Daily News - The Austin Chronicle (2024)

Meet the Candidates. Again.

For anyone who missed any of the slew of candidate forums during the first round of council elections: Never fear, the run-off is here! The City of Austin Ethics Review Commission will be hosting a Place 4 run-off candidate forum tonight (Thursday, May 29) at 6:15pm, in the Council Chambers. Expect special guest appearances by Laura Morrison and Cid Galindo.The public is "encouraged to attend" the event, which will be moderated by the League of Women Voters of the Austin Area. For anyone without the time or inclination to hunt for downtown parking, the whole thing will be carried on Channel 6.Further info on the election can be found at the city's election pages, and, of course, our own elections page.

Democrats and Abbott Settle in Voter Suppression/Fraud Case

Don't you love it when everyone wins? Dueling press releases from Attorney General Greg Abbott and the Democrat-affiliated Lone Star Project are both spinning a settlement agreement between the AG and the Texas Democratic Party as victories for their respective sides.In 2006, six individuals and the TDP filed suit in federal court alleging that Abbott was enforcing a provision of the Texas Election Code too tightly. The provision forbids an individual from possessing another person's ballot, and Abbott prosecuted 26 cases. But the six plaintiffs in this case shot back by saying that they were merely trying to deliver the mail-in ballots of a friend or relative, and that the law was overbroad. They also noted that the majority of the Republican AG's prosecutions were against racial minorities, and all of them were against Democrats – and thus, they charged, this was more about suppressing and intimidating Democratic voters than preventing fraud. (Click here for a more detailed rehashing.)Today, the suit was dismissed in Marshall by District Judge T. John Ward after a settlement was reached. Abbott's press release claimed that this was "the latest in a string of victories for the State of Texas, which consistently maintained that its efforts to protect the integrity of the elections process were entirely constitutional," while the Lone Star Project's statement was headlined "Plaintiffs Win Favorable Settlement in Abbott Vote Suppression Case."

Farewell, Joe Allen

Have Your People Tweet My People, Luke

Dealing with online social networking is like a bad blind date. You’re never quite sure what you’ll get.For the uninitiated, Twitter is the place to be in the world of social networking right now. (Except when it's down, and you have no place at all to be. That's been happening a lot lately.) Every few minutes, ADHD-driven technogeeks gleefully inform you of their every thought and move, all in a 140-character limited haiku format.And guess what! There are some bonus benefits from this headlong rush into this self-indulgent navel-gazing. For instance, it does appear that someone who has named himself Luke Wilson is carrying on a Twitter account.Do we really think Luke Wilson's publicist suggested he Twitter? Do we think he’d list a Wikipedia entry as his bio? Does it matter? Imagining is half the fun. (And if you're interested in a real-live Twitter celeb, stripper-turned-screenwriter Diablo Cody has her own account and appears to talk a lot about lingerie and sushi. I'm not including Cody's picture because I'm not that interested in running into her at Club DeVille.)If you are above all the social pandering but still want to try out Twitter for its educational value, the Mars Phoenix lander has its own account, with real-live updates.In the meantime, if you are signed up on Twitter, they’ve created an All-Austin-All-The-Time Twitter channel at Aus Twits. They call themselves “Tweeple.” Yep, it’s like a cult. Or the next big thing after MySpace, soon to be replaced by the next tech trend.

Bill White Has Himself An Austin Moment

Seems that Houston Mayor Bill White woke up this morning and decided to have himself an Austin Moment. What else to explain the man's sudden penchant for words like "sustainability," "quality of life" and "energy efficiency" in a town that couldn't be happier with the smell of petroleum on the air and gridlock on its freeways?It appears, from the front page of this morning's Houston Chronicle, that White is suddenly on the bandwagon for making Texas' smog capital a Truly Green City. He's talking a hybrid city fleet, a citywide recycling program and a fight over benzene emissions from local power plants.It's like a sudden incarnation of Will Wynn, just without the good hair.But not to worry. Houstonians have this strange malady figured out. White must be running for Governor in 2010. Well that explains it.

Villa Muse After Villa Muse

So Villa Muse is in discussions with Bexar County about moving their planned studio-in-a-city to San Antonio. "We didn't confirm it, but someone confirmed it for us," said vice president of strategic development Paul Alvarado-Dykstra, (that someone being Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, who let it slip to the San Antonio Business Journal).But that's half the story. Before canceling negotiations with the city, they spent a lot of time and money getting options to buy land in Eastern Travis County from a patchwork of private owners. Alvarado said no firm decision had been made as to what to do with that land.But who holds the options? The city was in negotiations with called Villa Muse Development, but according to Alvarado, the options were in the name of Carpenter and Associates. That's not that strange, since developer Jim Carpenter's company is involved in Villa Muse. According to Assistant City Attorney Tom Nuckols, "We had always assumed it was Carpenter, because in all the publicity on Villa Muse team, he was the only person with a development background."So what will to happen with the options, and all that land that Carpenter so painstakingly bolted together, now that Villa Muse has rode off into the sunset?

At Least One Election's Over

Just because the presidential primary is dragging on forever, and the Place Four council seat is still undecided, doesn't mean no one is taking care of business. Austin ISD board of trustees gets sworn in tonight before the regular weekly meeting.It will be the first night on the dais for District 3 victor Christine Brister, while current president Mark Williams, and incumbents Sam Guzman and Annette LoVoi get to take their old seats back. Well, maybe. The board also has to elect the offices of president, vice president, and secretary (the post currently held by the outgoing Johna Edwards).

Buckle Up and Drive Safe...Or Else!

As they say, if you can't take the heat, get outta the kitchen. Or, as the case may be, stay off the road. That's the message Austin Police Dept. Chief Art Acevedo offered during a mid-day press conference Thursday at Lady Bird Lake, where he announced the department's "Summer Heat 2008" campaign to keep Austin's roads safe – and fatality free.Joined by members of the department's Motors Unit, Acevedo told reporters that officers would be out in force, beginning this Memorial Day weekend, ticketing Austin's crappy drivers. Acevedo was flanked by newly graduated police cadets, each of whom had pinned to their uniform shirt the date of a summer 2007 traffic fatality. In all, 17 people died on Austin roadways between Memorial Day and Labor Day 2007.In sum, have fun but stay safe – please, drive smart and be civil.

School's Out for Johnston High Principal

Principal Celina Estrada-Thomas announced Tuesday she would resign from Johnston High School at the end of this school year, adding just one more twist in the story of a high school that could be on its way to closure due to poor academic performance under the state’s accountability system.In announcing Estrada-Thomas’ departure, district officials were quick to note her resignation should not be construed as a signal the school is closing. Estrada-Thomas’ resignation letter, however, did not exactly brim with enthusiasm, starting with the line, “I gave Johnston a three-year commitment, and that commitment has been fulfilled.” Estrada-Thomas went on to write that she was stepping aside to allow someone else to take the school forward in a new direction.Right now, district officials are pleading with the Texas Education Agency to allow them to continue to operate Johnston, even if it fails to meet academically acceptable ratings, because they intend to reconfigure the campus, possibly as a new high-tech high school.