Austin's COVID stats have not only dropped below Stage 5 range, they've plummeted through Stage 4 and are now approaching Stage 3 - however, City officials remain reluctant to officially reduce local precaution levels due to a continuing lack of hospital capacity. Austin's rising homicide stats are in line with a severe spike in murders across the country - the FBI reports that nationally, murders in 2020 rose 30% from 2019 - and a UT professor says gun proliferation is to blame. Austin gets one of Texas' two new U.S. House districts - the new U.S. House District 37 - while new maps concocted by Republicans in the Legislature appear to minimize representation of Latino and Black Texans. Next Monday, October 4, is the registration deadline for the November 2 election which will involve Texas Constitutional amendments, and locally Prop A, a petition-driven ballot item on minimum police staffing for Austin - which itself may threaten the funding of the Austin Fire Department if passed. A Confederate monument will be removed from Lockhart's Caldwell County Courthouse grounds as a public fundraiser achieves its goal. The next Austin Restaurant Weeks fundraiser for the Central Texas Food Bank starts on Friday. Jeffrey Weinberger, longtime Austin restaurateur and namesake of Clarksville's Jeffrey's, has died at 74. ACL Fest puts tickets on sale, but cheaper prices might be available via Ticketmaster's exchange site - while Waterloo Records has decided to skip this year's Fest due to COVID concerns. After years of rumored closures, the Nutty Brown Amphitheater has announced the farewell shows for its longtime location on Highway 290. And a wet cold front arrives tonight and sticks around thru the weekend - ACL attendees, be advised.
