Capital Metro made a big hoo-hah about expanding service on New Year's Eve. Laudable, because the fewer drunk drivers, the better. However, when drunken revelers tried to get on the bus, there was a slight problem: they weren't there. The problem was with the Night Owls: the late night service that picks up from Sixth and Congress, running through until 3am. On New Year's Day morning, there was no sign of them. At about 1am, after a large crowd had been waiting for up to an hour, a single Cap Metro employee appeared and informed them that they were in the wrong place. The buses were actually waiting for them three blocks away at Ninth and Colorado, and had effectively been running empty all night. The harrased supervisor at the new site seemed as baffled as everyone else as to why the diversion was in place: Sixth was not closed, and neither was Congress by that point. There was no sign at the regular stop and no indication on the automated phone service that there was a change. It seemed unclear when it had been decided that a service that was going to see some of its heaviest usage of the year was going to be moved.

A lawyer for yogurt shop murder defendant Robert Springsteen said today that additional DNA testing has now revealed at least two unknown male profiles, this time found on vaginal swabs taken from two victims, sisters Sarah and Jennifer Harbison. The DNA does not match any of the four suspects that prosecutors insist committed the grisly December 1991 murders, prompting Springsteen attorney Joe James Sawyer to argue – once again – that his client is not guilty and should be set free after spending nearly 10 years behind bars. This is the second time this year that new DNA testing of vaginal swabs taken from the crime scene has revealed previously undetected male DNA that has not been matched to any donor known to Travis Co. prosecutors. In April, a vaginal swab taken from the youngest victim, 13-year-old Amy Ayers (who, by all accounts, was not sexually active at the time she died) was retested by the state using a new and more precise DNA testing not available until recently. The results of that test revealed the previously undetected male profile that to date has not been matched to anyone – including the four men charged with the crime, Springsteen, Michael Scott, Maurice Pierce and Forrest Welborn. At the time, prosecutors Gail Van Winkle and Efrain De La Fuente told the Chronicle that they expected the DNA would quickly be matched to a person already known to the state, but that did not happen. To date, dozens of samples have been tested – including DNA samples from public safety officers who responded to the crime scene – but none have been matched to the extracted DNA profile. On Dec. 30, Sawyer said defense attorneys for Springsteen and Scott, the only two suspects the state has tried for the crime, received word that additional testing requested by defense attorneys has now revealed at least two, and possibly three, unknown male DNA profiles on vaginal swabs taken from the Harbison sisters. Whether either of these profiles matches that found in Ayers is still unknown, he said. De La Fuente and Van Winkle could not be reached for comment regarding the results of the most recent DNA testing.

"The general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought." – Sun Tzu, The Art of War"

The plans for the announcement of a consensus Republican candidate to replace Speaker Tom Craddick are well under way (supposedly on Friday, location TBA.) The ABC-Rs ("Anybody but Craddick" Republicans) are feeling pretty confident that it's a done deal, with Rep. Tommy Merritt, R-Longview, saying that this will less be a media event and more a "victory party" for the end of the Craddick era. "Just sit around the Capitol on Friday night and you'll see the smoke, just like when they pick the pope," he said. But that doesn't mean that Craddick is just ignoring the struggle and letting his press office release his standardized "The speaker has the support of the majority of the House" line on a seemingly daily basis. The Fort Worth Star Telegram is reporting that the pro-Craddick forces will be having their own strategy meeting on Sunday in Austin. Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, will be there (as, presumably, will Craddick's seemingly omnipresent aides de camp Terry Keele and Ron Wilson.)

Nationally and locally, it was a banner year for politics - and the Chronicle's video-blogs City Hall Hustle and Hail to the Hustle were there. We've compiled the Top 10 Hustle moments, so allow us to enumerate our year-end retrospective.

Just because Texas has finished the November elections (they are all done, right? Right?) doesn't mean everyone is finished, and it doesn't mean Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, can't cause trouble. With Al Franken now nursing a 50 vote lead over incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minnesota, as re-counts of contested absentee ballots begin, the recently-elected National Republican Senate Committee chair has weighed in.

