Lake Travis is staying closed to recreational boaters: that's the latest word from the Lower Colorado River Authority.

Although it's down ten feet from last Friday's peak of 701.52 feet above mean sea level (the fifth highest level ever), the flood pool at Travis is still ten feet deep in water. That means most public boat ramps are still submerged. Plus there's worries about debris and potential risks to marina owners and lakeside residents who might be making repairs.

Because water (and debris) flows downstream, that means no boating in Austin either. The city is keeping Lake Austin, Town Lake, and the Colorado River below Longhorn Dam shut as long as the LCRA keeps the floodgates on the Mansfield and Tom Miller Dams open. The LCRA is saying that it may close those gates this coming week, but only if there's no more rain in the hill country.

In good news for swimmers, as least Barton Springs is open again. Just in time for tomorrow's free swim day and public forum on the new masterplan for the historic swimming hole.

A phantom foie gras foe lobbed a brick through a plate glass window at Jeffrey's restaurant late Wednesday, bringing to eight (that we know of) the number of businesses vandalized this month for serving the fattened duck liver. (See "Foie Gras Fracas" in this week's issue.) Jeffrey's owner Ron Weiss said restaurant employees discovered the shattered window, plus the brick, Thursday morning and that police are taking the matter "very seriously." Weiss said he doesn't believe the Central Texas Animal Defense group is responsible for the damage but he's asked leader Noah Cooper to aid in trying to stop the nonsense. "This kind of behavior isn't going to help their cause," Weiss said, adding that the vandalism only stiffens the resolve of targeted restaurant owners to keep foie gras on their menus. Cooper said his group doesn't condone such tactics and CTAD will issue a statement today.

Seem Gov. Rick Perry's all pumped because Texas may be getting a bioweapons (sorry, "agricultural biodefense") research facility.

The Texas Research Park in San Antonio, promoted by the Texas Biological and Agro-Defense Consortium, got through to the next round to select a site for the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF). These labs, run by the Department of Homeland Security, will research preventing animal diseases, especially "high-consequence biological threats involving human, zoonotic (i.e., transmitted from animals to humans), and foreign animal diseases." Basically, that means ways to tackle biowarfare, either through direct threats to people, or indirect threats like, say, wiping out every chicken through a genetically modified virus.

Someone might want to tell the White House that Harriet Miers doesn't work for them any more. Its official biography of Miers says she's still Counsel to the President – even though she quit that post back in January.

This may mean any of several options:

1: The Bush administration is now so secretive that even its Human Resources department isn't being told who's where any more.

2: They're hoping that by saying she's still there, it'll boost their claims of executive privilege a bit more.

3: They've been a bit distracted, what with the war and everything.

4: If it's not a file they're claiming is super-duper extra-double-trouble secret, then they're not really interested in keeping track of it.

The big "will she, won't she?" dance on Capitol Hill was solved this morning when Dallas lawyer and former Texas Bar Association President and Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers no-showed the House Judiciary Subcommittee.

She was supposed to give evidence on the ever-growing US attorney firing scandal, but instead took the White House line that executive privilege trumps House subpoena powers. Bad news for her: the subcommittee just voted 7-5 that Miers was bound to at least show up. This means she's now open to contempt charges.

President Bush's interpretation of executive privilege stretched the credulity of constitutional scholars. In a very pointed letter to her lawyers yesterday, the subcommittee made it clear where they stood: "Even if a witness intends to assert privilege in response to a subpoena, that intention to assert privilege does not obviate the obligation to appear." Legalese for "turn up, or we'll hold you in contempt."

Miers' case probably wasn't helped by fellow witness and former White House aide Sara Taylor turning up Wednesday to answer questions selectively, even though she was under the same "no-show" orders from her former bosses.

Meanwhile, Bush himself was telling a press conference that the first conviction of a ranking member of his administration, Scooter Libby, was old news and they should move on. Fortunately for the White House press pack, his former staff were doing their best at the other end of the Capital Mall to give them something new to chew on.

With all the scintillating prose you'll find in print this week, let Chronic direct you to After a Fashion as not to miss this:

"A MODEL MAYOR It seems like just yesterday that our mayor, Will Wynn, strutted down the runway at Antone's wearing a silk smoking jacket and pajama pants from our own Made in Heaven collection. Our hunky leader slyly pushed the jacket back to reveal his shoulders, and by the time he made it to the end of the runway, he was completely shirtless, and the audience was a happy, howling mess. And now look what we hath wrought: Wynn will be soon be appearing on the pages of Esquire magazine modeling a hip pin-striped suit from Prada. The Esquire folks were all over Austin during South by Southwest back in March and, by a fluke, wound up hanging out with Wynn, who showed them a great time. When they found out that Wynn would be attending the big U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting in L.A. a couple of weeks ago, they contacted Wynn out of the blue and asked him to model for them (contrary to another story making the rounds). Wynn agreed if they would help him promote energy efficiency – so apparently Austin will be getting additional coverage from Esquire soon. That's the story, straight from the horse's mouth, as it were. Wynn was quick to remind After a Fashion that "I remember where I got my modeling start." Awww."

Leffingwell, McCracken and the other pretenders to the throne have their work cut out for them in the PR department.

As reported yesterday, Lady Bird Johnson, wife of former President Lyndon B. Johnson, died at the age of 94 at her Austin home.

Although she is to be buried with her husband at the Johnson family cemetery in Stonewall, the majority of the funeral arrangements for the former first lady will take place in Austin. There will be opportunities for the public to pay their respects.

Starting Friday at 1:15pm, the public is invited to pay their respects at the LBJ Museum and Library, 213 Red River, until 11am Saturday morning.

On Sunday, the public is invited to line the route of the funeral procession. It will begin at 9am at the State Capitol, head south down Congress, west (right) onto Cesar Chavez, continue down Lake Shore, and take 290, were it will end in Johnson City.

All other elements of the arrangements are private and for family only, and the public is asked to respect the family's wishes at this time.

The family has also asked that anyone who cannot attend or wishes to pay further respects make a contribution instead to her beloved project, the endowment fund for the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

Former first lady and Texas legend dead at 94.

Which will happen first - Fred Thompson gets into the presidential race, or John McCain gets out?

After his fundraising efforts have skidded to a halt, the Arizona republican has lost most of his top campaign staff: chief strategist John Weaver, campaign manager Terry Nelson (more on him in a moment), deputy manager Reed Galen and political director Rob Jesmer.

For anyone thinking the name Terry Nelson seems familiar, the professional campaign consultant/bruiser Nelson was political manager for Bush/Cheney '04, and second producer on the infamous "Call me!" attack ad on Tennessee senate hopeful Harold Ford Jr. in 2006.

But before that, back in 2002, Nelson was deputy chief of staff at the Republican National State Elections Committee (RNSEC). He ended up as an unindicted co-conspirator in Tom DeLay's shenanigans, when it turned out his office had been part of The Hammer's plan to illicitly filter $190,000 in TRMPAC cash into state election coffers.