There's been a smell of fresh sawdust and chainsaw fumes on the State Capitol grounds since Wednesday's storm. In the mercurial way of storms, trees that had survived the vicissitudes of Texas weather for decades, possibly over a century, were destroyed and had to be sliced up and taken away. "It was pretty awful," said Julia Fields, spokesperson for the State Preservation Board. Seven mature trees, mostly white oaks, were blown over or so severely damaged by the 60 to 75mph winds that they had to be cut down. "Obviously, the uprooted trees we will have to clear out, but we're consulting with the Forest Service to see what can be saved," added Fields. The process of clearing the larger slabs should take a couple of days. Smaller debris will be going in the chipper, and even though the gnarled boughs and uneven trunks of the capitol copse won't provide any long slices of lumber, that's a lot of timber going spare. So what does the board plan to do with it? Well, normally when they have to take a tree down from the grounds, it either goes for souvenirs in the Capitol Gift Shop or gavels for the next legislative session.

For those of you who lost power and now have a fridge full of stinking, rotten food, some good news. City of Austin Solid Waste Services are doing a special pick-up in areas affected by the power outages. Just put the waste food into the trash by 7am on Saturday, May 17, and it will be taken away before it starts stinking your house out. That's on top of the curbside pick-up for downed trees and tree limbs, which will be recycled as Dillo Dirt. Visit the city's new storm clean-up page for details. Austin Energy's repairs are still ongoing, but seem to be going as expected. As of 9.29pm Friday, there were roughly 250 customers without power, with 12 repair crews working through the night to finish off the last 40 storm damage repairs on their books. The utility asks that anyone who still doesn't have power in the morning call them on 512-322-9100.

From partying with Will Wynn to chillin' with Allen Demling, City Hall Hustle bum-rushes the election night parties in a politico-packed election special you (and our elected officials) won't soon forget.

[video-1]

The latest on the impact of Wednesday night's storm, courtesy of Austin Energy (or, more particularly, AE spokesman Ed Clark, who we are pretty sure has not slept in the last two days – someone get that man a coffee). As of 10:30am, there are an estimated 3,000 customers without power. There's about 200 repairs left to do involving tree cutting or line damaged, but only 50 of those are directly causing power outages: the rest are tree-trimming and clean-up work. There's only a handful of jobs waiting with 50 or more customers; the rest are for individual houses. The city confirms that Solid Waste Services will be helping the cleanup by doing curbside pickup of downed trees and tree limbs, which will then be recycled as Dillo Dirt. (see below the jump for full details). There are also traffic lights still out at Enfield and MoPac and Lake Austin Boulevard and Veterans Park. Ice will also be available to save food from spoiling at Fire Station 14 on Airport and the LCRA headquarters on Lake Austin Boulevard. We've also collected some shots of the damage caused: Click on the picture to the right for the gallery.

According to the Las Vegas Sun, hempsters in the Silver State have filed a petition seeking to allow the University of Nevada's Desert Research Institute to research the use of industrial hemp as a source for sustainable biomass energy. Nevada voters twice have sought to legalize and tax-and-regulate marijuana – ballot initiatives that gained broad support yet ultimately lost at the polls (in 2006, the measure earned the nod of 44% of voters). Although hemp is the non-narcotic cousin of pot, Nevada law defines marijuana as "all parts of any plant of the genus Cannabis," which (unfortunately, and, really, incorrectly) includes agricultural hemp. Apparently folks at the DRI aren't opposed to the suggestion – a spokesman told the daily that they already are studying wood chips, pinyon pine and peanut shells as possible energy sources. Hemp could be "another biomass," spokesman Greg Bortolin told the paper. Initiative petition backers need to gather 58,628 signatures of registered voters before Nov. 11, in order to have a chance to change the law next year. If they succeed, the daily reports, the petition would be presented to lawmakers in 2009, who would have 40 days to approve or reject the proposal. If they reject it, the language would appear on a 2010 ballot.

Oh, elections. Someone wins, someone loses, right? Wrong. The ever-more complicated legal kerfuffle around Bill Dingus, Democratic challenger to House Speaker Tom Craddick for his Midland seat got even more complicated today. Grab a stiff drink and we'll begin. First off, Dingus filed to run back in December, but then someone realized that, as mayor of Midland, he couldn't run because that counted as a lucrative office, and, under the Texas Supreme Court decision in Willis v. Potts (1964), in Texas you can't run for one lucrative office while you hold another. Ah, said the Texas Democratic Party, but League of United Latin American Counsel and the Black Advisory Council v. City of Midland (1996) says that doesn't apply to Midland office holders. So they took that to court, to head off any attempts to get Dingus thrown off the ballot, but then Judge Walter Smith said, no, that didn't apply here. So who is Dingus suing now? The Texas Democratic Party, of course. "Outside the judicial process, there is no one else in the election process between now and the election who has the authority to make a determination about Bill's eligibility," said Dingus' lawyer Max Renea Hicks (who represented the city of Austin and several Dems during redistricting). "And to date, the Democratic Party has not made a final, definitive statement either way."

The City of Austin and the American Red Cross are opening a shelter at the Parque Zaragoza Recreation Center, 2608 Gonzales, for residents who have lost power after the storms. The city also has Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) volunteers going door-to-door in the affected areas; ice will be available to help stop food spoiling. Austin Energy has good news and bad news: there's been no major damage to any pivotal infrastructure, but the smaller-scale damage is so extensive that it still may take to Saturday to get everything up and running. Full press release after the jump.

Latest news from the city and Austin Energy after the storm: as of 4pm, over 10,000 residents are still without power, and that could continue throughout the weekend. Emergency facilities are being organized, and maintenance crews will be working 24 hours a day until repairs are complete (hopefully by Saturday). As for the city, citizens should note the Conley-Guerrero Senior Center and the Community Care Services Department's Rosewood Zaragosa clinic are "non-operational" due to the power outage. Zilker Botanical Gardens will be closed right through the weekend, and the only City golf course open is Roy Kizer. But considering further storms are likely, golfing doesn't seem like the smartest plan. AE's full press release after the jump.

Saturday night, Tim Mahoney and Harrison Keller qualified for a run-off election in the race for Austin Community College board of trustees, with the former getting 48.5% of the vote, and the latter taking 33%. Today, Keller decided to withdraw and issued this statement:

"Over the past few days I have reviewed the election results, and I have learned that the cost of the upcoming run-off for Place 1 on the Austin Community College Board of Trustees could cost the college up to $400,000. Given that I joined this race to expand educational opportunities for our community and to make sure that taxpayers' money is spent as efficiently and effectively as possible, I think this money would be better spent on ACC's educational programs. "Therefore, after careful consideration, I have decided to withdraw from the run-off election and to donate the balance of my campaign funds to the Austin Community College Foundation. I remain humbled by and deeply grateful for the encouragement and support I received from family, friends and supporters from across the political spectrum. I want to thank everyone who supported me in this election. I am proud of the positive, issue-focused campaign that we ran. It was an incredible experience. I want to congratulate the new board of trustees, and I will support them as they work to help realize the enormous potential of Austin Community College."