The police union funded the fake petition

The police union funded the fake petition
The vacant storefront at City Hall that used to be home to Austin Java. 

Quick hits

Lipstick on a pig: The transportation department discusses its efforts to put "caps" and "stitches" over the widened I-35.

And TxDOT continues to make stuff up: Our state transportation department says that if we don't expand the highway, by 2045 it will take 3.5 hours during evening rush hour to drive the eight miles between Ben White and Koenig Lane. Curiously, however, they project the same trip will only take 33 minutes during the morning rush hour! Remember, this is the same agency that told us in 2002 that there would be 300,000 cars a day on the highway by 2020 (the actual number is 200,000, the same as in 2002).

AISD may face higher borrowing costs: A state program that insures the debt issued by school districts is nearing its federally-mandated limit of $117 billion, meaning that AISD may have to rely on private sector alternatives that will significantly raise its borrowing costs. U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett has introduced legislation that aims to eliminate the cap.

It was the cops after all.

Voices for Oversight and Police Accountability, the mysterious group that posed as a police reform group and collected thousands of signatures in support of a phony police oversight ordinance, is funded almost entirely by the Austin Police Association.