Due to an editing error, this week's paper version of the Chronicle accidentally cut Mary Beth Harrell's name off of our list of endorsements. So, lest anyone think we've retracted it: The Austin Chronicle enthusiastically endorses Mary Beth Harrell for Congressional District 31, which stretches from the Williamson County portion of North Austin, through Fort Hood, and up to Erath County. She is the best choice over that district's current wretched excuse for a congressman, John Carter. For the full-length text of our endorsements, click here.

The Ice Bats began their season with an exciting 3-2 shootout victory over the Bossier-Shreveport Mud Bugs at the noisy Chaparral Ice Arena last Saturday in front of a capacity crowd. Winning their first home game against the defending Northern Conference champs was nice, but keep in mind that the Mud Bugs were playing with a depleted roster due to immigration problems. Gotta keep those hockey-playing terrorists at bay. Still, we'll take the win, especially after a painfully slow start last year.

This weekend finds the Bats playing in an unusual home-road-home series of games. The home games are tonight at 7:30pm vs. the Lubbock Cotton Kings and Sunday at 4pm hosting the Laredo Bucks.

The Austin Music Hall will host Latin Explosion II tonight at 7pm. Both main event fights feature hometown boys, with local pugilist Brian Vera (11-0, eight knockouts) defending his middleweight title against Jose Spearman (27-12-4) of Indianapolis in an eight-rounder. The co-headlining brawl features Ray Lino Garcia (5-0) of Austin and Josh Burns (3-4-5) of Dallas in a junior middleweight contest. The Austin Music Hall is located at 208 Nueces.

In other boxing news, tickets are currently on sale for The Final Chapter Continued. Evander "The Real Deal" Holyfield (39-8-2, 26 knockouts) will face off against "Fast" Fres Oquendo (26-3) in a 12-round heavyweight bout. Holyfield is a four-time heavyweight champion but some insiders question whether he is too old to be in the ring and worry for his health and his legacy. Regardless, this pay-per-view fight will be going down at the Alamodome in San Antonio on Friday, Nov. 10. Tickets available from Ticketmaster.

Warning that "seven bad bonds enable seven bad habits," Travis County Libertarian Party schoolmarm Wes Benedict announced today his party opposes all seven City of Austin bond propositions. (On an unrelated note, WTF's up with the SRV statue on their website? Perchance, if the bonds do pass, would it be said "the sky is crying?")

Their brutal opinion, prop-by-prop, after the jump...

On the heels of W's recent assertion that he's "never been stay the course" comes this bruising campaign commerical from the Democratic National Committee.

Mary Beth Harrell's campaign tells us that PBS's excellent political news program Now will be focusing in on Congressional District 31 in its Nov. 3 episode. It's easy to see why Now would be interested, given the dynamics of the race: In a district that revolves around Fort Hood (and reaches all the way down to north Austin), the hawk is incumbent Republican John Carter, who has no military experience, while the Iraq War opponent is Democrat Harrell, a longtime military wife who currently has two sons serving, including one in Iraq. Now airs on KLRU (Air Channel 18, Cable Channel 9) every Friday at 7:30pm, with repeats Sundays at 10:30am and Wednesdays at 4:30am.

And we put it in the headline because, based on some questions we've fielded, several of you apparently aren't clear on that point. Only Primary, Municipal, and Special Elections have run-offs. General Election races do not. Whoever gets the most votes on Nov. 7 will be our new governor - period - even if that candidate has less than 50% of the vote, as will almost certainly be the case this year.

Leave it to the Travis County Republican Party to piss in the punchbowl. Stacked against Sysiphean odds this election, they recently came out against the bulk of the city's seven bond propositions. As the Statesman reports today, the TCRP statement reads "Austinites should be concerned about the City Council's excessive and frivolous spending and pressure them to focus on providing basic services well." Burn! Only time will tell if their effort has the same sweeping reach of their No Blue Dot campaign. For now, the TCRP is the first (and likely only) group to endorse against specific bonds. But then again, the Statesman hasn't entered the bond endorsements fray just yet...

So, I'm in the great city of St. Louis, writing from my mom's toasted-ravioli plantation in a rural enclave about 45 minutes from Downtown. Downtown is where Busch Stadium is; Busch Stadium is scheduled to host game 4 of the World Series tonight, after game 4 was postponed on Wednesday.

Busch Stadium is scheduled to host me tonight, as well, joining Billy Ray Cyrus in the singing of our National Anthem. Actually, I should clarify that.