Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Nick in Austin, new to Bluesky! @austintesla.bsky.social · Sep 11

Finally! For years, 311 has incorrectly said that "graffiti is up to the owner" and that's not what code lays out.

They currently only refer reports for tracking to #austinpublichealth

@kxan.com

1

Reposted by Nick in Austin, new to Bluesky!

Austin News @austin.thesocial.news · Sep 9

Austin City Council to weigh in on new ordinance to tackle graffiti cleanup

#KXAN #Austin

Austin City Council to weigh in on new ordinance to tackle graffiti cleanup

If passed, the ordinance would expand the definition to include any unauthorized mark on private or public property, as well as transportation infrastructure. It also allows a private property owne…

www.kxan.com

1 1 2

Nick in Austin, new to Bluesky! @austintesla.bsky.social · Sep 11

Good to have anti criminal cameras 📸

1

Reposted by Nick in Austin, new to Bluesky!

Safe Streets Austin @safestreetsaustin.bsky.social · Sep 9

Joining the City of Austin Pedestrian Advisory Council (PAC) or the Bicycle Advisory Council (BAC) is a great way to help guide active transportation policy.

Applications are open for the 2025-26 term through Sunday, 9/14:

PAC Application: bit.ly/PACAPP2025
BAC Application: bit.ly/BACAPP2025

1 1 3

Nick in Austin, new to Bluesky! @austintesla.bsky.social · Sep 7

Reposted by Nick in Austin, new to Bluesky!

neon jennifer @casbah.bsky.social · Feb 20

Ah yes the heart of tech intellectualism, rural texas

1 2

Reposted by Nick in Austin, new to Bluesky!

Sue Romulus @sueromulus.bsky.social · Mar 14

Do you know how many acres Cards Against Humanity purchased in Cameron County TX?

The $15M lawsuit against SpaceX describes a “plot” of land costing $2,250,000.

It’s egregious for SpaceX to trespass and dump massive amounts of gravel on their land, on purpose. Shows abusive character of Elon Musk.

2 3

Reposted by Nick in Austin, new to Bluesky!

Lauren McGaughy @lmcgaughy.bsky.social · Feb 13

Did you know the heart of #ElonMusk’s business empire is in rural Texas?

We used records to map how much land he and his lieutenants have in Bastrop County.

It’s more than 600 acres.

Have a tip about Musk? Email me!

www.kut.org/austin/2025-...

#musk #spacex #boring #xcorp #txlege #texas

7 47 76

Reposted by Nick in Austin, new to Bluesky!

Audrey McGlinchy @mcglinchyreports.bsky.social · Feb 11

NEW from me: Austin is set to change how it regulates short-term rentals (aka Airbnbs), after court cases have gutted the city's rules.

The city's now focused on getting more owners licensed and less on limiting the number of these controversial rentals: www.kut.org/housing/2025...
:

Austin to overhaul how it regulates Airbnbs and other short-term rentals

The city has proposed rules to make it hard to run a short-term rental without a city-issued license. Third-party data suggests thousands of owners rent out their homes without one.

www.kut.org

3 9

Reposted by Nick in Austin, new to Bluesky!

Mose Buchele @mosebuchele.bsky.social · Jun 19

Last year Austin's water utility lost 9.3 billion gallons of water because of a leaky distribution system. That's enough to fill Lady Bird Lake about four times over and 31 percent rise from the previous year.
Why the big jump? Some of it might be improved monitoring.
www.kut.org/energy-envir...

Austin is losing even more water to leaky city pipes than previously thought

Austin Water said improvements in how it monitors the system and an increase in water line breaks pushed up estimates from last year.

www.kut.org

1 2 1

Nick in Austin, new to Bluesky! @austintesla.bsky.social · Aug 4

Agreed, I believe many city employee movements could be done with ebikes/transit vs cars altogether and it meets any current mayor's fitness challenge

@capmetroatx.bsky.social @vanessafuentes.bsky.social @chitovela @cmzoqadri.bsky.social @kutnews.bsky.social @movability.bsky.social

2

Reposted by Nick in Austin, new to Bluesky!

Al Yankovic @alyankovic.bsky.social · Jul 30

Keep it weird, Austin!

73 530 4.9K

Reposted by Nick in Austin, new to Bluesky!

