Gov. Rick Perry has wasted no time making his presence known in the 82nd legislative session. The emergency items he has declared over the past few weeks are, unsurprisingly, comprised of issues on which he won his reelection. Now that voter ID has whizzed past the Texas Senate, what’s next on the list? more ›

• The Gulf has a concussion from all the recent trauma.
• Who knew The Fantasticks -- the longest-running musical ever -- had a tie to UT?
• The Rice Mob protested the sale of the Rice radio station KTRU during their halftime show at the Rice/University of Houston football game. The gloves are off.

With a summer full of posturing and rhetoric, the campaign season officially began after Labor Day. Six days in, on this past Sunday, Incumbent Governor Rick Perry released his first television ad, featuring South Congress businesses Farm to Market Grocery (seen at 0:04 of the ad) and Avenue Barber Shop (0:05). more ›

I left you somewhat in the lurch last week concerning my plans for a weekly column devoted to guests (that would be you), and that was a bit rude of me. But honestly, at the time I wasn’t convinced that I knew exactly what I was looking for. more ›

As Kenneth Foster was facing execution tonight (and as his execution finally started receiving national media coverage), Governor Perry accepted the recommendation of the Board of Pardons and Paroles and this afternoon commuted Foster's death sentence to one of life imprisonment. Kenneth Foster had been put on death row for his involvement in a murder in San Antonio over ten years ago: he drove the car the murderer was in, and received the same sentence as the murderer. more ›

Tonight, unless an unlikely eleventh-hour reprieve is granted, Texas will execute its 400th inmate since the state resumed the practice in 1982. Johnny Ray Conner32-year-old Johnny Ray Conner was convicted for murdering Houston resident Kathyanna Nguyen during a grocery store robbery in 1998. Nguyen, the store's owner, had been trapped behind the counter and was surrounded by a bulletproof enclosure; the killer reached his gun through the change slot and shot her in the head.... more ›

The Cabela's hunting/fishing/outdoors outfitter superstore located in Buda, Texas, is apparently not doing so well. For the second year in a row, the store has missed mandatory employment targets set as a condition of subsidies given to the store by the City of Buda, Hays County and the State of Texas (via Governor Perry's Texas Enterprise Fund). In a nutshell: To date, Cabela's has received over $61 million in government subsidies (read: taxpayer money) as... more ›

Days since rains began: 44 Homes destroyed by flooding: 1,000 Flood-related deaths: 11 Estimated cost of damages in Burnet County alone: $30 million Number of emergency Texas National Guard soldiers activated by Governor Perry throughout the state: 250 Total impacted area, spanning North Texas to the Rio Grande Valley, in square miles: 48,000 Height, in feet above sea level, of Lake Travis when considered "full": 681 Height of Lake Travis on July 4th: 701... more ›

Remember a couple of weeks ago, when we reported that Tom "The Bugman" Delay had gone on the Charlie Rose Show and stated categorically that students should be allowed to carry guns on college campuses to protect themselves from Virginia Tech-esque scenarios? Remember how most of us laughed and laughed, writing off Mr. Delay's suggestion as just "more of the same" from another silly extremist? Well, stop laughing and put on your thinking caps; this... more ›

Martha Stewart's been a busy (and fabulous) bee in the year and a half since being released from Alderson Federal Prison. In these past few months she's: announced a lucrative partnership with Kodak, opened the first in a series of Martha Stewart-designed model townhomes, was crowned "Godmother of Princess Cruises," launched a new line of merch at Macy's ("i LOVE THE NEW CLOTHES LINE" says Maryland fan Dayneisha), published a book, and agreed to take... more ›

• Median household yearly income in Austin: $48,267 [link]
• Equivalent purchasing power, adjusted for cost of living here: $53,275 [link]
• Money Magazine's average: $43,961 [link]
• National average yearly salary of an "Associate Store Team Leader" at Austin-based Whole Foods: $73,061 [link]
• Amount Texas collected in sales tax revenue in June of 2006: $1.49 billion [link]
• Percentage increase from last year: 15.6 [link]
• Cost of new Lakeline Station project -- including up to 3,000 homes and 150,000 square feet of retail space -- in northwest Austin, near 183 and 620: $400 million [link]
• Estimated number of years to complete: 8 [link]
• Size of Austin's labor force, as of May 2006: 826,197 [link]
• Total weight of air cargo shipped through Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in May, in pounds: 93 million [link]
• Rank of ABIA among 19 small airports in J.D. Power and Associates' 2006 North America Airport Satisfaction Study, form the bottom: 3 [link]
• Maximum grant to be given to a local arts organization by the City’s Cultural Arts Funding Program: $25,000 [link]
• Number of works of art in the Blanton Museum collection: 17,000 [link]
• Number of state parks that may have to say "Adios, Mofo" if recent budget cuts ordered by Governor Perry are implemented: 18 [link]
• Total distance, in miles, to be swum by Austinites David Broyles and Rush Vann across the shark-infested Straits of Gibraltar, from the coast of Spain to Morocco, to raise money for US veterans: 13 [link]
• Total distance, in miles, covered by Pure Austin fitness trainer Shawn Bostad during last week's 12-hour treadmill marathon: 70.4 [link]
• Estimated capacity of renovated Austin Music Hall, after expansion work: 7,000 [link]
• Top capacity of The Backyard, for general admission shows: 4,500 [link]
• Minimum number of Austin "bands" on Myspace: 10,000 [link]
• Number of fans claimed by Shaven Ass-Hair Mustache, a "Psychobilly/Death Metal/Afro-beat" band: 1 [link]

Taking a page from former governor Bush's political playbook, Rick Perry has been spending quite a bit of time up conservative Christians' asses of late. In his latest move to pander to the far right, Governor Perry announced Thursday that he believes Texas public schools should teach intelligent design alongside the theory of evolution in science classes. more ›

Tom DeLay succeeded yesterday in having Judge Bob Perkins removed from his money-laundering and conspiracy case, complaining that the Democrat had donated over $5,000 to "liberal" causes since 2001. While a new judge has yet to be named, The Hammer's already working on his next weaselly tactic: having the trial moved out of Austin. Ridiculously, his indictment hearings have become something of a farce - it's hard to remember that the whole thing stems... more ›

All clear for renovation
We can't help but laugh at the irony that the airport, which is supposed to help people get places, is having problems accommodating people. Airport officials say cheap parts and the six-year-old airport's small size combined with an unexpected increase in travelers are the reason people are having to wait in lines to use the escalators. Renovations will cost $5.5 million. [Statesman] more ›

For quite some time now, both our city and state have been carefully courting Samsung, the international behemoth producer of just about everything requiring electricity, who is now researching cities in which to build its latest chip factory. The proposed manufacturing plant would cost over $3.5 billion - that's like $3500000000000000 or basically a number so egregiously ginormous it means nothing to us - and add over one thousand new jobs. Not surprisingly, both... more ›

From SavePlayers.com more ›

The US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Roper v. Simmons earlier this year, abolishing the death penalty for convicted killers who were under 18 at the time of their crimes. more ›

Our local film industry has been booming in recent years - "Friday Night Lights", "Sin City", and "The Alamo" being just a few of the dozens of works produced in our city since 2000. Last week, Governor Perry signed Senate Bill 1142, which offers grants and financial incentives to filmmakers shooting in Texas. more ›