No formal City Council meeting this week – the next is scheduled for March 26, work session March 24 – although committees have begun holding meetings, and presumably soon Council will have to deal with the fallout of the not yet finalized Zucker Report and the reorganization of the Planning and Development Review Department, to be split in two.
A grand jury indicted Joseph Mobley on Thursday for the manslaughter of Dwayne Guidry. Mobley chased down Guidry after witnessing him steal a car in South Austin, hit him in the back of the head with a hammer, and strangled him to death. Mobley is due in Karen Sage‘s 299th District Court on March 30. In addition to the manslaughter charges, he faces charges of burglary for breaking into two different apartments last year.
Savills, an international real estate advisory company, ranked Austin as the No. 1 city for tech companies, “at the top of global shopping lists for tech companies looking for space in which to locate.” Declared the press release: “Austin has also seen recent population growth, GDP growth, and house price growth – its stand out economic growth rivals the bigger cities and the median average age is only 31 years.”
A group representing parents of 43 college students that disappeared from the Mexican town of Iguala will be in Austin this week (March 18-20), part of a national tour of the United States called “Caravana 43 – A Journey for Justice.” The parents are asking for an international investigation into the disappearance of the 43 students, and further action on public corruption, kidnapping, and mass murder in Mexico. More info on FB: Austin with Ayotzinapa.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, announced he is opening a “tech-orientated” (but not spelling-oriented) office in Austin, to be housed at the Capital Factory. Although the explicit purpose is only vaguely described in the press release, it would appear to be a presidential campaign office intended to “leverage the latest in campaign technology to activate [Paul’s] energized volunteer base.”
Death row inmate Randall Mays received a stay of execution Monday, just two days before he was scheduled to hit the gurney. The 55-year-old was convicted of killing two Henderson County deputy sheriffs in 2007. Attorneys have since argued that their client isn’t mentally competent.
Texas Senate Republicans approved open carry bill SB 17 on Tuesday by a 22-10 party-line vote. The legislation allows gun owners to openly display their handguns on a belt or shoulder holster. Republicans shot down a flurry of Democratic amendments, such as annual background checks for license holders, but did adopt a provision that bans open carry on colleges campuses.
About 16.4 million uninsured Americans have gained health coverage since the Affordable Care Act‘s passage – the largest reduction in the uninsured in four decades – reports the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. While Texas Republicans continue to refuse expanding Medicaid under the ACA, Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, recently proposed a bill that would request a block grant from the feds to expand health care.
This article appears in March 20 • 2015.