The State of Texas: April 26, 2016

Quote of the Day

“It was only two in the afternoon and shouldn’t have been out for the day.”

—Attorney Dwain Downing to KDFW. Downing threatened to sue a Fort Worth-area diner because it ran out of the soup that he ordered. When Downing’s demand letter went viral, he said he started to get death threats via Facebook. Now he probably won’t go through with the lawsuit. Meanwhile, the owner of the restaurant is using the publicity to hold a food drive; he says he’s already collected 150 cans of soup.

Daily Roundup

Broken Baylor—Less than two weeks after Shawn Oakman was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting another Baylor student at his apartment, an incident report is circulating showing that the former Baylor football player may have assaulted another woman in 2013. Writes the Dallas Morning News: “The victim said she and Oakman were talking about their relationship when he grabbed her ‘and then shoved her into the brick walls and cabinets’… When she told him he was hurting her, he is alleged to have said, ‘You think I care?’ The investigating police officer noted in the report that the woman had bruises on both arms and a ‘swelled up bottom lip’ and bruises.” The Waco Tribune has some more details from the report, which “states Oakman picked the woman up and called her a ‘slut and a whore,’ and the alleged victim said Oakman shoved her face into clutter on her bed, which included bags of dog treats.” As the Tribune notes, the alleged incident occurred six months after Oakman was kicked off the football team at Penn State for assaulting a female cashier who reportedly was trying to stop him from shoplifting. It’s still unclear if Baylor officials were aware of the incident.

Love-Hate Relationship—After Sunday’s dual bombshell announcement that Ted Cruz and John Kasich would be working together to stop Donald Trump from rolling to an insurmountable total delegate count, things have been a little “awkward,” as the Texas Tribune puts it. But at this point in the 2016 GOP presidential candidate race, should we really expect anything else? For example: Ted Cruz characterized the agreement as “very, very important,” while Kasich simply said that “it’s not a big deal,” before saying that voters in Indiana, one of the states where he was supposed to step aside for Cruz, “ought to vote for me.” Kasich backtracked, but it’s still just a really weird situation because these guys clearly can’t stand each other. According to the New York Times, the alliance was “already fraying almost to the point of irrelevance” by Monday. Meanwhile, as Cruz searches for a potential veep (Cruz’s campaign is reportedly vetting Carly Fiorina), he’ll also have to deal with the Texas Democrats, who have filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, asking the agency “to investigate an incident in which a Cruz fundraiser reportedly suggested at a campaign-hosted event that supporters give unlimited donations to a super PAC,” the Tribune reported.

Cat Fight—A Brenham veterinarian whose 2015 bow-killing of a cat went viral testified Monday in a hearing called by the Texas Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners to determine whether she should keep her license, according to KXAN. After Kristen Lindsey shot the cat last year, she posted a picture of herself posing with the feline carcass, captioned, “My first bow kill, LOL. The only good feral tomcat is one with an arrow through its head! Vet of the year award … gladly accepted.” She’s probably not laughing anymore, though. Lindsey was fired from her clinic in April last year, and testified that she is “essentially unemployable… If I get my license revoked here, there’s a good chance I won’t ever be licensed anywhere.” The state board initially recommended her license be yanked, but she’s remained able to practice while she appeals the decision. The court hearing is expected to run through Wednesday. As expected, it’s been pretty emotionally charged: the board called witnesses who testified that the slain cat was their pet, Tiger, rather than a stray, according to the Dallas Morning News. The defense argued that cat wasn’t the same.