Horns Up: The Trail of Lights Returns

The Trail of Lights is coming back. After a few years of unreliable illumination, the Austin tradition will now include better parking and multiple paths through the display to ease congestion. Although the trail suffered a hiccup last year when running gear store RunTex, its main sponsor, declared bankruptcy, we hope the light display will fare better under the leadership of a private entity — the newly formed Trail of Lights Foundation — than it did under the city’s control.

Horns Down: Piling on the anti-LGBTQ bandwagon

Several prominent state politicians have joined the nowopenly homophobic San Antonio City Councilwoman Elisa Chan in opposition to a proposed anti-discrimination city ordinance as it approaches a Sept. 5 vote. They include Texas Attorney General and likely gubernatorial frontrunner Greg Abbot, as well as the three men seeking to replace him as AG: State Rep. Dan Branch, Sen. Ken Paxton and Railroad Commission Chairman Barry Smitherman. Austin, Houston, Dallas and Fort Worth all have similar anti-discrimination laws on the books that protect the LGBTQ community from discrimination, but railing against existing laws does not present as attractive an opportunity for a candidate to boost his or her bona fides with those who oppose giving LGBTQ Texans equal rights.