Between now and January, New Release Tuesday will focus on 2007 reflections and music news related to both this year's releases, the holidays and 2008's potential. The standard NRT posts will resume in 2008. It will also feature the opinions of the author, who does not represent the Ist network as a whole. What a damn shame. The holiday season is tough for music lovers shopping for other music lovers. This is mostly because......

Happy Holidays! Chances are, you're reading this the day after Christmas, back at your day job after all-too-short a holiday, and the last thing you want from us is stuff about the holidays. But that's just too bad. Because, see, here in the Ist-A-Verse, we do things ahead of time. It might be December 26 for you, but that's what you get for not checking your Favorite Local Blog on Christmas Eve. Austinist is......

Washington - The Senate voted down desperate efforts to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Drilling proponents had attached Arctic drilling to a critical bill that provides our troops with the resources they need to keep us safe. The vote that was 56-44. For procedural reasons, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist cast a vote with ANWR opponents so that he might be able to resurrect the issue for another try. But......

Things have not been going too well for Tom DeLay lately. And Monday, things took another potentially disastrous turn for DeLay politically, as the US Supreme Court agreed to examine the constitutionality of congressional redistricting in Texas. You probably remember the redistricting from 2003 - you know, the election where Republicans took their seat total from 15 to 21 of the 32 state districts? Well, as it turns out, the Democrats weren’t just being......