Talk about taking government to the people: Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, is taking the Senate Jurisprudence Committee on a trip beyond the committee chambers of the Legislature. The purpose, he said, is "To hear from people who might not otherwise be able to get to Austin to speak." He's already set the locations were he will be taking discussions of the Lieutenant Governor's interim charges: Houston, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Lubbock and … Edinburg? Is it any coincidence that the committee will be in the home of the Evins Regional Juvenile Center, the Texas Youth Commission facility that was at the heart of the terrible accuse scandal that rocked the juvenile justice system in the state? After all, Wentworth's committee vice-chair is Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-Mission, who has spearheaded the movement to shut down these distant rural facilities and move over to smaller sites nearer the big cities from which the young inmates come, and from which they can draw on a bigger pool of support staff and counselors. Wentworth, when asked, was coy. "I'm sure we'll have some discussion," he said. "I'm not going to judge the outcome of those meeting before we have them." Full dates for Wentworth's World-Wide Texas Tour after the jump.

An update on the League of United Latin American Citizens of Texas' attempt to put the kibosh on the precinct caucus component of the Texas Democratic Party presidential nomination process: in what may be a bad sign for LULAC, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery canceled the Monday morning hearing (using, in part, the possibly unprecedented logic that "numerous gallons of $4 a gallon gasoline would be expended" just so lawyers could read their briefs out loud.) He would rather spend the time reading the briefs, he said. LULAC calls it voter suppression and a violation of the Voting Right Act. The TDP says the act doesn't cover party elections, that the rules have been fine since 1988, and that they have done everything possible (every since that 'embarrassing' Dixiecrats thing) to increase minority turn-out. But the question could be moot. Back in January, the Nevada State Teachers Association failed to get caucusing in the casinos canceled; U.S. District Judge James Mahan basically said that caucus rules are party business, and nothing to do with the federal courts.

Man, you know you're a real presidential candidate when you've got a reggae song (or two, or three) that's all about you. Check out Cocoa Tea's tribute to Barack Obama here.

Rep. Nathan Macias, R-Bulverde, is calling off his legal challenge to his primary loss, meaning Doug Miller is officially the Republican running in that seat. Macias has decided it would cost to much to continue the challenge; he's still complaining that there were mis-votes and double-votes, and still pointing fingers at Miller's sister-in-law, but those legal fees are just too much to handle. Macias took a 17 vote margin-of-error loss to Miller in the March primary, going down 14,667 (49.98%) to 14,684 (50.02%). What made this more surprising was that he'd picked up a series of heavy-hitter business (Texans for Fiscal Responsibility), anti-choice (Texas Right to Life, Texas Alliance for Life) and gun advocacy (National Rifle Association, Texas State Rifle Association) PAC endorsements. He ran a brutal "Miller is a really a tax-and-tax-and-tax Demmycrat" campaign. Plus, he got some whopping big contributions from Speaker Tom Craddick's Texas Builds Jobs and Opportunity PAC and GOP sugar daddy Jim Leininger. But somehow, that still wasn't enough to beat away a challenge from the Edwards Aquifer Authority Chairman and former mayor of New Braunfels. It's easy to imagine that Carter Casteel, the Republican incumbent that Macias forced out after a bitter primary in 2006, has been watching with interest. Especially since she only lost to Macias by 46 votes.

Austin Energy has announced that they completed repairs at 2:30am on Saturday morning. In the 48 hours after the storm, there were 100 Austin Energy field personnel making repairs at 500 locations, and that doesn't include the contract arborists clearing downed trees and limbs. Any customers who are still experiencing outages should call 322-9100 to get assistance. For anyone still facing yard clear-up, visit the city's Solid Waste Services info page. In a nice note amidst all the debris, late Friday afternoon city manager Marc Ott sent an email out to city and Austin Energy staff (and cc'ed the local press):

You are all doing an outstanding job. I'm proud of you. Thank you for all your efforts. Marc

It's the little things that count. Check out our update photo gallery of storm damage by clicking on the image above.

There's been a smell of fresh sawdust and chainsaw fumes on the State Capitol grounds since Wednesday's storm. In the mercurial way of storms, trees that had survived the vicissitudes of Texas weather for decades, possibly over a century, were destroyed and had to be sliced up and taken away. "It was pretty awful," said Julia Fields, spokesperson for the State Preservation Board. Seven mature trees, mostly white oaks, were blown over or so severely damaged by the 60 to 75mph winds that they had to be cut down. "Obviously, the uprooted trees we will have to clear out, but we're consulting with the Forest Service to see what can be saved," added Fields. The process of clearing the larger slabs should take a couple of days. Smaller debris will be going in the chipper, and even though the gnarled boughs and uneven trunks of the capitol copse won't provide any long slices of lumber, that's a lot of timber going spare. So what does the board plan to do with it? Well, normally when they have to take a tree down from the grounds, it either goes for souvenirs in the Capitol Gift Shop or gavels for the next legislative session.

For those of you who lost power and now have a fridge full of stinking, rotten food, some good news. City of Austin Solid Waste Services are doing a special pick-up in areas affected by the power outages. Just put the waste food into the trash by 7am on Saturday, May 17, and it will be taken away before it starts stinking your house out. That's on top of the curbside pick-up for downed trees and tree limbs, which will be recycled as Dillo Dirt. Visit the city's new storm clean-up page for details. Austin Energy's repairs are still ongoing, but seem to be going as expected. As of 9.29pm Friday, there were roughly 250 customers without power, with 12 repair crews working through the night to finish off the last 40 storm damage repairs on their books. The utility asks that anyone who still doesn't have power in the morning call them on 512-322-9100.

From partying with Will Wynn to chillin' with Allen Demling, City Hall Hustle bum-rushes the election night parties in a politico-packed election special you (and our elected officials) won't soon forget.

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The latest on the impact of Wednesday night's storm, courtesy of Austin Energy (or, more particularly, AE spokesman Ed Clark, who we are pretty sure has not slept in the last two days – someone get that man a coffee). As of 10:30am, there are an estimated 3,000 customers without power. There's about 200 repairs left to do involving tree cutting or line damaged, but only 50 of those are directly causing power outages: the rest are tree-trimming and clean-up work. There's only a handful of jobs waiting with 50 or more customers; the rest are for individual houses. The city confirms that Solid Waste Services will be helping the cleanup by doing curbside pickup of downed trees and tree limbs, which will then be recycled as Dillo Dirt. (see below the jump for full details). There are also traffic lights still out at Enfield and MoPac and Lake Austin Boulevard and Veterans Park. Ice will also be available to save food from spoiling at Fire Station 14 on Airport and the LCRA headquarters on Lake Austin Boulevard. We've also collected some shots of the damage caused: Click on the picture to the right for the gallery.