Daily - The Austin Chronicle (2024)

Dismantling Family Planning Pt. 2

With the House version of the state budget set for debate on the floor starting tomorrow morning, Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, is now proposing an amendment that women's health care advocates say would completely undo the state's system for providing reproductive health services to low-income women. "If the goal here is to just totally dismantle women's access to care, then [Chisum's] done a great job," says Sarah Wheat, vice president for community affairs for Planned Parenthood of the Texas Capital Region.The Chisum amendment would completely rearrange the way Texas' Dept. of State Health Services allocates roughly $42 million in funds to family planning providers -- a reorganization of "funding priorities" that would make the agency's lowest funding priority a large group of providers that currently provide services to the vast majority of women. Not surprisingly, this group includes a number of clinics run by Planned Parenthood -- it seems clear that defunding Planned Parenthood (an ongoing pet project for the right), is the goal of the Chisum amendment. Although the state currently serves just 17.5% of the more than two million women in need of reproductive health services -- often the only health care that low-income women receive -- it appears that figuring out a way to increase access to services is taking a backseat to that decidedly myopic goal. Indeed, in an April 16 email to supporters, Joe Pojman, executive director of the Austin-based Texas Alliance for Life, announces an "URGENT LEGISLATIVE ALERT," calling on "friends" to "immediately" call lawmakers and encourage them to vote for the Chisum measure "to de-fund Planned Parenthood from the state budget."

Toros Advance to Second Round of Playoffs

Playing at the Concordia University Fieldhouse, the Austin Toros defeated the Idaho Stampede in overtime 119-116 behind solid performances from Malik Hairston who scored 34 points and Marcus Williams with 33 points, nine rebounds, and eight assists. (For more on Williams, see Thomas Hackett's April 10 "Playing Through" column.) This places the Toros in the second round of the NBA D-League playoffs where they will face the Colorado 14ers on Saturday, April 18 in Broomfield, Colo.“I am continually impressed by this team’s character,” Austin Toros head coach Quin Snyder said. “The team demonstrated a tremendous amount of character tonight and now we get to play another day.” For more on the Toros, click here.

Reckless Kelly's Celebrity Softball Jam

Local faves on the Americana circuit Reckless Kelly are holding their Celebrity Softball Jam this Sunday, 1-8pm at the Dell Diamond in Round Rock (3400 E. Palm Valley Blvd.). The celebrity softball game gets under way at 2pm (gates at 1pm) and will feature NASCAR legend Kyle Petty; former Major Leaguers Brooks Kieschnick, Greg Swindell, and Kirk Dressendorfer; many of the performing artists; and in a far stretch of the word celebrity, yours truly.An opportunity to play softball on the beautiful field at the Dell Diamond with a concert after the game featuring Reckless Kelly, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Ray Benson, Roger Creager, Paula Nelson, Micky & the Motorcars, and more was impossible to pass by.Be sure to get your tickets now for Reckless Kelly's Celebrity Softball Jam benefiting the Miracle League at Town & Country, Little League of Austin, and the scholarship fund of the Austin Elks Lodge No. 201. Tickets are $12 in advance/$15 day of event, free to kids 12 and under, and can be purchased by calling 512/255-BALL or clicking here.

Where in the World is HB 873?

For a bill that everyone likes, House Bill 873, the film incentive reform package, seems to be taking a long time to get passed.It was supposed to come up for a vote in the Senate today, but that's been shoved back a day. Grabbing a quick word with Senate sponsor Sen. Robert Deuell, R-Greenville, and he explained that there's no real opposition. The problem is purely administrative: It had been put at the top of today's intent calendar this morning, but a House bill can't be top of the calendar. So that means it had to be pulled, and will be back tomorrow – in the correct part of the running order.On the positive side, Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, has now signed on as a co-sponsor. West had been unhappy with the earliest House draft of the bill because it excluded metropolitan Dallas from the definition of "underutilized and economically distressed area." With that section struck out, he's fully on-board. Bonus for Travis County: That also mean metropolitan Austin is included again.

