Headlines / Quote of the Week
Fri., Sept. 20, 2024
How Pathetic: The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Elon Musk has been meddling in our democracy, trying to undermine District Attorney José Garza. Using Federal Communications Commission filings, corporate documents, and interviews with people familiar with Musk’s efforts, the Journal learned our local Daddy Warbucks secretly spent more than $650,000 attacking Garza during this spring’s Democratic primary. Musk may as well have flushed the cash down the toilet though. His hundreds of thousands only bought him an embarrassing loss, with Garza defeating Jeremy Sylestine two to one.
Pool Time: Barton Springs is back, just in time for the 100-degree weekend! The city’s crown jewel reopened this morning after three weeks of repairs to a broken pipe that could have endangered swimmers. Biologists monitored the repairs and are happy to report that no salamanders were harmed in the process.
UT Gets More Selective: The University of Texas is tightening its automatic admission threshold to 5% of Texas’ top high schoolers in the 2026 admission cycle, down from 6%, the Statesman reported. UT is experiencing higher demand, with a record-breaking 73,000 undergraduate applications for this fall.
Free the Porn: The ACLU and ACLU of Texas filed a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court this week on behalf of the Free Speech Coalition urging the high court to strike down a Texas law that they say violates the First Amendment by unconstitutionally blocking adults from sexual content online. The law, HB 1181, requires age verification for any site where at least a third of the content is “harmful to minors,” but the ACLU argues, “adults in America have a First Amendment right to read about sexual health, see R-rated movies, watch porn, and otherwise access information about sex if they want to.”
We Sue Paxton For Once: Austin is going on offense against Texas’ corrupt attorney general, Ken Paxton. Travis County officials sued Paxton in federal court on Tuesday for his attempt to block local voter registration efforts, accusing the AG of violating the National Voter Registration Act. The suit is in response to one Paxton launched earlier this month to stop the county from mailing out voter registration applications. Speaking of that, the deadline to get registered is Oct. 7. Get it done, people!
Let There Be Guns: And as we know, Paxton spends disgusting amounts of our taxpayer dollars pushing frivolous lawsuits. Last week, the AG withdrew a legal opinion his office authored almost a decade ago giving nonprofits the right to ban guns on land they lease from a city. Withdrawing the opinion was an attempt to push forward his lawsuit against the State Fair of Texas, a nonprofit, for its ban on guns. State Fair organizers have said the gun ban is an attempt to make the event safer after three people were injured by a shooting at the fair last year.
Bible Lessons in Public School? Sure, Whatever: Texas education officials are considering approving a state-developed K-5 curriculum that includes Bible stories. The Republican-controlled Texas State Board of Education will vote on it in November. The Texas Education Agency told KUT the Bible stories are “included for the literary and historical value of the content.”
Stop This Cluster F Now Please: Seventy Texas school districts wrote to the Texas Education Agency last week pressing the state to suspend a new error-ridden data reporting system that they say could mess up school funding and accountability. The state piloted this system with 300 districts last year, and the dozens of superintendents in last week’s letter say that it was a hot mess which should not go live.
GOP Suffering in South Texas: The Texas GOP is vowing to make a “major investment” in South Texas, The Texas Tribune reported Monday. County-level party officials in the area have signed an open letter warning of “grave and deteriorating” fundraising and voter outreach. This spring, the Texas GOP had just five employees, compared to 50 at the same point in the 2020 presidential cycle.
Abbott and Trump Have a New Gang Obsession: Apparently if Trump starts talking about a Venezuelan prison gang, Gov. Greg Abbott will designate them a Tier 1 threat a few days later. Trump mentioned Tren de Aragua at the debate, and then in Las Vegas last week he vowed to “liberate Aurora,” nodding to conservative media reports that the gang has taken over an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado (even though city officials say those reports are overblown). Abbott’s proclamation directs state police to focus on the gang, The Dallas Morning News reported.
Quieter Times Ahead: Until now, venues have dealt with sound regulations, but developers building homes near venues have been doing whatever the hell. A new rule approved by City Council last week will require developers to do a sound assessment to determine how much soundproofing they need. The measure also directs city staff to create a sort of noise map so people can have accurate expectations about noise where they’re planning to live.
Perry On Board with Phelan: Former Gov. Rick Perry will be a senior adviser to Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, who continues to be challenged by three more conservative Republicans. Perry will serve as a volunteer until the next legislative session starts Jan. 14, The Dallas Morning News reported.
Parking Problems or Not?: Remember when City Council eliminated minimum parking requirements late last year? Now, developers are only required to create accessible parking for people with disabilities when they build. KUT reports Austin is one of the biggest cities in the country without minimum parking requirements now. So, are builders going crazy with it? It’s too soon to really tell, but a KUT analysis of 14 projects found that developers built, in total, about 25% fewer parking spaces than they would have under old rules.
Council Says Whoops Never Mind: The long-tinkered-with South Central Waterfront Combining District plan (for the area along Lady Bird Lake where the Statesman’s old building is) is on ice now. Following the lead of Mayor Kirk Watson, last week City Council unanimously approved an indefinite postponement of the plan, the Austin Monitor reported.
Quote of the Week
“[Bible stories are] included for the literary and historical value of the content.”
– Texas Education Agency spokesperson, explaining the presence of Bible lessons in K-5 materials under consideration for public schools
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