This just in, over the wires: The fabled Intel shell will be imploded Feb. 25 in the most awesome press event ever, clearing the way for the new federal courthouse slated for its spot.

We'll miss ya, big guy.

When in doubt, sell the Texas Lottery. That's Gov. Rick Perry's solution for funding education and health care – two areas that always get short-changed at budget time. Perry laid out his fat and lofty agenda Tuesday in his State of the State address. The high point, if you can call it that, was Perry's idea of selling the lottery, because, as he explained it, the funding source won't "dry up over time or cost the state general revenue, unlike a bond proposal." The governor believes the sale would fetch $14 billion. He proposes using the money to create three trust funds – $2.7 billion would go toward health coverage for the uninsured, which in turn would generate interest payments of up to a quarter billion dollars per year; $3 billion would fund a cancer-research initiative (originally proposed as a bond election); and $8 billion would go to a public-education endowment that would provide $800 million a year for schools. Reactions from legislators so far? Mixed.

It’s not just in the U.S. Senate that inquiry into the Iraq debacle is being suppressed. British courts are finding their investigations being hog-tied, and the political fallout could be immense. The UK media is abuzz with allegations that the Pentagon pressured the UK government to hide evidence of a fatal friendly fire incident to protect two American pilots.

On March 8, 2003, 25-year-old Lance Cpl. Matty Hull, a member of the British Army’s Household Cavalry Regiment, was killed in a friendly fire incident in Iraq when two A-10 “Warthog” tankbuster planes strafed his convoy. After a lengthy campaign by Hull’s family, and those of four other soldiers seriously injured in the attack, a public inquiry is finally being held in the UK. Oxfordshire County Assistant Deputy Coroner Andrew Walker heard that there was no cockpit recording of the incident, and the whole thing was about to be written off as a “fog of war” accident.

No doubt you've seen those eyes – always those eyes – peering out at you everywhere you go, working over your every crevice, winding their way into your very soul. Setting your entire being ablaze, they scream, “Hi, I'm Austin Mayor Will Wynn.”

If your palms are dry and you legs haven't quivered into pillars of jelly, then chances are you haven't copped the February issue of Austin Fit Magazine. With his marathon mug peering from the cover, the master of all he surveys, Wynn kicks knowledge on his running game and aspirations for his city fitness program.

But for those ladies longing for some more candid snaps of Wynn (and judging from word on the street, that's quite a few of you), like most dirty pictures, you gotta go the Internet. In the print edition, Wynn keeps his shirt on, but online, he ladles out a luscious bowl of velvety beef mansumme for all to see. (It's in the first set of pictures halfway down the story.)

Previously, we talked about PETA's big protest/Playboy shoot (not really) going down at noon today on Sixth and Congress. If anyone's in the neighborhood, send along your camera-phone snaps to wells [AT] austinchronicle.com.

So we can, uhh, post them. That's it!

In which the Statesman abandons any pretense to news or information and, instead, presents a shitload of Budweiser and Doritos commercials.

Some state lawmakers and Capitol observers are questioning Gov. Rick Perry’s surprise mandate requiring young girls to receive a vaccine against human papillomavirus, a sexually transmitted disease that causes cervical cancer. At a hastily called press conference Monday morning, Lewisville Republican Sen. Jane Nelson, who chairs the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, asked Perry to rescind his executive order so legislators can weigh the pros and cons of a vaccine that has been on the market for only six months.

Nelson said her three primary concerns about the drug are costs ($360 for a three-shot regimen), safety, and parental rights. Nelson was joined at the press briefing by two GOP House members, Jim Keffer of Eastland and Dan Flynn of Van. Keffer, who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, said Perry’s mandate caught him off guard because he and Nelson are working with Perry on a $3 billion cancer research initiative. “I don’t understand the thought process here,” he said.

Reprinted verbatim from a press release:

"Lt. Ehren Watada is the first commissioned officer to refuse deployment to the war in Iraq. Today begins his military tribunal (courts not known for their dedication to constitutional law and tending to ignore the oath soldiers take to refuse to obey illegal orders). He faces up to 4 years in prison. This is a pivotal moment in the debate on the war, and the Lt., a brave man for testing these turbulent waters.

Yesterday, folks from far and wide converged in Ft. Hood (Killeen) to show support of Lt. Watada and Austinites did the same in front of Camp Mabry this a.m.

TONITE:

Court Martial Update & The Ground Truth Screening

Cafe Caffeine (909 West Mary at S. 5th St.)
6pm to 9pm

This will be an opportunity for the general public to gather in support of Lt. Watada. We will provide an update on Lt. Watada's case and show a video of Lt. Watada speaking out against the war in Iraq. We will also screen the documentary The Ground Truth."

That title's not something you see in a press release just any old day. Pencil this in tomorrow's schedule: At noon Tuesday, Feb. 6, at Sixth Street and Congress, said bevy "will climb into a giant bed and hold signs that read, 'Fur's Out - Love's In' to take their message of compassion in fashion to consumers for Valentine's Day."

Depending on your opinion of the controversial group, naked ladies may not be enough of a draw for you to show up, but hey, whatever works for PETA, right? Lots more softcore pics floating around www.furisdead.com, if you're into that sorta thing.