Naked City

Last November, environmentalism and religion merged with the Evangelical Environmental Network's "What Would Jesus Drive?" anti-gas-guzzler campaign. On Wednesday, the campaign hit Austin to kick off a road tour promoting cleaner transportation. The Rev. Jim Ball of Washington, D.C., will proselytize throughout the Bible Belt as he drives a fuel-efficient Toyota Prius from here to his home city, trying to make Christians understand the moral relevance of their driving choices. He'll be in town through May 31; he appears this morning, May 29, at the First Baptist Church of Austin, 901 Trinity, at 9:30am. Check www.whatwouldjesusdrive.org for more info.

State Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine and chair of the Mexican-American Legislative Caucus, will be keynote speaker at the annual leadership conference of UT's Hispanic Faculty/Staff Association on Friday, May 30. The conference, titled "Unification: Sharing a Vision as a Community and Nation," is free to the public. It begins at 11am in the third-floor atrium area of the Red McCombs School of Business. Gallego, who earned his law degree from UT, is expected to speak at 11:50am. For more info, go to www.utexas.edu/staff/hfsa/index.html.

The Austin Center for Peace and Justice will offer a Peace-Making Workshop on Saturday, May 31, 8:30am-4:30pm. The $160 (discounted scholarship rate of $25 on a case-by-case basis) includes lunch. The center is at 5801 Westminster. To register, call 927-7670 or e-mail [email protected].

Hidden in Plain Sight, a feature-length documentary on the U.S. military School of the Americas, screens at 4pm, Saturday, June 7, at the Alamo Drafthouse Downtown, 409 Congress. Tickets are $7 online, $8-12 at the door (a benefit for Spanish translation of film). The film, by San Francisco filmmakers John Smihula and Viví Letsou, is narrated by Martin Sheen and features interviews with Noam Chomsky, Christopher Hitchens, Eduardo Galeano, and U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-California. Followed by a discussion led by Rahul Mahajan. For more info: www.hiddeninplainsight.org.

On Sunday, June 8, the Moody Museum in Taylor will celebrate the June 1893 birth of former Gov. Dan Moody. Moody, the youngest governor ever elected in Texas, was known for his strong stand against the Ku Klux Klan. His political life was detailed in Williamson Co. District Judge Ken Anderson's book You Can't Do That, Dan Moody!, which will be available for sale at the celebration, 2-5pm, which will also mark the 25th anniversary of the museum, located in Moody's boyhood home at the corner of Ninth and Talbot streets.

Wanted: Your vision of a community park. An online survey and a series of workshops will help transform a 261-acre spread southeast of Manor into the Travis County East Metro Park. The survey is at www.tceastmetropark.org through June 6. The kickoff workshops are set for Monday, June 9 -- 11:30am-1pm at the park site and 4-7pm at Manor Elementary School, 600 E. Parson St. A proposed master plan will be presented at 6pm June 30 at the school. Travis Co. commissioners are expected to deliver a final vote on the plan some time in July.