Al Franken is falsely declaring victory based on an artificial lead created on the back of the double counting of ballots. His campaign's actions in the last several days on the issues of rejected absentee ballots are creating additional chaos and disorder in the Minnesota recount. Those actions, coupled with the recent comments by Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who suggests seating someone even if there is an election contest, are unprecedented. Minnesotans will not accept a recount in which some votes are counted twice, and I expect the Senate would have a problem seating a candidate who has not duly won an election."

As Talking Points Memo points out, Franken has not declared victory, nor is it unprecedented for senators to be seated with challenges remaining in the final count. But there's a certain comedy to the fact that Cornyn is boosting Coleman, when two months ago Coleman was his biggest challenger for the NRSC chair. Coleman only dropped his quest because he was caught up in the whole recount fiasco.

A week after the sad announcement of deaths in the family of Rep. Roberto Alonzo, D-Dallas, more tragic news in the Lege. Devon Herrero, sister of Rep. Abel Herrero, D-Corpus Christi, was found dead at around 4am on Sunday morning. She was discovered in the middle of the street in a residential area of Corpus Christi. While police are still awaiting the results of the autopsy, she is thought to have suffered blunt force trauma to the head. Newsdesk would like to pass on its deepest condolences to the Herrero family.

Time for a slight update on one of the Iraq Veterans Against the War members covered earlier this month (read Stop the Loss Austin for more on their situation.) Casey Porter is now back in Iraq, and his videos of his experiences are still on-line. Most of the documentaries can be found at his YouTube channel, but for his latest, The Deployment Game: Livin' FOBulous, you'll have to go to LiveVideo. Or you could just watch it here. Considering that most western media outlets are closing their Iraq bureaus, videos like these soon may be the only news source left for the region.

As the House Speaker race gets more complicated by the hour, here's some handy numbers that you might want to remember: 13: Members that have filed to run as speaker.
8: Republicans, including incumbent Speaker Tom Craddick, that have filed.
5: Democrats on the slate.
0: People expecting a Dem speaker on Jan. 13.
64: ABCDs, the "Anyone But Craddick" Democrats that have signed Rep. Jim Dunnam's pledge to not go for the incumbent. Who they might vote for remains a mystery.
11: ABCRs, the "Anyone But Craddick" Republicans who met last week to pick a consensus Craddick replacement. The name of the anointed one will be made public on Jan. 2.
3: That's how many names latest hopeful Rep. Dan Gattis, R-Georgetown, says back him for speaker. The list is: Lois Kolkorst, R-Brenham; Mike "Tuffy" Hamilton, R-Mauriceville; and Patricia Harless R-Spring, none of whom were confirmed ABCRs prior to this (Gattis joked to Quorum Report, "I am going to be criticized for only having three, but that's three more than anyone else has announced.")
2: Names still regularly rumored to be thinking about a run: John Smithee, R-Amarillo, and Joe Straus, R-San Antonio.
150: Total number of House seats.
79: Total number of Democrats and Republicans either pledged to not vote for Craddick or pledged to one of his challengers. You do the math.

After the 11 confirmed anti-Speaker Tom Craddick Republicans made their announcement of unity last week and Rep. Dan Gattis, R-Georgetown, announced his own speaker candidacy, now Rep. Jim Dunnam, D-Waco, has reminded everyone that he still has the biggest unified voting block. The House Democratic Caucus chair has released his list of 64 ABCDs – the Anyone But Craddick Democrats that have pledged that, well, they won't vote for Craddick. This doesn't mean the ABCDs have all backed one candidate, but it does mean that, if the lines hold, Craddick has 76 votes against him. So the question remains: Who are the ten Democrats that didn't sign the pledge? The only local rep who held off is Dawnna Dukes (no surprise to anyone, since she has consistently stuck to the line that she'll vote for the candidate that will do best for her district.) The rest are all either long-term loyalists like Rep. Al Edwards, D-Houston (back after being replaced for one session by Borris Miles) and Speaker Pro Tem Sylvester Turner, or have done surprisingly well on committee chairmanships under Craddick. However, just because they didn't sign the pledge doesn't mean they'll be voting for Craddick on Jan. 13. For the full list of the no-shows, see below.