Claire Zagorski, MSc, EMT-P @clairezagorski.bsky.social · Aug 1

rich people after moving to Austin:

130 1.3K 4.9K

Reposted by Nick in Austin, new to Bluesky!

[Sic] Burns @sicburns2.bsky.social · Aug 2

PBS gave me Monty Python, Siskel and Ebert, Nicholas Nickleby, and Austin City Limits

No biggie just some shows that introduced me to nearly everything that would matter to me in life.

Good job everyone and I hope you enjoy fucking yourselves! 👍

10 27 95

Reposted by Nick in Austin, new to Bluesky!

AURA: An Austin for Everyone @aura-atx.org · Aug 2

Join transit fans and advocates to hear from CapMetro about Transit Plan 2035!

Also, since AURA board elections are ongoing, we're encouraging AURA board candidates to come and give a short candidate pitch.

RSVP: actionnetwork.org/events/aura-...

1 4

Reposted by Nick in Austin, new to Bluesky!

AURA: An Austin for Everyone @aura-atx.org · Apr 10

Austin City Council votes 10-1 to legalize 5-story single-stair apartments, making Austin the largest US city outside of NYC to legalize single-stair! 🎉🎉🎉

Many thanks to all the supporters and to CM Chito Vela for leading this exciting reform! We did it y'all! 🙌

A 5-story single-stair apartment building tucked nicely into a residential neighborhood with greenery, trees, and sidewalks

4 27 110

Reposted by Nick in Austin, new to Bluesky!

Austin DSA @austindsa.bsky.social · Jun 26

Austin DSA congratulates Zohran Mamdani and @socialists.nyc for their monumental win in the NYC mayoral primary election. This victory shows that working-class politics can triumph over establishment politics for city leadership.

Let’s keep up the momentum, join DSA: dsausa.org/join

From Austin DSA, congratulations to Zohran Mamdani and NYC DSA for yesterday’s monumental victory
in the New York City mayoral primary election. Policy that serves working class interests wins!

We've done it before here in Austin, electing Mike Siegel to City Council last year, and Zohran's huge win shows that the Democratic Socialist movement can beat establishment politics.

5 15

Nick in Austin, new to Bluesky! @austintesla.bsky.social · Aug 4

@repcasar.bsky.social 👏

Reposted by Nick in Austin, new to Bluesky!

Digital Warrior - Combat Disinfo @digitalwarrior.bsky.social · Jul 1

2/7 Casar began as a labor and immigrant rights organizer in Texas. At 25, he was elected to Austin City Council. By 32, he was in Congress. Now he leads one of the most populous Democratic caucuses in the House, with over 100 members. His roots aren’t in D.C., they’re in the streets.

2 5 20

Reposted by Nick in Austin, new to Bluesky!

Mary Pustejovsky @mpusto.bsky.social · Jul 1

Same story played out in Austin. Older homeowners sued the city against a rezoning plan. They “won” but since then almost the entire city council has turned YIMBY and they’ve passed tons of good stuff.

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · Jul 1

of course this stupidity might actually be an asset. since the new zoning code was approved, we have elected an even more pro-housing city council that is even less inclined to defer to the complaints of the multimillionaire homeowners.

1 1 17

Nick in Austin, new to Bluesky! @austintesla.bsky.social · Aug 4

Thank you and could we please ask for a full commitment to an electric city fleet? ⚡

Especially of full size gas guzzlers like at @austinwater and at @austinenergy.bsky.social, Code Enforcement, etc? 🙏

This will pay dividends in public health and air pollution reduction as well as cost savings!

1

Reposted by Nick in Austin, new to Bluesky!

Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · Aug 1

Four more WaPo departures: Hank Stuever, Ann Hornaday, Craig Timberg, Joel Achenbach. Source says it feels like the Hunger Games: “My inbox has literally dozens of announcements of departures or newsroom wide goodbye notes.”

—via @benmullin.bsky.social on X

Email screenshot

Sandra Ballentine
5:42 PM
From Hank Stuever
tl;dr
I only ever wanted to work at The Washington Post, and boy, I got to. Two things, before I go:
1. Before you read, listen or click on anything else, please read, listen and click on the work of your colleagues. Deeply, thoughtfully, always.
Talk about it. Examine it. Enjoy it. THEN go doomscroll the competition, not the other way around. Originality will always be the answer.
2. If you create something (words, clips, visuals) and you happen to think, you know who would really get a kick out of this? Hank Stuever. Then please send it to him!

