Tag Archives: Dallas Morning News

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‘Affluenza’ defense pays off for drunken teen

Ten years probation.

That’s what a Tarrant County teenager got for killing four people while driving drunk. In fact, Ethan Couch’s blood-alcohol level was three times the minimum legal definition of drunken driving.

Four lives are snuffed out and for this the kid gets probation? That’s it?

Amazing.

http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/20131212-despite-four-deaths-tarrant-judge-buys-affluenza-excuse.ece

The judge who handed down this virtual non-punishment is Jean Boyd, who presides over a juvenile court in Fort Worth. As the Dallas Morning News editorial attached here, the judge apparently bought a line of defense that strains credulity to the extreme. The Morning News opined: “Boyd apparently swallowed whole the defense argument that Couch was just a poor, little rich boy effectively abused by parents who set no boundaries and gave him everything except actual parenting. ‘Affluenza,’ as a defense psychologist called it, or wealth assuming privilege.”

Prosecutors sought a 20-year sentence for the kid, who’s now 16. On June 15, his recklessness killed those four people and wounded gravely two others who likely may never recover fully from their injuries. That is a path of death and destruction that cried out for some punishment other than just a probated sentence. As the Morning News noted in its editorial, Couch might have been paroled by his 19th birthday under Texas law had the prosecutors gotten their wish.

Police on the scene called the accident the worst they had seen. Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson said he will have trouble explaining probation to his children and grandchildren, given what he witnessed from this crime.

Justice wasn’t done with this decision. Shame on the judge.

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Syria strike mission must send clear message

It took Dallas Morning News editorial writer and blogger Todd Robberson some space and time to make his point, but his fundamental message on a potential strike against Syria is spot on.

http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/2013/08/if-not-a-punishing-blow-to-syria-then-what.html/

We’ve got to hit the Syrians know that gassing their civilian population is unequivocally, without a shadow of a doubt and utterly wrong — and never must be repeated.

President Obama has laid down the marker. He said Syria crossed the “red line” when it used chemical weapons on civilians, namely women and children. He’s called it a violation of “international norms.” Secretary of State John Kerry called it a “moral outrage.”

The British Parliament has voted against Great Britain taking part in a military strike, which leaves the United States with the option of pursuing this mission basically alone.

Critics here at home, on the left and the right, are questioning the wisdom of such a strike.

But as Robberson says in his blog, U.S. credibility is on the line if it doesn’t do what it seems to be preparing to do.

Robberson writes: “Some warn that we shouldn’t intervene in Syria unless and until we have a clear military objective. We actually do have a clear military objective: To hit key Syrian military outposts, cripple their air force and send an unmistakable message to Assad that he will suffer severely if he ever contemplates using chemical weapons again. We’re not talking about putting troops on the ground or helicopters and planes overhead. Nor are we talking about lobbing a few cruise missiles into an open field the way we did in Afghanistan.

“We are talking about very precise, very loud and very destructive missiles capable of delivering an unmistakable message to a mass murderer.”

The commander in chief has a capable military apparatus at his disposal. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has said his warriors are ready when they get the order to strike.

We must hit the Syrians hard.

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D-FW signage needs major upgrade

Good news has arrived at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, according to the Dallas Morning News’s Rodger Jones.

The airport is getting better street signage.

Let me be among those to a offer major shout-out to anyone involved in improving the signage at the mammoth air complex that, even in the best of circumstances, is difficult to navigate.

http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/2013/08/good-news-for-my-fellow-confused-dfw-airport-bound-drivers-better-signage-is-coming.html/

Earlier this year, I experienced a borderline nightmare trying to get into the place from somewhere — anywhere — on the ground.

It went something like this:

My wife and I drove to Allen to welcome our new granddaughter’s arrival into this world. Emma Nicole Kanelis was born March 6 at a hospital in Plano. I had to leave after three days to return to work; my wife was staying a few extra days to help with caring for our little angel while our son and daughter-in-law got used to having a newborn in the house.

My son offered to drive me to the airport. “Do you know how to get there?” I asked. “No problem,” he said with supreme confidence.

With that we headed west toward D-FW. Then the trouble began.

We couldn’t find our way to the terminal. We kept circling, looking for exits. Signs were guiding us up this and that overpass. We had hoped we’d see something — an off-ramp or a sign — that made sense of the confusion.

The place was under construction but the detour signs didn’t take us anywhere.

I think we made three, maybe four, passes on the highway before we stumbled our way onto a lane of traffic that took us — finally — to where I could get out of the car and hustle into the terminal.

I caught my plane back to Amarillo — for which I was grateful.

Jones’s blog, which is attached to this post, spells out nicely the confusion he apparently has experienced as well.

I cannot remember the precise highway we took from Allen to D-FW, nor can I recall the myriad loops we took trying to find our way into the terminal.

It’s good to know, though, that the state highway department is promising less-stressful travel to D-FW.