Former Longhorn receiver Roy Williams, now with the NFL's Detroit Lions, is pulling down $1.5 million in salary this season, but he talked a Detroit radio station about what a lady might expect on a date: I am cheap, I’m a cheap date. Get you some McDonalds, with some cheese on it and I’m just really cheap, man. I’m very low key, I like to stay home. I like to go bowling on Monday... more ›

Mack Brown got a nice belated birthday gift this week as the UT Board of Regents unanimously approved a $200,000 raise for the Texas football coach. Brown, who turned 56 on Monday, had his salary go from $2.6 million to $2.8 million and received a two-year contract extension designed to keep him at Texas until 2016. The new amount includes a special $100,000 that he'll receive on Saturday, when the Longhorns open their season against... more ›

Eat More Anchovies: Ten Solutions to Save the Ocean. Breaking Taco News: Al Pastor (the truck and the restaurant) reviewed by Taco Journalism. You can 100%-unlock the iPhone using a Turbo SIM card, without depending on the version of your current carrier card. The Washington Post discusses salary, gender and the cost of social haggling. Houston Community Radio station KPFT 90.1 received a single bullet through a window this week, missing a DJ by... more ›

City Manager Toby Futrell announced a couple days ago that she will be retiring in May 2008. Ms. Futrell has served as city manager since 2001. She had been expected to retire sometime next year, since the city council recently approved a pretty sweet retirement package for her. Futrell has worked for the city since 1976; her current annual salary is $240,600, and the retirement package ensures her $167,000 per year. During her service... more ›

The Texan reported today about a survey released in November by The Chronicle of Higher Education that compared the annual salaries of university presidents and leaders in the United States. UT President William Powers ranked second, earning an annual base salary of $552,500. In addition, he has access to a retirement package of around $47,000. Powers responded, "I am surprised by this." He says the figure is skewed, claiming other presidents earn just as... more ›

The U.S. Census Bureau has released some new 2005 numbers analyzing the national population. This batch includes more localized information for cities and states. According to this most recent census, Texas ranks 6th among states with the most people living in poverty, and 36th among states with the highest median household income. Median household income: • U.S. – $46,242 • Texas – $42,139 • Travis County – $48,026 Percentage with incomes below the poverty... 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]

Local: It seems that Delay's 2003 gerrymandering has left Texans confused about what district they reside in. One Austin couple appear to be in two Congressional Districts at the same time. In other redistricting news: The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas has ordered that all proposed solutions for fixing the state's congressional districts are due to the court on July 14th. State: Republican Gov. Rick Perry delivered a speech to... more ›

I had my mind set on becoming the next muse for a non-suicide-bent Dead Poet’s Society (I like to stand on tables). I was going to trade my soul for frittering health benefits and a salary that would strongly rival that of a second-shift Burger King manager. more ›

Two years ago LB Deyo and Buzz Moran first gathered the faithful for a unique festival of intellect and revelry called The Dionysium. Tonight, we're all invited to celebrate that event, with "another scintillating monthly installment of cerebral stimulation, cultural enlightenment and ill-advised drunkenness." Here's the line-up for the June Dionysium: Owen Egerton of the Sinus Show will read his short story "Waffle," while someone else sits in the front row and makes jokes over... more ›

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It appears LaMarcus Aldridge will follow in the footsteps of Longhorn football player Vince Young and leave UT early for the riches of the professional ranks. The Dallas Morning News is reporting that three sources have all said Aldridge will enter the NBA Draft. While Aldridge had an underwhelming performance against LSU in the Elite 8, most experts still expect him to go in the top-three come draft day. Aldridge averaged 15 pts., 9... more ›

We think former UT football big hitter Michael Huff could someday have a second career in sports writing:

Since the draft is quickly approaching, I've been thinking about what I'll buy with my first professional paycheck. A lot of people are probably expecting me to say that I'd buy a big house, and that's partly true. But it's not what you think. The first house I buy will be the one with the blue roof on it that says "IHOP." It has been a dream of mine to own my own International House of Pancakes, and someday I will. Just last week I ate there five or six times, and about every time I got the same thing, pancakes and shrimp. It's a cool feeling to know that someday I'll get to eat at my IHOP whenever I want.

We figure it is a given that everyone knows that teacher pay is pretty piddly. On the same day that we read about a young local teacher who got WAY too involved with one of her students (not really related, but still noteworthy), we see that a task force has told AISD to raise the pay of veteran teachers:

Trustees should give teachers an average 5.5 percent raise next school year that includes a salary step increase and a 4 percent raise the following year just to put Austin salaries on par with the district's major competitors — the Round Rock, Pflugerville and Hays school districts, the task force said. more ›

Regents of the University of Texas System this week approved a hefty salary package for UT Austin's new President, who started his gig at the beginning of this month. All told, Mister William Powers is to receive a whoppin' $525,000 a year in net compensation, which divided by the enormous student body population of roughly 50,000 comes out to just over ten bucks a head. Not too shabby! Furthermore, UT is keen to note that a mere $66,000 of the half-million dollar paycheck derives from state tax coffers -- the bulk of it is to come from alumni and various other charitable contributions. Powers assumed the university's top position after an impressive tenure as the twelth Dean of the UT Austin School of Law. more ›

Tuesday night marked the halfway point of the NBA season, and our (nearly) local team marked the occasion by absolutely obliterating the Charlotte Bobcats 104-76. It doesn't look so bad on paper, but the Spurs were winning so handily that they played their bench for nearly the entire second half. Even Spurs 12th man (and Napoleon Dynamite lookalike) Sean Marks had 9 points. It looked like a bad high school game. more ›

1/8W + (D-d)3/8 x TQ / M x NA more ›

The Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library in Austin and Austin's Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority are set to receive $4.35 million in funds from a newly-passed Congressional appropriations bill. The LBJ Library will receive $1 million to make repairs and to tie it to the LBJ School of Public Affairs. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who has received some heat lately from Democratic challenger Barbara Radnofsky, set the bill in action. Cap Metro will get $3.35... more ›

While the Beatle Paul McCartney once posited, "The only love you take is the love you make," his colleague John Lennon was quick to point out that "Money can't buy you love." As a result, the amount of money made cannot correlate to the amount of love taken, but it can help a lot of people feel better about themselves. Unfortunately many of the readers and contributers for the Austinist find ourselves in the... more ›

Austinist has to ask the question... Is anyone actually surprised that every pro athelete to ever catch a headline is (or was) so hopped up on steroids that his testicles now resemble raisins? Let's see... create a culture which values and rewards performance in sports above all else and see how many athletes can resist a shot in the ass that will almost definitely result in a multi-million dollar bump in salary... Hmmmm.... more ›