• California-based chip-maker Spansion announced a temporary, three-week closure of its Austin facility, leaving some 1,100 workers in the lurch.
• The first volleys in the 2009 battle for mayor are fired, with Mayor Pro Tem Brewster McCracken announcing his candidacy and a political action committee created to “draft” Council Member Lee Leffingwell into the race. See “City Hall Hustle.”
• City Council considers some controversial measures at its meeting today, including extending development site plans’ validity to five years, offering earlier development notification to neighbors, and hiring an outside law firm to investigate how city staff approved a landfill expansion that council opposed.
• Rumors flew that Barack Obama is considering Juan Garcia, former state rep for Corpus Christi and naval pilot, as secretary of the Navy.
• Federal investigators arrested Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich Tuesday, on corruption charges of comic proportions (attempting to sell Obama’s vacated Senate seat to the highest bidder, extorting a Chicago children’s hospital, and more). Obama called on Blagojevich to resign.
Quote of the Week
“Lee Leffingwell is the candidate that progressive Austinites can trust to take the helm at City Hall.”
– Ted Siff, in an e-mail announcing the formation of the Draft Lee Leffingwell for Mayor political action committee, sent moments after Brewster McCracken kicked off his mayoral bid
This article appears in December 12 • 2008.