- Historic building in Elgin catches fire this afternoon.
- Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau estimates that this UT football season will bring about $142 million to our town.
- City of Austin holding public meetings on urban rail plan.
- Even after all those lay-offs, METV plans to stay on-air.
- Apartment owners suing Farmers Branch (again!) over their new ban on the rental of housing to illegal immigrants.
- Multiple retired judges and prosecutors from around the state and country ask Gov. Perry to stop the upcoming execution of Charles Dean Hood.
- Texans for Public Justice want Lt. Gov. Dewhurst's wealth investigated.

Government Recalls Cars and Cribs [News Bits]



I am stuck on a business trip in beautiful Yuma, Arizona; so can anybody who goes to this thing pretty-please emphasize that it needs as much reserved guideway ("its own lane") as possible? ROMA tends to fall back to shared-lane streetcar because their expertise is in redevelopment of decaying downtowns - for which a tourist trolley is good business - but we need something which is actually competitive with the car and fairly reliable; our downtown doesn't actually need the development incentive - we actually need to be moving serious numbers of people with this thing.