While one Halloween-masked local has been taking goodies (see this morning's post about the Prosperity Bank robbery), others have been using their scary aspects for more noble purposes.

Charity haunted house attraction Scare for a Cure has raised more than $10,000 for good causes. Organized by Austin Police Department Detective Jarrett Crippen, aka the Defuser from the Sci Fi channel’s hit show Who Wants to Be a Superhero?, the money will go to local and national cancer-related charities.

Testimony in Responsible Growth for Northcross' suit against a proposed Wal-Mart at Northcross Mall (see previous posts below to get up to speed) continued this morning, with a continued focus on flood control, especially in relation to a decades-old plat note on the property. Again, the complexities of flood control are too much to go into in this blog space (and I'd probably explain it incorrectly anyway), but the basic gist of RG4N's argument this morning is that the city's approval of Lincoln Property's site plan violated the note, which mandates that "Rainfall runoff shall be held to the amount existing at undeveloped status by use of ponding or other approved methods." The city – with testimony from city engineers Benny Ho and Jose Guerrero – countered that "undeveloped status" means status at the time the application is filed, not a reversion to the status of when the property was a green pasture. Attorney Casey Dobson, representing the city, said "To use a legal term, that [would be] silly." Guerrero further testified that the law only requires that a project not make flooding worse, and that Lincoln's site plan will actually reduce impervious cover and presumable send less floodwater off-site.

Testimony resumes at 1:30pm.

After-Halloween sales are really the best: cheap candy, costumes for next year, and any manner of ghoulish accessories to woo that goth girl you've been eyeing.

Plus masks. One go-getter donned what the the Austin Police Department describes as a "Halloween mask, green with fangs" and marched in to the Prosperity Bank on Research Boulevard, brandished a gat, and made off with some money – leaving behind these freaky surveillance photos.

The APD's press release below the fold.

Afternoon action in the Responsible Growth for Northcross trial Tuesday afternoon consisted mostly of testimony on floodwater drainage engineering, which this reporter (and likely anyone in the courtroom who was not a water engineer) admittedly found a bit arcane and difficult to follow, but it could be boiled down (pardon the pun) to this: Dr. Lauren Ross, a drainage engineer for the city of Sunset Valley and frequent player in Barton Springs and other Austin water issues, said that Lincoln Property Co.’s site plan to build a Wal-Mart on the former Northcross Mall property did not meet city floodwater code; Jim Schissler, project manager for the redevelopment, said he had done what city code prescribed; and city of Austin engineer Benny Ho said that different engineers using different data sets can come to different conclusions.

Texas Democrats have made no secret they plan to target Republicans in the 2008 elections over cash they took in 2006 from right-wing political action committees: Groups like the HillCo PAC, a right-wing lobbying body famous for its close connection to House Speaker Tom Craddick and heavy donations from Republican sugar daddy Bob “Swift boat” Perry. HillCo dropped $1,015,704 into the 2006 elections, and Dems have already said they’ll use that against Republican candidates next November by linking them to the conservative cash machine. But several high-ranking Dems also received HillCo donations, and now that’s coming back to haunt them in the primaries.

One recipient of HillCo’s largesse was Rep. Ismael “Kino” Flores, D-Mission, who received $3,500. Now primary challenger Sandra Rodriguez is using that cash against him, saying in an Oct. 30 press release that the incumbent “needs to stop the shell game and tell the voters where he is getting his money and what he is providing in exchange for these contributions.”

Rep. Aaron Peña, D-Edinburg, is also defending his HillCo connections. In 2004, he fought off primary challenger Eddie Sáenz. Now Sáenz is back, saying that Peña “lined his pockets with thousands of dollars from a political action committee funded by Republican politicians’ top money man.” Peña fired back that he should be judged on his voting record, but squeezed in that, next session, he promises to vote for a Democrat house speaker.

This schism could still hit closer to home. According to Texans for Public Justice, in 2006 Austin’s own Dawnna Dukes took $3,000 from HillCo and another $10,000 this September. She faces no primary challenger yet, but with filing not ending until Jan. 2, it’s not impossible one could appear.

