He's tanned, rested and ready – the Hustle is back from hiatus, and cleaning out his inbox. What wonders lie beneath the fold?

EPA Region 6 Administrator Al Armendariz has told the Chronicle that if the state doesn’t start issuing federally consistent air permits by June 30, he is prepared to take over the job. Armendariz called from the Gulf Coast, where he's working the BP oil spill, about his plans to make Texas comply with the Clean Air Act.

There's a lot of lip service paid to the military on Memorial Day, but it's important to remember that, for all the money thrown at wars (now $1 trillion on Iraq and Afghanistan and counting) surprisingly little makes its way to veterans. Austin native, Iraq veteran and film maker Casey Porter has an important message about the benefits system.

Race cars, collapsing state budgets, disappearing solar cells and the city manager hanging on to his job: Who says Austin politics gets boring when Summer gets close?

As Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst attempt to distract Texans from their failure to protect the Texas environment, more stunningly awful news about the budget: They and Speaker Joe Straus want agencies to cut 10% from their general revenue spending next session.

Austinites (current and former) are well represented on the short list of six semifinalists released today for the new city of Austin position of chief sustainability officer. The candidates will have formal interviews next week; they will meet the public and answer questions at community meetings June 3.

The Clean Air Force of Central Texas has issued an alert – today is a Level Orange five-county Ozone Watch Day. And Saturday is, too. Why should you care? On Ozone Watch and Alert days, the local air is so bad it can make you sick. Kiddos, asthmatics, and sensitive folks should stay inside.

So, some three hours after they started, council came out of executive session around 4pm – where the city manager’s performance was at issue. In light of the continuing KeyPoint controversy, the timing of Marc Ott’s annual performance evaluation couldn’t be worse.

Texas is already so short of tax revenue that Gov. Rick Perry has told state agencies to cut 5% of their general revenue budgets. Now legislators have been told that the state may be running out of capacity to issue more bonds.