AUSTIN MAN gets turned away from a CapMetro bus after he tried to hit the driver, then accosts a man riding an e-bike down the sidewalk, pulls him off, grabs his backpack, and throws punches when the man chases him to get it back -- sending the victim to the hospital, five months after he punched a stranger in the head at another Austin bus stop and walked away with credit for time served. The victim in the recent attack left in an ambulance. Police found more than 5 grams of meth in John Swain's pocket. Swain told the officer that if he had really swung first, he would have knocked the man out and "taken his backpack and taken his bike." The officer wrote that he'd dealt with Swain "on many occasions." Prosecutors know him well too, but don’t prosecute him. In 2024, Swain was charged with aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury, a second-degree felony. DA José Garza's office let him plead down to misdemeanor assault. In November 2025, state troopers found meth in his tent downtown and he resisted arrest. Garza's office never filed the drug charge. County Attorney Delia Garza's office declined the resisting arrest charge. In April, he was arrested stumbling drunk and screaming obscenities at people outside the downtown library, where he was already banned. Twelve days later he was shirtless on Congress Ave, blocking traffic and confronting strangers while diners on restaurant patios called 911. That case was dismissed. In May, he walked up to a stranger sitting at a bus stop on Guadalupe, punched him in the head, and pedaled away from police on a pink bicycle. The officer knew him of course and chased him, calling him by his first name. Swain was charged only with evading. He bonded out and skipped court. When police finally brought him back, he got credit for time served.

Austin City Hall is still campaigning against an independent audit (Prop I). Their tendentious online fact sheet leaves out that: - Unlike their audit, Prop I's auditor has to find more savings than it costs. - Unlike their audit, Prop I requires an audit before any tax increase vote. - Unlike their audit, the council can't scrap Prop I audit. - The city’s own workers are organizing to defeat Prop I. - The council’s preferred audit put in language to protect against layoffs (which are part of the point of an independent audit)

When José Garza ran for Travis County DA in 2020, he made a promise - "As District Attorney, I will not seek a death sentence." He called capital punishment morally and ethically wrong. In 2024, Garza's office handled the case of Raul Meza Jr., who murdered 8-year-old back in 1982, served 11 years, and got out. He went on to kill a 65-year-old and an an 80-year-old. The victims’ families and others expected the death penalty, but Garza's office declined to seek it.

AUSTIN MAN pointed a knife at a driver, chased a couple down Rainey St hurling rods, and lunged at a 6th st bar doorman while carrying a knife -- and prosecutors keep letting him walk. George Barrier's run started in October 2024, when five calls came in about a man chasing people on Rainey with "pipes." He charged at a man walking with his girlfriend three times, threw the rods at him, and screamed that he was going to beat him. Then he gave cops a fake name. County Attorney Delia Garza's office declined to prosecute. In February 2025, he was arrested twice in ten days for camping at the same vacant building on East Avenue, his belongings strewn with knives and a meth pipe in his pocket. In April he was back in the parking lot with a handful of spring-loaded, butterfly, and folding knives, pointing one at a man sitting in his car. He skipped court and a judge forfeited his bond. When police caught him in July, he had meth on him, a felony. DA Jose Garza's office declined to file it. Five days later, all three trespass cases were dismissed and he pleaded to a single misdemeanor. 30 days in jail, 8 already served. January 2026, he was back at the same building. Prosecutors declined again. Then came the 6th Street doorman. Barrier tossed one knife on the ground, had another holstered on his belt, and gave police a fake name again. He pleaded to another misdemeanor. By July he was arrested with up to 4g of meth, a felony carrying up to 10 years in prison. The DA declined to file it. Days ago, he was arrested with meth again.

UPDATE: Alonzo Mabry is dead. In March, the 62-year-old was using a computer at Austin's Central Library when the man next to him, Daniel Vasquez, stood up, hit him in the head, and stomped on his skull while he lay unconscious. Then Vasquez went back to his computer. Mabry died in hospice and Vasquez was charged with murder last week. Before the library, Vasquez had punched a CapMetro bus driver in the mouth. That was dismissed by prosecutors. He also punched a mother in the face in front of her 11-year-old son, then punched the woman who tried to stop him. Those were also dismissed. DA Jose Garza's office sent him to a six-month rehab program instead. He finished in June 2025 and every charge was wiped and he went back to the street.

