one reason why I would welcome its destruction: Traffic!

The city has announced plans to welcome a massive new retail complex on the other side of 380. It will bring more traffic to already-congested highway. Meanwhile, Texas highway planners are hoping to build extra lanes along 380 … which only figures to worsen traffic woes!

Princeton does not need the apartment complex. Let it go away … and soon.

legal news

What happened to SCOTUS?

For as long as I have been covering and commenting on our court system, I have followed a few basic tenets of what I consider to be fair and impartial justice.

One of them is simple and straightforward. It states that judges must always be fair, impartial and objective when interpreting the law. They cannot possibly accept gifts from litigants or potential litigants. Period. End of story.

What in the hell, then, has become of that tenet? US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas finally has owned up to the revelation that over the years, he has accepted more than $4 million in travel and other assorted gifts from wealthy contributors. One of notably is Texas gazillionaire Harlan Crow, who has given Clarence and Virginia Thomas cruise trips, first-class jetliner rides, rooms at posh hotels and Lord knows what else.

Thomas only recently reported it. He’s not required to do so under SCOTUS rules. The nation’s highest court is the single judicial institution that does not police itself … but it damn sure keeps a close eye on the conduct of other federal judges serving on lower courts.

Thomas, appointed to the high court in 1991 by President George H.W. Bush, has assumed the unofficial title of chief grifter on the nation’s federal judiciary.

This is simply beyond belief. Oh, and get a load of this: Justice Thomas once told a TV documentary filmmaker that he prefers stay at Walmart parking lots in his recreational vehicle because that’s how “normal” people choose to relax.

It’s not clear when this scandal will expire. It seems we keep hearing of new gifts being lavished on the Thomases from their wealthy friends, some of whom actually have legal matters pending on the highest court in the land.

I am left only to lament the presence on this court of a justice who doesn’t grasp the gravity of his acceptance of these gifts … and to call on him once again to resign!

crime news

‘No one is above the law’

No U.S. citizen is above the law … that includes former presidents of the United States or the direct family members of the current president.

Hunter Biden, the surviving son of President Biden, is guilty of three counts of violating federal law in the purchase of a firearm. He faces a potential prison term of 25 years if the federal judge who presided over the case sees fit.

Biden likely won’t get that stiff of a sentence. There appears to be a decent chance he will avoid any lockup time. If I were King of the World, I would dictate that Hunter Biden receive a lengthy probationary sentence. That would be within the judge’s sentencing guidelines. It works for me, as it remains faithful to the “no one is above the law” mantra.

As for the ex-POTUS, whom the New York jury convicted of 34 counts of campaign law violation for paying the adult film actress 130 grand to keep quiet about a tumble the two of them took, he faces a possible jail sentence as well.

I am willing to accept any punishment that the judge is preparing to hand out, although a big part of me wonders if Donald Trump is bellowing his way into some jail time by attacking the judge, the jury and the system itself. Has the criminal defendant shown any remorse? Hah!

Yep. No one is above the law.

State news

On the border: more of the same

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A young man I know who is a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper has just returned from another deployment on Texas’s southern border.

He said he noticed that “it’s all the same down there. The same ol’ same ol’.” Gov. Greg Abbott has been sending troopers to the border to assist US Border Patrol officers and local police in rounding up illegal immigrants.

“Nothing is going to change until after the election if Donald Trump wins,” my DPS friend told me. Then he said two things are bound to happen. Trump’s get-tough policies will return and “those who now are trying to get into this country won’t want to come here” if Trump is elected.

He said DPS then won’t need to go to the border to lend a hand.

Hmm. Interesting, I thought to myself. I should have said that Abbott won’t send DPS troopers to the border because he won’t want to stick it in Trump’s ear the way he does with President Biden. I didn’t tell him so.

I guess it doesn’t matter to many Texans that Biden did issue an executive order that shuts down the border when crossings exceed a certain amount. Does that constitute an “open border policy”?

Not even close.

local news, State news

Ted Cruz: unlikable and mean

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I will go to my grave — hopefully not anytime soon — wondering for all I can muster how Ted Cruz continues to hang onto his seat in the U.S. Senate.

