Thursday Morning Update

We received a little over 2 inches of rain Tuesday night, so Lewisville lake is back on the rise. It had been just over 3.5 feet low, but picked up about an inch overnight to reach an elevation of 518.60 feet. Here are some photos of the lightning.

The City of Lewisville updated the West Nile information page again. We're up to 19 confirmed cases. No additional spraying is planned at this time, because it is not believed to be particularly effective in urban areas, and there are some negative impacts on aquatic life and beneficial insects. The City is monitoring the situation, and using larvicide where necessary.

Apparently religious freedom, to some means freedom to be a racist bastard to the employees of a private business.

Police Chief's weekly update

Holding teacher-education programs accountable for their graduates impacts on students sounds vaguely like a good idea, as long as you don't think too much. Because when it comes down to it, it is very difficult to tie even a teacher to the outcome of their students - especially based on the testing vehicles we have. There are just too many bad assumptions made by well-meaning but unrealistic legislators.

Unlike Chick-Fil-A, chicken restaurant Chick Felays doesn't hate on the gays.

Sales Tax holiday this weekend.

Lewisville company med fusion will conduct clinical trials on a cancer diagnostic tool to help doctors determine the profile of individual tumors, so that treatment can be customized.

Denton County commissioners are looking to increase the county tax rate slightly to $0.282867 per $100 valuation, up from $0.277357. That's a little over a half cent increase.

Speaking of taxes, check out this calculator which compares the tax plans of President Obama to Mitt Romney. You enter your income and dependent info, and see the difference.

Why are Americans so...

Another senseless act of violence Wednesday in Washington, DC. This is NOT the way Americans express political disagreement, and must be condemned in the strongest terms as terrorism.

A father compounded a tragedy by trying to take revenge on a man who accidentally hit his daughter with a motorcycle. The motorcyclist was an off-duty cop who ended up shooting the father to save himself.

So, if Paul Ryan's bill had become law, it would have allowed a rapist to stop his victim from having an abortion.

U.S. sales of Russian-made AK-47 rifles are keeping the factory in business, and ultimately helping to subsidize the factory's conversion over to the AK-12 to re-equip the Russian military. It's been years since I owned any AKs, but I've had numerous of them over the years. If I had to choose another one, I'd pick a Russian-made version. Definitely don't want any more Yugoslavian ones. I'd rather have an AR-15 than an AK though. AKs just feel cheap.

The Lewisville Texan Journal uses Vonage for our office phone service, and it works well for us - they can forward voicemail to your cell phone, and email, along with transcriptions that are pretty good. Call quality is great, and the pricing is very competitive. You can get a free month of service if you sign up with this link.