CITY COUNCIL MEETS today (Oct. 16) with a middling agenda but a couple of matters likely to raise sand: the return for third reading of the transportation network company proposal and an attempt to wrangle the city auditor’s office on ethics investigations. See “Rides-for-Hire” and “Witch Hunt…,” Oct. 17.
ANOTHER ACL came to a close successfully Sunday, despite some muddy weather and the first drug death associated with the festival, as TSU student Jessica Hunter reportedly ingested some bad Ecstasy and paid with her life.
$28.5 MILLION is a lot of scratch, even as a development investment, and the city has apparently not identified a funding source for its proposed purchase of the state tract at 45th and Bull Creek – the state’s deadline is Friday before it opens the purchase to private bidders.
VIOLENCE, ABUSE, NEGLECT: A report released last week by Austin-based Grassroots Leadership claims that all three regularly occur in facilities managed by the for-profit prison corporation that runs the Karnes County family detention center. A complaint was recently filed against the Karnes center specifically, alleging sexual abuse by guards.
ID OFF, ID ON Despite a federal court decision that the Texas Voter ID law is unconstitutional and discriminatory, Attorney General Greg Abbott won a stay of the decision – meaning you’d better make sure you carry an approved photo ID to the polls. See voting info here. Speaking of the polls: Early voting for the Nov. 4 election starts this Monday, Oct. 20, and runs through Friday, Oct. 31.
ANOTHER NURSE fell ill from the Ebola virus in Dallas this week, after the death of “index patient” Thomas Duncan and the related illness of nurse Nina Pham. Meanwhile, 20% of Texans are without health insurance or reasonable access to health care due to state inaction, but that hasn’t made national headlines in quite a while.
DID WENDY DAVIS’ campaign cross a line by using an image of a wheelchair in her latest ad criticizing Greg Abbott? Various observers have accused Davis of playing on prejudices against disabled people; Davis argues she was simply making the point that Abbott has “den[ied] to others the very same justice he both deserved and received.”
GUESS THE GOVERNOR’S Halloween costume will be “defendant”: Judge Bert Richardson ruled on Monday that Rick Perry must appear at a hearing scheduled for Oct. 31. Perry did not attend the Monday hearing because he was in Europe.
PERRY’S INTERNATIONAL TOUR included a headscratching speech to the Royal United Services Institute in London, mixing neo-crusader rhetoric with comments about his hosts sounding “so darned smart.”
This article appears in October 17 • 2014.