A frantic weekend in women's flat-track derby at the annual WFTDA Western Regionals held at the Verizon Theater in Houston. Out of 12 teams in the opening brackets, four teams won seedings and now progress to the national championship in Portland, Ore., (Nov 14-16) to face the winners of next weekend's Eastern Regionals. And the big four are: No. 1 Texecutioners: With a first-round bye, Austin's own didn't roll until Saturday morning when they defeated the Rocky Mountain Rollergirls (173-50). They then faced their nemesis from the 2008 Nationals, the Rat City Rollergirls, earning a spectacular and hard-fought victory (108-94). They topped off the weekend with a definitive win (135-59) over the new No. 2 seeds from the Bay Area. No. 2: B.ay A.rea D.erby Girls: Slicing through Rose City (120-95), B.A.D.'s hard-hitting style sent Duke City Derby flying (117-73). But the West Coast couldn't dislodge Texas in the final. No. 3 Rat City Rollergirls: Last year's national runners-up started hard with a pummeling win over Tucson (170-81), but couldn't make it two-for-two over Texas, instead settling for a run-off hammering of Duke City (158-95) No. 4 Duke City Derby: The only previously unseeded team in the top four, Albuquerque passed Pike's Peak Derby Dames (138-99) on Friday. They then threw in the biggest upset of the year, demolishing 2007 national champions the Kansas City Roller Warriors (132-117). Unfortunately, the Cinderella story faltered under the tough offense of B.A.D. and Rat City. Check back for full bout reports and exclusive video.

If you want to participate in the Nov. 4 election – you know, the really big one that you may have heard about with this Barack fellow running against the John guy – and you haven't yet registered to vote, then you must get it done TODAY. If your voter registration card is not postmarked on Oct. 6 or earlier, then you won't get to cast a ballot, so get it to the post office, or go to one of Travis County's offices, but get your registration card turned in. (If you're going to drop it into a mailbox, make sure today's pickup time at that box hasn't already passed.) And even if you think you are registered, double check just to be sure. You don't want to show up at the polls on Election Day and find out you were wrong and be deprived of your constitutional right as an American. Register to vote through Travis County. or register to vote through the state of Texas. But no matter what, get registered. If you still have questions, call 854-9473.

Going into this season, most alumni probably looked at the Longhorns' schedule and let out a long whistle like someone who got stuck with the check at a Brazilian steakhouse. Five games against ranked teams, three of them currently ranked in the Top 10! The only way the Horns schedule could have been any tougher was if it included a road game against the Cowboys in Dallas. So it was understandable why, after last season’s less than stellar performance, this was being called a “rebuilding” season; however, if the first four games of this season have taught us anything, it’s that with an average victory margin of 38 points, this team is ready to win now. After last season’s disappointing finish, most of the blame was put on a suspect pass defense and the growing pains of sophomore quarterback Colt McCoy. This year, however, instead of being the scapegoats, both the defense and McCoy are the main reason the Horns are 4-0 going into Saturday’s game against Colorado. The defense, which has put last year’s failures behind them, has not allowed a 100-yard rusher and only one 100-yard receiver this year in games that were never close. The fact that only Jarett Dillard of Rice University has been able to top the 100-yard mark just goes to show the lengths that Texas has gone to turn around the defense. The improvement hasn’t just been limited to the pass defense either, as none of the teams that they have faced has scored more than 13 points against the Longhorns. Of course, the defense will be tested by a strong Colorado team that is looking to avenge a two-game losing streak in Boulder, but if UT plays anything like they did in the first four games, the Buffaloes are going to have their work cut out for them.

WTF? First, Equality Texas, the entity which has organized the Austin Pride Festival for as long as anyone can remember announced this year that it was handing the festival torch to the freshly formed Pride Coalition, a group composed of representatives from just about every local LGBT concern. Great move, right?

Well one thing was made clear during the Veep Debate last night. Neither campaign supports gay marriage. Surprise!

It's a big week for rollerderby: not only was documentary Hell on Wheels finally released on DVD, but this weekend sees one of the three biggest events of the competitive calendar Battle Royale 08, the Western regional play-offs for the Women's Flat Track Derby Assocation. This year it's in the Verizon Wireless Theater in Houston, so a very driveable distance for flat-track fans. While the full bouts started today, Austin's own Texecutioners don't take to the track until 9.45am Saturday, when they face the winner from today's match-up from Rocky Mountain Rollergirls and Houston Rollerderby. The winner of that goes on to face either Tucson Rollerderby or Seattle's Rat City Rollergirls (considering how much controversy there was about the Rat City/Texecutioners bout at nationals last year, that could be the bout to watch.) Tickets still available.

During last night's Veep debate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said that a McCain administration would be fiscally prudent. She's had experience handling budgets, she said, during her time as governor and before that, when she was mayor of the town of Wasilla. Does that include balancing the budget on the backs of crime victims? As it turns out, while Palin was mayor of Wasilla the town sought to save some moolah by forcing rape victims to pay for rape kit tests and their forensic analysis. Seriously: Would you ask a burglary victim to dust her house for prints and pay for it? No, you wouldn't.

Respected local wine expert and award-winning sommelier Devon Broglie hosts a blind tasting of Texas wines this evening at the Whole Foods Market Culinary Center. Broglie will discuss how grapes such as Tempranillo, Sangiovese, and Viognier are well-suited to Texas terroir and feature wines made from them in a blind tasting against wines from around the world. Cost of the tasting is $45 and reservations can be made online at www.wholecateringaustin.com.

California Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger this week vetoed legislation designed to protect medi-pot patients from being fired from their jobs for toking the med during off hours. The bill, AB 2279, authored by San Francisco Dem Assemblyman Mark Leno was filed in response to a previous ruling by a Cali court that found that employees who use medi-mari in compliance with state law, but who fail a workplace drug test, can be fired. Leno's bill would've made it unlawful for employers to discriminate against medi-pot patient employees. But Schwarzenegger wasn't having it. "I am concerned with interference in employment decisions as they relate to marijuana use," he wrote in a veto message to Leno. "Employment protection was not a goal of the initiative passed by voters in 1996." But Cali NORML Coordinator Dale Gieringer argues that protecting patients is exactly what 1996's Prop 215 was designed to do. "The goal … was to treat marijuana like other legal pharmaceutical drugs," Gieringer, one of Prop 215's authors, said. Schwarzenegger's veto may not be too surprising – according to Cali NORML, the guv has vetoed every single marijuana measure to come across his desk. But you can bet the employment discrimination bill will be back.