Considered the favorite six months ago to capture the House District 48 seat vacated by Todd Baxter, Republican Ben Bentzin has all but disappeared from the playing field

BY AMY SMITH

EMS: Let 'em rest

In an effort to reduce fatigue, Austin-Travis Co. EMS begins a new, more flexible work schedule.

BY JORDAN SMITH

GOP Redistricting: Hosing down the ballot

The implications of three Republicans – Henry Bonilla, Lamar Smith, and Michael McCaul – all based somewhere else and representing Travis County, aren't merely about the county's representation in Congress. In a world of old-fashioned partisan politics, changing of guard also has down-ballot implications.

BY KIMBERLY REEVES

Weed Watch: Goose Creek Police Geese

Nearly three years after police in Charleston, S.C., suburb made guns-drawn high school raid, ACLU announces federal court has approved 'landmark settlement with students who sued school officials and police

BY JORDAN SMITH

WilCo Lawsuit

Judge rules for third time in favor of Williamson Co. over Gary Griffin, granting motion for summary judgment in 368th District Court

BY PATRICIA J. RULAND

Naked City

Headlines and happenings from Austin and beyond

Point Austin: Blue Goes Red

The GOP-proposed redistricting map takes another nasty shot at Travis County voters

BY MICHAEL KING

Beside the Point

City Council summer cheat sheet

BY WELLS DUNBAR

The Hightower Report

The Government's Sick War on Marijuana; and Pumping Out More Advertising

BY JIM HIGHTOWER

food

New and Noteworthy

Farmer Russell's natural Piedmontese beef

BY KATE THORNBERRY

Wine of the Week

A little bubbly for poolside?

BY WES MARSHALL

Food-o-File

Walgreens, what will you think of next? Plus, Hi.

BY VIRGINIA B. WOOD

Food Reviews

Driskill Grill

We like this place. A lot.

Lee's Kitchen

Viet-licious

music

La Onda Chicano

Tejano music, as a genre, might be on the ropes, but Sunny Ozuna – one of the genre's architects – is anything but

BY GREG BEETS

Texas Platters

Live shot

BY JIM CALIGIURI

TCB

The golden ears of producer Erik Wofford, ambitious redesign plan of the Austin Music Hall, continuing adventures of Rockstar: Supernova contestant Patrice Pike, and bad-boy musicians of DontDateHimGirl.com.

BY CHRISTOPHER GRAY

Texas Platters

Scott H. Biram

Graveyard Shift

Los Lonely Boys

Sacred

Darling New Neighbors, Pink Nasty, Buttercup

Buttercup, Pink Nasty, Darling New Neighbors

I Love You but I've Chosen Darkness, Red Leaves, Smog

According to Plan, All the Zombies, Rock Bottom Riser

Tacksthe Boy Disaster

Oh Beatrice

Chris Black

Jericho

the Meat Purveyors

Someday Soon Things Will Be Much Worse!

Eric Hisaw

The Crosses

The Gospel According to Austin Vol. 5

The Gospel According to Austin Vol. 5

Shearwater

Live shot

the Bellevue Jubilee

Deep Dark South

Dawn Over Zero

Dawn Over Zero

Ghostwriter

Darkest Hour

the Lonesome Heroes

Don't Play to Lose

Magnet School

Crush

This Life Electric

Letters to the Muse

screens

Blank Generation

Amy Sedaris on 'Strangers With Candy'

BY STEVE BIRMINGHAM

A Convenient Truth

Kevin Smith on 'Clerks II'

BY MARC SAVLOV

TV Eye

The other woman

BY BELINDA ACOSTA

Screens Reviews

Warner Bros. Pictures Tough Guys Collection

The end of an era on six discs

Film Reviews

Clerks II

Kevin Smith is on solid footing with this sequel, which finds the filmmaker and his raunchy protagonists at the precipice of maturity but moving ahead with cautious baby steps.

Lady in the Water

The performances are bang-on, and there are moments of great beauty throughout, but Lady in the Water ultimately capsizes under the weight of its own goofy story.

Little Man

If you can accept the very idea of Shawn Wayans’ face on the body of an infantilized baby-man in diapers, who’s to care about the quality of anything else in the movie?

Monster House

This animated tale of a carnivorous, haunted house and the band of neighborhood kids who decide to put it out of commission feels maddeningly unfinished.

Strangers With Candy

The high school comedy of co-creators Dinello, Colbert, and Sedaris is completely over the top in its audacity and absurdity.

arts & culture

Just an Old-Fashioned Cat

Eartha Kitt is one funny dame

BY KATE X MESSER

An Arabian Midsummer Night's Dream

Tongue and Groove Theatre and Ararat Restaurant launch a new outdoor theatre space with some belly-dancing, scimitar-wielding Shakespeare:'An Arabian Midsummer Night's Dream'

BY HANNAH KENAH

American Repertory Ensemble's Dialogues

With American Repertory Ensemble, a company of artists from both music and dance, choreographer David Justin and composer Rob Deemer hope to start a new dialogue between their two disciplines

BY ROBERT FAIRES

Summer Youth Theatre's 'The Visit'

Kill Schill?

BY HANNAH KENAH

BY LOUIS BLACK

Postmarks

Our readers talk back.

Letters @ 3AM

Ban what you please, although the current campaign against secondhand smoke will not prevent the 21st-century universe from killing us. It merely provides the illusion of safety.