Austin City Hall is about to send up to $520,000 to three newsrooms that cover Austin City Hall. On Thursday, the City Council will vote on a $2.34 million ad campaign that includes three local newsrooms: KVUE: $175,000 KXAN: $175,000 Austin American-Statesman: $170,000 Nearly all of the newsroom money comes from a federal EPA program meant to cut car pollution -- basically to convince people to drive less and take the bus or bike or carpool. The city doesn't have to take bids, because TX law exempts advertising from competitive bidding. City Hall gets to choose which outlets get paid and how much. It's on the consent agenda, so it passes without discussion unless a council member pulls it.

Gilbert Perez commits crime after crime and literally begs to go to jail, but prosecutors refuse to accommodate him.

AUSTIN MAN shoved a man to the ground on Congress Ave and punched him in the head repeatedly while yelling that he was in the CIA. The victim was just standing on the corner minding his own business. Police had been called about a fight involving a machete, and they found a hatchet lying in the middle of the street. The assault charge was dismissed. Since then, Gilbert Perez has asked police to take him to jail three times. In July he was caught outside a downtown 7-Eleven he'd been banned from, holding a rock, after he tried to break a window. He told the officer he wanted to go to jail. In August he walked into the same store with a rock and threatened to smash the windows unless staff called the cops. Prosecutors declined to charge him. Last month he went back again and told police he knew about the ban and "disregarded it." Prosecutors declined that case too. Two days later he refused to leave a business on East Riverside and told the officer he wanted to go to jail. The Chick-fil-A down the block banned him too. He kept coming back anyway. In March he was arrested for felony criminal mischief, more than $2,500 in damage. DA Jose Garza's office gave him 7 days. 9 cases. 5 declined or dismissed. His longest sentence was 7 days. He keeps committing crimes and telling the police he wants to go to jail, but prosecutors keep insisting he's safe for the street.

Go to a Lakeway gym, be caught on video stealing $1k worth of equipment, run from police, assault/injure a cop -- all while on three convictions for running from police, plus other crimes. Get dismissed by DA Garza, and then proceed to commit more crimes.

Austin’s airport was once among the nation’s highest-rated airports. In JD Power's rankings, it rose to 7th place among large airports in 2021 before falling to 15th in 2022 and 2023 and tied for 16th in 2025. AUS now scores only at the national average, well behind Dallas Love Field and other leading airports.

AUSTIN MAN ditched his car behind a swim center at 4am and ran into the woods, leaving his deaf passenger alone in the front seat. He was already wanted for skipping out on a jail sentence. Prosecutors declined to charge him. The officer had tried to pull him over for driving with no headlights. The passenger had to write on a notepad to answer questions, and she wrote that the driver was "my friend Marcus Taylor." Police heard branches snapping in the woods. Eventually Maurice Taylor yelled, "Alright, I'm coming out.... I ran from you because I know I have a warrant." The warrant was for 20 days in jail for carrying a fake driver's license. A judge gave him a deadline to turn himself in, but he didn't show up. That was his 11th Travis County case since December 2024. Before that, he borrowed a neighbor's key card for "one workout" at a Lakeway HOA gym. Surveillance video shows him going in and out seven times in under three hours, carrying out about $980 worth of weights, mats and even the trash can. The case was dismissed. When police came to arrest him for the gym theft, he yanked away from two cops and sprinted across RR 620. They found him lying behind a fence next to AC units. In the back of the patrol car, he got upset and kicked his leg out the door, bending a corporal's thumb back so far the officer ended up in a brace. He already had three convictions for running from police. DA Jose Garza's office knocked the felony assault on an officer down to a misdemeanor and dismissed the felony evading charge. Another time, an officer pulled a fake driver's license out of his car. When the officer said it was fake, Taylor replied, "I know." That case was dismissed. Last month he was arrested again, this time for felony credit card abuse.

Austin promised to "reset" its social-services spending, found tons of compliance problems in their review, and recommended zero cuts. A Catholic Charities contract to pay immigrants' federal filing fees, even though half its cases don't have a fee. It kept the full $126,720. A $71,376 mental health contract that served about 4% of the clients it promised. Recommendation was to keep funding it. A health bus that, two years in, still isn't running. The City has moved its target date six times. A $349,710 contract with Sickle Cell Texas Marc Thomas Foundation, which the city says inflated its numbers, billed for costs it wasn't allowed to charge, and served people who didn't qualify. Staff proposed cutting it in July but the city extended it at full price anyway. How did NOTHING get cut? Because every evaluator got the same instruction: if a contractor is underperforming but the "need" is still a real one theoretically, don't recommend a reduction. In August, the city restored $4.7 million to social services and declared preserving that funding a “policy priority.” And the city still hasn't released the names of the 26 flagged contracts. The Audit and Finance Committee gets a briefing on it Wednesday, but nothing is actually up for a vote.