The podcast The Disconnect has begun Season Three, about the role of gas producers and pipelines in the Big Freeze of 2022., This is the third of a series by Mose Buschele, energy and environmental reporter at KUT and NPR. The first two episodes are out, and you can listen…
Articles Posted in Something completely different
Something Completely Different: Lord Edward Coke and the Rule of Law
I have been reading a biography of Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island, by John M. Barry: Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul – Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty. Williams was born in 1603 and as a young man became a friend and assistant…
Betsy Webster v. T.J. Heard: The Story of a Secret Love, Slavery, and a Railroad Lawyer
Occasionally I run across interesting stories that have nothing to do with oil and gas, and I am somewhat of a Texas history buff. I came across this story in the most recent issue of the Journal of the Texas Supreme Court Historical Society. My summary below is from the…
Who wrote “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas”? The jury is still out
“Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas”, as the poem was first called, was first published anonymously in New York’s Troy Sentinel newspaper on December 23, 1823. An college classmate from Troy, Jack Casey, recently told me of two trials in Troy over the authorship of the poem – the…
GDHM Land & Mineral Owner Seminar November 18
7th Annual GDHM Land & Mineral Owner Seminar – November 18 Our firm is hosting its 7th annual seminar for Texas land and mineral owners on topics of interest in oil, gas, and energy law, including: Legislative session forecast Negotiating solar leases Allocation well litigation update Carbon sequestration leases Market…
Legal Humor
Sometimes lawyers really do have the best responses. The following is just one example. Rebuilding New Orleans after Katrina often caused residents to be challenged to prove home titles back hundreds of years. That is because of community history stretching back over two centuries during which houses were passed along through generations…
John Warne Gates: Barbed Wire, Steel, Texaco, Port Arthur, and Horses
In 1860, at the age of 60, Joseph Glidden invented barbed wire. He patented it the next year and sold the patent in 1876 to a company named Washburn and Moen, retaining a royalty that made him one of the richest men in the US. John Warne Gates was born…
James V Allred and the Land Cut: Where is the Shore of the Laguna Madre?
I ran across an article recently in the Journal of the Texas Supreme Court Historical Society about James V Allred, who succeeded the infamous Miriam “Ma” Ferguson as Governor of Texas in 1935. The Article, “Texas Troubles: Governor Allred and His Rangers Defy Jim Crow,” by Jody Edward Ginn, Ph.D.…
The Cornerstone Speech
On this day in 1861 Georgia Senator Alexander Stephens gave a speech, known as the Cornerstone Speech, in Savannah Georgia, just after he became the provisional vice president of the Confederacy. Less than a month later the Confederates fired on a federal fort in Charleston Harbor, starting the Civil War.…
Oily Stuff
Another blogger in the oil field: Mike Shelman, OilyStuff.com. Check him out.