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Sunday News Roundup 11/27/11

Breezy, cool temperatures in Austin today.
Photo by Emily Donahue/KUT News
Breezy, cool temperatures in Austin today.

 

Austin Bergstrom International Airport is prepping for a heavy travel day. Just as in the day before Thanksgiving, today is one of the heaviest travel days of the year. And showers and thunderstorms along the East Coast may delay some travelers. So be forewarned - bring a book, a Kindle, an iPad or maybe some other gadget to pass any delays. Oh how did we travel before technology?

Has Autumn at last arrived in Austin? It's going to be a breezy, chilly day today. After dropping to nearly 30 overnight, highs today are expected to reach the mid-fifties. Bundle up!

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is filing a request for an emergency stay with the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the implementation of redistricting maps issued by a federal panel in San Antonio.

The Attorney General is questioning whether the interim maps drawn by a three-judge panel violate the U.S. Constitution by redrawing maps created by the elected legislature.

If a stay were approved, it would affect the election process in Texas. The filing period for candidates wishing to run in the 2012 elections starts tomorrow.

Some Occupy Austin protesters have moved to the Capitol. The group says that gives those that have been banned from returning to City Hall due to criminal trespassing citations an opportunity to continue to be involved.

The NBA lockout is over. And as sports analysts everywhere had predicted, the players weren’t the winners in the battle of wills. Culture Map’s Chris Baldwin summed things up this way:

  Stern and the owners seem to be determined to try and create NFL-style parity in basketball. It might sound great in theory. But the problem is the NBA's long been driven by star-packed teams — that's what creates the interest, from the Showtime Lakers to the Michael Jordan-era Bulls. The NBA experienced a huge jump in popularity last season largely because the LeBron James-Dwyane Wade super team in Miami that everyone loves to hate brought back those days. And the Dallas Mavericks never would have been able to pull off that great NBA Finals upset if Mark Cuban wasn't allowed to open his wallet wide and add complementary piece after complementary piece. The NBA will quickly find out it's not the NFL. It needs compelling storylines to thrive — marquee teams that capture the general public's imagination over a long schedule. Does anybody besides Peter Holt care if this new deal allows the San Antonio Spurs to compete again? The Spurs winning all those titles in their boring fashion is what almost killed the league in the first place. 

Emily Donahue is a former grants writer for KUT. She previously served as news director and helped launch KUT’s news department in 2001.