OK, this thing is getting weirder by the minute: Jennifer Kim's press conference on her recent airport security issues has been canceled. Maybe she decided no news is good news?

For us, the lingering question is how Kim's security query got leaked to Tony Plohetski. In his initial report, he sites "a memo from the city manager's office used to summarize council members' concerns and questions." That sounds like it came straight from one of Toby Futrell's fabled "one-on-ones" with her councilmembers. Political motives for dissing Kim aside, how would the rest of the council feel if anything that arose in their sessions with Futrell were leaked?

Especially with this being the second time something damaging was leaked to harm Kim (the first being her memo proposing probation for the city auditor last year), I suspect there is much more on the way. Not on the ostensible story itself – "OMG, Jennifer Kim's a spoiled ballerina!" – but the story behind the story.

The Place 3 City Council member will be in City Hall's news conference room at 2pm to speak on "airport security issues."

We are so there.

UPDATE: And we're not. Conference canceled.

January 30, 2007 will forever be remembered as the day the laughter died. Why? It's when John Kelso decided to chime in about Gategate, Jennifer Kim's airport kerfluffle. As if there wasn't enough quasi-sexist dribble floating around out there, The Bearded One devotes the entirety of his column to crowns and tiaras. C'mon Gramps, there's enough dumb-assery here to go around; let's not fall back on gender. (Just ageism.) At least he didn't swipe my material about those vegan firefighters and the BBQ fire. I thought for sure the tofu jokes would be spilling off Tuesday's metro section.

A local political handicapper writes in on the broader significance and orchestration of the PR disaster: "Right About Now would be the time that potential 2008 opponents would be sizing up their options. What perfect timing for an effort to make Jennifer into a local joke? Next year, you're going to be talking to Place 3 candidates, and someone's gonna say "I was on the fence, but that airport business was the last straw." Indeed, the only Place 3 candidate we knew about recently confirmed they were out, but we'll soon see who's drawn out by the blood in the water (or in this case, on the tarmac).

SaveTownLake.org has retained heavy hitter law firm Brown McCarroll, to ensure that the City of Austin takes its concerns seriously. On Monday the advocacy group — recently formed to oppose waterfront development on protected land along the Town Lake Corridor — hand-delivered to City Manager Toby Futrell a letter prepared by attorney Nikelle Meade.

The letter addresses a project that the nonprofit regards as a critical test case: Proposed condo towers by California developer CWS Apartment Homes at 222 and 300 E. Riverside Drive. The developer is seeking to build 200’ towers just 80 feet from the shoreline; the city’s Waterfront Overlay District ordinance requires a 200-foot setback on the sites. If the request is granted, it would be the first such setback variance approved on Town Lake. Attorney Richard Suttle represents CWS; SaveTownLake.org has expressed concerns that Suttle may be using unethical tactics, disinformation, and/or undue influence with the city.

It's a very sad day around the Chronicle offices – Barbaro was euthanized early this morning. How the paper will go on, I don't know.

Council member Sheryl Cole's policy director Kenny Thompson, spreading the Obama love.

The ID was particularly great: "Kenny Thompson – Democrat."

So failed (sorry, withdrawn) speaker candidate Rep. Jim Pitts says that House Speaker Tom Craddick basically booted him off the House Appropriations committee, which he used to chair. The fact that he's vice-chair on Government Reform is no recompense; moreover, Pitts claims the only reason he's still on Ways and Means is because seniority meant Craddick couldn't kick him off.

Meanwhile, Tom denies that he, as Pitts put it, "chose retaliation over reconciliation." He says he met with Pitts, and offered him a seat, but his ex-opponent turned it down.

That doesn't really sound, as Pitts said in his withdrawal speech leaping out of the Craddick bandwagon's path, like the healing has begun.

Whew, that was quick. About an hour and a half after they began deliberations, the jury in Colton Pitonyak's murder trial returned a guilty verdict. Sentencing is right around the corner, scheduled for 2pm, so his fate could be sealed today.

UPDATE: As of 4pm, sentencing is still underway.

Elsewhere in the Statesman this weekend, editorial guru Arnold Garcia wandered in off the links long enough to pen an op-ed attacking the lowest of the low – his readers – and praying for their death.

Attaining levels of douchebaggery previously thought impossible, even by Garcia's astronomical standards, he sniffs that Southern Methodist University's competition for the George W. Bush presidential library is causing an "Austin-style snit" at the affluent Metroplex campus. Nowhere does Garcia attack the crux of the problem – that, in a break with traditional prez libraries, this one may come attached with a conservo think tank. Instead, he's content to confine his hits to the dirty fucking hippies comprising the city of Austin. Perusing Kelso's rejected gag list, Garcia deigns the library should be at the Concordia campus, near St. David's, if only because it "could come in handy because of the heart attack epidemic that would erupt in nearby Hyde Park."

A little hard to understand, we know, so here's a translation: Christ, what an asshole.