One of the great advantages of drama over war is that there can be winners without a body count. So kudos to Austin thespians Rude Mechs, who scooped a major award at this year's massive Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland for their play Get Your War On.

We at Chronic rarely discuss matters of stage, far rather leaving it to our resident master of all thing theatrical Robert Faires, but last Thursday the local stage heroes beat out over 700 theatrical productions to take the Total Theatre Award for Best Original Work by a Collective/Ensemble, for their stage adaptation of David Rees' clip-art satire strip. Throw in universal four-star reviews from the UK critical establishment, and it was a pretty good run for the multi-media extravaganza. They'll be bringing the award-winning production back home to The Off-Center, Sept. 6 - 22.

9.32am CST, August 28, 2007: Attorney General Alberto Gonzales officially announces his resignation, effective September 17, with a speech that mentioned the president twice, his family once, and the scandals engulfing his office not at all.

Yet, for all that, the words that will probably be best remembered from this press conference was the question from the press corps that hung in the air, ignored by Gonzales as he quickly turned on his heels and left the room: “Why are you leaving?”

Read the full text of his resignation speech beneath the fold.

If at first you only get 12% in a governor's race, try, try again.

According to today's Daily Texan, failed 2006 independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman wants another pop at Gov. Rick Perry. This time, the Kinkster would like to run in 2010 as the Democrat candidate. Possibly he's thinking that if he put together his '06 showing and the Democrat's 29.79%, they could take down the incumbent.

Of course, in classic Kinky style, he then runs through his policies. Like getting rid of the death penalty but giving convicted murderers a rope so they can hang themselves. And, of course, overturning smoking bans, which has nothing to do with the fact that he's JUST started selling his own brand of cigars.

He also probably doesn't help his case by comparing the Dems to "a bad junior high debate team." Mind you, he'd also have some pretty serious bridge-building from back during the last campaign when the *ahem* light-hearted prankster called Katrina refugees in Houston "crackheads and thugs." Which never went down well with, erm, anyone.

Well, this sucks. Andy Mormon, executive assistant to City Council member Lee Leffingwell, and one of the nicest guys down at City Hall, has announced he's taking a six-month breather from 301 W. 2nd to explore a business opportunity in … Accra, Ghana? Intriguing.

"I have a group of old friends who will be in partnership with the government on an oil exploration project and I will be establishing their base for them in Accra," says Mormon. "It should take about six months and then I'll be back." In the press release, Leffingwell says, "We’ll miss Andy while he’s gone, but I guess I can understand why someone might seek temporary refuge in Africa after a few years of working in City Hall." Thank you, the council member will be here all night … But seriously, Mormon says, "If you have never had fried pangolin, you may not understand the attraction for the continent."

Mormon will return in time for Leffingwell's reelection bid in 2008; in the meantime, former KUT alum Larry Schooler will be filling his position. The full press release is here.

A federal appeals court has stopped – at least for now – the Kickapoo tribe’s efforts to add Las Vegas-style casino gambling to its reservation in Eagle Pass along the Mexican border. The Department of the Interior had given tentative approval for Class III casino gaming early this year over the objections of the state. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals called those federal administrative procedures invalid, saying the procedures failed to safeguard the rights of the state in approving a tribal-state compact. While federal law does take precedence in the approval of gambling on Indian reservations, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act does give states a significant subordinate role in the decision. The Kickapoo tribe has been seeking high-stakes gambling on its reservation since 1995. Texas, which has yet to pass casino gambling in the state, has consistently opposed that measure.

The announcement that construction will commence on a new coal power plant is rarely accompanied by words of praise from environmental groups, but that’s just the case with the NuCoastal Power Corporation plant located in Point Comfort, Southeast Texas. Operators of the plant, which will utilize petroleum coke, a refining byproduct that burns similarly to coal, have agreed to drastically cut and offset all of its emissions of toxic mercury and climate-changing CO2.

