Austin news

• Anti-abortion activists, counter-protesters rally around US

  11-02-2017 23:31 via kxan.com
  
  SEATTLE (AP) — Anti-abortion activists emboldened by the new administration of President Donald Trump staged rallies around the country Saturday calling for the federal government to cut off payments to Planned Parenthood, but in some cities counter-protests dwarfed the demonstrations.
  Thousands of Planned Parenthood supporters, many wearing the pointy-eared pink hats popularized by last month’s women’s marches, turned out for a rally in St. Paul, Minnesota, separated by barric
  
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• Applications now open to volunteer for SXSW festival

  11-02-2017 22:32 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) — Ever wanted to get the SXSW experience? You now can by applying to be a volunteer for the annual festival.
  Crew shift selections to apply for volunteering will take place at the volunteer call Saturday afternoon at the Austin Convention Center between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m.
  SXSW relies on more than 4,000 volunteers for the entire week. Volunteers for the festival get the opportunity to catch a glimpse of what happens behind the scene of all things SXSW.
  Volunteers must be a
  
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• Water flowing over emergency spillway at tallest US dam

  11-02-2017 22:13 via kxan.com
  
  OROVILLE, Calif. (AP) — Water started flowing over an emergency spillway at the nation’s tallest dam, on Lake Oroville, for the first time Saturday after erosion damaged the Northern California dam’s main spillway.
  Officials hoped to avoid using Oroville Dam’s emergency spillway, fearing it could cause trees to fall and leave debris cascading into water that rushes through the Feather River, into the Sacramento River and on to the San Francisco Bay. Crews prepared for sev
  
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• Women and monitoring heart health

  11-02-2017 22:11 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) — A woman in the U.S. is killed every 80 seconds due to heart disease.
  Dr. Caitlin Giesler, medical director of the Seton Women’s Heart Center was in the studio with Gigi Barnett to talk about the risks of heart disease and when women should start thinking about their heart health.
  
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• Museum ends Shia LaBeouf project, citing safety concerns

  11-02-2017 22:01 via kxan.com
  
  NEW YORK (AP) — The Museum of the Moving Image announced Friday it has closed a performance art project involving Shia LaBeouf, citing “serious public safety hazards.”
  The project involved the actor and others chanting “He will not divide us” in front of a camera outside the museum since Donald Trump’s first day as president three weeks ago. It was scheduled to last for four years.
  The public was invited by LaBeouf and two collaborators to participate and the
  
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• Weekend Gardener: Planting Tomatoes

  11-02-2017 20:55 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) — If you thought about finding the perfect time to harvest some tomatoes in your garden, now is the time to do so.
  As the winter weather starts to settle, planting tomatoes around this time is perfect if you want to have some ready to eat by the summer.
  John Dromgoole with the Natural Gardener has some tips on protecting a tomato harvest.
  
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• Iranian baby with heart defect to undergo surgery soon

  11-02-2017 20:26 via kxan.com
  
  PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An Iranian infant soon will have life-saving heart surgery in Portland after she was temporarily banned from coming into the U.S. by President Donald Trump’s immigration order.
  Since she was admitted to OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital on Tuesday, 4-month-old Fatameh Reshad has been undergoing a series of diagnostic studies in preparation for her surgery, hospital officials said in a news release.
  A procedure called a cardiac catheterization was done F
  
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• Hundreds gather to protest against latest federal immigration operations

  11-02-2017 18:10 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) — More than 100 people gathered in North Austin overnight to protest against immigration agents cracking down on unauthorized immigrants throughout the Austin area.
  The demonstrators gathered near the intersection of North Lamar Boulevard and Rundberg Lane until early Saturday morning at the same location where Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested a man illegally living in the country Friday morning.
  On Friday, Congressman Joaquin Castro confirmed that ICE launched a
  
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• Trump attacks on judiciary raise safety concerns for judges

  11-02-2017 15:39 via kxan.com
  
  SEATTLE (AP) — When a judge who helped derail President Donald Trump’s travel ban was hit with online threats, the abuse raised safety concerns among jurists across the country, and experts are worried that the president’s own attacks on the judiciary could make judges a more inviting target.
  U.S. District Judge James Robart imposed the temporary restraining order that halted enforcement of Trump’s ban last week. The president soon sent a tweet saying the opinion of &ldqu
  
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• Highway safety secrets exposed

  11-02-2017 03:30 via kxan.com
  
  Highlights
  From Jan. 2011-Dec. 2016, there have been 815 crashes on a 12-mile stretch of US 290 between SH 130 and Elgin
  MAP: Of the deadly crashes in Central Texas in the past 5 years
  Find the conditions of the roads you drive on
  In October of 2015, Carolyn Voutsinas was driving on US 290, making her way to her home in Elgin. She called her husband to let him know that she was en route, but he never talked to her again.
  “A couple hours passed and she did not come,” said her husband
  
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• Fugitive who beat man after downtown condo party caught in Puerto Rico

  11-02-2017 03:07 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) — An Austin man is charged with aggravated assault and bond jumping for fleeing to Puerto Rico after he allegedly beat a man after a party downtown.
  In the early morning hours of Aug. 20, the victim asked Jerel Ennus Smith, 47, for a ride home after police kicked them out of a party in a condo at Northshore Austin, located at 110 San Antonio St.
  Smith replied, “Hell naw you can’t ride,” leading to a verbal altercation, police say. Smith, a former boxer,
  
