Headlines

• City Council has slipped into a turkey coma this week and will convene for a special-called meeting Dec. 2 to consider an incentives deal for SunPower Corporation, then meet for a regular session Dec. 9. Its last regular meeting of the year is Dec. 16. See "City Hall Hustle," as well as "All Rolled Up in Formula One" and "WTP4: Council Takes a Swig."

• Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is bracing for some of its busiest travel days of the year, with Wednesday, Nov. 24, and Sunday, Nov. 28, expected to be particularly heavy. The Transportation Security Administration's Advanced Imaging Technology, aka "porno scanners," aren't installed at ABIA; an airport spokesman says the agency's controversial enhanced pat downs/gropings are used as a secondary screening, after metal detectors.

• Little news in the way of filings for spring City Council elections, with the three incumbents – Laura Morrison, Chris Riley, and Randi Shade – having filed for re-election. Josiah Ingalls, last seen garnering 0.69% of the vote in the 2009 mayoral race, has appointed a campaign treasurer to run for Riley's Place 1 seat.

• Dozens of Austin ISD teachers on Monday appeared before the AISD board in a show of opposition to possible changes to teacher workloads and the prekindergarten program as the district braces for state budget cuts and the expiration of federal stimulus funds. For more AISD news, see "AISD: Balancing Teachers and Tech."

• Dan Neil, the Travis County Republican who narrowly failed to dislodge Democratic Rep. Donna Howard in the Nov. 2 election, has requested a recount. Neil, who lost by 16 votes, filed a formal challenge with the secretary of state; the recount is expected to begin next week.

• On Nov. 20, House Appropriations Committee Chair Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, told a group of tea party voters in Ellis County that the Legis­lature is considering dropping out of Medicaid in order to help fill the state's projected $28 billion deficit. If that happens, he admitted, "We will have to throw some people out on the street."

• As the Chronicle went to press Tuesday, Travis County jurors were set to reconvene Wednesday to continue deliberating money-laundering charges against former congressional leader Tom DeLay. See "DeLay Trial: Jury Hanging Fire."

• In the market for a utility? The Lower Colorado River Authority wants to unload its 32 rural and suburban water and wastewater utility systems, including several in and around Austin, to sharpen its focus on its original mission – providing water, flood management, and electric power to a growing region.

Quote of the Week

"Will Democrats ever recover the congressional seats they lost in 2003? Not in my lifetime."

– Steve Bickerstaff, author of Lines in the Sand: Congressional Redistricting in Texas and the Downfall of Tom DeLay, addressing the Central Texas Democratic Forum on Monday