Shot:
Chaser:
(I would really like to know what that gun is. It looks like a small 1911-style .380, like maybe a Colt Mustang or one of those SIG Sauer .380s?)
Archive for the ‘Austin’ Category
Drink!
Friday, October 2nd, 2026Update.
Monday, September 29th, 2025I know I said on Friday I’d try to address the Yogurt Shop Murders after today’s press conference.
I didn’t get a chance to watch the press conference today due to continuous meetings. I’m sure there’s a recording somewhere that I will try to watch.
My other issue is that yesterday was a rough day for me, and I haven’t had time to do much with the murder story because I’m trying to clean up from that.
I drove down to Kyle yesterday since it was a kind of off day for my regular church, and I thought I’d visit a friend at her church.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to connect with her, but that was okay. That also wasn’t the issue.
On my way back from Kyle, one of my car tires catastrophically failed on the Southwest Parkway.
Then I had an appointment at 4 PM at the Apple Store in Barton Creek Mall to get my iPhone battery replaced. I made the appointment and waited around for about 90 minutes while they replaced the battery. Everyone was very nice (the Apple employee who checked me in was especially awesome), and I got my phone, got in my car, started driving out of the parking lot, decided to call home and see if I needed to pick up food…
…and nobody could hear me. I checked with a couple of other people, and it wasn’t just one phone. It seems that, when they replaced the battery, Apple broke the microphone on my phone, so I can’t make calls. (Well, technically, I can make calls: I just can’t talk to anybody.)
So now I need to get in touch with Apple and figure out the next steps to get the microphone fixed. This is complicated by the fact that I have 2FA software on my phone that I need for work, so I can’t be without it for more than a few hours.
I just bought a new Dick Tracy two-way wrist radio with some of my bonus money, and enabled cell service on it. I’ve tested, and in a pinch, I can use that to make voice calls. But it isn’t an ideal solution.
I did manage to get an appointment today with Discount Tire to get my tire replaced. They were efficient and nice…
…and it turns out they don’t have the Michelin tires I want. They thought they had one in stock, and told me I could come back in a day or two for the second one. Then it turned out they couldn’t find the one, either.
So they slapped a loaner tire on my car, and I get to come back in a few days to get the two tires done.
There were, however, two redeeming points. The tire that failed was under warranty, so they’re replacing it for free. They suggested I might want to get a second tire done, since it had more wear on it than the other three. I kind of resisted that at first. But then I asked about doing something to replace the doughnut spare on the car, which I’ve put some wear on and no longer trust.
Discount offered me a spare full-size wheel at a reasonable price, and offered to take the more worn – but still good – tire off, replace it with a new tire, and mount the old tire on the new wheel. Thus giving me a non-doughnut spare, which I think is swell, as I hate driving on those.
But I still have to go back to Discount once they get everything together, which is more time out of my schedule. Good thing this isn’t one of my busy weeks.
I’ll try to have some commentary up about the murders in the next few days. In the meantime, “New DNA technology key to solving 1991 Austin yogurt shop murders” from KXAN. It looks like the new technique is Y-STR DNA testing. As I’ve said before, I wish I knew more about DNA testing than I do, and I can’t really comment on the soundness of the methodology. The article also states that there is ballistic evidence which ties these murders to a case in Kentucky and several other crimes.
The connection of the suspect to Texas remains unclear to me. And I hate to be cynical, because the reports are making this sound like good police work.
However, if this turns out wrong, it wouldn’t be the first time. Four other men were convicted in 1999, but were cleared in 2009 after Y-STR profiling excluded them. It could be that they have the right guy this time. It could be that they’re clearing a cold case by playing “pin the tail on the dead guy”. At the moment, I’m leaning more in the direction of this being the right guy, but I can understand the cynicism some people in my circle have expressed.
Crime watch.
Friday, September 26th, 2025I’m going to make this short, because it broke at the end of the day today and there’s more to come.
The Austin Police Department says that they have identified a suspect as the Yogurt Shop Killer.
Police identified the suspect through DNA and ballistics testing.
…
APD says they plan to hold a press conference on Monday to provide more information, so I’ll probably wait until Monday night to do a longer write-up. But I wanted to get at least this out now.
The identified suspect killed himself in 1999.
Branded!
Sunday, September 7th, 2025
I’ve seen people describe this as looking like the Albertson’s logo, and like a stylized freeway overpass.