An Interview with Kevin Shields

The aura and mystique surrounding Kevin Shields is even thicker than the wall of guitars on My Bloody Valentine’s genre-defining 1991 masterpiece Loveless. With the exception of his contributions to the Lost in Translation soundtrack and his work with Primal Scream, the reclusive guitarist has largely avoided the public spotlight since MBV officially disbanded in 1995, shelving the shoegazers’ third album in the process. Yet, in preparation for My Bloody Valentine’s reunion engagement at the Austin Music Hall on Tuesday, one of only five shows marking the band’s first American tour in 16 years, Shields shared his thoughts on the band’s return, the status of the its long-delayed reissues, and his recent collaboration with Patti Smith.Off the Record: First off, how did the reunion come to fruition?Kevin Shields: We were always intending to do something again. Colm [Ó Cíosóig] and Debbie [Googe] left in ‘95, and Bilinda and me were always together anyways, intending to make another record someday. We were always in touch. I would see Debbie out in London all the time. Whenever Colm would come to London we’d hang out. We always thought that we would make a record first and then play live. And then Coachella in 2006 offered us to play and we were like, "God, that’s quite a lot of money." And it wasn’t like, "That’s a lot of money we should do it." It was like, "That’s quite a lot of money, we can actually afford to do this, buy all of the right equipment for a change."

Aztex Mania, Champs League Quarterfinals

b>The Austin Aztex kick off their inaugural season of pro soccer with a bang-bang-bang of three games in eight days, starting this Saturday, April 18, with the Minnesota Thunder, and continuing with the defending USL First Division champion Vancouver Whitecaps on Tuesday, April 21, and fellow USL-1 newcomers Cleveland City Stars next Saturday, April 25. All three games are at 7:30pm at the Aztex home stadium, Nelson Field, off Berkman, just north of U.S. 290. See the April 17 Sports feature "Chapter One: A Team Is Born" for more.England kept up its undefeated streak in the European Champions League: For the second year in a row, three of the four semifinalists are English teams (Arsenal, Chelsea, Man U, and interloper Barcelona), and for the second year in a row, no English club has lost an ECL knockout tie – except to another English club.

Toros Playoff Run Begins

The Austin Toros enter the 2009 NBA D-League playoffs with a one-game matchup versus the Idaho Stampede. This is a rematch of the 2008 D-League championship where the Stampede topped the Toros in the final game of the best-of-three series. The game will be played tonight, Wednesday, April 15, at 7:30pm. Due to a scheduling conflict at the Austin Convention Center, the game will be held at the Concordia University Fieldhouse (11400 Concordia University Dr.). Tickets are available for $6 at the Fieldhouse box office starting at 6:30pm. Fans are encouraged to wear black in support of the Toros. For more, call 236-8333.

Menacing Behavior Under the Dome

There was nothing secure about the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee today. During public testimony on Senate Bill 358, Houston Republican Sen. Dan Patrick's anti-"sanctuary city" bill, a man was removed after making threats against committee members.There was initially confusion over Clay Laird's testimony, because somehow he had been listed as against the bill. It became pretty clear that was a clerical error when he said he would come to the home of anyone that opposed the bill.He asked Committee Chair John Carona, R-Dallas, "John, have you ever been to an execution?" Laird had: His mother was raped and murdered in the 1980s by a recently released convict, who was later executed (he did not claim the killer was an illegal immigrant.) His testimony went from moving to scary when he warned legislators that, if they didn't support the bill, he would come "wherever you live […] I mean I'm gonna be knocking on your door." Chillingly, he then asked Carona, "You run some properties?"

Arigatou Gozaimasu, Mr. Sakai

In 1982, a young artist from Hawaii named Stan Sakai sketched a rabbit with a samurai sword and his ears pulled up into a top knot.That sketch turned into the critically-lauded Usagi Yojimbo, the epic comic book tale of a fantastical medieval Japan, now entering its 25th year in print. Its 23rd collected edition, Bridge of Tears, will be published in July, and last week Sakai was nominated for the 2009 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award for best ongoing series.