Headlines

Hundreds marched down Congress Avenue on Sunday, June 12, to remember the victims of the mass shooting at a gay danceclub in Orlando, Fla. Mayor Steve Adler and City Council members joined the crowd as it assembled in front of Oilcan Harry's for a candlelight vigil. Adler called for unity in the wake of the tragedy, which killed as many as 49 people and injured 53 others. (Photo by Jana Birchum)

City Council meets today (June 16) with a burgeoning zoning agenda as well as plenty of hot-button issues: transportation bonds, a fair housing omnibus, the charter-school building code controversy, and plenty more. See "Council: Getting Moving?" June 17.

Speaking of transportation bonds, there are at least three proposals floating on the dais for November: Mayor Steve Adler's $720 million "corridor plan" proposal, a Greg Casar/Leslie Pool alternative that would allocate more funding to multimodal uses, and a cautious Ann Kitchen $300 million dollop that wouldn't require a tax hike. Only Adler's is on the agenda, but expect the amendments to fly.

Meechaiel Criner, suspect in the April murder of University of Texas freshman Haruka Weiser, was indicted for capital murder on June 10. Evidence suggests Criner sexually assaulted and attempted to kidnap and rob Weiser, which escalates the charge to a capital offense. Criner, 17 at the time of the crime, will not face the death penalty. If convicted, he could face life with the possibility of parole after 40 years.

Crockett High School valedictorian Mayte Lara Ibarra deleted her Twitter account last week after experiencing an onslaught of outrage after revealing she is undocumented on the social media site June 3. ("Valedictorian, 4.5 GPA, full tuition paid for at UT, 13 cords/metals, nice legs, oh and I'm undocumented," she wrote.)

Justin Daniel Dominguez became the first inmate to die at the Travis County Jail this year when authorities found him unresponsive in his cell at about 10am on Saturday, June 11. Dominguez, 24, had been taken into custody the night before by APD, arrested for assault with injury (family violence). The Travis County Sheriff's Office said it doesn't have a cause of death, but "there was no evidence of foul play."

The Texas Chapter of the National Women's Political Caucus is calling for an investigation by the California Commission on Judicial Performance into possible judicial misconduct by Judge Aaron Persky for his decision and comments in a Stanford rape case. Caucus President Sue Berkel said in a statement, "Judge Persky's decision is insupportably lenient to the point of signaling that rape is not the serious violent crime that it is."

American Phoenix Foundation, the conservative group that secretly recorded Texas lawmakers last session, lost an attempt Monday to delay a lawsuit against it filed by lobbyist Steve Bresnen. APF attorney Ben Wetmore requested the delay because he claimed the group's founder, Joe Basel, will not talk to him about the case.