Headlines / Quote of the Week

Meryl Streep visited Austin Sunday to honor Robert De Niro, her friend of 40 years, at the University of Texas. De Niro has donated his complete acting archive – including his Oscars, Godfather scripts, and notes – to UT's Harry Ransom Center. (Screenshot via Rosenfield Media Group)

God Save the Senator: Sen. Ted Cruz broke from his party in a Senate Rules Committee decision this week, voting against the bipartisan Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act, which is designed to prevent another Jan. 6-style insurrection. It would also bar Cruz from singlehandedly objecting to presidential election results. Both parties' Senate leaders voted for it and it will advance to the full Senate, where it's expected to find broad support.

Tehran Calling: Fiery anti-veil protests have erupted in dozens of Iranian cities after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who morality police in Iran reportedly detained for violating dress code. Local protesters raised signs outside the Texas Capitol Monday in solidarity.

Your Kids Wanna Be Sedated: The newest frontier of drug panic is rainbow fentanyl, candy-colored pills turning up in the marketplace for illicit meds popular with young people. The Texas health department urged parents to talk about drugs with their kids; the Facebook fearful contorted this into tall tales of evil people giving away fentanyl on Halloween, and now Fox News is telling parents to keep their kids home.

Now I Wanna Be Your Gov: Beto O'Rourke, off the heels of his 49-day Drive for Texas tour, on Monday launched his "college tour" across Texas at UT-Austin. "Young people, students like those who are here right now, are literally going to decide the outcome of this election," he said at the event.

One Way or Another (They'll Be Reporting): The Denton Record-Chronicle announced this week it's in talks to be acquired by Dallas public broadcaster KERA, thus becoming a nonprofit. The DRC is winding down its print edition but will keep covering Denton as a digital outlet. The deal, aided by the National Trust for Local News, mirrors the recent acquisition of the Chicago Sun-Times by WBEZ.

I Hate the Rich: Grimes took to Twitter this week to inform Texans that rent is expensive. (No!! Really??) She then promoted a petition that lays out some seemingly palatable (if developer-friendly) asks for state leadership, like freeing property owners to build casitas. The petition is from Texans for Reasonable Solutions, whose board includes Grimes herself, former congressional campaign manager Nicole Nosek, and Nicole's husband, billionaire co-founder of PayPal Luke Nosek.

Urban Home: The American Rescue Plan allocated $5 billion to assist people who are homeless or at risk – up to $11.4 million could go to Austin. The city wants community members to review the city's proposal at this link, bit.ly/3SkAGDL, then comment virtually or IRL at the Oct. 11 public hearing with the Community Development Commission.

Quote of the Week

Photo by John Anderson

"Run, Ken, run!"

– Rochelle Garza, Democratic nominee for Texas attorney general, after GOP incumbent Ken Paxton reportedly ran away from a man serving him a subpoena this week