Casey Dobson – leader of the nearly half-million dollar legal team that defended the city of Austin in the Northcross Wal-Mart lawsuits – is steaming mad over comments made about Judge Margaret Cooper and city staff by Maura Phelan, attorney for the Allandale Neighborhood Association. In a letter delivered to Phelan at her office with Blazier, Christensen, Bigelow & Virr, Dobson wrote, “I demand a public apology for your remarks questioning [city staff's] integrity” and recommended she apologize to Cooper, as well.

The stack of rock & roll books on my desk was barely mined in this week’s review section. Laurel Canyon: The Inside Story of Rock & Roll’s Legendary Neighborhood by Michael Walker (Farrar Strauss Giroux, $14, 226 pages) accompanied my reading of Morgana Welch’s Hollywood Diaries. In this book, Welch is grown up and her voice is one of many that paints details in this picturesque book about the fabled Los Angeles canyon. Walker eschews personal musings and lets the inhabitants reflect on the magic that lined streets with names like Wonderland Avenue. Graham Nash, Michael Des Barres, Mark Volman, Henry Diltz, and Gail Zappa are among the glittery whose memories of it are untarnished by time.

Walker excels in making the canyon come alive at its best, with the sounds of the Byrds drifting through the trees, Crosby, Stills & Nash lifting their voices together for the first time, and a particularly warm portrait of Cass Elliott of the Mamas & Papas. It was the Doors, Steppenwolf, Joni Mitchell, the Turtles, Frank Zappa, John Mayall – the California dreamers who rode the peaceful canyon breeze, if only until the idyll was shattered by the dark shadow of the Manson Family. If you loved Positively 4th Street, about adventures of Dylan, Baez, Farina, et al in the West Village, Laurel Canyon is its bookshelf neighbor.

My RSS feeds just ain't what they used to be. It was just brought to my attention this was posted to Austin Craigslist's 'Missed Connections' on Sunday:

Will Wynn, an 18-wheeler doesn't really match my dress. - w4m

Mayor, what does a girl have to do to get your attention? I am contemplating hijacking an 18-wheeler and parking it somewhere auspicious. Maybe 6th street this time? During rush hour, I think. I bet you're cute when you're mad.

You bolted out of the Grinch Gala at like 9:30p. What's that about? A little glad-handing and kissing of babies and then you tuck yourself in? I wanted to show you my dance moves. I have one.

Alas, your buddy Wells Dunbar is the only one who will reply to this message. Is he cute and single? Are you? Cute, yes. Single? As we've discussed, you've got to give up the blond, big-busted hoochie mamas. It's not you, it's them. Based on your outburst last week, you are really stressed out. I'm really just a concerned citizen, worried about your health.

So, next time I see you, I'll curl my tongue at you and then I'll probably start giggling like a little girl because I have a crush on the mayor. Perhaps you'll laugh and feel less uptight. Then I won't have to drive an 18-wheeler to the ball, know what I'm saying?

Whoa.

John Edwards is officially now a candidate for president in Texas. Yes, filing time has began yesterday in Texas for the 2008 general election, and Edwards was the first national Democratic contender for the big seat to get his paperwork to the Secretary of State (to go on the ballot) and the Texas Democratic Party (to get on the March 4 primary.) While he was actually on the stump in Manchester, NH, he joins a slew of Texas Democrats who are confirmed as being in the race, including aspiring Cornyn-crusher Rep. Rick Noriega, D-Houston, running for local, state, US congressional posts (the Republicans will be releasing their first list later today.)

For those wondering how Edwards is doing in the state race, he won the party's whole unscientific and non-binding e-primary in September, but in a November survey of likely Democrat voters in Texas by IVR Polls, he was trailing in third on 11% behind Barack Obama (17%) and Hillary Clinton (51%). Over the street at the GOP, no candidate has filed yet, but staff for the Republican Party of Texas said they expected the paperwork to come in "within the next week."

