Update: The Army Major accused in the 2009 shooting at Fort Hood will still face the death penalty if he’s convicted. Nidal Hasan is charged with killing 13 people and wounding dozens more. This morning the judge in his case denied a request from his lawyers to take the death penalty off the table. Update (Jan. 30, 8:04 a.m.): Army Maj. Nidal Hasan returns to military court this morning—more than three years after he’s accused of going on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood. The first of three pretrial hearings starts today with the new judge assigned to the trial. Col. Tara Osborn will reconsider issues including whether Hasan should face the death...
» read more

A larger than expected surplus from fiscal year 2012, plus higher sales tax revenues has Austin City Council members discussing which projects should be funded. That was the talk yesterday at a special mid-year budget session, and with more than $14 million on the table, the possibilities are near endless. There’s talk about funding the Zilker Hillside Theater and a wildfire fuel mitigation program to clear brush and dead trees, among other things. But the difficulty Tuesday was distinguishing between the “would like” and “must-have” categories. The problem is that those categorizations are often subjective. And on the Austin City Council, there are seven individuals with very distinct priorities. ...
» read more