Headlines

Luci Baines Johnson embraces local poet and teacher Susie Sansom-Piper at the 50th anniversary celebration of the Voting Rights Act at the LBJ Presidential Library, Aug. 6. The president's youngest daughter shared her memories of the day her father signed the bill into law. (Photo by Jana Birchum)

City Council meets today (Aug. 13) with a new look (shuffled seating arrangement) and a heavy zoning agenda, and discussion – but not decisions – on revised short-term rental regulations and a baseline zoning for The Grove at Shoal Creek development.

The short-term rental public testimony has been moved to the Planning and Neighborhoods Committee meeting Monday, Aug. 17, at 4pm, which also features the engaging matters of secondary dwelling units, Downtown concrete pours, density bonuses, and CodeNEXT.

Concert promoters warn that new permitting restrictions approved by Travis County Commissioners on Tuesday could be a deathblow to big events like Euphoria and Levitation. They told the court that earlier curfews and reduced maximum noise levels will simply send such shows elsewhere in Texas.

Travis County Commissioners also managed to shave about $4 million off the $291.6 million budget for the proposed new Civil and Family Courts Complex and the November bond vote, with an underutilized land sale and other adjustments. The new figure is $287.3 million.

Local advocacy groups – ICE Out of Austin, Grassroots Leadership, Travis County Re-Entry Roundtable – are calling for Commissioners Court to adopt a "Real Justice Budget," with an emphasis on "ending voluntary cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement" and a return of personal visits for inmates (as opposed to video visits), which they say will also save money for Travis County.

The UT Task Force assigned to "identify and evaluate" options for dealing with the campus' monuments honoring Confederate bigwigs released its report on Monday, Aug. 10. The five options range from adding explanatory plaques to the statues to relocating six statues to a museum. UT President Gregory Fenves is expected to make a decision before summer's end. For more, see "Confederate Statue Report Released," Aug. 10.

Speaker Joe Straus may have been the original target of a man who set fire to a car on the Capitol grounds. Texas Department of Public Safety officials have confirmed the same man sought in connection with the arson was photographed trying to enter Straus' apartment behind the House Chamber.

Rick Perry's presidential campaign appears on the verge of folding. After failing to poll high enough to make last week's Fox News Republican presidential debate (a Fox News poll had Perry at 1% for the past month), his campaign has stopped paying staff, and handed many day-to-day campaign costs to super PACs.