AT&T Marathon this Sunday morning; watch out for street closures. Early voting starts next week, but you can't vote at Northcross! Bill Clinton will visit Hillary's new Austin campaign headquarters on Saturday night. Ack! 26,000 people so far have entered the raffle for the 100 seats at next week's debate. UT Associate Athletic Director Douglas George Wilson being investigated by Travis County and UT for possible theft of $60,000....

As everyone knows, Iraq is a mess. A big, nasty mess. It's also pretty much common knowledge that the Bush Administration, faced with dwindling patience by Congress on the war, is working double-time in a mad scramble to create some sort of progress and forward movement in the region. A large part of this effort is being directed toward ensuring that local governments in cities throughout Iraq move toward self-sufficiency. As it turns out, the......

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......

This summer, you have a choice: you can see Johnny Depp as a pirate frolicking across a movie screen, delightfully impersonating a rock star, or you can see rock star David Bowie frolicking across a movie screen, delightfully impersonating a pirate, er fairy king. So, no matter what, there will be frolicking, but with the second instance you will also get singing, dancing, riddle and rhyme in the magical re-release of Jim Henson’s Labyrinth. All......

After holding a few public forums, having Austin staffers visit the home cities of the finalists and mulling over the results, City Manager Toby Futrell has decided on our new chief of police: Art Acevedo from Los Angeles. The official announcement will be made at noon today. We read yesterday that among the finalists for the position, Acevedo was a strong favorite (along with Richard Wiles from El Paso) of the Austinites who attended......

When Laurie Limbacher (pictured above right) of Limbacher & Godfrey Architects stood in front of a skeptical crowd at last Monday's Town Hall Meeting to discuss her firm's renovation plans for Barton Springs, she told a brief story of an old, wooden bathhouse that once sat atop the north hill next to the pool. The bathhouse at Barton Springs Pool was a romantic building, built of iron and wood and outfitted with a bar......

City Manager Toby Futrell sent out notice this morning that the director of the city's convention center department, Bob Hodge, has been fired for violating city policy. It is unknown at this time exactly which city policy he violated, but it seems unrelated to the Center's rumored accounting issues. Hymie Gonzales (currently assistant director) will take over as interim director until a new director can be found. Assistant City Manager Rudy Garza will talk......

If you're walking down Red River tonight and feel a slight tremor in the pavement, don't wig out. To the best of our knowledge, Austin doesn't sit on an active fault line. The more likely explanation is the tectonic upheaval that will be caused by the four bands playing Creepout 2006 at Beerland. Lean on a Chevy and steady yourself friend, then get your ass inside. Local label Chicken Ranch Records is in the......

WEDNESDAY [18] party • Cut Club with The Young Professionals (Prince Klassen, KidIndie) at The Mohawk dance • Requiem at Intel Shell (8pm, $20-$30) film • Bad Education at Arbor (1:10pm & 6:50pm) ® film • Live Flesh at Arbor (4:10pm & 9:30pm) ® film • Norman Mailer: Beyond the Law at Alamo Downtown (7pm) ® film • The Films of Joseph Cornell at The Space (8pm, Free) film • Back to the Future......

There is little doubt that a character of Truman Capote’s magnitude provided enough material with his behavior and complexity to source two major motion pictures. Regardless, it is rare to see two movies come out within a year of one another telling similar stories in very different ways. While Bennett Miller’s Capote, based on the biography by Gerald Clarke, delved into the calm waters at the surface of a very twisted soul, Douglas McGrath’s film......

FRIDAY [23] [theatre] I Love My Dead Gay Son: The Musical! at Off Center (8pm, $15) (more) [theatre] Uncertainy Avoidance at Peacock Lounge (8pm, $11, 220.7198 for more info) (more) [theatre] HMS Pinafore at Forrest King Performing Arts Center at Crockett High (8pm, $15-$20) (more) [theatre] The Return of the Intergalactic Nemesis (Episode II) at Blue Theater (8pm, $12-$35) (more) [dance] Blue Lapis Light: Requiem at Intel Shell (8pm, Pay what you can) (more) [film]......

Toby Keith would watch at least one of these movies... *Akeelah and the Bee It’s hard to make fun of such an earnest, lesson-filled film that stars Laurence Fishburne, Angela Bassett, and an adorable little girl. All we can really say is, she best win that motherf*cking bee. United 93 Nothing says “America” quite like capitalizing on the lingering sentiments created by recent national tragedies. *Stick It From the geniuses/idiots who created Bring it......

A few highlights from this week's new movie releases: Bruce Willis is back! And he shoots guns this time! David Spade plays a nerd, just to mix things up! If the South had won the Civil War, would Toby Keith be campaigning for governor (oh God, we just vomited)? Film noir is great for teens! And Antonio Banderas teaches the youth of America that ballroom dancing can get you plenty of play! Lucky Number......

SXSW.com released an updated lineup for this year's SXSW Music Festival earlier today, and it's one hell of a list. The SXSW committee hastens to note that "This is a partial list of performers confirmed to appear at the 2006 SXSW Music Festival. This list is current as of 1/13/06. All of this information is subject to change." International acts include: Masahiro Nitta, DMBQ, Ellegarden, Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re, PE'Z, The Emeralds (Japan)......

Renee, honey, sit down. No, sit down, we want to talk to you. Woman to woman - uh, us. Yes, yes, we heard the news. Now, we understand that sometimes love is blind. Very, very blind. So blind that it causes us to marry no-talent ass clowns who breathe, eat, and sleep mediocrity, who work in a genre of music that has strayed so far from its roots we can hardly discern a shred......

Marginal religious sects, ritual sodomy, women and children in danger and one “evil, evil man”? Just another day in our Legislature. Yesterday a House committee heard from Utah’s attorney general, Mark Shurtleff, about the hazards posed to the state by the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints, a fringe sect of Mormonism which is currently building a compound outside El Dorado, near San Angelo. The leader of the Fundies, Warren Jeffs (pictured), is being......