The excitement thus far: Well, I'm not sure if testimony on water drainage engineering qualifies as excitement, but that's what we got – first Responsible Growth for Northcross President Hope Morrison testified on how a Wal-Mart at Northcross will negatively impact quality of life for the neighbors, with very little cross-exam from Casey Dobson (of Scott, Douglass & McConnico, hired to represent the city). Dobson asked whether she was an expert on the engineering concerns relating to the redevelopment, to which she answered "no."

Then Lauren Ross, who holds a doctorate in water resources engineering, gave testimony on how she believes Lincoln Property's site plan is not in compliance with city regulations because it could slightly increase flood runoff from the property, based on her own floodwater calculations. Judge Orlinda Naranjo broke for lunch before Dobson or the Lincoln attorneys could cross-examine.

The real fireworks came from Dobson in his opening statement: "This city, to the point of distraction sometimes, loves a conspiracy theory. And if all you hear about this case was what was on RG4N's website and what you read in the Chronicle and what you heard in the media, you would believe that this site plan was approved because the City Council lacks courage, the city staff are feckless developer lackeys, and everybody was just out to get them. … This site plan was approved because that's what the law required the city to do. Period."

I'm blogging this morning from the Travis County Courthouse, where Responsible Growth for Northcross awaits the start of its trial in its suit against the city of Austin and Lincoln Property. RG4N is suing on four points, claiming: 1) Lincoln's site plan to build a Wal-Mart Supercenter on the site of the former Northcross Mall violates a plat note on the tract protecting Shoal Creek; 2) city staff failed to review the site plan to ensure compliance with traffic and public-safety provisions of the city's Land Development Code; 3) the Wal-Mart's garden center is a conditional use that was improperly approved by city staff, which did not have the power to do so; and 4) the site plan violates the city's Protected Tree Ordinance.

The trial is being heard in the 419th District Court before Judge Orlinda Naranjo. I'll update throughout the day as time permits.

While Texas Recycles Day may not be a state holiday just yet, HEB is commemorating it in a big way. This Thursday, Nov. 15, Austin HEB stores will celebrate by giving away free reusable shopping bags to customers bringing in at least five disposable plastic grocery bags for recycling. Better yet, customers bringing in 10 disposable bags can score two reusables, but that's the limit. (Once HEB's 20,000 free bags are gone, customers can purchase them for 99 cents.) The giveaway coincides with an added push by the grocer to expand their own plastics recycling program; also beginning today, bins go up outside Austin H-E-Bs for recycling most No. 2 and No. 4 plastics, including grocery-store and dry-cleaning bags, six-pack rings, "outer-wrap" on products like toilet paper, and more. Widely maligned as a waste of petroleum resources and cause of pollution, the move comes as the city of Austin considers ways to lessen disposable bags' use.

(And on another note, we gotta say that attaching your press release to a reusable bag stuffed full of Central Market treats like veggie chips and chocolate truffles is a move more PR firms need to emulate. Bon appétit!)

On Veterans Day, there are some sobering new figures about what happens to ex-military personnel when they leave the forces.

The Homeless Research Institute released a report on Friday that, on any one night in 2006, there were up to 195,827 homeless veterans on the streets of America. In total, almost half a million ex-service personnel were homeless at some point during the year, and another half a million were spending more than half their income on rent, placing them at high risk of becoming homeless.

With 1,612,948 registered veterans in Texas, the institute records that 15,967 were homeless in 2006, up more than 500 from 2005. On top of that, 28,745 faced severe housing costs burdens, meaning 2.8% of all veterans were either homeless or in serious danger of becoming so.

Even though veterans only account for 11% of the population, they account for 26% of the homeless population or possibly even higher: In August the National Coalition of the Homeless put that figure up around 40%. There is a strange leveling effect hidden in the numbers. Among the general population, black nonveterans are 2.9 times as likely to be homeless as white nonveterans. Among veterans, that's down to 1.4 times. Homeless veterans are also more likely to be better educated and more likely to have been or still be married.