The Travis County District Attorney’s Office has dismissed the case of yet another person that judges say was wrongfully convicted of a major crime in Austin in the early 2000s. Marshall Moreno was found guilty of sexual assault and indecency with a child in 2003, after his daughter accused him of raping her two years […]
Brant Bingamon
Brant Bingamon arrived in Austin in 1981 to attend UT and immediately became fascinated by the city's music scene. He's spent his adult life playing in bands and began writing for the Chronicle in 2019, covering criminal justice, the death penalty, and public school issues. He has two children, Noah and Eryl, and lives with his partner Adrienne on the Eastside.
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Council and Firefighters Agree to New Contract
The city of Austin and its firefighters signed a new labor contract on Thursday, Dec. 18. The four-year, $63 million agreement approved by City Council and the Austin Firefighters Association increases pay, guarantees a minimum of four firefighters on every truck sent to an emergency, and establishes a new shift schedule that provides more downtime […]
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Better Luck Next Year?
Mapping Chaos Six months into his second term as president, Donald Trump was nervous about the chances for keeping a Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives after the 2026 elections. So in July, Trump demanded that Texas Republicans discard decades of precedent and redistrict the state’s congressional districts in the middle of the […]
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Protecting Trans Texans, Creating Jobs, Reducing Homelessness
Marti Bier, a nonbinary organizer with the Texas Freedom Network, spent the last three legislative sessions at the state Capitol trying to protect the trans community from a series of Republican attacks. “It has felt worse and worse as our humanity and dignity has been legislated away,” Bier told Austin’s City Council last Thursday. “When […]
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Former UT Police Chief Says She Was Discriminated Against
UT-Austin has experienced unprecedented turnover in top leadership positions over the last two years, much of it the result of Texas Republicans’ ongoing ideological war with the university. Several prominent deans have been replaced. So have a half-dozen of the university’s administrators, including its president and provost. In almost every case, the public has learned […]
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If You Build It…
It was the summer of 1990 and Walter Moreau had just graduated from Baylor University with a degree in finance. For most people, the next step would be sending out applications for a job as an investment adviser, commercial banker, or accountant. Moreau didn’t want that. “I wanted to do nonprofit work, not banking,” Moreau […]
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What’s Up With the City and Its Firefighters?
A new labor contract that would give the city’s firefighters higher pay and more time between shifts was supposed to have been approved by City Council two weeks ago. Now, it looks like the city and the firefighters have more negotiating to do. Council canceled the vote on the $63 million contract on Nov. 20, […]
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City Council’s Budget Reflects a New Fiscal Reality
Austin City Council finally passed its new austerity budget. Approved on an 11-0 vote last Thursday, the budget removes close to $100 million in spending on public safety, homelessness, and other services that would have been provided by the earlier budget funded by Prop Q, the request to increase property taxes, which voters rejected earlier […]
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After Prop Q Vote, Council Deliberates Second City Budget in Three Months
If you’re reading this on Thursday, your city government is slogging toward approval of a new budget for the coming fiscal year. If you’re reading this on Friday, the budget has probably already passed. Either way, on Wednesday afternoon, as the Chronicle went to press, it was clear what city leaders and residents want to […]
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With Prop Q’s Defeat, an Era of Austerity Begins
“I don’t think the voters appreciate how deep the cuts are going to have to be,” Austin City Council Member Mike Siegel told the Chronicle last week as Prop Q, the ballot measure to increase property taxes to fund a variety of city services, went down in flames. Siegel was talking about the cuts that […]
Posted inArts
Caro De Robertis and Tourmaline Salute Queer Elders
Each generation of young LGBTQIA people learns to navigate a world that is openly hostile to them. Some may feel that they’re the only people on Earth who have had to learn the necessary skills. But a pair of books by authors Caro De Robertis and Tourmaline show that there are legacies of strength and […]
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Sarah Eckhardt Wants to Do “Big Things”
Three of Austin’s best-known political leaders are taking on huge challenges in next year’s election – David vs. Goliath scenarios. Rep. Gina Hinojosa is running for governor against Greg Abbott, the most powerful Republican in Texas. Rep. James Talarico is running against the winner of the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate, either the longtime […]