Yes, Joel Osteen is delivering the invocation for Rick Perry's swearing in. Kinda surprising; from his Wikipedia page, he doesn't sound nearly as Christian Taliban as Rick "Yer all going to hell" Perry would like. Oh well, different strokes.

You can watch the swearing-in ceremony online here.

[Ed. Note from Lee Nichols: It's also showing on KVUE, News 8 Austin, and KXAN, but Fox-7 - despite saying "Inauguration" in the program guide - is instead showing Tyra Banks. And really, I'd much rather look at Tyra Banks than Rick Perry any day, no matter how perfect his hair might be. K-EYE is making no pretense to interest in Texas civic affairs and is showing The Price Is Right with no apologies. (Come to think of it, maybe we should just call the inauguration "The Price Is Right.")]

Capital Metro says:

UPDATE: 'Dillo Routes canceled
Tuesday - January 16 Capital Metro has canceled all AISD Magnet routes, UT Shuttle routes and ‘Dillo routes. Other routes are operating with significant delays due to weather
conditions.

Customers should expect delays due to icing conditions.

For information about possible changes in bus routes, please visit our Web site at capmetro.org.

Not much at all: schools-wise, Austin ISD, the University of Texas, and Austin Community College are all closed, to name a few. City of Austin and Travis County offices have also shut their doors. For more information, News 8 Austin has an updated list of closures and delays all across the city.

So much for my interview with Lee Leffingwell.

Which is probably what you're saying if you're under 18 and not a parent, because Austin ISD and several other school districts in the area have canceled classes and all after-school and extracurricular activities for Tuesday.

With any legally required apologies to The Onion:

• Passing legislation classifying all Central Texas as overpass

• Visiting shelters Downtown, stocking up on homeless to burn

• Rick Perry canceling inauguration parade, inauguration

• Kurt Standiford penning angry missive to Austin's gay meteorological cabal

• Whole Foods selling storm supply kits of Dr. Bronner's Soap, organic Cheetos, Tito's Vodka

• Will Wynn starching, pressing collection of “butch” shirts for press conferences

• Anti-toll-road zealots congratulate selves for 290 closure

• Reminiscing over how cool the last freeze was, before Austin changed

Add yours in the comments. (And of course, everything above is extremely silly and false, ya dig?)

A revised version of the Big Box Ordinance bounced back from council to the Planning Commission for review on Jan. 16.

A key change forwarded by City Council Member Lee Leffingwell was a developer-friendly provision to allow a single, combined public hearing for 1) the big-box retail conditional-use permit and 2) rezoning. But with the city legal department uncomfortable putting a time limit on the approvals granted at such a hearing, advocates at Liveable City (the nonprofit that originally forwarded the ordinance) were wary of the change. Their concern: Big-box zoning could be approved for a site, but the development might not occur for years or decades; the neighborhood would not get another hearing when the big-box superstore actually got built.

A second concern was the unaddressed "adjacent structure loophole.” The ordinance’s expanded public hearing and neighborhood notification requirements apply only to stores of 100,000 square feet and up. A wily retailer easily could prepare a site plan for two adjacent 95,000 structures – Wal-Mart Home and Wal-Mart Grocery, say – to skirt the ordinance. To close the loophole, city staff was considering a language change, tying total limited square footage to a principal retail use and accessories, rather than to a single building.

If the city isn't shut down by ice Tuesday night, we may get yet another version of the ordinance that gets kicked back up to council – again.

From the governor's office:

Media Advisory

Inaugural Parade Cancelled

AUSTIN – The 2007 Texas Inaugural Parade, scheduled to take place Tuesday from Noon to 1:30 p.m. along Congress Avenue, has been cancelled. Freezing rain and ice have prevented workers from constructing bleachers and street barricades necessary to conduct the parade. Further winter storm warnings for overnight tonight and tomorrow morning also could jeopardize parade participants.


Editor's note: We are told, however, that the inauguration ceremony is still set for 10am Tuesday on the south steps of the Capitol, but it will likely be moved inside to the House chamber.

So...what's new?

In case you spent this weekend in Margaritaville, you may not have noticed the worst winter storm in recent memory blew in when you weren't looking. So severe Will Wynn had to throw on the long sleeve denim shirt for his press conference yesterday, sans tie. Whoa.

The National Weather Service's 7-day forecast doesn't lend much hope. A winter storm warning is in effect, and reports of sleet are plentiful. The real shitstorm, however, doesn't look to hit until midday tomorrow, when a nasty winter mix of snow, freezing rain, and arctic gusts looks to flash-freeze the city. Ugh.

As today is Martin Luther King day, and most the kids aren't in school yet, it's hard to get a handle on closures. (Except for the aforementioned MLK activities; both UT and the city have canceled theirs.) The city's emergency conditions page has updated road closures and public advisories here. They also kick some ice safety knowledge here.

Of course, there's one simple safety maxim we adhere to: if you ain't got to go nowhere, then don't. Especially if there's a Battlestar Galactica marathon on.

So he withdrew it before it went down like a lead zeppelin, but Austin Rep. Eddie Rodriguez proposed language earlier today that would have allowed bloggers access to the House floor.

"With the rise of citizen journalism, it no longer makes sense to limit access to House business solely to the traditional press outlets," says Rodriguez's press release. "This kind of measure would encourage citizen participation in government and help demystify the system for the general public."

Rodriguez's move was an encouraging step, as is a bill up this session drafting a shield law for journalists – although an early draft of it strips independent journalists, such as bloggers, of its protections. Why only afford them to the pros?