Twitter Thursday
Texas football players—they’re as tough as the weather is hot. Exhibit A:
Allen Eagles Football practice scorching hot
Daily Roundup
For Whom the (Blue) Bell Tolls — As if yesterday’s teaser video showing Blue Bell trucks leaving the newly revived Alabama production plant weren’t enough to get people in a frenzy, the company has confirmed that the ice cream is coming back just in time for fall. As reported by just about every media outlet from New Braunfels to New York, the ice cream is expected to hit shelves again around mid-September, which was as detailed as the company was willing to be. The Austin American-Statesman is running a poll, asking people if they plan on eating Blue Bell once it’s back, and surprisingly, only 73 percent of respondents said “definitely” (about 11 percent said “probably”). Still, one patriotic group of children has written and produced a rap song dissin’ other ice cream brands and extolling the virtues of Texas’s favorite listeria-flavored treat.
Heating Up — Things haven’t cooled down in Waller County since Sandra Bland’s death in July. Yesterday, members of the New Black Panther party protested outside the Waller County jail, sporting assault rifles. In response, “deputies took precautions Wednesday and set up concrete barriers,” writes Click2Houston. It was a pretty wild-looking scene, but it was only conservative outlets that gave the incident much play. Breitbart Texas has the most detailed look: Protestors chanted, “All power to the people; Whose streets, Our streets; and Freedom or Death.” In uncharacteristically restrained language, Breitbart Texas noted that “despite a very tense situation, no violence broke out and no one was arrested during the afternoon protest.” In other news related to racial disharmony and law enforcement in Texas, we’re beginning to learn more about the Arlington officer Brad Miller who shot black teen Christian Taylor. The Dallas Morning News has a straightforward yet fascinating look at the officer, who is a “licensed cosmetologist” and whose father-in-law was on death row for a long time before being executed in June. As for Miller’s work as a police officer, the “director of the Texas Municipal Police Association . . . said Police Chief Will Johnson overreacted and made a ‘knee-jerk’ decision when he terminated the rookie,” reports the Star-Telegram. The rest of the association’s statement is fairly standard fare for law enforcement organizations entrenched in scandal, saying that Johnson is simply trying to “appease anti-police activists,” that “media theatrics are not even close to due process,” and that the group is “concerned about the message that Johnson is sending to those considering a career in law enforcement.” Meanwhile, Johnson made a serious effort Wednesday to be available to the people police actually serve, telling a community forum that “race relations between officers and minority communities must be a constant priority, not just a focus during crises.”
Grave Return — It’s not exactly something everyone might want to, er, celebrate, but Lee Harvey Oswald’s gravestone has returned to Texas. The marker of the assassin of John F. Kennedy has had quite a road trip. “David Card, 75, of Dallas, has the granite marker following a settlement with Historic Auto Attractions of Roscoe, Illinois. The case over Lee Harvey Oswald’s gravestone was settled out of court last month,” writes the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “Card claims Oswald’s mother put the stone in the crawl space of her Fort Worth home because she feared it would be stolen from the cemetery. A simpler gravestone was placed on the grave. After Marguerite Oswald died, Card’s father and stepmother, in the eighties, bought the house.” Card is considering having the marker placed in, where else, the Sixth Floor Museum.
Clickity Bits
One Small Step for One Late San Antonio Astronomer
State’s Second Most Famous Gun Rights Activist Running for Senate
DFW Repeat Winners of Annual “Most Guns Confiscated at a Texas Airport” Award
There’s a New House Mom for Texas Tech Greeks
Okay, Who Stole Grand Prairie’s Inflatable Tunnel?
Cowboys Rookies Involuntarily Get to Have Their Cake and Eat It Too
“Brisket Shoplifting Suspect Dies After Supermarket Police Shooting”
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