Bexar Co. District Attorney Susan Reed cares about you. Really, she does. So much so that she’s single-handedly derailed the start of the confidential needle-exchange pilot program that state legislators passed this spring, with threats that individuals facilitating the exchange as well as drug users availing themselves of the public health project would likely be subject to prosecution for possession of drug paraphernalia. “I’m telling [local officials], and I’m telling the police chief, I don’t think they have any kind of criminal immunity,” Reed told the San Antonio Express-News in August. “That’s the bottom line. It has nothing to do with whether they do it or don’t do it – other than if you do it you might find yourself in jail.”

With Reed invoking the jailhouse boogeyman, the needle-exchange start date, Sept. 1, came and went, forcing state Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio and chair of the Senate Jurisprudence Committee, to pen a request for a legal opinion, asking state Attorney General Greg Abbott to weigh in on whether it is “self-evident from the context and language” of the needle-exchange law that an “exception or defense” to prosecution was “intended” by lawmakers – or, if there’s somehow something more to Reed’s embarrassing Wacky World of Criminal Law than meets the rational eye. (A 20-page PDF of Wentworth's request is available here.)

And now, the $64,000 question: Can the U.S. beat its drug war addiction? Jack Cole, executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, says yes – but that we actually have to try to do so. That’s refreshing, eh?

Cole is a 26-year veteran New Jersey State Police officer who spent 12 years doing undercover work busting drug dealers. Since retiring, Cole has been working to reform national drug policy – policies that he says are racially biased. To Cole, there are far better approaches that can be taken to address the social problems associated with drug use – including, notably, ending drug prohibition. Want to hear more? You’re in luck: Cole will be at UT Oct. 17 to deliver the UT School of Social Work’s Dean Jack Otis Social Problem and Social Policy Lecture. The lecture will be held from 2-3:30p in the atrium of the Peter T. Flawn Academic Center. Admission is free. For more information, call 512/471-9227.

In an age when everyone is terrified of corruptable e-voting, it’s somehow heartwarming to be reminded that there’s still room for good, old-fashioned ballot-stuffing and strong-arm tactics.

Raymond Villarreal, Precinct 4 commissioner for Refugio County, pleaded guilty this morning to tampering with a governmental record, a state felony with 90 days in jail and a $1,500 fine attached. It comes out of his attempt to hijack the 2006 Democratic primaries.

The Attorney General’s office called it a complicated scheme and they’re not exaggerating. Here’s how it worked: Villarreal got hold of a bunch of mail-in ballot applications. He would then take them to voters’ homes, and get them to sign off. However, they would leave the address section bank. Villarreal would fill it in for them – with the address of one of his out-of-district supporters. When they received the absentee ballot for the election, Villarreal would pick them up and hand-deliver them to the real voter. Then he’d stand over them while they filled them out. So, no pressure or coercion at all.

This Thursday's City Council meeting carries three momentous measures from Mike Martinez and Lee Leffingwell which look to fundamentally realign powers between the City Council and the City Manager. They've been in the ether around City Hall for some time now, and were drug into the open by the Statesman's Rich Oppel this summer. (Luckily, in his zeal, he didn't give them the kiss of death.) Let's take a look.

Item 58 "provide(s) the City Council with more frequent budget reports for vacant full-time equivalent positions, budget stabilization reserve expenditures, and administrative expenditures exceeding $5,000." Martinez emailed Chronic to provide some more context: "Anything over $5K has to go through the state bidding process, but it is still within the administrative authority and not reported to council. We just want to see those expenditure items as they are occurring throughout the year. Under the state bidding process, even though there is true bidding, you are still allowed to select one of the top three bidders for specific reasons within the statute. So that allows a lot of flexibility in choosing. We just believe council should be made aware of those expenditures on a regular basis."

If you happened to read the Oct. 4 San Antonio Express-News article on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals’ decision to ignore the last-minute death row appeal of Michael Richard (clearing the way for his execution on Sept. 25), then you likely know now what a cold, cold, cold and dark heart has CCA presiding Judge Sharon Keller. Sure, Keller has long been considered a cold fish by many – lawyers, journalists, and those with even the barest hint of a pulse, among others – but her latest show of distaste for, really, her job, is mind-blowing. According to the E-N, Keller basically, well, lied, by saying that the reason the court failed to hear Richard’s appeal was that it wasn’t at the court by 5pm, the deadline she arbitrarily set without consulting any of the court’s other judges, several of whom actually stayed late at work that evening in anticipation of a late-filed appeal.

The battle over Town Lake Animal Center just got a bit simpler since this morning, when it looked like there would be rival, opposing plans on the council agenda for this Thursday. Now it's just the one.

It's been reported that council members Mike Martinez and Jennifer Kim have pulled their agenda item, which would have completely re-opened the search for new ways to deal with Austin's stray animal problems. Instead, it's going to become a straight up-or-down battle over the Will Wynn/Betty Dunkerley-backed proposal to just start on the proposed location at Airport and 183.

Fissures within City Council over the future of the Town Lake Animal Center could become serious rifts with two rival items on the agenda for this Thursday's upcoming meeting.

We at Chronic don't usually go in for crime stories (unless you're talking about gas prices! Anyone? Anyone?), but when it's an art theft, we pay attention. Especially when it took a truck to steal it.

Last Monday, a 175lb, four foot tall, metal statue of an airplane was stolen from out front of Fisterra Studio at the corner of Waller and E. Second, and Eastside artists Jennifer Chenoweth and Todd Campbell would really like it back. It also, in a melding of form and function, was their mail box. Only most mail boxes aren't made out recovered and salvaged metal by local art luminary Barry George, whose work has been displayed in City Hall. Chenoweth and Campbell are offering a no-questions-asked reward for the piece's return.

(Please note, the picture is of a near-identical piece made by George for a friend of the couple, not the original. So don't go banging on doors randomly and calling the cops.)

Never heard of Dr. James Leininger or Bob Perry? Don't worry, you will, if Texas Dems have anything to say about it.

According to the Money in Politex report issued by Texans for Public Justice, these conservative ideologues were the two biggest donors during the '06 election. They dumped a combined $12 million into Republican campaign coffers, or rather, into the campaigns of hand-selected candidates that followed their conservative creeds. Amber Moon of the Texas Democratic Party called it "the Leininger effect," where increasingly radical Republicans were winning primaries and elections on the back of big-donor money. And now the Democrats are going to use that in the '08 campaign against every single GOPer that took their cash.

For election attorney and campaign finance expert Buck Wood, now it’s a campaign issue. “That money from the Leiningers of the world is going to be used against Republicans who take it. Because they’re buying this candidate who claims he’s representing you, but he’s representing Leininger or Perry.”

If the strategy pays off, Wood expects the money men to back away, or even be pushed away by candidates who realize their name association is a liability. That’s a big change from ’06, when their check-writing was almost brazen. “They threw a lot of money at campaigns very late last time around, and it’s kind of hard to counter that in a very short period of time. They can’t sneak up on anyone this time.”