Fannie Mae says it lost $3.6 billion in the fourth quarter as home-loan delinquencies mounted....

Former Longhorn receiver Roy Williams, now with the NFL's Detroit Lions, is pulling down $1.5 million in salary this season, but he talked a Detroit radio station about what a lady might expect on a date: I am cheap, I’m a cheap date. Get you some McDonalds, with some cheese on it and I’m just really cheap, man. I’m very low key, I like to stay home. I like to go bowling on Monday......

Dallas native Ben Kweller is an interesting tangle of contradictions. He's 26, but his first major label album was released a decade ago. Kweller is an indie rock star, but lives in a Brooklyn brownstone with his longtime wife and young son. And his music is accessible and catchy, yet it hasn't quite found the large audience it deserves. Kweller returns to the Austin City Limits Festival for two shows this weekend to bounce......

The City of Austin has posted a survey seeking local input about the Downtown Austin Plan. The planning process is being led by ROMA Design Group and is supposed to address issues such as density codes, funding mechanisms, transit routes, and affordable housing. The survey is available in English and Spanish and will be up until Oct. 12 or until they get 10,000 responses. Questions include "If I had $100 dollars to spend on......

Felix, Category 5 hurricane, is hitting Nicaragua. Oh, the times they are a'changin (finally): A female joins the ranks of the Beefeaters at the Tower of London. Bush arrives in Australia today amid protests from Australians. Slate reviews O.J.'s book: "The narrator of 'If I Did It' introduces his story not as an exercise in counterfactual speculation but rather as the God's honest truth." Author Anne Lamott censored from speaking at Creighton University? Hybrid......

One of Austin's best-known solo performers is back in town. Through June 16th, Rob Nash performs College Freshman Year Sucks at the Vortex. His immensely successful shows feature him playing various characters inspired by his parochial, Texas upbringing. Continuing our monthly series on comedy performers, we talk to Rob about keeping characters straight, Lily Tomlin and the quality of a certain prop comedian's stash. How long have you been doing solo shows? Twenty years......

*The views expressed in The Laurie Show are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole.* -ed. note I have a favor to ask, if I may be so bold: Will someone PLEASE give me an extra dose of caffeine? Yours truly, hostess of The Laurie Show, has been working double time at KUT 90.5. Today is an extra challenge. I'll be sitting in during the afternoon drive for the......

For sometime now, fans of both humor and the internet have had reason to rejoice and celebrate every day. Through his daily posts on Girls Are Pretty, author, comedian, performer and non-professional dancer Bob Powers tips readers off to little known or unconventional holidays that would otherwise remain uncelebrated. For instance, did you know that this past Tuesday, April 10th, was "Your Thirteen Year Old Son Got His Dick Caught In One Of The Mousetraps......

There’s always a group of youth, every three years or so, who is “on the cusp of DOING something!” Something amazing. Massive in potential scope! Probably artistic and important! Maybe even important on a national if not international scale!...

Brothers Albert and Peter Kottke were on the last leg of a backpacking trip in Gila National Forest when they happened upon a woman stuck in the wilderness, visibly weakened and alone. It turns out that this woman, 52-year-old Carolyn Dorn, had been wandering around the 3.3-million acre forest for the past five weeks, after being trapped on the wrong side of Gila River during what was supposed to be a two-week-long camping expedition. A......

Interview conducted by Miguel Hinojosa on October 26, 2006 In my brief career as a journalist, I've dealt primarily with close friends, local musicians that I love and respect, and the conversations are candid and open. This I was rather nervous about. I interviewed Adem the afternoon of his show with Juana Molina at the Parish. He is definitely a man of great ideas and by far one of the nicest people I have......

Some people are just that desperate for inexpensive furniture. We hope you love your new Kaarten Caaffee Taable. From deep in the heart of West Texas, Amazon.com founder, Jeff Bezos launches his rocket. MySpace is worth an estimated $6 Billion. We wanted to be part of a prestigious organization but it looks like we'll have to rule this one out. Al Jazeera begins broadcasting in English today and is expected to draw at least......

Listen up ghouls and goblins, it's time to choose your costumes and prepare to find some connections of your own. Choose your costume wisely, as it very well might determine your connection options. No one wants to go home with the free mammogram guy, as funny as it may seem at the time of creation. While you wait for the glue to dry, you can check out the best of last week's Missed Connections.........

You need to witness the parade of drunken disappointment that is the 6th St. Halloween parade. It’s sort of the same as Times Square: you hear about it all the time, and it gets all these “ooh, man it’s a one-of-a-kind and so amazingly badass” descriptions, but when you get there, you will inevitably say aloud “what the fuck is this? A third world country? This shit’s chaos. Like an Uzbek prison yard.” Even though you have no idea where Uzbekistan even is. ...

Capital Metro has released more info about the commuter rail line from downtown to Leander. Leander, of course, was originally called Bagdad. Just like the real Baghdad, the train to Leander appears to be fraught with danger. The "Rails with Trails" program has apparently been approved, so you will be able to hike/bike alongside fast moving trains. Don't go play on the tracks kids! Plus, the engines will be in the middle of the......

In 1994, a documentary came out that took the nation by storm. It told the story of two young African-American kids and their dream to make it to the top of the basketball world. The movie was Hoop Dreams, considered by many to be the finest film of the year. Director Steve James followed his subjects, Arthur Agee and William Gates, from their freshman year of high school to the time they entered college.......

One of the greatest players in NFL history appears interested in working for the Austin Wranglers. "Neon" Deion Sanders says he is very interested in coming to work in some capacity for the local ALF team. We are not sure where "Prime Time" would contribute, but he would definitely raise the profile of the team. "I'm very interested in arena football," Sanders said. "I love the game and have loved it for years. I......

[The following is an editorial column by contributor Alison Coffey and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Austinist staff. --The Editors] I know I've told you before of my daughterly love for Project Runway's Tim Gunn (if I had a gay fashion designing New Yorker for a father instead of a golfing, loafer wearing retired midwestern school superintendent), but he never ceases to impress me with his infinte wisdom and his stern......

"Indecision" is the first novel from Ben Kunkel, a Coloradan, editor of the excellent literary journal n+1, and current New York Times mascot. It concerns the adventures of Dwight Wilmerding, 28 years old, a resident of Manhattan, overeducated, underemployed, an insomniac and the not-quite-boyfriend of a slightly pathetic smart girl: Das Everyman, in a certain milieu. Dwight has just been fired from his tech-support job at Pfizer—a wise move from a business standpoint, as......

(Austin) -- An unnamed reader leaked an Austinist.com article to the Myspace.com bulletin wires early this week, leading to mixed reactions from the social networking site's large hipster population. The article in question, "A Guy's Guide to Snaggin an Austin Hipster" was reportedly copied and pasted early Sunday night. Through a phenomenon known on the internets as "reposts," by Tuesday, the text had been exposed to more hipsters than Brit Daniel's manhood. Reactions varied......