Red Six

No, legally, the burden of persuasion is on the government to disprove self-defense once the evidence gives rise to the issue. Practically, the hard part is holding the jury to their duty to follow the law. That's why voir dire and concisely explaining the law in a way that permits them to return a "not guilty" on the facts is so important.

You ever seen a DWI trial?

A couple things I have noticed through the news coverage and police briefings: 1. The police are surprisingly sympathetic to the guy barricaded in his home. 2. Everything coming out of this has used the passive voice in regards to the shooting, i.e., "the officers were shot." If the guy inside the house shot the officers, I would expect the police -- especially the gung-ho CPPD -- to say that the guy inside the house shot their officers. Don't discount initial poor police procedures and friendly fire here.

That's nice. Now can Player 1 stop smashing the disaster buttons?

And those suits would initiate in Travis County district court. Which, as we know, is not a friendly venue for Abbott and TEA.

I think that they are setting it up as such to communicate that message.

You have never been to San Angelo.

Because Flannigan showing his pecker is old news. https://www.kxan.com/news/council-member-flannigan-says-nude-photos-are-online-harassment/ Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

I was talking about this in particular the other night with a friend who purports to have knowledge of it, and, according to him, the tax collection and distribution is handled at the county and district level, i.e., the county tax assessor collects the money, then sends it to the district, who then sends their portion to the state. So, theoretically, our district (property-rich AF) could tell the TEA, "You don't want to fund us? Fine. We'll just hang on to this money you want us to send you." I assume there are mechanisms for TEA to attach that money, but it doesn't automatically go into their hands. So that's some leverage that local districts have if TEA starts getting more unreasonable.

Her representation of the McCartys was for petty stuff like hot checks or something like that. Not something you make a living on, especially compared with a multi-complainant agg sex assault of a child case. Dig up James McDermott's affidavit that he wrote for the writ hearing. Apparently there was some evasiveness from Greg when discussing the case that may have made going down the McCarty trail difficult. I don't know when Pamela's last major felony trial before this was. She usually could walk in and make things happen without throwing down. She had sharp co-counsel at trial but things were clearly missed, e.g., the rebuttal character witness who never should have been able to testify. Frankly, she probably got cocky, thought Greg's innocence was patently obvious to anyone breathing, and misfired. It probably doesn't reach constitutional levels of IAC, but it's not her best performance, either. She checked the professional boxes, but didn't execute. Once you put the ball in play, it can take funny bounces, and the client can end up taking it on the chin.

It's here. It's almost as if TEA is trying to be intentionally opaque. The answer to No. 38: "No. For any day an LEA closes a campus as a result of a confirmed COVID-19 case on campus, remote instruction will be funded. However, to allow sufficient time to resolve the public health concerns while minimizing academic disruption, campuses may only remain closed to on-campus instruction for up to five consecutive days (including the original closure) day, while drawing funding for all students participating in remote instruction. A closure period does not end until the campus has reopened for on-campus instruction for at least one instructional day." I'm not sure if that "five consecutive days" includes weekends or holidays. Note also that this determines funding. Everything about this boils down to controlling pursestrings. If the districts want money, they have to comply. There are ways to seek waivers for other instructional day requirements; let's see if they don't create that option in the coming weeks for this requirement, because right now, you can basically be 5-off, 1-on, 5-off in perpetuity until there are zero positives.

It's in the TEA guidance that they released on Tuesday. It's almost as if someone said, "Hey, come up with the most unworkable plan ever so we can throw in the towel and say, 'Well, we tried.'"

Based on the public statements and actions since TEA's announcement, I think you're giving a lot of them a benefit of the doubt they don't deserve. The lack of administrative pushback (with a few notable exceptions) that we are seeing during a time of public health crisis is telling. I said this earlier, but people in education just seem incapable of falling out of line, from the rank-and-file on up to the superintendents.

He's not wrong. Districts are afraid that if they buck TEA's requirements, they are not going to get funded. TEA's mandates and funding conditions are a huge driver of everything they do.

This was posted into an unofficial page for parents in my kids' district the other day. Basically listing safeguards and precautions that other countries have (or have not taken), and the correlated effects from Covid-19. Based upon that chart, Texas is going to follow Vietnam's plan.

