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Gale Snoats

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  1. From the Texas Tribune: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/24/ken-paxton-private-lawyers-texas-cases/ One day in late May 2024, lawyer Zina Bash spent 6 1/2 hours working on a case against Facebook parent company Meta on behalf of the state of Texas. She reviewed draft legal filings. She participated in a court-ordered mediation session and then discussed the outcome with state Attorney General Ken Paxton. In her previous job as senior counsel on Paxton’s leadership team, that labor would have cost Texas taxpayers $641. But Bash had moved to private practice. Paxton hired her firm to work on the Meta case, allowing her to bill $3,780 an hour, so that day of work will cost taxpayers $24,570. In the past five years, Paxton has grown increasingly reliant on pricey private lawyers to argue cases on behalf of the state, rather than the hundreds of attorneys who work within his office, an investigation by The Texas Tribune and ProPublica found. These are often attorneys, like Bash, with whom Paxton has personal or political ties. In addition to Bash, one such contract went to Tony Buzbee, the trial lawyer who successfully defended Paxton during his 2023 impeachment trial on corruption charges. Three other contracts went to firms whose senior attorneys have donated to Paxton’s political campaigns. Despite these connections and what experts say are potential conflicts of interest, Paxton does not appear to have recused himself from the selection process. Although he is not required to by law, this raises a concern about appearing improper, experts who study attorneys general said. Paxton appears to have also outsourced cases more frequently than his predecessors, available records show. And he’s inked the kind of contingent-fee contracts, in which firms receive a share of a settlement if they win, far more often than the attorneys general in other large states, including California, New York and Pennsylvania. Since 2015, the New York and California attorneys general have awarded zero contingent-fee contracts; Pennsylvania’s has signed one. During that period, Paxton’s office approved 13. One of those was with Bash’s firm, Chicago-based Keller Postman, at the time known as Keller Lenkner, which she joined as partner in February 2021 after resigning from her job at the attorney general’s office. Paxton had signed a contract with the company two months earlier to investigate Google for deceptive business practices and violations of antitrust law. A little more than a year later, Bash’s firm won a state contract to work on the Meta litigation, alleging its facial recognition software violated Texans’ privacy. This time, Bash was the co-lead counsel. Meta, which called the lawsuit meritless, settled the case for $1.4 billion in the summer of 2024. It was a windfall for Keller Postman. The firm billed $97 million, the largest fee charged by outside counsel under Paxton’s tenure. Bash’s work alone accounted for $3.6 million of that total.
  2. I think I've asked this question before but it was on the old site. Any good places for Rolex Sub repair in Austin? It runs once you start moving it around but the dial won't turn the time hands or the date.
  3. A lot of information and who knows what’s true but some hope - one of our good friends daughters is named in tha note that Cajun posted and we just heard that the east lands and the 26 young girls are stranded on an island but safe waiting for helicopters to pick them up. I worry about posting inaccurate info but hopeful this is correct
  4. I love the drive from Asheville to Brevard to Cashiers to Highlands. It is beautiful. Highlands is a great little town with a cool main street and some great restaurants and hotels. There are several great hikes within 10 or 15 minutes of downtown Highlands. Glen Falls is a good one. That whole area is a rainforest. Super lush and green, elevation nearly 4500 ft, waterfalls everywhere, never gets above 75 of so. You might see a few people on the Glen Falls trail but not crowded at all. In Asheville the Grove Park Inn got bought by Omni so the restaurants suck but the building is really cool and the outdoor bar / restaurants have awesome vies and are a great place to get a drink.
  5. Will be interesting to see what Abbott does with the THC bill. He said earlier this week (first time he's addressed the issues as far as I know) that he'll 'put on his judge's hat and consider evidence from all sides' or something like that. I'm sure the decision will go to whichever side contributes the most. Patrick is gonna lose his shit if Abbott vetoes.
  6. Very close to you. Huge tree across the street cracked in half. Was sitting on the porch and watched it happen.
  7. FB was fine but doubt I’ll be back. Long uber ride to sphere. Was actually pretty crowded with kind of young crazy rich Asian contingent and (strangely) what I can best describe as yankee douche bag frat bros. Almost like a spring break vibe. It is a huge hotel and the service wasn’t bad but it definitely kind of like a cattle call. I left my fucking AirPods in the room and called from the airport and they said their process is if housekeeping finds what they find and they’ll contact me but nothing else they can do. I haven’t heard anything. Wynn is huge but for us service has always been great and I feel like if that happens there they’d find them and make it right. Hotel and rooms are beautiful but casino is open air with lots of natural light which isn’t what I think a casino should be. Had a late lunch at poolside Greek seafood spot and it was fine. Didn’t get to eat at any of the places that interested me as it was a one night deal and the leader of our group made reservations at Chica in Venetian as it was a pre show dinner that wasn’t focused on food. Going forward I’ll be back at the Wynn.
  8. We love wing lei at Wynn. Great American style old school Chinese food.
  9. Thank y’all. Just a short guys trip no wives - show and a good steak so I’m gonna try it. I’m old and broken down so fine with it not being crowded. Will get plenty of that at the sphere.
  10. Heading out for a show soon and typically stay at the Wynn but the folks we're going with are thinking Fountainbleau. I like the restaurants at the Wynn and the easy walk to the Sphere but would be easier to stay with the group at the Fountainbleau. Any thoughts on or experiences at the Fountainbleau?
  11. I think I noted it above but this is our first go-around in select and the tournaments are crazy. Every family has a cart full of a ton of shit. A bunch of tarps and boomboxes with pre-game and walk-up music. The parents (98% of whom are morbidly obese and shit-faced by late afternoon as they sell booze which is crazy to me) are nuts -- yelling at the umps, their own players, other players, other parents, their coaches, other coaches. This was our fourth tournament and last weekend I saw my first near fight. A bunch of country rednecks v a bunch of hispanic folks. I don't know what happened (was on the field next to us and wasn't paying attention) but a bunch of the parents (dads and moms too!) got into a shouting shoving match, screaming f-bombs, gonna kick your fucking ass, etc. Rednecks got tossed and promised to be waiting in the parking lot for the other group after the game. I'm not sure if that happened. A bunch of 11 and 12 year olds just standing the whole thing.
  12. How about not be a fucking pussy and just don’t respond. This just in players talk shit in sports. You can let it piss you off and react and try and fight the whole dugout and get kicked out of the game like a dumbass or you can ignore it and focus on trying to help your team win the game. The fact that the coach bitched and moaned about it says everything you need to know about him and his victim complex which the team has clearly adopted. Always some else’s fault - not your dumbass player who doesn’t have the discipline to walk away. He learned it from you, Coach.
  13. We spent a couple of weeks there a few years ago and went to several islands. My favorite were Fologandros, Paros, and Antiparos.
  14. Giovanni's in the chevron on S Lamar and Barton Skyway is our favorite for basic but really good cheap pizza. The owner, Julio, is a great guy. I think he was a chef at Sfuzzi next door to Sullivan's downtown back in the late 90's. I think they have another spot up off 183 in / near Leander.
  15. Fubo fucking sucks. I have YouTube TV and love it. The only reason I have Fubo is to watch the Astros and it is the most broke Dick shitty fucking service ever.
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