The whole total project cost is an estimated $1,117,558 and is a part of the Austin Strategic 2023 Plan approved back in 2018. Here’s the breakdown of how that money is being spent:
Brand Vendors: $640,000
Public Awareness Campaign: $115,000
Consolidated city-wide design software for all departments: $75,582
Support staff and legal counsel – salary and benefits for a Brand Project Manager (temporary City employee) and external legal review: $186,976
A friend of the blog, who wishes to remain monogamous anonymous sent around a rant on the subject. I asked for his permission to republish it here, and it follows after the jump. I’ve edited it slightly at his request to remove possibly identifying information.
Note from the legal beat.
Tuesday, July 8th, 2025A story I missed over the weekend:
…
Louisville is representative of a national issue. In the United States, people often get away with murder. The clearance rate — the share of cases that result in an arrest or are otherwise solved — was 58 percent in 2023, the latest year for which F.B.I. data is available. And that figure is inflated because it includes murders from previous years that police solved in 2023.
In other words, a murderer’s chance of getting caught within a year essentially comes down to a coin flip. For other crimes, clearance rates are even lower. Only 8 percent of car thefts result in an arrest.
…
Why does America solve so few crimes? Experts point to five explanations.
Number two on the list, is, of course, “guns”. There’s even a handy little graph of “Gun homicide rates, 2023”, that includes the U.S., Canada, Sweden, Spain, and Australia. Not included: Switzerland.
What this story brings to mind, though, is David Simon’s great book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets. My copy is in a box somewhere, so I’m going off memory here: Lawrence can probably fill in the lacunae. (I’d buy the Kindle edition for reference, but they want $14 for that.) There’s a several page section where Simon breaks down the numbers for one year’s worth of homicides. (I believe it was 1988.)
Some of the homicides were things like vehicle accidents (remember, there’s a difference between “homicide” and “murder”). Some were self-defense incidents. Some were cases where the killer died in the act (such as arson or a murder-suicide)…
…and at the end of the day, as best as I recall, your chances of even being charged with a homicide in Baltimore that year were about one out of three. And your chances of getting a sentence of more than ten years were basically zero: you had to do something awful (like molesting and killing a child) to get more than that. And a ten year sentence, with the parole laws in effect at the time, plus time spent in prison before trial, and good time credit, meant that you were likely to get out of prison after three years.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
And for what it’s worth, the Austin Police Department cleared 100% of their homicide cases for 2023. I don’t think 2024 figures are in yet, but APD has been consistently above 90% clearance since 2014.
Obit watch: March 27, 2025.
Thursday, March 27th, 2025She was the first woman to serve as mayor of Austin, served as state comptroller, and served on the Texas Railroad Commission. The obits right now seem kind of short, but I remember she was a big deal in Austin and Texas politics when I first moved to Austin.
Clive Revill. Other credits include “Babylon 5”, “Pinky and the Brain”, “Let Him Have It” (which I highly recommend), and a spinoff of a minor SF TV show from the 1960s.
Oleg Gordievsky. He was a Commie spy.
Except he actually wasn’t. He was a double agent for British Intelligence.
In 1985 he was recalled to Moscow, given drugs and interrogated. Someone, it seemed, had tipped off the K.G.B. to the presence of a high-ranking mole in London.
Lacking solid evidence, the Soviets placed him on leave. A few days later he appeared at 7 p.m. on a Moscow street corner, holding a shopping bag. A man soon passed, eating a candy bar. They locked eyes.
That was the signal to activate Operation Pimlico, an emergency extraction. Mr. Gordievsky shook his K.G.B. tail and then hurried to the Finnish border. Two British agents, a man and a woman, along with their baby, awaited him there in their Ford Sierra.
They placed him in the trunk, wrapped in a foil sheet to confuse heat detectors. When dogs at the border grew suspicious, the agents began to change the child’s diaper, filling the car with odors that threw the canines off Mr. Gordievsky’s scent.
When they were finally across, they played Jean Sibelius’s “Finlandia” symphony on the car’s sound system, a signal to Mr. Gordievsky that he was safe.
Back in Moscow, he was sentenced to death in absentia. That sentence has never been rescinded.
L.J. Smith, author. I probably would not have noted this, but she had an interesting career.
She published her first book (The Night of the Solstice, for young readers) in 1987. It wasn’t a bestseller, but it did attract the attention of Alloy Entertainment, “a book packaging and production company that has since been acquired by Warner Brothers”. They hired her to write “The Vampire Diaries” series, and she wrote four of those books between 1991 and 1992.
She also wrote other YA series books. In the late 1990s, though, she stopped writing for a time due to family health issues.
Yes, this is “The Vampire Diaries” that became the CW series. Which may have been part of the problem: Ms. Smith was fired as the writer in 2011. She stated that she thought the publisher wanted “wanted shorter books more closely associated with the TV series”.