I was talking about this with my daughter who's about to go into 5th grade. She wants to go back to school. I asked her if she would still want to do so if every other week she was having to stop going to school and switching to online. Her response was, "Why don't they just test everyone for coronavirus before school starts?"

Except for the one whose name graces the stadium?

Maybe mid-management. The real mucky-mucks' kids attend Regents and St. Andrews.

Fort Bend ISD released a similar statement the other day. Abbott should direct TEA to do what he did with regards to mask requirements -- allow districts to choose based upon their community's situation. Wink High School can probably handle going in-person without becoming a virus hotspot. Westlake High School... not so much. El Paso ISD has said that their first three weeks are going to be entirely virtual, which puts them in the three-week onboarding grace period that TEA laid out. Someone is going to have to be the first shoe that drops and tells TEA to eat it, and they are going to do what's best for their students, staff, and community. Like I said upthread, Eanes is a good candidate for that, especially in light of the fact that they already had a sound plan.

Initials KM? If so, I know exactly who you're talking about. She kept dodging a subpoena from me a few years back while she was on leave. CPPD is a festering cesspool of dishonesty and incompetence. One of their officers (an Aggy) was hired after getting the boot during the hiring process of two other agencies -- first he lied to DPS about his prior drug use, then he lied to another agency about losing his offer at DPS for lying about his drug use. TAMUPD hired him, then he jumped to CPPD. I got a couple cases of his dumped upon asking in WillCo just because he was so obviously full of it in his OR. Their rank-and-file has an inflated sense of importance, where they think they are a big-city police department that is capable of handling big-city issues. As we saw in this case, they are not. That aside, I will say that, having been a fly on the wall in WillCo while all of this was shaking down, everything about it was just strange.

This is a BIG issue that's kind of been lost in all of this. How do you implement 504/IDEA/whatever plans when there is distance learning? I don't know what kind of accommodation your daughter receives, but I can guess that she's not getting it. Does every kid receiving special services need an ARD for distance learning? It's a logistical nightmare. Eanes' original plan basically said, "We're going to do F2F and online, but we're going to socially distance the school. We're giving F2F priority to kids who need it, like those with in-person accommodations, low SES, ESL, and children of our staff. May not be enough room for your kids. Sorry, Chad and Karen." So you weren't necessarily stuck with having to decide to send your kids to an overcrowded petri dish or not receive services. I do think that a district like Eanes (well-to-do, single high school, loses a lot to recapture) may have the clout to tell TEA to pound sand, and maybe they will follow through with their original plan.

I totally get what you're saying, and that's the way I see it, too -- force their hand and make them blackball teachers for not wanting to work in unsafe conditions. But, at least in my vicarious educator bubble, teachers are generally risk-averse. Rocking the boat is just not what they do. Some of the older ones who have hit their Rule of 80 or whatever are retiring. Others who have spouses with good jobs are seriously considering bailing too. But the late-30s/early-40s ones with kids feel like they are stuck. A lot of them have put years into their career, are halfway or more to retirement with a decent pension, and don't want to risk never being able to work again. It may take the death of a pretty and well-liked 28-year-old English teacher with a newborn dying before anyone in charge makes a decision that is remotely in the best interest of the teachers.

They can easily be hardasses. The big reason is because of teacher contracts. Basically, you tell the school you're going to work next year. You have until (I think) 45 days before the start of the school year to rescind. If you want to leave after that 45 days, then the school board has to vote to let you out, or action can be taken on your license. My understanding is that the 45-day deadline has passed, so no one can leave without possibly losing their teaching license. They also don't have an extremely in-demand skillset. If you quit, you are not qualified by education or experience to have any other particular job. Walking right now would be almost certain unemployment.

Being afraid of the virus -- or even being more vulnerable to it -- likely is not a valid FMLA leave basis. And even if it is, you only get so much FMLA time, and it's unpaid unless you have PTO or sick days. Word around the campfire is that my wife's district is going to be a hardass about everyone physically coming into work. She fortunately is in a position to walk if need be. I give in-person school four weeks before schools are shut down again.

Pat Sullivan won the Heisman. He led TCU to a SWC title*.