Headlines

› City Council meets today (Thursday, Oct. 20), with a yeoman's list of items to consider, but nothing quite as controversial as its recent vote on election dates. See "City Hall Hustle."

› The fledgling group Austinites for Geographic Representation held a press conference at City Hall this week, announcing a petition drive to put on the ballot its preferred single-member district plan – 10 geographic districts, with only the mayor elected at large. The drive would be led by ChangeAustin.org's Linda Curtis; the group needs some 20,000 signatures to put the initiative to voters in May, meaning it could preempt a council-initiated City Charter election planned for November – perhaps forcing council to propose its own plan also in May. Both sides, however, say they'd prefer a November vote.

› A coalition of consumer, environmental, and other advocacy groups has formed to challenge Austin Energy's proposed electric rate increase, which they say would create economic hardships for low-income and senior citizens living on fixed incomes. Look for more details next week. There's one more hearing at the Electric Utility Commission on the rate hike, this Thursday, Oct. 20, 5pm, Austin Energy, 721 Barton Springs Rd.

› Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who has been filling in as acting governor while Rick Perry is on the stump, has issued interim charges to six Senate committees and a subcommittee to analyze the impact of the ongoing drought and this year's record-breaking wildfires on the economy and water conservation policy. Environment Texas says he isn't mentioning what they say is the core reason for the drought: global climate change.

› After a string of bad debates, Perry's plummet in the polls continues. New data from Real Clear Politics shows him trailing Mitt Romney and Herman Cain nationally by double digits, with worse numbers in key primary states. Perry has the support of only 3% of likely Florida GOP voters, while he craters to 1.8% in New Hampshire.

Speaking of debates, in Tuesday night's Las Vegas go-round, Perry attacked Romney on his lawn care company's former use of "illegal immigrants" and other outrages, but the testy exchanges did not appear to help him, and he was booed when he told moderator Anderson Cooper, "You get to ask the questions; I get to answer like I want to," a posture that should be familiar to members of the Capitol press corps.

› The normally taciturn Anita Perry came under scrutiny this week after she claimed that her family had been "brutalized" by the press and her husband's political opponents because he is the most Christian and conservative presidential hopeful and that her banker son had to leave his position to work on her hubby's campaign because of excess "government regulation."

› The malfunctioning Texas school finance system will face legal challenges from two different groups of independent school districts. The Texas School Coalition, representing net contributors under the Robin Hood recapture system, has announced it will file a separate lawsuit to that already filed by the Texas Taxpayer and Student Fairness Coalition.