Naked City

Illustration By Doug Potter

Quote of the Week: "The prospect of appointing a foreign military commander to run an Islamic and Arab country is destabilizing and indicative of prevailing delusions. One outcome is almost certain -- extremism stands to benefit." -- Javad Zarif, Iran's ambassador to the United Nations. Despite Iran's bloody history with Saddam Hussein, it joined 60 nations (including Kuwait) at the UN Tuesday in opposing the push for war in Iraq. (See "War Drums.")

After 17 years in office, Travis Co. Attorney Ken Oden announced his resignation this week. (See "Ken Oden Says Adieo.")

Gamble your troubles away! A $440 million casino plan for Waller Creek has tongues wagging and eyes rolling across the town (see "Austin@Large").

Tuesday was the first day for candidates to file for the May 3 City Council elections. As of press time, four hats had been thrown into the ring: Leslie Cochran, Jennifer Gale, and Marc Katz for mayor and Brewster McCracken for Place 5.

As Texas heads toward its 300th lethal injection in modern times, opposition to the Texecution Express emerged from a most unlikely quarter -- within the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (see "Capitol Chronicle").

Naked City feels compelled to report that we could not possibly care less about the Celeste Beard Johnson case. No, wait -- we did care less about that killer dentist down in Houston.

Walt Rostow, the former Kennedy and LBJ confidant and Vietnam hawk who later became a leading light of the UT faculty and Austin community leader, died this week at age 86.

On the Web: Merging juvenile probation into the Texas Youth Commission may have dire consequences for troubled teens in Texas, and bike advocates balk at city claims that lanes on Guadalupe and Lavaca would actually increase pollution. Visit austinchronicle.com/news.