Headlines

Protesters gathered in front of City Hall on Aug. 4 for the Black Women Matter police brutality demonstration. The group, brought together by the Austin Justice Coalition, demanded City Council address police violence against Breaion King – the AISD teacher brutally handled by police during an arrest last year – and other black women in Austin. (Photo by Jana Birchum)

City Council concludes a busy week today (Aug. 11) with a full zoning agenda, an eye toward refining the proposed $720 million mobility bond, and making progress on the FY 2017 budget. See "City Council Preview," August 12.

Former election adversaries Mike Martinez and Mayor Steve Adler have joined forces to back Austin's planned transportation bond on the November ballot. Former Council Member Martinez appeared Friday with Adler, who beat him in 2014, to call the bond "a sound, well-thought-through plan that's built upon previous decisions."

District 10 Council Member Sheri Gallo faces another challenger in the race for her seat: Nick Virden, a 23-year-old UT-Austin alum. Virden recently told the Statesman he's disappointed with "the way the city is being run, pushing out technological innovation," and "just the overall wasteful spending."

The city of Austin was awarded an $820,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency last week to benefit redevelopment efforts in East Austin. The money will fund the cleanup of several hundred contaminated sites identified in the area.

The Matrix Report, a study on police department staffing that city officials hope will improve community policing, started circulating late last week. Chronicle staff was still reviewing the 239-page report when we went to press.

Round Rock Police and the Travis County Sheriff's Office remain mum as the investigation into TCSO Sergeant Craig Hutchinson's July 25 death continues this week. Officials said last week that Hutchinson died from a gunshot fired from his county-issued weapon. The Statesman reported Tuesday that Hutchinson's Round Rock home had come up for foreclosure on July 11.

Texas rail plans took another blow Mon­day when the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization voted to remove the Lone Star Rail District from the CAMPO 2040 strategic plan. Chair Will Conley said Union Pacific's decision to not let the proposed route – a 117-mile passenger line linking Georgetown and San Antonio – use existing freight lines through Austin made the plan "fatally flawed."

More than 25 former prosecutors filed an amicus brief in support of Texas death row inmate Duane Buck, whose case is currently pending with the U.S. Supreme Court. Buck, 53, shot and killed his ex-girlfriend Debra Gardner and her friend Kenneth Butler in front of Gardner's children in 1995. He was sentenced to death in part because of the testimony of psychologist Walter Quijano, who said Buck should be considered a future threat because of "the race factor": Buck's blackness.