The San Antonian

St. Louis Hall added to National Register

St. Mary's University announced that St. Louis Hall was added to the National Registry of Historic Places.

The Fat Lady Sings for Dan Cook

Anyone who grew up in San Antonio that is older than 25 knows the legend that was Dan Cook. The lodestar of sports journalism for half a century has passed.

I had the good fortune of working for a bank during the summers in college. Mr. Cook would come in every week to deposit a check. He was always friendly and chatty with us. I even mentioned to him my last week, before I headed back for my senior of college, that I really enjoyed his Benjamin P. Broadhind columns.

San Antonio has lost a legend. Rest in peace, Mr. Cook.

Dinner and a drink

Me and the wifey ate dinner at Demo's last night. We followed it up with a bubble drink at a relatively new place in Southtown called Bubblehead. The drinks were delicious and the people working there were all nice. We'll be back and next time will try out the hookahs.

Li'l Susie Learns a New Word

Our word for the day is "Recuse". It was used by Susan Reed, who asked recently arrested district judge, Ray Angelini, to recuse himself from all his cases pending the adjudication of his charge.

I find this fascinating. I have to assume she didn't know what recuse meant, because she refused to recuse herself or her office from the Ruben Cantu investigation in the face of a far more clear conflict of interest than what Angelini faces.

Of course, this time, the request won't be heard by a pro-prosecution hack of a judge, who is thankfully, no longer on the bench.

Judge Dredd's Smokescreen

Judge Dredd is backpedaling faster than the DBs at the NFL Combine on this airline ticket issue. First she's adamant that she's done no wrong. But now, she's sent a letter (PDF) to the US Attorney for the Western District, Johnny Sutton. In this letter she offers to deputize anyone from Sutton's office to act as Bexar County ADAs and to investigate for prosecution ONLY in Bexar County and ONLY under state law.

So, what exactly is it she's offering? She knows that this was a FEDERAL investigation. She knows these were FEDERAL charges, but she offers to have FEDERAL prosecutors investigate for STATE charges and limit it only to her home county? This is a smokescreen.

If she had any inclination to have an independent investigation done she could simply appoint a special prosecutor. But doing it with the US Attorney she's passing the buck because there's no reason for Sutton to accept these "terms". The request to forward his "findings" to Texas AG Greg Abbott is hollow as well because she knows that Sutton won't accept. It's not even clear that he can.

And, this isn't the first time she's refused to have an independent investigation done as a result of a conflict of interest. Yeah, that worked out well.

When are the Bexar County Democrats going to sack up and run someone against her?

Heading to Asian Festival

We're off to the Asian Festival at the Institute of Texan Cultures. I'm ready for a bubble drink and an egg roll.

2008 Greetings

Wow. It's been three months since my last post. Well, it's not like I've not been reading the news and noticing what's going on in San Antonio. I've just been crazy busy. Like want to quit my job, sell my possessions and move to a cabin the Yukon busy. Well, maybe not that busy, but you get the point.

Besides, the only real thing about SA I want to talk about right now is the damned construction. There isn't a single road in SA that isn't being worked on. I joke a lot that the state of our roads only makes sense if a comet had hit town. This was such a nice town before the comet hit.

Anyway, more than a month into 2008 this is an affirmation of what led me to want to start a blog in the first place. Let's see if I can get on a roll again. I've also changed up the design.

Prohibition Redux

A 0.01 Blood Alcohol Content will get you arrested in Washington, D.C. Someday it will get you arrested here in SA, too. MADD won't stop until we are try Prohibition again. This Article explains.

Judge Dredd: No more probation for child abusers

The SA-EN has a write-up about the Bexar DA's new policy of not allowing probation on certain child abuse cases.

This is an obvious and stated response to the E-N Sunday story about how many child abuse cases get plead out to probation.

In the article Reed was quoted as saying        "I think it is a big issue for our community, and I'm sensitive to        that."

In other words, "I'll satisfy any public outrage because that's my job".

So is this: "It shall be the primary duty of all prosecuting attorneys...not to convict, but to see that justice is done". Art. 2.01 Texas Code of Criminal Procedure.

Sometimes a probation plea bargain is justice. Locking someone up isn't always doing justice. But, then again, this isn't the first time that Susan Reed has decided what laws apply to her and her office.

The Cowboy MBA

The Express-News has an article about a new master's degree program at A&M-Kingsville that is a business degree for ranch management. It also includes work done on the King Ranch. Interesting, that's all.