Naked City

Quote of the Week: "[Those] not yet overcome by war madness [must] raise their voice of protest, to call the attention of the people to the crime and outrage which are about to be perpetrated on them." -- Anarchist and activist Emma Goldman, writing in 1915. That quotation, and another from 1905 decrying suppression of free speech, were deemed "too political" by officials at the University of California and were struck from a fundraising pitch for the Emma Goldman archive at Berkeley, The New York Times reports.

Mayor Pro Tem Jackie Goodman announced she won't be running for mayor this spring, leaving her colleague Will Wynn the unquestioned favorite to succeed Gus Garcia (see Austin@Large).

Gary Bradley's dream of a new (and even bigger) Circle C Ranch in Buda may be coming to fruition -- without Gary Bradley (?) -- as developers filed papers to create a massive edge city on the southern fringe.

Meanwhile, the old Circle C, now in the hands of Stratus Properties, is the focus of a second lawsuit filed by the Save Our Springs Alliance intended to stop the development deal approved by the City Council last summer (see Again, SOS Sues On Stratus).

Members of the Texas Lege returned to the Capitol to find a big gaping hole where their money used to be, as State Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn projected a biennial budget deficit of at least $9.9 billion, twice what she had originally predicted (see Capitol Chronicle).

As expected, Tom Craddick, R-Midland, became speaker of the Texas House on Tuesday; of 150 members, only one, Fort Worth Democrat Lon Burnam, voted against Craddick (see Burnam Says No to Craddick).

Meanwhile, Gov. Rick Perry announced, to the certain delight of his handlers, that really, it was too much to expect that he, Lt. Gov.-elect David Dewhurst, Craddick, and other GOP leaders could really do anything about the complex issues (like the budget deficit or school finance) facing the state, because, y'know, they're new to the job. (Between them, Messrs. P, D, and C have spent 56 years in elected office.)