Come hear Helen Plume, a world-renowned climate change expert from New Zealand, speak Tuesday, June 15. Our local chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council organized the event, with reception;Lee Leffingwell and Mark Strama warm the crowd up.

The comedy of errors that has been the search for a Materials Recovery Facility gained another chapter yesterday, as City Council voted to toss out the proposals process that netted three frontrunners, and begin it anew. And then, to no one's surprise, the historic zoning debate teetered on histrionic.

Further developments on the mysterious stack of signatures that seem to have given the Green Party of Texas ballot access. The Greens are voluntarily giving the Democrats two weeks to find who was really behind the signature-getting effort.

It's 2pm – do you know where your City Council is? Ours just returned from executive session, with discussion of hot topics like the Materials Recovery Facility and historic landmark zoning still in wait. But it was a timeworn topic – Water Treatment Plant No.4 – that dominated the morning.

The Totescast hails our cover story on the local taxi industry's low wages and lax regulation – and what's underway to combat that.

Gov. Rick Perry – the man that has helped drive Texas over a financial, political and social cliff – is demanding that former Houston mayor Bill White resign from the race for governor. Why? Because Perry doesn't understand how linear time works.

Mayor Lee Leffingwell and City Manager Marc Ott announced this morning that Samsung Electronics is expanding its Austin operations in a big way – to the tune of $3.6 billion. The expansion of its semiconductor fabrication plant is anticipated to bring about 500 permanent jobs, and about 1,000 short-term construction jobs, to Austin.

Council Member Chris Riley was among those excited by the theme at this year's Congress for New Urbanism: How can cities be designed to improve public health? Austinites who attended CNU18 in Atlanta shared the best ideas to apply here, at a recent Café Urban happy hour sponsored by CNU Central Texas.

Texas politicians love their feuds, whether they be bitter (Norma Chavez versus Marisa Marquez), amiable (Harold Cook versus Quorum Report) or like two bald men fighting over a comb (Al Edwards versus Borris Miles.) But the tussle between Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, and retiring Rep. Brian McCall, R-Plano, may be the most intriguing.