Charges Dropped: After nearly six years in jail, and nearly seven years being accused of a murder for which the best evidence was cell phone records placing him within 10 miles of the crime, DeVonte “DJ” Amerson saw his charges officially dismissed without prejudice this week in Hays County. The dismissal leaves an option for future prosecution, but Devonte saw it as a moment of glory. He said in a statement in all caps, “ON THE 2,674TH DAY GOD DID!!”
Protester Says UT Hiding Something: UT officials are using chat apps like Signal to secretly communicate with one another in violation of Texas law, local activist Jarrid Cornell charged last week. Cornell, who was arrested at a pro-Israel event at the university in January of 2024, is asking a Travis County judge to order UT officials to turn over texts they exchanged before, during, and after the event. His attorney, George Lobb, told KUT he has police body-cam video of Cornell’s arrest showing the officials sending texts and has asked for them but received “bupkis.” Lobb said he believes the texts were hidden or deleted because they are “publicly embarrassing.” The Texas Public Information Act requires such communications to be available to the public.
Immigration Attorney Threatened with Deportation: In an apparent glitch in a Trump administration plan to revoke two-year permits for people who used a mobile scheduling app at U.S. border crossings with Mexico, local immigration attorney and U.S. citizen Hubert Montoya received a U.S. Department of Homeland Security email telling him to leave the country immediately or risk deportation. He burst out laughing, Fortune reports. Timothy J. Brenner, a Connecticut-born lawyer in Houston, received a similar email.
Birthday for Eeyore’s Birthday: Eeyore’s Birthday Party celebrated its 60th anniversary last week and it was, as usual, weird. Partiers danced, banged on drums, smoked grass, and, presumably, dropped mushrooms. The annual event – named for Winnie the Pooh’s bestie, who suffers from treatment resistant depression – was begun by UT-Austin students in 1965, just as the counterculture movement began to gather strength. It was a defining spectacle of Austin’s hippie community for decades, before hippies disappeared from the city in the late Eighties.
Bummer For All Breathers: Well, now our air’s crappy too. For pretty much its entire existence, our still-fair city has enjoyed pretty good air quality, but the American Lung Association gave Travis County an F for ozone pollution and fine particulate matter, aka soot, in its more-recent “State of the Air” report. People who breathe cleaner air are less likely to die from heart or lung disease or suffer from irregular heartbeats, asthma, and other respiratory issues.
Once More with Measles: A second Austinite has fallen ill with measles, Austin Public Health officials announced last week. The unnamed individual was reportedly vaccinated and is believed to have contracted the virus while traveling outside Texas. Vaccinated people can still get measles, the APH’s William Malm said in a statement, but they are less likely to suffer serious symptoms and spread the disease. “We consider measles to be one of the most contagious viruses we know and getting vaccinated is the best way to protect yourself,” Malm said.
Too Much Attention, Says RFK: But U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. begs to differ. During a visit to Texas A&M University in College Station on Tuesday, Kennedy said the disease gets too much attention and that it has only caused “four deaths in 20 years,” two of whom were West Texas children who died in the last several weeks during the region’s measles outbreak. As The Texas Tribune noted, Kennedy has been criticized since the outbreak for questioning the role measles played in the deaths of three people who died from the disease and has praised doctors who use alternative treatments on measles patients.
Criticizing Israel: Throughout Israel’s war against Hamas, some U.S. politicians have sought to conflate criticism of Israel’s mass killing of the Palestinian people with antisemitism. Texas lawmakers have played their part in the messaging, with the Texas House passing Senate Bill 326 last week. SB 326, which is expected to be signed into law, would require schools to use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism in disciplinary proceedings for students. Many academics say the controversial definition helps chill criticism of Israel’s human rights record. Rep. Jon Rosenthal, the only Jewish member of the House, voted for SB 326 but commented to his colleagues that “it may surprise some of you to learn that Jewish communities do not uniformly support this bill.”
Bird-o-Rama: Austin has been blessed with lots of wind and lots of birds this spring. KUT reports that between now and the end of May, hundreds of thousands of hummingbirds, swallows, and warblers will travel through town (according to Cornell University researchers, 642,000 birds traveled through the area in one night last week) on their way to points north. They will be assisted by a strong, persistent southern wind. For those wishing to get some bird-watching in, avian expert Jennifer Bristol recommends finding an oak or pecan tree. “The live oaks are a grocery store tree, we’ll call them the H-E-B of the tree world,” Bristol told KUT. “Pecans are also great for the bird because they support a lot of insects.”
Deadly Conduct, No More: Austin Police Officer Christopher Taylor was not convicted of murder for either of the people he shot and killed while on duty, but a jury did eventually convict him of deadly conduct. Texas lawmakers are now aiming to make that kind of outcome impossible. Senate Bill 1637 would exempt police from being charged with deadly conduct for killings in the line of duty. The House approved the bill this week. Deadly conduct was created to curb drive-by shootings, but police have been indicted and convicted for it lately, including officers in Dallas who were indicted over use of rubber bullets at 2020 protests, and an officer in Austin who faces charges over shooting Rajan Moonesinghe, the Tribune reports.
Dark Ages: This week, The Atlantic considered whether the Dark Ages are back. MIT physicist, writer, and professor of the humanities Alan Lightman briefly traced the history of the modern research university and then stated: “The surrender of academic freedom in America and, in fact, freedom of all kinds may happen gradually, little by little. First with the disproportionate power of money and the wealthy who have it, then with attacks on the free press, the control of information, the weakening of checks and balances, the suppression of dissent, the surveillance of the population, and finally the normalization of repression.” Yikes to the umpteenth degree.
Quote of the Week
“I just thought it was absurd.”
– Hubert Montoya, Austin immigration attorney and citizen who received an email threatening deportation from Homeland Security
This article appears in May 2 • 2025.