https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/news/2013-10-21/news-ticker-october-21/

News Ticker: October 21

By Brandon Watson, October 21, 2013, 5:30pm, Newsdesk

Ted Cruz plays the blame game, Alex Jones fires a round, and Greg Abbott woos the ladies. Ammunition is on the News Ticker.

• The media isn't losing its thirst for reporting on all things Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz goes to the Texas Federation of Republican Women convention, the media is there. Ted Cruz gets a Twitter death threat, the media is there. It's like he has a press office alerting reporters of his every move.

• The Daily Beast warns that "The Ted Cruz Armageddon is Coming." We're still not clear why Cruz is choosing to remake the critically panned Michael Bay vehicle, but maybe it will distract him from filing for reelection.

• Elsewhere is the Cruzosphere, the senator told CNN's New Day that Senate Republicans will be to blame if the GOP loses seats in the next election.

• Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson and unscrewed lightbulb Alex Jones were among the speakers at the Alamo gun rally this weekend. Remarkably, the only thing shot was our patience.

•The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has apparently fired PR director John Hurt for not keeping the execution drug shortage on the down low. We admit that staging a burlesque revue called the "Pentobarbital Follies" was a bit much.

• Although star Sen. Wendy Davis is leading the ticket, Texas Dems have been slow to fill up the rest of the slate.

• Like a thirteen year-old thumbing through his older sister's Cosmo, Atty. Gen. Greg Abbott has discovered women.

• If we are interpreting Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst's latest ad correctly, fracking has done more damage to the state than we thought.

• Former Pizza Hut executive and current Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings wants to make the city's downtown more "funky," which only partially explains why Fountain Place is now clogged with ranch dressing.

• Several U.T. locations were tagged with Aggie graffiti over the weekend. We couldn't be more pleased that they were finally able to teach someone to write.