Run Katy Trail At Your Own Risk: Three separate incidents of armed robbery along Katy Trail were reported over the weekend, all occurring between 11:30 p.m. Saturday and 6:30 a.m. Sunday. Wallets, credit cards, and iPhones were stolen. The victims describe the similar incidents here.

Winning Lottery Ticket Still Hasn’t Surfaced: If you purchased a Lottery ticket from the Crossroad Shell on Western Center Boulevard in Fort Worth, you may want to dig it out and double check the numbers. The Texas Lottery Commission believes a $28 million ticket was sold at the store.

Josh Hamilton Breaks Historic Bat in Angels Rout: Hamilton got his 44^th RBI and his average rose to .402 with a broken bat single he hit in the seventh inning of last night’s game. It was the last swing for a bat that Hamilton used to smack four home runs in a single game a week ago Tuesday in Baltimore. All together, Hamilton hit eight home runs with the bat, which is now off to Cooperstown for enshrining.

Here’s what I find most troubling about this development: I go panda hunting with T. Boone in odd-numbered years. He told me about this whole death bet insurance scheme, and I took out a rather large policy on Zac, figuring if T. Boone’s plan was good enough for OSU, it was good enough for this country boy.

Um, yeah. Zac’s still alive, too.

George W. Bush and Mike McKool

Dallas’s Belo Mansion may have been a funeral home for 50 years, even hosting the funeral of Clyde Barrow back in the ’30s. But Friday night the old joint was anything but a dead zone, as roughly 1,000 people turned up for a raucous holiday shindig there marking the 20th anniversary of McKool Smith, an IP/commercial litigation law firm.

Think casino games. Exotically clad drink servers (one, pictured after the “jump,” wore a steel “skirt” holding dozens of champagne flutes). Plus multiple live bands — including a group (called Vocal Trash) at the valet entrance that sang and banged out tunes like Footloose using garbage-can lids and drums made out of empty water-cooler bottles.

The Dallas-based firm’s Mike McKool blew out all the stops for this year’s annual holiday party, no doubt. Example: Lawyers from the firm’s other six U.S. offices, including from its newest outpost in L.A., were flown in and put up at a local hotel (presumably not a Super 8). McKool also went above and beyond on the season’s giving side, presenting not one but two $100,000 checks to nonprofit groups during the evening.

Dallas’s Vogel Alcove snagged one of the checks. The other went to Barbara Pierce Bush’s Global Health Corps. The daughter of George W. and Laura Bush was there to accept the dough in person, while her parents sat watching at a table nearby.

The 2011 economy may be continuing to struggle in many ways. If the McKool Smith bash was any indication, though, it’s been a stupendous year for the lawyers. (Photos by Jeanne Prejean)

Champagne lady

I’ll be honest, I was among those scrambling for the exits. I was well aware of the Rangers fan who fell to his death at the ballpark in Arlington the night before, and I wasn’t about to get caught up in another North Texas stadium disaster.

Kidnapping, Death Leaves Dwaine Caraway’s Foot in Mouth Again: Last year, former temporary mayor Dwaine Caraway chided police for breaking up the action at a poker house in South Dallas, insisting that the force should spend its times cracking down on drugs and more “serious” crimes. Last week, that very same house was the setting of a kidnapping (sub. req.). On Thursday, Alton Marshall left the house at 4 a.m., he was taken by two unidentified men, according to a witness, and his body was found in a trunk in Oak Cliff the next day. Kind of drives home the broken windows theory.

Funeral Today For Man Who Died At Ranger Game, Hamilton Speaks About the Incident: Thousands are expected to attend the funeral today of Shannon Stone, who fell from the stands during a Ranger game last Thursday and died soon after. Over on the Star-Telegram’s baseball blog, Josh Hamilton, who tossed the ball to the fan who fell trying to catch it, talks about the dreaded game. During the same game, Hamilton hit a foul ball which clobbered another unsuspecting fan.

Hamilton also offered this: “It’s not something that’s going to make me go back to where I was.” He was referring to his past battles with drug and alcohol addiction, and said that his faith and support systems are so strong that he’s not tempted by his demons.

If you have some definite opinions on precinct boundaries, click here for a list of meetings. See you there. At all of them. Bring cookies.

Anyway, get to it.

I’m sure I have somehow botched this, so let me know in the comments, with as little cheer as possible. Or a ton of it. Just use exclamation points and I won’t know the difference.

UPDATE: Forgot to mention, if you need some help with your brackets, by all means check out the great Luke Winn over at SI, who has the best rundown around AND a playlist by Dallas’ own Gorilla Vs. Bear.

Only now it appears that things aren’t going so well. This makes me sad. I had very high hopes for those two kids.

Here is what we are willing to put on the line:

•Twelve (12) complimentary copies of our 35th anniversary issue
•One (1) free round at The Old Monk (limit: four staff members)
•Solemn promise that we will never allow Tim Rogers to so much as apply for a job at your shop
•Five (5) minutes to say anything you want — political statement, promotion, etc. — at our regular Monday morning staff meeting, in person or via conference call
•One (1) blog post, no longer than 300 words, that we promise to read at least half of
•One (1) guided tour of the Sixth Floor Museum, or whatever other stereotypical “Dallas” thing you want to do

So what say you, San Francisco magazine?