Are you familiar with micro-blogging? We weren't, until we took the time to Google "Twitter," the word that seems to be on everyone's busy lips. Twitter is a social networking site that enables users to quickly (and briefly) update their blog and subscribers via SMS, IM or third party application. Updates are 140 characters or less, and while many Twitterers utilize the service for relaying meaningless information regarding their day to day life, a few of them have found that passing along information in the form of short link-based posts, event notifications or emergency situation news items. The Los Angeles Fire Dept. uses Twitter as a means of communication - a lesson they learned after the 2007 wildfires. Democratic presidential candidates John Edwards and Barack Obama both use Twitter, too. ...

SFist witnessed a new apartment building tszuj the skyline with spectacular, gaudy turquoise aplomb, the (informal) renaming of the Mission/SOMA neighborhood border, the return of the Maltese Falcon, the Mayor Gavin Newsom mea culpa-ing over his Hawaiian getaway during the oil spill, and double-decker buses hitting the streets of San Francisco. Oh, and some baseball player named Barry Bonds is a liar whose pants, it seems, are totally on fire. LAist continues to cover the......

The mysterious post that showed up on the John Edwards campaign site last week turns out to have originated from Waxahachie, Texas, a city roughly 30 miles south of Dallas. In it, the enraged parent of a Texas high school student described how his son had had been suspended for wearing an Edwards t-shirt to school — details were scarce, so we weren't sure what the grounds for suspension were. Some Austinist readers speculated that......

U.S. Senator John Edwards - candidate for President of the United States - spoke at Scholtz's Bier Garden here in Austin yesterday during lunch. Austinist was in attendance. Edwards was introduced by Texas Senator and former Austin Mayor Kirk Watson, as well as by former Texas Agricultural Commissioner Jim Hightower, Texas' favorite anti-everything-corporate rabble-rouser. Marcia Ball - a staple performer at most Texas Democratic events - opened the event with a few swingin' tunes. The......

Democratic Presidential-hopeful John Edwards will be making a short stop in Austin next Tuesday, and his campaign team is hoping that regular folks (besides the typical big-money donors at such fundraising events) will be able to stop by. By donating $15 to his campaign, you can get in to hear him speak about his plan for America. Austin musician Marcia Ball will be his opening act. We don't expect anything near Obama-sized crowds, but......

Following the precedent set by Barack Obama's well-received rally at Auditorium Shores two weeks ago, the two remaining contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination, Senator Hillary Clinton and former Senator John Edwards, will be making brief appearances in Austin over the next two weeks. Unlike Mr. Obama, however, neither are easily accessible to the public. Edwards will be in town on Thursday to film an episode of Texas Monthly Talks, set to air next Thursday,......