Headlines

• Election day is Saturday, May 9! If you haven't voted early (and very few of you have), make certain to stop at the polls Saturday before you hit the trails, the lake, or the lawn mower – a hot mayoral race likely heads to a run-off, and your city needs your vote!

• Bad news from KLRU: The local public television station has pink-slipped 12 employees and plans to revamp some of its programming. See "TV Eye" for more on this late-breaking story.

• The 81st Legislature headed into the home stretch – the last day of the session is June 1, with everybody casting spells against a special – with "Choose Life" on its license plates and "voter ID" on its mind. See "Sniffing Sine Die."

• Charges are flying in the mayoral campaigns, with Brewster McCracken at the center of allegations of campaign finance violations and phantom political action committees. See "City Hall Hustle," "Campaign Finance Flare-Up," and "Ticketing a (Campaign) Violation."

• City Council is a little distracted right now, what with its members' replacements auditioning all over town, but it did manage last week to pass a revised Waterfront Overlay Ordinance (on first reading) aimed at protecting the shoreline of Lady Bird Lake against overbuilding.

• Oh thank heaven for Chapter 11. Bee Cave's Hill Country Galleria, a big retail center made possible by tax incentives, filed for bankruptcy protection late Monday in an 11th-hour move to avert a Travis County foreclosure auction.

• Could former Texas secretary of state and ex-U.S. Attorney General Alberto "I Don't Recall" Gonzales face prosecution or disbarment over the Bush administration's torture policies? As a Department of Justice investigation concludes and Spanish judges contemplate charges, the loyal Bushy told Dan Abrams, "only a fool wouldn't worry about it."

• Col. Stanley Clark, director of the beleaguered Texas Department of Public Safety, announced his retirement, effective May 31. Allan B. Polunsky, chairman of the Texas Public Safety Commission, said Clark had failed to "demonstrate the highest degree of professionalism" expected of the agency.

• Swine flu fears abate: The Austin Independent School District announced it will reopen Lucy Read Pre-K on Thursday, May 7 – four days earlier than expected – and that out-of-district field trips are back on again.

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Quote of the Week

"I don't know who you are but what you are doing is very creative and cool."

– Brewster McCracken, complimenting whoever was behind the mysterious placement of pro-McCracken campaign fliers on car windshields Downtown (see "Ticketing a (Campaign) Violation")