Email screenshot:

Sandra Ballentine
5:47 PM
SB
Staff News: Ann Hornaday
Dim the lights. After 22 years, Ann Hornaday is stepping down as The Post's chief film critic.
Ann is a proud native of Des Moines, lowa (home to her beloved Varsity Theatre), who just as proudly began her career at Ms. magazine as an assistant to Gloria Steinem. She went from freelancing for magazines and the New York Times to staff film critic positions at the Austin American-Statesman and the Baltimore Sun before joining The Post in 2002. In 2008, she was a Pulitzer finalist for criticism. Her first book,
"Talking Pictures: How to Watch Movies," was published in 2017.
More recently, she's delighted Post readers with a steady stream of memorable reviews, from the four-star heights of "Oppenheimer" to the .5-star lows of "Lisa Frankenstein." She's also regularly churned out an array of columns, appreciations, lists and profiles (see: Nate Parker, Bruce Springsteen, George Clooney), among so many other things.

Email screenshot:

Matt Murray
5:48 PM
Craig Timberg
Dear All,
I'm sad to share the news that Craig Timberg, a Deputy Managing Editor since 2023 and a longtime leader in the newsroom, has decided to take the buyout and move on to a new opportunity.
Craig joined the Metro staff in 1998, first covering Virginia politics and government from Richmond and then writing about D.C. politics, the mayor and city council. He was Johannesburg bureau chief from 2004 to 2008, after which he co-authored a book, "Tinderbox:
How the West Sparked the AIDS Epidemic and How the World Can Finally Overcome It."
He returned to Washington and served stints as education editor and deputy national security editor. From 2012 to 2021 he was a technology reporter, and wrote award-winning stories on privacy, surveillance, cybersecurity and disinformation. His work on the role of social media and @Anon in the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks was part of the package that received the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.

Email screenshot:

Sandra Ballentine
4:39 PM
SB
Staff news: Joel Achenbach
Joel Achenbach is retiring from The Post after 35 years as a staff writer, columnist, blogger, lede-all anchor and explainer of complicated stuff.
Joel arrived in October 1990 as a feature writer in the Style section. He also wrote the weekly column "Why Things Are," answering questions like "Why doesn't a black hole somewhere get so big and powerful that it eventually goes sklurrp! and sucks the entire galaxy, including planet earth, into its dreadful maw?" and "Why is dryer lint gray if my clothes aren't gray?" The column was syndicated by the Washington Post Writers Group to more than 50 newspapers. In 1999, he started the traditional newsroom's first online column, "Rough Draft," for washingtonpost.com, and then became The Post's first blogger with "Achenblog" in 2005.
That year he joined the Post Magazine, writing features and a weekly humor column.
In 2007, he joined the National Desk and has since worked primarily for the health and science team. He has covered presidential campaigns, NASA space missions, mass shootings, hurricanes, the BP oil spill, America's

24 240 870

Reposted by Nick in Austin, new to Bluesky!

Rep. Lloyd Doggett @doggett.house.gov · Jul 29

Before the Austin City Council passed a resolution offered by Mayor Pro Tem Fuentes to urge FAA to provide more air traffic controllers for our airport, I spoke about efforts to keep our skies safe.

With less than half of the recommended certified controllers at our tower, we need immediate action.

1 19 52

Reposted by Nick in Austin, new to Bluesky!

Texas AFL-CIO @texasaflcio.org · Jul 7

As Texans recover from the recent floods, we have compiled a list of resources for affected counties, available to both union members and the general public.

Central Texas Flood Resources

As Texans recover from the recent floods, the Texas AFL-CIO has compiled a list of resources for the affected counties for both union members and the general public. Thank you to all of our emergency ...

texasaflcio.org

1 26 27

Reposted by Nick in Austin, new to Bluesky!

Ray Collins @eraycollins.bsky.social · Aug 2

64.5% of $1.5B general fund is police (36.7%), fire (17.8%), & EMS (10%). Predominately paid for by property taxes, but also sales taxes, utility transfers from Austin Energy, & miscellaneous revenue. Remainder of total budget of $6.3B is $4.8B paid for by fees, etc., & is self-supporting. /2

1 1 1