I cannot think of more unlikable and mean-spirited senator than Rafael Edward Cruz. He has cast his beady eyes on a bigger prize since the day he declared his Senate candidacy in 2012. He was elected that year and ran immediately for the presidency in 2016.

He damn near lost his Senate seat in 2018 to Beto O’Rourke. Now he’s running again, this time against another Texas congressman, Colin Allred of Dallas.

Allred says the polls have the two of them tied. Maybe so. Maybe not. Polling I see shows Cruz with a slim lead.

What in the world has this guy done for Texas? What legislation has he authored that brings tangible benefit to the state? I cannot think of a single piece of legislation that has Cruz’s name stamped on it.

I can, however, recite a couple of notable instances where he embarrassed himself and the state. How about the time he filibustered in favor of a government shutdown, reading Dr. Seuss’s “Green Eggs and Ham” from the Senate floor?

My favorite moment, though, occurred when Cruz sought to jet off to Cancun with his family in February 2021 while Texans were freezing to death in that killer winter storm. Someone caught him on the lam to Mexico. He returned … and then blamed his daughter for talking him into taking the family for a vacation.

Oh, how I want Allred to win this seat. Allred vows to work with Republicans. I intend to hold him to that pledge if he manages to win. Cruz, though, is lost forever to the cause of bipartisanship.

I’ll say it again: Good government requires compromise and Ted Cruz does not know to work in that environment.

local news

Speaker’s job still threatened

Dade Phelan’s close runoff victory in the Golden Triangle of Texas well could come at a price for the Beaumont Republican.

He wants to keep his job as speaker of the Texas House of Representatives. To do that he had to fend off a GOP primary challenge from a first-time candidate David Covey, recruited to run in the primary by Attorney General Ken Paxton, who sought revenge against Phelan.

The speaker led the House that impeached Paxton on criminal charges. The vote was overwhelmingly bipartisan. Paxton then stood trial in the Senate, which acquitted him in a partisan show of cowardice.

Covey by all rights had no business forcing a runoff with the veteran legislator. He did and now Phelan is set to take office for another term.

I have spoken, though, with veteran lawmakers who believe Phelan’s victory in the runoff might not be worth having. His fellow Republicans are split among themselves over whether Phelan did the right thing by letting the House work its will in impeaching Paxton. The Texas House is chock full of MAGA Republicans who would love nothing better than to boot Phelan out of the speaker’s chair and install someone more to their liking.

As we have seen throughout the country, today’s Republican Party is controlled by those who are desperately loyal to the cult leader who is calling the shots.

My own preference, not that it matters? I hope Dade Phelan keeps his job. We need someone with a brain managing at least one of the state’s legislative chambers.

crime news

DOJ isn’t anti-GOP … got it?

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Let us all just take a deep breath while pondering a key jury verdict … and then dispel this fu**ed-up notion that the US Department of Justice is being “weaponized” for use against Republican politicians.

Hunter Biden, the surviving son of Democratic President Joe Biden, has been convicted by a jury of three felony counts related to his purchase of a firearm while he was abusing drugs.

It was a federal case, meaning that DOJ prosecuted it. It’s the same DOJ run by Attorney General Merrick Garland, who this past week mounted a stern and forceful defense of his agency’s conduct.

“No one is above the law,” became the mantra of the DOJ as it prosecuted Hunter Biden. It was the same mantra followed by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office achieved a conviction of Donald J. Trump on a hush money charge.

Will the Biden conviction silence DOJ’s critics? Will they ever acknowledge publicly what most of the rest of us know, that the AG takes seriously the oath he pledged to defend the Constitution?

I shall add that President Biden has declared that a pardon for his son will not occur. 

I should point out, too, that two more Democratic politicians — U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey and U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas — both have trials pending; they, too, are being prosecuted by the Justice Department.

This idea that jury verdicts are “rigged” and that the system is “corrupt” and “broken” just does not wash.

The only “rigging” that has occurred within the federal system has been done by the 45th POTUS, the purveyor of the Big Lie and the man who now stands before us as a convicted felon.