Tom “Smitty” Smith, director of Public Citizen’s Texas Office, and Karen Hadden, head of the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development Coalition, brokered the deal with NuCoastal, essentially agreeing, in return for the reductions, not to oppose the plant’s air permit as it undergoes state approval. The coalition contends this is the first time any power plant in the nation has agreed to offset all of its mercury emissions (initially cutting output by 80% and buying credits for the remainder), and the first time a plant in Texas has agreed to offset its carbon dioxide emissions. Smith said NuCoastal will achieve its carbon reductions by supporting energy efficiency upgrades and weatherization of homes in Texas, investing in renewable energy, and shutting down an existing electric plant or separating carbon dioxide and sequestering it.

In a blow for advocates of electronic elections, major manufacturer of digital ballot boxes Diebold Inc. has made steps to dump its beleaguered e-voting division. The firm announced on Aug. 16 that Allen-based Diebold Election Systems, which manufactures the controversial AccuVote TSX touch-screen voting system, will be renamed Premier Election Solutions and made more autonomous from the parent company. Diebold had originally been looking for a buyer, but found there were no interested parties. In a press release, Diebold blamed “rapidly evolving political uncertainties and controversies surrounding state and jurisdiction purchases of electronic voting systems.” The division had been a PR millstone ever since the firm took over Global Election Systems in 2002 to create it. Since then, the firm and its clients have faced multiple legal suits over machine security and the potential for voter fraud. Diebold also lowered its annual revenue predictions for the voting division (currently in the $185 million to $215 million range) by $120 million.

Eighty-six-year-old Alva Mae “Granny” Groves, who was sentenced to 24 years in the federal pen for what she and her supporters insist was solely refusing to testify against her children in a federal coke dealing case, died behind bars last week at the federal prison medical facility in Fort Worth, reports the Drug Reform Coordination Network.

The North Carolina native, who was transferred to the Texas pen after her kidneys began to fail earlier this year, had served 13 years of her sentence after pleading guilty to conspiracy to possess and intent to sell cocaine, and for aiding and abetting the trade of crack coke for food stamps, DRCNet reports. Federal prosecutors have said that Granny Groves was actively involved in the cocaine trade. She, her family members and supporters insist that is not the case – rather, they argue, Granny was guilty of looking the other way and for refusing to testify against her children in cases that would put them behind bars for life.

Last winter, Groves family asked officials for a “compassionate release” for Granny Groves, so that she could die at home with family. Their requests were denied.

Proponents of a marijuana reform initiative that would make adult pot use the city’s lowest law enforcement priority have offered the Denver council and mayor – who are none too happy that the initiative earned enough signatures to make it on the November ballot – a chance to get the damn thing off the ballot.

In an Aug. 23 press release, Mason Tvert, director of the marijuana reform group Safer Alternatives for Enjoyable Recreation says that his organization would agree to nix the intiative if – and only if – the council and Mayor John Hickenlooper (owner of a local brewery) agree to a few – ahem – modest terms. First, SAFER wants the city leaders to officially “recognize” that adult marijuana use poses less harm to the user, and to the city, than does adult alcohol abuse. Second, based on that new awareness, SAFER is asking that the council “commit to exploring” what marijuana policy reforms the city can implement that reflect the fact that adult pot use poses less harm to user and city. And, third, SAFER is asking that the city impose a moratorium on all citations for possession of less than one ounce of pot by adults over 21 during the Democratic National Convention in August 2008.

If their conditions are met, Tvert says SAFER would be happy to yank the lowest-priority initiative from the upcoming ballot. Whether that’ll work is entirely unclear, though seemingly unlikely since the city hasn’t exactly embraced pot policy reforms – including a successful 2005 ballot initiative that directed the city to remove criminal penalties for private pot use by adults. Still, Tvert remains forever optimistic: “Every objective study ever conducted on marijuana has concluded that it is a far safer recreational drug than alcohol,” he said in a press statement. “We hope our city officials will consider the relative harms of these two substances, as well as the potentially dangerous effects of a policy that pushes adults toward the more harmful of the two [substances]” – that is, alcohol use. “The city has every right to stop arresting adults for possessing small amounts of marijuana, and we hope they will stand up for the voters who elected them and exercise that right.”