Reporting arrests versus reporting convictions

I often wonder why it is that the news reports arrests, but doesn't follow up with the results of arrests, unless it's a high profile case. Anyone can be arrested: me, you, grandpas, grandmas. It doesn't mean a person is guilty.

Actually, we all know why the news reports arrests. It's easy gossip and it's a "look-a-here" tactic to get eyes on a page. Arrests are also easy information to come by; it's not so easy to get the results of an arrest, be it a dismissal or conviction, or one of the many other words to describe a judicial outcome.

Here's an example of the difficulty in finding records. In Nolan County, during 2019, there was a series of drug busts resulting in 27 arrests. First, I looked on the Nolan County Online Records Search page to see what sentences the accused received. I couldn't find any records about the charges. By the way, if you want to look, go to Guest Login>Continue to use the site without an account.

Then, I went to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Inmate Information site. I found that eight of the 27 were currently in prison, one on unrelated charges. This was just a topical perusal, using the names as spelled by the news outlet.

I looked up a couple of the suspects on the Texas Department of Public Safety Criminal History Name Search page. It's $3.25 per search, so I only looked up about ten people. Some got six months probation, some were paroled, and some of them appear to have not been charged. A few had gone to prison for other offenses.

Looking on court websites led to more frustration and a headache. 32nd District Court, 1st Multi-County Court, 11th Court of Appeals, PACER, TAMES, etc. & etc.

Anyway, I wanted to demonstrate that an arrest is only a half-told story and that getting "the rest of the story", as Paul Harvey would say, is not always easy, and sometimes seemingly impossible.

Here are the rabbit holes I went down while researching this article:

-State Bar of Texas Ineligible Attorneys 

-State Bar of Texas Discipline Report April 2021

-Litigation Strategies LLC, former attorney John Young's latest endeavor

-Texas Taxable Entity Search, an oldie, one of my favorites

Update on internet

- Behold, the internet -

The latest and greatest in my search for a country connection is a little Netgear hotspot gadget. It's about the size of a handheld transistor radio (hahahaha, whatever that is, mine was red in 1978). I bought it refurbished or second-hand because a new one costs too much. I buy a $55 AT&T pre-paid wireless card for 100 gigabytes per month. It sounds simple, but it was hard to figure out. 

First I took the device to an AT&T store and they set me up on a $65 plan. I was told it was unlimited. That was $10 more than I had seen advertised, but I thought it would be worth it not to run out of data. 

It was not worth it, it was not unlimited, and the price kept changing every month, up. Finally, when I was automatically charged by-the-byte for going over whatever random number they decided was past unlimited, I cancelled it.

I went to Walmart, got the card, set up the hotspot, now I'm rolling. That was not an easy process, though. It took a couple of days of trying over and over to get it going, and I can't even tell you what the magic combination was that finally worked. It just finally did. So far it's good, when I run out there are no overcharges. No internet, but no overcharges.

I was pretty excited when I read that internet was to be expanded to rural communities by using electric structures already in place (poles) to run fiber cable, but then I read that it was going to towns that already have good internet. Even small towns like Rotan or Loraine already have fast and large data service. I still think that incentivizing AT&T to replace their ground fiber would be a real good start.

Little by little, bit by bit

- Just words -

I've noticed how technology has caused me to change my ways. The way I spell, the way I fill out forms. It causes my narrative to change.

Take the word y'all. I used to write it ya'll, but autocorrect doesn't like that so I just go with the suggestion it makes. Looking back at old letters, though, I see that we spelled it ya'll. 

I've tried resurrecting letter writing with a few people, but it didn't take. It's like I was being a weirdo and they let it pass by without comment.

I'll admit, sometimes letter writing was boring. There was more pleasure in seeing familiar handwriting than the content. Phone calls could be the same way, enjoying hearing a familiar voice more than what was actually being said.

I can't believe I didn't have a constant phone line until after I had my second child. It was nice, my parents lived across town, but they were in another world as far as I was concerned, since they couldn't instantly access me. They were always in another quadrant, in my mind, anyway. I loved them, but I was living a different life, even when I lived in their house.

Another way technology has noticeably changed my story is how I am allowed to answer when filling out online forms.

