“This is not a [power] generation problem like we sometimes have when it’s cold or in the heat of the summer. ... This is a broken-lines problem brought about by straight-line winds.” — Dallas County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins, in the aftermath of powerful storms in North Texas that left about 500,000 without power. (Tuesday, The Dallas Morning News)
“Texas ranks top five in almost every peril that you think of — whether it’s hurricanes, hail, wind, flooding, lightning strikes, tornadoes, all of those things.” — Rich Johnson, communications director at the Insurance Council of Texas. (Tuesday, The Dallas Morning News)
“We know at least one of them was found.” — Brett Johnson, conservation manager for the city of Dallas, talking about one of two baby bald eagles that fell from their nest in White Rock Lake amid severe storms. (Tuesday, The Dallas Morning News)
“I should have left the house when I learned Nancy Pelosi wasn’t there. … I will never do anything violent like that ever again.” — David DePape, who was convicted of federal crimes for breaking into the residence of Nancy Pelosi two years ago and beating her husband with a hammer, apologizing before a federal judge. He was sentenced to 30 years. (Tuesday, The New York Times)
“What bothers me is that people cannot vote in secret in the United States. … If people’s ballots don’t remain anonymous, that’s a huge affront to our system of government and our system of elections.” — Shawn Dick, Williamson County district attorney, about the potential lapses in ballot secrecy in Texas. (Wednesday, Texas Tribune)
“Once I knew my family was OK, I worried about saving these memories.” — Marinda Lynn, a Valley View, Texas, resident going through family photos days after a tornado ravaged her home last Saturday. (Thursday, The Dallas Morning News)
“The balloon launches aren’t weak action at all. It’s like North Korea sending a message that next time, it can send balloons carrying powder forms of biological and chemical weapons.” — Kim Taewoo, former president of South Korea’s government-funded Institute for National Unification, about North Korea’s floating of hundreds of balloons to dump trash in South Korea. (Thursday, The Dallas Morning News)
“I don’t think we thought it would happen this quickly. … But we have such a great partnership with our colleagues in China. It was just really a seamless conversation to bring the pandas back.” — Brandie Smith, Smithsonian National Zoo director, talking about the return of giant pandas to the zoo. (Wednesday, The Washington Post)
“Darn that Einstein guy — he came up with general relativity, and many strange things come out of it. … One of them is that gravity slows time down.” — Dr. Bruce Betts, chief scientist at the Planetary Society, commenting on why NASA is creating a new lunar time scale. A single Earth day is roughly 56 microseconds shorter and that can create inconsistencies over time. (Thursday, CNN)
“The sun’s going to be photobombing the parade.” — Ronald Gamble, a theoretical astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, explaining why a six-planet parade on June 3 will not be visible to the naked eye. (Thursday, Associated Press)
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