The family of Larry Jackson Jr. Credit: Photo by Jana Birchum

1) See “Quote of the Year.”

2) “It is important to remember that there are over 860,000 people living in Austin. Sometimes it can be difficult to keep this in mind when you’re facing 200 loud voices in the Council Chamber.”
– Outgoing Mayor Lee Leffingwell‘s advice to incoming Mayor Steve Adler (Jan. 9)

3) “I believe the decision is an injustice of grave proportions.”
– Travis County Democratic Party Chair Vincent Harding, on the federal court decision to drop charges against former APD Detective Charles Kleinert in the fatal shooting of Larry Jackson Jr. (Nov. 6)

4) “He has engaged in outright deception to personally profit at others’ expense. These qualities make him dangerously unfit to be attorney general.”
– Craig McDonald of Texans for Public Jus­tice, on AG Ken Paxton’s three felony indictments (Aug. 7)

5) “You can’t vaccinate against stupid.”
– Rep. J.D. Sheffield, R-Gatesville, on anti-vaxxers opposing his and Austin Rep. Donna Howard’s HB 465, modernizing the state’s antiquated immunization registry (March 6)

6) “The outrageous accusations leveled against Planned Parenthood, based on heavily doctored videos, are offensive and categorically untrue.”
– Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Cecile Richards, testifying before the U.S. House Oversight Committee (Oct. 2)

7) “You don’t have to be as smart as a fifth-grader to know that what causes the climate is the sun – the sun. People tell me carbon diox­ide warms the Earth. No, it doesn’t. The sun warms the Earth.”
– Council Member Don Zimmerman on a presentation by scientist Katharine Hayhoe on how climate change affects Austin (May 1)

8) “I’m a reporter. My job is to ask questions. What’s ‘totally out of line’ is to eject a reporter from a press conference for asking questions.”
– Univision anchor Jorge Ramos‘ response to being physically removed from a Donald Trump press conference in Iowa (Aug. 28)

9) “The grieving that the country feels is real – the sympathy, obviously, the prioritizing, comforting the families, all that’s important. But I think part of the point that I wanted to make was that it’s not enough just to feel bad.”
– President Barack Obama, on the Charleston massacre (June 26)

10) “Those of you graduating this afternoon with high honors, awards, and distinctions, I say, ‘Well done.’ And as I like to say to the C students, ‘You too can be president.'”
– Former President George W. Bush, joking at the SMU commencement (May 22)

This article appears in 2015.

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