A woman holds a bag of Skittles and a beverage in honor of Florida youth Trayvon Martin, who had purchased Skittles and an iced tea at a convenience store moments before he was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch captain. A “Justice for Trayvon Martin” rally was held Tuesday at the state Capitol. Credit: Photo by Sandy Carson

› City Council isn’t meeting today, but the Council agenda for next week (Thursday, April 5) is not last week’s tinderbox – no Apple incentives, no JPMorgan Chase – though a couple of dozen zoning casings clog the list, and there’s a formal vote whether to let Hostelling Internation­al keep its site on South Lakeshore Boulevard parkland, plus a controversial agreement to turn over the Green Water Treatment Plant site to Trammell Crow for development.

› Council campaign forums began in earnest this week, highlighted by Tuesday’s Real Estate Council of Austin forum, with a dozen candidates on display. Early puzzle: Could Place 5 incumbent Bill Spelman face a numbers problem? See “City Campaign Season Opens,” Newsdesk blog, for more.

› Austin police say three separate drug busts this month for cocaine, heroin, and marijuana further confirm that the city has become a major drug hub for Mexican cartels; APD placed an $8 million value on the total confiscation.

› Bexar County Tax Assessor-Collector Sylvia Romo, who hopes to unseat U.S. Rep. Lloyd Dog­gett in the Democratic primary for the new Congressional District 35, released an endorsement list this week that reads like a who’s who of San Antonio politics.

› The D.C. district court has set a July 9 trial date for the Texas voter ID bill, ensuring that the tough new rules will not be applied during the May 29 primaries. State director of elections Keith Ingram has told the court the rules must be cleared by Aug. 15 or they cannot be used in the general election either.

› On a higher dais, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments over the Affordable Care Act, with the narrowly split court debating whether requiring health insurance – since literally everybody needs health care – is an unconscionable intrusion on individual liberty, like (cf. Scalia) forcing people to eat broccoli. Next up for the Supremes: Is air pollution a problem for those who choose not to breathe?

› The notorious Trayvon Martin homicide case is reverberating nationwide with many “hoodie” protests (including in Austin), and a thoughtlessly racist cartoon in The Daily Texan going viral, dubbed by Gawker the “Most Racist Trayvon Martin Cartoon.”

› After months of delay, the Austin Independent School District Board is expected to discuss a new deal reappointing Educa­tion Austin as its exclusive consultation agent at an April 2 work session. The new arrangement would see the union remain the prime contact between employees and the district but would ensure more regular input from other employee groups.

› After 30 years, Ken Kramer is standing down as president of the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club. However, he has pledged to stay active with the organization in retirement, saying that he’ll keep volunteering on water issues.

› The Parks Board unanimously recommended Tuesday that City Council commission a study of closing Riverside Drive in the middle of Town Lake Metropolitan Park.

This article appears in March 30 • 2012.

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