Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church are good at grabbing media attention. Their (self-titled) hate speech nabs headlines and creates a dialogue, but in doing so, they attack both conservative and liberal America.

The attached screen shot is from the Twitter profile of Ken Mercer, one of the fundamentalists who has made the Texas State Board of Education a national laughingstock. His district includes Austin south of the river. Seriously, Texans, you elected him over that English professor from Texas State-San Marcos?

Big news for Formula One and its environmental impact: As of 2012, teams can use biomass-derived fuels, but the big change comes in 2013 with the introduction of hybrid engines.

Yesterday, City Council’s Austin Housing and Finance Corporation unanimously passed a controversial $2.5 million rehab for the Marshall Apartments (not to mention other proposals for PSH and low-income housing initiatives in south Austin and southwest Austin, near Circle C). We’ve got debate highlights below the fold.

The semester's over, my students have turned in their papers and I've got most of them graded. Whew. So now I'm taking a Channukah vacay, to NEW YORK! The purpose? Besides unbridled gay debauchery? To see Pee Wee Herman.

Are they putting crazy juice in the water cooler over at the Texas Film Commission?

For the national press it seems to be a flavor-of-the-week kind of fling, but Rep. Mark Strama, D-Austin, is more committed: He’s been wooing anti-bullying legislation since the last Texas State Legislative session.

Thank goodness it's Friday, and thank goodness for the Newsgeist stories on the W Austin Hotel, the Nobel Peace Prize, and video game consoles. Read more after the bump.

Update: The entirety of the Austin Housing Finance Corporation's items passed this afternoon, including the Marshall Apartments PSH proposal. We'll have more tomorrow -- see ya then!