Daily News - The Austin Chronicle (2024)

Stuff the Boot!

With yet another round of suspensions at a city department – this time, the Austin Fire Department – over allegations of viewing p*rn on city computers while on duty, there's one solution to this – ahem – growing problem: Let's provide Austin's emergency responders with old-school p*rno mags that can't be digitally logged. Penthouse or Hustler, the raunchier the better – as long as it's paper and staples and can't be logged online, let's get it to our Bang Bus-jonsing first responders.Newsdesk would really like to see some department resources expended on this, something along the lines of the "fill the boot" drive that sends them out into the streets soliciting donations. But with the budget being the way it is, we understand times are tight. That's why Newsdesk is selflessly taking on the mission all by ourselves: Please bring all your new and gently used p*rn magazines by the Chronicle offices so we can get them to the men who desperately need them.

Fair Wages Cost a Penny

Whole Foods Market tomatoes have just got a little more ethical. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers has been criticizing the Austin-based grocery chain for months, alleging they were "more interested in cheap tomatoes than the well-being of those working to get produce to the store." Now they are praising the firm for signing on with the Penny a Pound initiative, where commercial buyers like Whole Foods will back paying an extra 1 cent per pound surcharge for a wage increase for tomato pickers in Florida.Whole Foods is also looking at extending its Whole Trade Guarantee program, which promotes ethical sourcing for its foreign-grown produce, to domestic supplies (bit sad that they'd have to, since it should go without saying that workers should be getting fair pay.)As for CIW, having previously taken on Taco Bell and Burger King, and with Whole Foods now on board, the union has set its sights on its next target: Chipotle.

Opposite Day for McCain Education Policy

Now That's Some Powerful Conflict of Interest Legislation

In a moment that will make supporters of sweeping political ethics reform both weep and cheer, intriguing news from overseas. Prime Minister of Thailand Samak Sundaravej has been forced out of office because of a potential conflict of interest.So what could possibly be the major distraction from his sole and single job as PM? He is also the sometime host of Tasting and Complaining: A TV cooking show. This was apparently enough of an issue that he has had to leave office. Well, that and the fact that Sundaravej (who is seen as a cat's paw for exiled leader Thaksin Shinawatra) has been the beneficary of a wildly unpopular military coup and his opponents have been seeking his impeachment for months.So while the US wrestles with the revolving door between business and elected offices, the Thai government is even keeping the rice steamer lobby at bay.

Gustav: Gone, But Not Forgotten

Hurricane Ike is predicted to make landfall on the Gulf Coast later this week, and even though it looks like it's heading to Texas, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has already declared a state of emergency.But it's important to remember that, just because it didn't hit New Orleans as bady as anyone feared, it doesn't mean the damage from Hurricane Gustav is all cleared up. Louisiana electricity firm Entergy reports that, as of 11am this morning, 206,080customers across the state still had no power, and some face outages until October. The Associated Press reports that demand for food and water was much higher than anticipated and Jindal has criticized (surprise, surprise) FEMA for not getting essential trucks into the region. The Red Cross is still running shelters and handing out ice in areas of New Orleans.Along the coast in Houma, which took the worst of the battering from Gustav, residents are still under an 8pm-6am curfew. It also looks the ubiquitous blue tarps will be back again.

McBush or McCheney?

The Budget's Done

Surely, it was a rather anti-climactic end to adoption of the 2008-09 fiscal year budget (or as City Council member Sheryl Cole likes to call it, the "physical year" budget). But as one seasoned newshound commented to Newsdesk, these type of budget deliberations drag on a lot longer when there's actually some money left to fight over.The money shot was an infusion of $302,000 in revenue from the higher-than-expected property tax rolls, of which almost $235,000 went to pool funding of social service contracts, with funding for individual orgs to be decided on a scoring matrix. Additional fees (not the same as taxes, dammit!), reallotments, and utility transfers went to fund everything else – most notably, over $4 million in additional transportation user fees (that little 'WTF is that?' charge on your utility bill), expanding street repairs to encompass 10% of repair-needing roads.Much more to come in Thursday's Chronicle.

Beyond the Hall, Y'all – Republican Revolt-o-Rama

[video-1]If you're anything like the Hustle, you caught some of the Republican National Convention – albeit probably peering between your fingers, eyeing the screen in nauseated disbelief. If you didn't catch it, the Hust' recaps the RNC while recuperating at conservatism's spiritual home – the golf course. Featuring John McCain, Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, and more.

Heart Feels F***ed Over by GOP

Whose doesn't after this week? Oh, yeah, not just mine. Not just yours, but Ann & Nancy Wilson's.See, the GOP is playing their song. The song that made Heart – the Wilson sisters' band from Seattle – superstars, and the song that ironically was launched way back in their 70s heyday by Columbia Records after a lawsuit with their original record company, Mushroom, which used specific images of the sisters in a certain context without their permission.Well, guess what? Apparently, the GOP never asked the Wilson sister's permission to use "Barracuda" (Little Queen, 1977, Columbia Records) as an image booster for their vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin (whose nickname in high school was apparently Sarah "Barracuda").The Wilson sisters are pissed. They had originally asked their music not be used. But it was used again, so the sisters and their publishing concerns sent the McCain campaign a cease-and-desist letter. The song was originally written as a "scathing rant against the soulless, corporate nature of the music business, particularly for women… There's irony in Republican strategists' choice to make use of it there," according to Nancy's statement to Entertainment Weekly: "I think it's completely unfair to be so misrepresented. I feel completely f*cked over."