Insurance companies won't let me say that I got my license when I was 15. I did, though. It was called a hardship license. Like many kids around here, I was driving long before I got my license. Some time around the age of 11. Somebody had to follow Dad on the tractor.

Since I was forced to lie on my insurance form, I just say whatever seems to be wanted on other forms. I gave up trying to be correct, in that sense. Except on my taxes. I try to be precise there, but my stomach still hurts when I turn in my 1040. 

Oil dreams and other things

- Big dreamer -

This doodle came from an old book I found, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by S. T. Coleridge. This particular volume, from the Eclectic English Classics series, must have been used as a college class text, because inside the covers it has a few different names (one of them along with "Carlton College") written, erased and marked through. One name is dated 1917, so I'm surmising this drawing came from that era. That's over one hundred years of dreaming! I thought I had been thinking about it a long time, like it was something new.

The oil field is deeply embedded in my culture. When I was three, I moved to Sweetwater with my mother, where she went to work for Big State Welding, which became Big State Roustabout. My dad worked for Reef in Snyder, when it was still a local business, first driving a treater truck, then as a supervisor. My uncle Hack had an oil transport business. Boyfriends, friends and my son have worked on rigs. I really don't know much about the oil business, but I find I'm able to have a literate conversation about it because it's always been part of my life. Learning by osmosis, I guess.

I liked hearing my mom talk on the radio. In her no-nonsense manner of speaking, she would call up "Piss Ant" or "Sleepy" on the radio to relay information.

Even now I still have Big State stickers and paraphernalia floating around in boxes and drawers.

That business ended in 1986, when oil crashed and everything had to be auctioned off.

It's good to remember that the dream can come to an end. Such a volatile market. Save now! Be an ant, not a grasshopper!

New selling platform for Texas Unclaimed Property

- Tx Comptroller ad -

I received a flyer in the mail announcing that Texas Unclaimed Property will now be sold on GovDeals. The Texas Comptroller has been using ebay for years to auction off unclaimed deposit box items. I have them on my ebay sellers list, and I've been wondering why they haven't had anything for sale in a while. They have some weird feedback on ebay, where the buyer says good things, but marks it as negative. Maybe the comptroller got fed up with the head games.

The GovDeals set up isn't as pretty and easy to use as ebay, and there's a buyer's premium of 9.5%. They're shipping using FedEx and won't ship to post office boxes, something I've never understood (the P.O. box thing, I mean). You can pay using PayPal, I like that. I guess the thing to do is to make an account, bid on something, and see how it goes. ebay isn't the be-all, end-all, right?

A tale of two cellars

- A new cellar -

I had a new cellar put in by U. S. Storm Shelters out of Decatur a couple of weeks ago, right next to my old cellar. 

The old one, that was home-made, leaks and the door is janky. I remember when it was being built, in 2002, we had a flooding rain that half-way filled up the hole and the kids swam in it. Good times.

The new one is a bit steep and the door, being new, is hard to open, but it's watertight. I've put rugs in it and plan to get a camp toilet (believe me, needed!) and some battery-operated push lights to stick around. Maybe a cube foam couch or something. It'll be so full, there'll be no room for me. 

It's about half as big as my old one. Also, I like to run in and out of the cellar to use the bathroom, get a drink, look at the radar, etc. and it's easier to do that with the old one. Maybe I can open both doors and use the leaky one when I'm only half-frightened and the new one when I'm scared out of my wits. It would be more correct to say I'm scared of clouds, instead of just storms, because it doesn't take much to have me heading to the cellar. 

It only took the guys three and a half hours to install it. They arrived exactly on time and they were super nice. You can order your own cellar at the U. S. Storm Shelters website.

A turkey triumph

- The Birds -

About this time last winter, I came into possession of a bunch of turkey chicks and some pullets (immature hens). Over the course of the winter snap, and with a little help from varmints, twelve was whittled down to four; three turkeys and one hen. When I caught two of the turkeys tromping the littlest one and pecking at his legs, I sent those two off to a petting farm. The damage was already done, though, and the little turkey continued to degrade, until he was confined to the chicken pen, of his own doing, since the door is open during the day.

