Austin grocers and restaurants give UT students plenty of opportunities to eat fresh food, grown only a few minutes away. Eat Local Week kicked off its second annual celebration Saturday at the downtown Austin Farmers’ Market. Austin City Councilwoman Laura Morrison began the week with a proclamation promoting the event that included the Urban Farm Bicycle Tour, which took more than 400 people on tour of community gardens and farms.
LED lights function as holiday decoration while lowering costs
The new LED lights strung across Congress Avenue aim to increase holiday spirit while lowering electricity costs. Each holiday season the Downtown Austin Alliance installs the lights. The alliance is a partnership of individuals and businesses established by the City Council in 1993 to meet the business, cultural and residential needs of downtown Austin.
A recent credit re-evaluation of Austin’s water bonds is expected to save residents millions of dollars in interest rates in the coming decades. To generate funds to finance maintenance and major construction projects, the Austin Water Utility department issues its own bonds, which residents and department customers purchase with the expectation of being reimbursed.
Fourteen-year-old Alajandra Rodriguez focused a pink Kodak 8.2-megapixel camera on a butterfly landing on a yellow rose in front of the Carver Branch Austin Public Library. She said she was trying to capture it using the “rule of thirds,” a camera technique.
Some houses along West 37th Street remained dark Saturday night as residents worked furiously to complete their annual Christmas light displays, which have made the street famous in Austin since the 1970s. On West 37th Street from, Guadalupe Street to Home Lane residents decorated their homes with various lawn displays and lights that span the entire length of the street and backyards and sometimes include telephone and electric poles.
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Texas officials must take necessary measures to improve conditions at institutions for the mentally disabled, said Beth Mitchell, senior managing attorney at Advocacy Inc., at a Capitol press conference Friday. Advocacy Inc. is a nonprofit, state-funded agency whose purpose is to protect the rights of Texans with disabilities.
McALLEN — The case of a South Texas paralegal who allegedly leaked information to members of a violent drug cartel is highlighting fears that smuggling networks are using bribes to reach into the U.S. halls of justice. Federal authorities allege that Joel Carcano Jr.
Amanda Alvarez, 7, skates Saturday at the “Fire & Ice” event at the downtown location of Whole Foods Market. All proceeds from Saturday’s skating went to the Austin Fire Department’s “Free Smoke Alarm” program. The program “purchases fire alarms for members of the community, which are installed by firefighters,” said Austin Fire Academy Cadet Brian Garcia.
Michael Phelps. Bailout. Yes we can. These are some of the phrases, people and words Americans will remember when looking back on 2008, a year defined by election frenzy, a heated Olympic competition and a financial collapse. The Austin-based Global Language Monitor recently released the top 10 words, phrases and names for 2008.
LUBBOCK — A composite fabric designed to protect humans against biological and chemical agents has passed laboratory tests and could be in products on the market within two years, officials said. The layered blend of absorbent fabric and carbon created by Texas Tech University researcher Seshadri Ramkumar proved better at wiping off hazardous industrial and military chemicals than 30 other materials tested by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, university administrators and other officials said Wednesday.
Texas prison inmates with bipolar disorder are 3.3 times more likely to have four or more previous incarcerations than inmates with no major psychiatric disorders, according to a study published this week. The study, led by UT Medical Branch at Galveston researcher Jacques Baillargeon, found that inmates with major psychiatric disorders have an increased risk of multiple incarcerations.
Two men affix inflatable Christmas decorations to the top of the Millenium Youth Entertainment Complex on Wednesday afternoon. The Millenium Center is located in East Austin on Rosewood Street and provides area children with a venue for bowling, roller skating and movie watching.
After member’s death, SAE California chapter suspended SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — A California Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter has been suspended because of the possibly alcohol-related death of a freshman at a fraternity house party. An unconscious Carson Starkey, 18, was taken from a residence Tuesday morning to Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center, where he later died.
Many Iraq veterans and military members will soon see new education benefits. The Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008 or the “New GI Bill” will take effect August 2009. The new bill, sponsored by Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, will cover all in-state public university tuition and fees, and veterans will receive a monthly allowance for housing, books and supplies.
Attorney Steve McMillen said before the Environmental Protection Agency phased out lead from gasoline in the 1970s, the public was skeptical, but it was done in a relatively short period of time. The same could be done with carbon emissions, he said. Four attorneys from U.
Gregory Gym Plaza was transformed into a giant living room with the help of Ciara Ortega, service chair of Texas Lonestars and geography junior, who helped hang lights on the fresh Christmas tree. The ladies of the Texas Lonestars co-sponsored the first lighting of the Orange Santa tree.
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Austin firefighters will work without a labor contract after negotiations between the city and the local firefighters’ union soured last week. The city and the Austin Firefighters Association began negotiating a new contract on May 12. Negotiations ended last week when union members voted down the tentative three-year contract by a vote of 582 to 160.
Officials say gangsters choose city for border proximity, gun shops
HOUSTON — Houston has become the top source for firearms going into Mexico to supply drug cartel gangsters with weapons for their deadly insurgency, according to federal law enforcement officials. Gangsters spend millions statewide on military-style weapons and ammunition in their ongoing clashes with Mexican society and government.
HOUSTON — The smoked turkey resembles sliced deli meat but stiffer, the candied yams are bland inside, the green beans taste like they’ve been microwaved to death, and the corn bread stuffing has a broth-heavy, institutional flavor. Grandma’s home cooking it’s not.
DALLAS — Both trials had the same pro-Hamas videos, the same anonymous Israeli witness and the same details of how a Muslim charity routed millions of dollars to terrorists overseas. So how did the government win such a sweeping victory Monday — guilty verdicts on all 108 counts — just a year after failing to prove its case? Largely by simplifying a complex case of terrorism financing and by making the most of a do-over, attorneys on both sides said.
Angie Young takes her dog, Lucky, a 10-year-old black labrador retriever, for a walk across the James D. Pfluger Bicycle and Pedestrian Bridge on Tuesday afternoon. The pair go for a stroll three times a week.
Unnamed pain causes former first lady to check into hospital HOUSTON — Former first lady Barbara Bush is in a Houston hospital after complaining of a “little bit of pain.” Family spokesman Jim McGrath said Mrs. Bush went to Methodist Hospital about 6 p.
Gang-related crime remains high despite frequent police patrols
Despite help from state and federal grants, sheriffs are encountering lingering difficulties in controlling gang- and drug-related crime along the Texas-Mexico border. “Can we stop all of it? No,” said Cameron County Sheriff Omar Lucio. “Are we going to be able to? No.
In an effort to become more eco-friendly, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. made its first substantial wind energy purchase Thursday with plans to integrate the power into 360 Texas stores and facilities by April 2009. Wal-Mart purchased the wind-generated energy from Duke Energy Corp.
In 2006, Austin voters authorized the issuance of more than half a billion dollars in bonds to resurrect maintenance projects the city had discontinued at the turn of the millennium due to an economic recession. The city’s 2006 Bond Oversight Committee discussed the future allocation of remaining funds at City Hall on Monday.
