Today’s City Council meeting (Nov. 2), convening at 2pm, should be brief – a short agenda, and most contentious questions postponed, because council members have been interviewing candidates to become the next city manager. “Council: Hush, Please … We’re Hiring a City Manager,” Nov. 2.
Who’s Voting Early? Through Tuesday a whopping 3.09% of registered Travis County voters had made the arduous journey to the polls and voted in the local bond and state constitutional amendment election. Here’s your chance to set the pace: See Chronicle endorsements here or at austinchronicle.com/elections.
The Statesman is for sale … again. Atlanta-based Cox Media put the local daily on the block on Tuesday, 41 years into its tenure of ownership. It’s the second time the Statesman has been for sale during Cox’s tenure. The media conglomerate tried to offload the paper in 2008.
Abortion Rights are back in court. On Thursday, Nov. 2, U.S. Judge Lee Yeakel will hear the case against a new Texas law that outlaws D&E abortion, the safest and most common method of second-trimester abortion. Yeakel temporarily halted the law from taking effect in August.
Aaaand Immigration Rights, as well: On Tuesday, Nov. 7, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments against anti-immigrant Senate Bill 4, which has largely gone into effect following the circuit court’s September ruling. The panel will decide if they should uphold U.S. Judge Orlando Garcia‘s preliminary injunction that partially blocked SB 4.
Advocacy groups including the ACLU of Texas and lawmakers like U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, are calling on the federal government to release an undocumented 10-year-old with cerebral palsy from the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Border Patrol followed Rosa Maria Hernandez to a Corpus Christi hospital for surgery, waited for her, and made the arrest upon her exit. They have not returned her to her parents in Laredo.
Rep. Eric Johnson, a black Democrat from Dallas, met with Gov. Greg Abbott to discuss removing a Confederate plaque near his Capitol office, and left under the impression Abbott supported its removal. However, Abbott said after the meeting that he never claimed as much; rather, he said “substantially inaccurate historical statements” are not appropriate for permanent display inside the Capitol. Earlier this year, Abbott ignored calls to abolish Confederate markers around the Capitol after white nationalist-led violence in Charlottesville.
Bastrop County prosecutors intend to pursue the death penalty against Vontrey Clark, the Austin cop accused of murdering Samantha Dean in 2015.
This article appears in November 3 • 2017.