But wait, there’s more! She started writing “The Vampire Diaries” fan fiction!
In 2013, Amazon created Kindle Worlds, an online service that gave writers of fan fiction permission to write about certain licensed properties, including Alloy’s “Vampire Diaries” series, and to earn money for their ventures.
In 2014, Ms. Smith became the rare celebrated author to produce fan fiction as a way to recoup characters and story arcs she had lost, publishing a novel and novella in an informal continuation of the “Vampire Diaries.” (Kindle Worlds was discontinued in 2018).
I had actually never heard of “Kindle Worlds”. But I don’t follow fan fiction.
Update.
Monday, January 27th, 2025The list of Austin City Council members has been updated.
I’ve included staff members when I can, but several of the newer city council members don’t have their staff listed yet. Probably still hiring…
You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#125, #126, and #127 in a series)
Friday, August 23rd, 2024Quel fromage!
Mike the Musicologist sent over a link from the Department of Justice: Trayon White Sr., who is a member of the DC City Council, was arrested Monday on bribery charges. (I know, a little old, but I missed this until MtM called it out.)
A corrupt DC city council member? What are the odds?
More from the WP (archived) which describes him as “a Marion Barry protege”.
Barry, for all his legal issues, never faced charges that he sought to enrich himself, although his associates were convicted of public corruption, including Ivanhoe Donaldson, a senior adviser who pleaded guilty to embezzling $190,000 in city funds.
“People looked at Marion’s issues as human frailties,” said Ron Lester, a veteran D.C. pollster whose clients included Barry. “Whether you liked or disliked him, Marion wasn’t someone accused of taking bribes. If these allegations prove to be true, Trayon doesn’t have a political future. It’s more clear-cut than anything Marion faced.”
In other news:
According to KXAN, she resigned from the district in March of last year, and went to work for…the City of Austin.
So just to be clear, that’s two former AISD employees, who seem to have worked in the same department, that have been indicted.
Yeah, the names are in the KXAN article, but I’m avoiding using them here. Why avoid using them, while at the same time naming Trayon White Sr.? Given the previous mess with an AISD employee, I’m not sure the district can be trusted to get it right, so I’m erring on the side of caution here.
You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#124 in a series)
Tuesday, August 6th, 2024I think this may be marginal, since the person in question is not an elected official. But they were still a high-ranking official in a position of trust locally.
The chief financial officer for the Austin Independent School District was arrested yesterday.
Technically, he’s the former CFO: according to the article, he submitted his resignation July 23rd, it was scheduled to be effective August 16th, and he was placed on leave immediately after his arrest.
He’s charged with insurance fraud, though the reports say the case against him has nothing to do with AISD.
…
Obit watch: June 27, 2024.
Thursday, June 27th, 2024This is breaking, and I may have more later on: “Kinky” Friedman, Texas musician, author, and politician. KVUE. KSAT. HouChron (archived). (Hattip: Lawrence.)
Bill Cobbs, actor. NYT (archived). Other credits include “A Mighty Wind”, “The Slap Maxwell Story”, and one of the spinoffs of a minor 1960s SF TV series.
Finally, a weird one:
…
…
…
Noted.
Monday, May 6th, 2024There was an election in Austin this past weekend.
Because of changes in state law, areas of Austin that were previously annexed by the city could vote to de-annex from the city.
Some of those results are interesting.
For example, Proposition B, “Disannex Mooreland Addition” received 0 votes against…and 0 votes for.
Proposition C, “Disannex Blue Goose Road”, got 3 votes for…and none against.
Proposition E, “Disannex Wildhorse/Webb” also ended up in a 0-0 tie.
And Proposition F, “Disannex River Place Outparcels”, won, 1-0. See, one vote can matter.
In case you were wondering, Proposition A, “Disannex Lost Creek”, won, 1,447 – 138. Proposition D, “Disannex Lennar at Malone”, won lost 110 – 2.
Edited to add 5/7: Actually, I mis-read the results. Proposition D, “Disannex Lennar at Malone”, was defeated.
I don’t know that there’s any major trends to be drawn from this. I want to say that the results prove general unhappiness with the city, and a desire to be well separated from it. But I feel like that can only be said for the areas covered by propositions A and D, since those seem to be the only ones with a significant number of voters.
Edited to add 5/7: Thanks to T. Migratorious for his comments.
Also, KVUE has a post election follow-up article.