The buzz on the political circles for months now is that Democratic campaign consultants in Travis County have been casting about for a primary challenger to Rep. Dawnna Dukes, to punish her for being a loyalist to Republican Speaker of the House Tom Craddick. They may have found one.

Quorum Report is reporting that Austin lawyer Brian Thompson has filed a campaign treasurer's report, a preliminary necessity to running for office, and he's made statements indicating he'd like to challenge Dukes. (Click on the link, and then click on "Daily Buzz.")

Anyone visiting the Original Alamo website last Wednesday would have seen a last-minute addition to the schedule at the Alamo Downtown at the Ritz. An extra early-evening (well, 10pm) Weird Wednesday impromptu screening of the gloriously mad Black Devil Doll From Hell. Rather than being a surprise screen-filler, this kind of quick addition to the listings could become commonplace.

In what booker Lars Nilsen calls a "nascent idea," the Ritz will be adding a little more flexibility to its scheduling. Trying to book the theater two months in advance for the brochure could create problems. For example, the opportunity to host Vincent Gallo's RRIICCEE was comparatively last-minute. So rather than publicize a schedule it can't always keep up with, they'll be taking a more innovative approach. "With the first two months of the Ritz we have already started leaving holes in the calendar," said Nilsen. "This lets us make on the fly decisions about programming based on developing availability and audience demand."

And not a minute too soon, either. Perusing this week's City Council agenda, we find this bon mot buried in general Citizens Communications:

Jennifer Gale – What has the Austin Council done to the downtown area?

Yup, that stalwart fixture of City Hall and perennial candidate is is back. And Downtown sure has changed a lot since Gale left to run for mayor of Dallas. Hell, she'll probably came down to Second Street and feel as if she never left Big D. Welcome back – here's to stirring the pot at City Hall.

Like the 800-pound gorilla in the voting booth, former Gov. Mitt Romney has danced around the issue of his Mormonism on the campaign trail. Now his people have confirmed that he'll deliver a "much-anticipated speech on religious faith" at the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum this Thursday.

There has been a determined effort to establish what campaign junkies call a narrative – that, while Romney's religious beliefs are his important to him, they shouldn't be important to the electorate. Unusually for a Republican candidate, he and many pundits have been trying to equate him to President Jack Kennedy, who also had to politically justify his beliefs on the campaign trail. Some have even noted that he's even come to the same state that JFK made his speech in (Jack was at Rice University, Mitt will be at College Station, if you fancy the drive.) But if this is to alleviate the fears of the Southern evangelicals flooding to Mike Huckabee, how sensible is it for a New England Mormon to evoke the spirit of a New England Roman Catholic?

Since Huckabee has also been given the rub by former world champion pro-wrestler Ric "The Nature Boy" Flair, it will be interesting to see if Romney tries to get some in-ring support. What is The Undertaker's stance on supply-side economics?

For political ruminators and prognosticators, the recently released, tersely worded lists of interim House committee charges sent out by Speaker Tom Craddick are a mystery, to be pondered over like tea leaves or chicken entrails. However, one would expect the intent behind the charges to be clear at least to the committees in question. Take, for example, charge eight for House Transportation, to "review the current requirements for driver's license and identification card holders in Texas" (our emphasis.) While this seems a peculiarly specific task, and it's hard to see the intention or the final aim, the committee knows what they're being asked to do. Right?

Eh, not so much. According to Laurie McAnally, chief clerk at Transportation, she received the list in the same opaque fashion that everyone else got it. Like everyone else, her committee is now trying to guess the legislative intent. Sensibly, she contacted Defense Affairs and State-Federal Relations, who share charge eight, and they think (stress, think) it may be something to do with the Federal Real ID program, but they're still not sure.

Not knowing the intent of every charge is sort of the deal. While every committee has its own wish-list, mostly unfinished business from last session, the bulk come from Craddick's own plans, other reps and even (gasp!) lobbyists. "Two, maybe three we asked for," said McAnally, "and we got 10."