With Gov. Rick Perry still threatening to reject $555 million in federal unemployment insurance assistance, Democrats took the opportunity on Thursday to highlight some long-overdue reforms to the UI system, especially when it come to benefits for women. The presser, scheduled for 2pm, was slightly delayed: between long-running sessions, late-starting committees, and a plethora of press conferences, members are finding their time is getting seriously stretched. House Democratic caucus chair Jessica Farrar, D-Houston, was accompanied by Reps. Carol Kent of Dallas, Scott Hochberg of Houston, and Austin's own Valinda Bolton: Even Senate Democratic Caucus Chair Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, dropped by between votes. [video-1]

Happy birthday, Serge. Gitanes: Smoke 'em if you've got 'em.

[audio-1] On this inaugural edition of Off the Record’s 33rpm, OTR catches up with Austin’s Roscoe Beck, the musical director for Leonard Cohen, and tests the pallet of wine connoisseur and Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan, co-owner and operator of Arizona Stronghold Vineyards.

The Score dropped by the Lightweight Lightning press conference Wednesday afternoon to rub shoulders with boxing greats and get ready for the big fight this Saturday night. Bernard Hopkins was in attendance at the press conference which helped to lend an air of excitement to the event. The card, as of now, features Edwin "El Inca" Valero vs. Antonio Pitalua in the main event with Jesus "El Matador" Chavez vs. Michael Katsidis, Carlos Hernandez (San Antonio) vs. Vincente Escobedo, and Julio "The Kid" Diaz vs. Rolando Reyes leading things off. The fight is also available nationally on pay-per-view, but you'll want to be there in person. Check out a couple pics from the presser above. Sat., April 4, 5pm. Frank Erwin Center, 1701 Red River. $25-200. For tickets, see www.texasboxoffice.com.

If someone's suing you, it's probably a good idea to know why they're suing you, as Rep. Ellen Cohen, D-Houston, may just have found out. This evening, Cohen was laying out House Bill 2070 to the House Ways and Means Committee: That's her attempt to reform last session's HB 1751, the infamous and legally-contested "titty tax." The problem, Cohen told the committee, is that the old bill split the cash between the sexual assault program fund and indigent health care: "It is this diversion of funds to uncompensated health care that is the basis for current litigation that prevents the over $11.2 million raised from being spent on these vital programs like rape crisis centers, sexual assault nurse examiners, and rape kits." To re-enter broken record territory, that's simply not true. No matter how often Cohen tries to claim this was just about the money, Judge Scott Jenkins found (as Texas Solicitor Gen­eral James Ho was pushed to admit by Ways and Means Chair Rene Oliveira, D-Brownsville) that HB 1751 was a straight First Amendment violation. "For some reason, the state skips past this in lots of their argument," Stewart Whitehead, attorney for the Texas Entertainment Association, dryly commented.

The Austin Aztex final preseason game is this Friday night, hosting the Puerto Rico Islanders in their lone preseason test against a team in their own division. April 3, 7:30pm, at Nelson Field. $18-22. The Islanders head from here to Mexico City, where they try to defend a 2-0 first-leg lead over Mexican giants Cruz Azul, in a CONCACAF Champions League semifinal (Tuesday, April 7, 9pm, live on FSC). The title winner goes to the Club World Cup to face the top teams from the other continents. In high school playoff action, three CenTex teams advanced to this weekend's regional finals. In 5A, the Bowie girls upset Westlake, 1-0, on Tuesday – the first goal Westlake had given up in 15 games – to advance to San Antonio. The Pflugerville Connally boys will be there as well; in each case, the competition is S.A. Reagan, and two schools from the Valley. In 4A, the Dripping Springs girls beat Lake Travis, 2-1, then edged Steele in a penalty-kick shootout; they're in Corpus Christi Friday. On the boys side, Lake Travis, Dripping Springs, Elgin, and Del Valle all lost in the fourth round. Below: World Cup Qualifying results

Tuesday, March 2 wasn't like every other day at Robert's Lafitte, the self proclaimed oldest gay bar in Texas, that operates on Avenue Q in Galveston. It's known for it's drag reviews, hometown feel, and now as the site of a senseless gay bashing. Gay customers were the perpetrator's stated targets of several large stones hurled through the bar door leaving one man with 12 staples in his head and another man struck in the jaw. The accused – 3 males aged 17, 18, 20 and all related – now face five to 99 years in prison if convicted of assault with a deadly weapon with a hate crime enhancement (big ups to towleroad.com). This is only the second time the Galveston County District Attorney's Office has pursued this enhancement, and good for them. Anyone who is dumb enough to open the door to any establishment and hurl rocks at the patrons deserves a stupidity enhancement as well, if you ask me.

Tonight Logo and MTV air Pedro, a scripted narrative about the San Francisco incarnation of the Real World. If you remember, this was the season that featured Pedro Zamora, a Cuban-born AIDS activist. It's a made-for-TV movie that looks like a reality show… inspired by an actual reality show! Ow, my head. I know that MTV has posted clips from the San Francisco show online, but come on MTV/Logo/Viacom conglomerate! At least have the ovaries to show the actual season on actual TV! How cool would it be to watch Pedro, and then see the episodes that are the reason for the season? Show these kids today that the Real World wasn't always about semen-laden hottubs, three-ways, and vom-vom. The radical thing about the San Francisco season of the Real World was that Pedro, Judd, Pam, Puck, Rachel, Cory, and Mohammed were actually dealing with some real queer shit…. Making a movie about that social experiment just seems… wrong! Am I alone on this one? Although, I'll be the first to admit that I'm excited about seeing something else that Milk screenwriter and San Antonio homeboy Dustin Lance Black has written. And even though I'm complaining, it's still on DVR!

While the Senate waited to take up the budget, the House this morning sped ahead by passing House Bill 670, a journalism shield law, 146-2. Seems the press may need a shield, what with Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball, taking pot-shots. The actual bill as passed is not that strong (as arguably shown by the prosecutors for Bexar, Brazoria and Collin counties switching from "against" to "for.") It provides qualified protection, subject to judicial review, and journalists still have to come forward with evidence about felonies. It's really a whistle-blower protection (which is arguably the key purpose of such a law) and interestingly does add protections for bloggers that derive a substantial proportion of their income from news-gathering. That it's a prosecutor-friendly compromise wasn't enough to placate Riddle, (along with freshman Rep. Randy Weber, R-Pearland, the sole nay votes on the bill) who complained that journalists would have more legal protection than the pope. She then said that she and her voters were concerned about "how they consider journalists and their veracity, giving them a special privilege that would go over and above other well-respected people in the community." Well, at least she said that we're well-respected.