The case for hope, even and especially now. — On Friday, September 18, I was driving to the store to get some beer after my last meeting of the day. It had been a particularly weird week — my birthday was the day before. …

If you would like to contact Austin City Council about APD funding, please feel free to use any of this in your email — To: steve.adler@austintexas.gov, spencer.cronk@austintexas.gov, natasha.madison@austintexas.gov, Delia.Garza@austintexas.gov, Sabino.Renteria@austintexas.gov, Gregorio.Casar@austintexas.gov, Ann.Kitchen@austintexas.gov, Jimmy.Flannigan@austintexas.gov, Leslie.Pool@austintexas.gov, Paige.Ellis@austintexas.gov, Kathie.Tovo@austintexas.gov, Alison.Alter@austintexas.gov

As the U.S. continues to reopen without a well-defined national strategy, personal responsibility is more important than ever. But how should you think about COVID-19 if you, like me, are not an epidemiologist? — On the last Friday of every month, I usually host a large, no-agenda happy hour with some friends called Cocktails and Conversations. There’s nothing to it: just friends at a bar on a Friday, talking about their week over drinks and french fries. …

In this moment, the most American thing we could possibly do is to reject fear and make this our mantra: we are not afraid. — This week, flooding in Michigan caused two dams to breach. In the city of Midland, 41,000 people could soon be “under approximately 9 feet of water,” according to the state’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer. As of May 10, 2019, California had seen 675 wildfires. …

If you’re just looking for links to resources and information about developments here in Austin, please scroll to the bottom (you won’t offend me). But first, a story. — As I walked into the office on campus at the The Walt Disney Company’s publishing division in Burbank, California, on Monday, September 8, 2008, I could already feel the weight of the conversations we were going to have that day.

Somebody is out there, they’re worth all the time and wet socks in the world; they deserve to be counted and cared for. — It was about 3:10am on January 25, 2020, and a team of two others and myself—a friend and a new friend—were trudging down a hill in East Austin, behind a church, near a bar, walking towards a fire lit off in the distance. We were all wishing we had worn…