No passport required for U.S. citizens. Including Hillary. Finally - someone from the Bush White House makes a little sense. South Carolina G.O.P. snubs the shrub. Florida shares some of its really great election karma with Michigan. Vatican: vagina = total deal breaker. In the world of fashion, either you're in or you're out. Cosmos, manolos and sex. Oh my....

Waller Creek Design Workshop. Image from City of Austin News Austin Music Commission's Town Hall Meeting Notes AMD Sued Over Birth Defects Plant a Tree for Freedom Waller Creek Design and Vision Workshop At This Rate, We're Having Our Next Happy Hour in Cancun Pangaea: It's For Real, Y'all UT Biologists Propose Biodiversity Institute Save BookWoman! Austin Music Commission Considering Plan to Stop the Rock They've Got the Lasers... Now All You Need is......

Photo of Divali celebration courtesy of Kokeshi President Bush visits wounded soldiers at Brooke Army Medical Center, demonstrates how to "shoot the bad guys" in Iraq--on a computer game, that is A 160-pound chimp attempts a daring escape from the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, prompting a sweep of the entire 381-acre campus. He was later found; authorities were careful to point out that "Jake" wasn't carrying any diseases, and was merely there for "behavioral science"......

Jenna Bush, one of Austin's native daughters and progeny of our current president, wrote a book. We'll pause here for the knee-jerk snickering, eye-rolling, jokes, and so on. Ok. Now let's move on with an open mind and not judge her by the sins of the father, but instead by her own merits. Jenna's book, Ana's Story: A Journey of Hope, is based on her experiences interning for UNICEF. It's the true story of a......

[This review courtesy of new Austinist contributor Anna Hanks! -Ed.] As much as we'd like to change a few things about our first time, we regret we’ll never be able to repeat the experience. We also can’t change history, so catching the currently playing, slick incarnation of the Rude Mechanicals' Get Your War On also wasn't our first time. (We reviewed the show last January as well.) Directed by Shawn Sides, Get Your War......

New Yorker Leona ("Queen of Mean") Helmsley seals her fate as a heartless biatch by leaving $12 million, the majority of her will, to her dog. Lindsay Lohan checklist: Coke possession. Check. Arrested. Check. Sex Scene? Check! With his last official day of work approaching this Friday, Karl Rove's car got Saran Wrapped and slapped with an I Heart Obama sticker. Straight out of the 18th century--drug dealer gets tarred, feathered while holding a......

A former lawyer at the Texas Secretary of State's Office sues after being fired in 2005 for making "embarrassing" statements about Karl Rove's Texas residency status In yet another sign of Austin's ongoing transformation, the Statesman debuts its own gossip/society column, helmed by entertainment editor Michael Barnes Things in Crawford, Texas quiet down now that no one cares to visit (or protest) TxDOT is rolling out a fancy new $9 million ad campaign to......

The Invasion Kidman stars in this remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. While some might argue that this particular sacred cow does not need a remake, others might argue that a remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers that was first directed by the German guy who made the fantastic Der Untergang, and then meddled with post-production by the Wachowski Brothers, is a totally different story. Monstruous and beautiful hybrid, we hail you. [Trailer]......

Newsweek ranks UT Austin as "Hottest for Saving America's Schools" A woman dies while tubing on the Blanco River Sunday night Keith Williams, 33, and Charkora Gentry, 31, attempt to steal brisket from an H-E-B, end up kicking a store employee in the back The good news: Karl Rove is resigning. The bad news: he's moving back to Texas. Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Central Texas are searching for a few good male mentors Former......

Slackerwood features some notes and photographs from the Simpsons Feast @ The Alamo Drafthouse. Keith Richards: He didn't mix his dad's ashes with cocaine, you guys. He snorted him outright. Humidity got your hair in a funk? In the U.K., they have hair straightening vending machines. Jealous much? Unpopular Ideas: The downside of cultural diversity. Karl Rove has an iPhone, wears Twins hat to show support for collapsed bridge victims. How is it that......

We like Chris Bell; we really do. He's a (oxymoron alert - to preempt any comments from snarky readers) great lawyer and a proven civic leader with his heart in the right place. We'd love to see him win the governor's mansion. We really would. We miss the days when the big white house at 11th and Colorado was occupied by a Democrat. We even shed a little tear into our sour cream at Las......

Independent goober candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn Rylander Cougar Mellencamp is suing the Texas secretary of state over his refusal to let her use "Grandma" on the Nov. 7 ballot. We're pretty sure the filing of a frivolous lawsuit will do very little to help Carole Cougar gain new supporters. It seems Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle is reluctant to release information about his investigation of Tom DeLay. In fact, he is suing the......

Local: The U.S. Commerce Secretary recently met with local Austin business leaders in an effort to push Bush's platform to control illegal immigration. One concern facing business owners will be their ability to find skilled workers who can claim legal status. In other local news that we mentioned a while back: Your house may now be located in a flood plain. State: Democratic candidate for governor Chris Bell believes that the four-way race for......

-The death toll in Asia now exceeds 35,000. Various donations efforts around town are underway -- we'll keep you posted. -Jetblue's starting a new nonstop service to NYC starting late January with - get this - introductory fares only $79 each way for tickets purchased by Oct. 31 for travel between Jan. 19 and Feb. 14. We know several of you are planning trips in the winter. -AMD made out like a bandit last......

Turd War The local free weekly and the daily newspapers are going at it over... a turd. More accurately, the lack of turds. Turd Blossoms, really. The Statesman normally carries the comic Doonesbury, but the last two comics released by Doonesbury contained Karl Rove's nickname "Turd Blossom". The Statesman seemed to think that was offensive, profane language that was not suitable for it's readers of today (emphasis due to the fact that the word,......