The Austin Monitor thanks its sponsors. Become one.
Reporters’ Notebook
Reporter's Notebook: Throwing side eye, catching rides
Side eye, or stink eye?… What exactly is the name given to the withering glances occasionally dished out by City Council Member Ora Houston toward her colleagues on the dais? Council Member Leslie Pool learned directly on Thursday during discussion…
Reporters' Notebook • By Austin Monitor • Jun 18, 2018
Reporter's Notebook: Soccer games
Bound for Cow Town?… Another new wrinkle in Austin’s (never-ending?) professional soccer saga developed slowly last week after ESPN soccer analyst Taylor Twellman opined, during a segment on Sacramento recently losing out on a Major League Soccer expansion bid, that…
Reporters' Notebook • By Austin Monitor • Jun 11, 2018
Reporter's Notebook: Don't speak
Once more, away from the breach… For decades, those who work with digital data have learned to encrypt it in defense against potential breaches. Unfortunately, according to Khalil Shalabi, Austin Energy vice president of strategy, technology and markets, data protection…
Reporters' Notebook • By Austin Monitor • Jun 4, 2018
Reporter's Notebook: Overheard, signs of the times
And on and on… Last week brought a tentative update to the ongoing labor negotiations with the Austin Police Association. Those negotiations resumed after City Council voted against a proposed contract in December. Since then, police have been operating without…
Reporters' Notebook • By Elizabeth Pagano • May 21, 2018
Reporter's Notebook: Contact
H2Oh no… Like country rubes dazzled by the mystic arts of the boardwalk illusionist, sometimes we journalists are so awestruck by an apparent attempt at math that we lose all professional incredulity and report it with gushing deference. Such it…
Reporters' Notebook • By Austin Monitor • May 14, 2018
Subscribe to our newsletter
Reporter's Notebook: Is CodeNEXT spreading?
Contagion… Is the trauma of CodeNEXT spreading to other Central Texas cities? That’s the horrific question at least one Sunset Valley resident must have asked herself when she opened her mailbox recently. Inside was a postcard sent by the city…
Reporters' Notebook • By Austin Monitor • Apr 30, 2018
Reporter's Notebook: Scoot on
Much ado about scooting… As best as we can tell, the Scooter Wars hyped up on social media have largely been playing out as a sitzkrieg. Absent thus far is the oppressive sidewalk clutter – dubbed “mobility spam” by one…
Reporters' Notebook • By Austin Monitor • Apr 23, 2018
Reporter's Notebook: Collective concerns
No need to bug out… Word hit the street recently that the city was considering a rule that would require all homes to install insect screens. “Proposal would require homeowners to install insect screens,” said a KXAN headline. Buried near…
Reporters' Notebook • By Austin Monitor • Apr 16, 2018
Reporter's Notebook: Ornithology edition
Bird brains… After the Uber and Lyft fiasco of 2016 and the city’s crackdown against rogue bike-sharing companies in 2017, we have no idea why rent-a-scooter firm Bird figured it’d be a swell idea to try to elbow its way…
Reporters' Notebook • By Austin Monitor • Apr 9, 2018
Reporter's Notebook: Let's talk talk
Talking to themselves… Do the members of the Commissioners Court and their staff need to take some time to discuss how they discuss things? Well, last Tuesday, the court discussed that very question! Concerning an upcoming retreat, Commissioner Brigid Shea…
Reporters' Notebook • By Austin Monitor • Apr 2, 2018
Reporter's Notebook: Meet me at the cemetery gates (tough guy)
More like Smashbel… A downtown Austin implosion occurs almost as infrequently as a freelance writer wakes up before Helios puts the sun in Sunday. But yesterday saw the stars align and gifted us with the rare spectacle of early morning…
