The QueQue: Streetcar desires, Perry Poppin’, Climatologists want to correct data twisters

Streetcar desires

As VIA officials shop their own streetcar vision to City Council today, they’re headed for a clash with Mayor Julián Castro and at least one councilman, District 8’s Reed Williams, who dropped their own very different streetcar plan to the Express-News last week. While VIA’s current five-year plan, board-approved in July, calls for an east-west streetcar line running through the heart of downtown, Castro wants a north-south line that moves along Broadway, turning east at HemisFair and ending at the Robert Thompson Transit Center on the East Side. Bexar County commissioners already bought into the east-west plan in August, voting to funnel $55 million toward the project — on the condition that City Hall match the contribution. Spokeswoman Priscilla Ingle said VIA intends to give Council its current plan “as is, then field questions and any concerns.” (2pm Wednesday, Sept 28, Municipal Plaza Building, “B” Room, 114 W Commerce)

Perry Poppin’

Have you saddled up on Rick Perry? Do you know anyone, gay or straight, who has? Well, Larry Flynt, of Hustler and many a First-Amendment skirmish, is willing to pay out $1 million for your story. In full-page ads in the Austin Chronicle and the Onion last week, Flint became the second person in as many months looking to publicly probe the GOP presidential contender’s sex life. Some readers may remember the Austin-based hard-right GOP activist who last month placed his own full-page Chronicle ad, looking for any stripper, escort, or “young hottie” who has knocked boots with Guv Goodhair. Flynt, however, is another animal. Back when Repubs had President Clinton up for impeachment, Flynt took out then-incoming U.S. House Speaker Robert Livingston, a Republican from Louisiana, who resigned, admitting past affairs. The Washington Post later dubbed Flynt an “Investigative Pornographer.”

Climatologists want to correct data twisters

A small but determined group gathered at the Pearl Brewery Complex on Saturday — not for the locally made jams and jellies sold at the weekly farmer’s market, but to decry the world’s ongoing addiction to fossil fuels, an addiction driving most of the global warming on the planet. With the shock of the hottest summer on record fresh on their minds, folks from a variety of local organizations representing mass transit, energy-efficient building, and electronics recycling tabled the corridor of the Full Good Building. But the gathering — part of a global Moving Planet protest taking part in more than 150 countries urging the world to take action on climate change — culminated with the SUV-shaped piñata bash. But inside the offices of the San Antonio chapter of the American Institute of Architects, a couple of climatologists were making clear (for these guys, it’s becoming something of a full-time job) that Governor Perry does not speak for Texas scientists on the subject of global warming.