I tried rehabilitating him by soaking, rubbing and spraying his feet (with Bactine, it fixes everything!). I even tried carrying him to the yard, but those wing feathers are sharp as knives and no matter how kindly we are to each other, his inclination is to spread them out. Even with a towel wrapped around him, they get loose. Kind of like a person instinctively holds out the hands when losing balance.

I finally gave up, because it seemed to take a lot out of him every time I messed with him. Some days he would hardly even move out of one spot. I just kept feeding him and making sure water was close, and waiting for him to die.

Then last week he started standing up and moving around a bit. Then he started sitting in the door of the pen, soaking up the sun. Then he stood outside the door. I watched this hopefully from the kitchen window. The little hen was getting excited and pecking around, because she doesn't like to run around without the protection of the turkey. She's always trying to call him out and get him to come up to the yard so they can peck bugs and seeds and grass together.

Finally, three days ago, I looked out and he was a couple of feet from the front of the pen. Then, in an exciting rally, he hobbled his way up to the yard, with the chicken clucking, skritching and encouraging him as he made his crooked way onto the grass. I cheered out loud and ran to make sure the water was close to him, but he didn't need my help, anymore. 

He and the chicken have been making happy noises and pecking around, which makes me happy, too. It's a good lesson to me to just hang in there, and don't give up too soon.

A mostly failed outing, a little silver lining

- Grand Central Station, TX -

Last weekend I planned on going to a concert in Lubbock, but the abundance of homeless people, a disappointing hotel, and forgotten tickets left me racing back to the house, driving at night, which I don't like to do. There sure are a lot of cars on US 84.

Amidst all this activity, we found a fantastic shop. Grand Central Station Antiques on Avenue Q had a more sparkling array of everything than I could fit in my eye. There were more than just antiques there and the place was huge and clean. The people were friendly and I just loved it. The prices ran the gamut, so you could buy something very high end, like a pretty crystal punch bowl for $400, or something for the kids, like a little bag of Hot Wheels cars for $8. Go! See!

The censor

-On the list!-

When I was attending school during what would be the final year before the fine architectural building known as Reagan Junior High was razed, to be replaced by the soulless structure now known as Sweetwater Middle School, we had a grand library in which I could hungrily search for the next literary marvel to devour. 

We called the librarian Miss Waller. She could have been a Mrs., but, as an eight-grader, this was not something I pondered. 

Miss Waller had her own way of censoring books in the junior high library, not by omitting them fully, but by taking an ink pen and marking out the unsavory, to her, I suppose, parts. I'm assuming it was a task she took upon herself. I can't imagine this was an order from our stately, elderly principal, Mr. Whittenburg. It was rumored among us children that he had been seen crying on the last day the school was open, when students ran through the halls defacing the walls and tearing open lockers.

In censoring books the way she did, Miss Waller had made her own reading list. The list of books we must read! I only had to pull out a book and see how much ink was in it to know if I wanted to read it. The more ink, the better.

I was a little thrilled to learn that John Irving's The Cider House Rules is on the list of books that might be considered for prohibition in Texas. Whether the list really means anything, or if there's even really a list, is questionable. I've seen reports of the list, but I haven't seen an original document. I suspect that a bland politician is using his non-actionable, highly publicized inquiry as a way of trying to get his face and name on display.

But as for authors, they should only be so lucky as to have made the list! I'm glad one of my favorite writers is being placed in the limelight, once again.

A little bit of ink can go a long way.

The sign of the grasshopper

-Grasshopper-

Grasshoppers have been manically jumping about and covering the yard, making it necessary to put my hands up when I walk outside for fear of having my eye put out. After the little frost we had Saturday morning, I realized I should pay heed to their activity, reading it as a sign of changing weather.

I cleaned out the woodstove flue and stacked some firewood and kindling inside. This might seem ridiculous, as we're still having very warm days, but I looked back to notes from last year and we had a winter storm on Oct. 26, not even two weeks after having a high of 90. In 2019, there was a frost Oct. 12 and freezing drizzle on Nov. 11. 

I was thinking we had another couple of weeks before we had a frost. What good is it to keep notes if I don't refer to them? I've been planting flowers like I was setting up a botanical garden. Maybe subconsciously I knew what the grasshopper flutter was about and I've been giving them something to eat before winter comes.