� The biggest news from today’s City Council may be off the agenda – the first use of real-time action postings on the city website, www.austintexas.gov. The site has steadily improved since a fairly rough initial redesign, and the online streaming (and subsequent breakout of particular items by Channel 6) is very helpful. Today, look for the Green Water Treatment Plant development master plan, the “Hostel Takeover Averted” (March 9), and more. See “Zoning, Fluoride, and Old Hollywood.”
� The City Council election campaigns have begun in earnest – election May 12, early voting begins April 30, and voters must register by April 12 – and the early signs are for a very heated mayoral race, in which former Council Member Brigid Shea is challenging incumbent Mayor Lee Leffingwell (and also-ran Clay Dafoe), and a Place 5 battle royale, with a half-dozen uneven candidates hunting incumbent Bill Spelman. Places 2 and 6 are also in play; for more, see “City Campaign: Voters Wanted.”
� At press time, the Chronicle learned that Assistant City Manager Rudy Garza is hanging up his spurs at City Hall. Garza is said to have announced his retirement Monday, although the city has not yet officially released the news.
� Austin ISD is touting a new report by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation for best administrative practices. The report praises Superintendent Meria Carstarphen but ranks the board of trustees as “an area of concern” and says “the desire to represent constituents sometimes serves to slow decision-making and progress.”
� The long-awaited Tejano monument was finally unveiled on the Capitol grounds on March 29. The life-size statues by Laredo sculptor Armando Hinojosa chart the early history of Hispanic settlers in Texas.
� Gov. Rick Perry doubled down on his defense of pink slime while visiting a meat processing plant in Nebraska last week with Govs. Sam Brownback of Kansas and Terry Branstad of Iowa. Pink slime – or, as the food industry calls it, “lean finely textured beef” – is offcuts from other meat treated with ammonium hydroxide to kill the bugs.
� Heavy storms blew through Texas Tuesday afternoon, with hail in parts of Austin and several tornadoes touching down in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. No fatalities were immediately reported, but flights were cancelled, homes sustained moderate damage, and a few semitrailers were tossed about in the winds.
� Attorney General Greg Abbott is fighting to stop federal lawyers from deposing Texas lawmakers on how and why they created the state’s new voter ID rules. Abbott told the D.C. circuit court examining the law that its quest to determine legislative intent would have a chilling effect on future bill writing.
� Mitt Romney continues his long march to the GOP presidential nomination with primary wins in Wisconsin, Maryland and Washington, D.C. However, both Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum have pledged to stay in the race.
This article appears in April 6 • 2012.