…
“My grandfather fought the annexation of this little area the whole time here until he died in 2015,” Kizer said. “He was the kind of guy that would call the county … call the city and tell them, ‘You need to come do things.’”Kizer said they never got any benefits from the city in the seven years they were annexed and that their roads and water infrastructure deteriorated.
“I did call and contact the city for services, and they’re like, ‘No, we’re not up to date in your area to provide those services,'” Kizer said. “Huge potholes everywhere … They didn’t actually come and fix our road until they started doing new construction in the rest of the area. It was only to benefit the newcomers to the area, not anybody that’s already been here and paying taxes.”
…
Disannexing means the residents will no longer receive certain city services, like fire or police protection, street maintenance, public health sanitation and more.
“There weren’t a lot of things to look forward to or that they were giving us,” Kizer said. “So, the major benefit is that I get to go back to being county taxed.”
Art (Acevedo), damn it! watch. (#AK of a series)
Tuesday, January 23rd, 2024Art Acevedo is not taking the job in Austin. Repeat: Art Acevedo is not taking the job in Austin.
Acevedo notified Interim City Manager Jesús Garza Tuesday morning, following a firestorm about his appointment as an assistant city manager over the Austin Police Department (APD). On Tuesday afternoon, he posted a statement on X, the platform previously known as Twitter.
“It is clear that this newly created position has become a distraction from the critical work ahead for our city, the Austin Police Department, and the Austin Police Association,” Acevedo said in part, adding that he has always loved and admired the members of APD and, “as a long time member of their extended family, I will continue to support them in any way I can. Their well being has and will always [be] a priority for me, which is one of the reasons I have made this decision.”
I was actually surprised by the reaction to this, but haven’t had a chance to cover it. Many city leaders said, in essence, they felt bushwhacked by the decision and resented not being consulted.
It was also particularly upsetting to victims of sexual assault. The city had a special apology ceremony this afternoon:
The DNA lab problems, and the case mishandling, all took place under Chief Acevedo’s watch.
If we find out anything about what he’s doing next, we’ll post another Art Watch here. To be honest, we’re a little surprised he never got a position in the Biden administration…
Art (Acevedo), damn it! watch. (#AJ of a series)
Saturday, January 20th, 2024Seriously. I bet you never expected this item to come back around. I certainly didn’t.
But Art Acevedo is back in Austin, baby!
Doing what?
Excuse me, but aren’t the city manager and city council supposed to be supervising the Austin Police Department? Doesn’t the chief report to the city manager? Why do we need to pay $271,000 a year for another layer of bureaucracy?
“…lead the department through staffing challenges”? Is Art going to have the ability to authorize new academy classes on his own? Because that’s how you’re going to get through “staffing challenges”: by staffing the department.
Am I unreasonable in thinking that a new position that pays over a quarter of a million dollars a year, plus benefits, should be signed off on by the city council? Doesn’t this seem strange to anybody?
As a recap, since it has been a minute since I posted one of these: Art Acevedo was, until this week, the police chief in Aurora, Colorado. Somewhere in there was also a gig as a CNN commentator. The job in Aurora was, according to reports, “interim”.
Before that, he was the chief in Houston.
It was on his watch that HPD narcotics detectives murdered two innocent people.
Brief police beat news.
Monday, August 21st, 2023Austin Police chief Joseph Chacon is stepping down and retiring from APD after two years as chief.
I really don’t have anything much to say about this: Chief Chacon didn’t do anything in his time to really rise to my attention, either positively or negatively. There are things to be said about poor police response time, ongoing issues with the homeless, and other things going on within the department. But I feel like many of those issues are the results of poor decision making by our city government, and were out of Chief Chacon’s control.
I wish him well in his next endeavors, and I think a Fist Rockbone Brian Manley for mayor/Joseph Chacon for city council ticket would be a fantastic idea.
Administrative update.
Thursday, February 9th, 2023The list of Austin City Council members has been updated.
It will, I hope, stay that way for the next five minutes or so.
I’ve included staff information when and where it is available. Which led me to note: notorious gun-grabber Ed Scruggs is now the “Constituent Director & Policy Aide” for District 8 council member/mayor pro tem Paige Ellis.
I encourage folks to be polite and respectful in their communications with these folks. Next up: the Travis County Commissioners, then the Congressional reps. Maybe I can get those done this weekend? We’ll see.
(I’ve made some good progress on part 2 of “Day of the .45”, but I still need to take photos, do some proofreading, and triple-check my sources. I might get to the photos this weekend, but again, we’ll see.)
UN-altered REPRODUCTION and DISSEMINATION of this IMPORTANT Information is ENCOURAGED, ESPECIALLY to COMPUTER BULLETIN BOARDS.