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• Austin police charge man after finding crack in butt

  11-02-2017 02:57 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) – Acting on a confidential tip, Austin police tracked down a man they believe deals crack cocaine and charged him with possession after finding 166 doses of the drug in his rectum.
  A tipster told police in January that a man with a ‘very nice maroon vehicle’ was delivering ready-to-use crack to the 1100 block of Kirk Avenue. When they followed up on the tip, police saw the man, eventually identified during a traffic stop as Jim Thompson, 37, making several ha
  
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• Austin police charge man after finding crack

  11-02-2017 02:57 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) – Acting on a confidential tip, Austin police tracked down a man they believe deals crack cocaine and charged him with possession after finding 166 doses of the drug in his rectum.
  A tipster told police in January that a man with a ‘very nice maroon vehicle’ was delivering ready-to-use crack to the 1100 block of Kirk Avenue. When they followed up on the tip, police saw the man, eventually identified during a traffic stop as Jim Thompson, 37, making several ha
  
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• Trump travel ban kills Houston surgeon’s lifesaving trip to Iran

  11-02-2017 02:06 via kxan.com
  
  HOUSTON (AP) — A Houston surgeon has canceled a trip to Iran to perform lifesaving surgeries because of uncertainty over the future of President Donald Trump’s refugee and immigration travel ban.
  Dr. Alireza Shamshirsaz is an Iranian-born professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. He specializes in fetal surgery, and he has already had devastating video chats with two sets of parents who expected him to operate on their unborn children.
  “It
  
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• New Zealanders refloat 100 pilot whales after 400 stranded

  11-02-2017 02:03 via kxan.com
  
  WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Volunteers in New Zealand managed to refloat about 100 surviving pilot whales on Saturday and are hoping they will swim back out to sea after more than 400 of the creatures swam aground at a remote beach.
  Department of Conservation Golden Bay Operations Manager Andrew Lamason said about 300 whales died but others are swimming in the bay near the beach and have joined up with a new pod of pilot whales.
  The 416 stranded whales, most of them already dead, were d
  
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• Man willing to give up $877K in exchange for apology from city of Austin

  11-02-2017 01:53 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) – It’s been almost 5 years and Pete Hernandez is still waiting for an apology from the city of Austin.
  He was mistaken for a suspect and tackled by Austin police officers in 2012.  Dash camera video shows officers pulling out their guns and forcing him to the ground at a south Austin Walmart parking lot. “It’s always with me that day,” said Hernandez. “I try sometimes to forget about it but it’s always with me.”
  Hernandez sa
  
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• Man mistakenly tackled by officers still waiting for $877K settlement

  11-02-2017 01:53 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) – It’s been almost 5 years and Pete Hernandez is still waiting for an apology from the city of Austin.
  He was mistaken for a suspect and tackled by Austin police officers in 2012.  Dash camera video shows officers pulling out their guns and forcing him to the ground at a south Austin Walmart parking lot. “It’s always with me that day,” said Hernandez. “I try sometimes to forget about it but it’s always with me.”
  Hernandez sa
  
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• Attorney willing to give up 6-figure fee in exchange for city apology

  11-02-2017 01:53 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) – It’s been almost 5 years and Pete Hernandez is still waiting for an apology from the city of Austin.
  He was mistaken for a suspect and tackled by Austin police officers in 2012.  Dash camera video shows officers pulling out their guns and forcing him to the ground at a south Austin Walmart parking lot. “It’s always with me that day,” said Hernandez. “I try sometimes to forget about it but it’s always with me.”
  Hernandez sa
  
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• AP FACT CHECK: Are immigration raids result of Trump policy?

  11-02-2017 01:53 via kxan.com
  
  LOS ANGELES (AP) — Advocacy groups say that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are rounding up people in large numbers around the country as part of stepped-up enforcement under President Donald Trump.
  They say a roundup in Southern California was especially heavy-handed and cite arrests in places such as Atlanta, Chicago, New York, Texas and North Carolina that have rattled immigrants.
  The government says it’s simply enforcing the laws and conducting routine enforcement ta
  
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• ‘Save Muny’ gets backing of of legendary golfer

  11-02-2017 01:15 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) — A legendary golfer is throwing his support behind the Lions Municipal Golf course in west Austin.
  Austin native Ben Crenshaw will unveil his proposal to renovate the course and its facilities next week. “Muny,” as it’s known, sits on land owned by the University of Texas.
  Considered a historic site, Muny was one of the first golf courses in a former Confederate state to be desegregated. It has been in the middle of controversy since 2011 when the universit
  
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• Test predicts heart attacks 7 years before they happen

  11-02-2017 00:46 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN, Texas (KXAN) — A new center in Austin wants to help its patients prevent a heart attack years before it happens, using a simple test. It’s a noninvasive test called the EndoPat, letting doctors know if a patient’s arteries are starting to become blocked.
  Dr. Mojgan Arashvand D.O. is the medical director at the Texas Center for Preventive Cardiology, where they offer the test. “The beautiful thing about understanding the health of your arteries is we can
  
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• 15 min. test could be the difference between having a heart attack and not

  11-02-2017 00:46 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN, Texas (KXAN) — A new center in Austin wants to help its patients prevent a heart attack years before it happens, using a simple test. It’s a noninvasive test called the EndoPat, letting doctors know if a patient’s arteries are starting to become blocked.
  Dr. Mojgan Arashvand D.O. is the medical director at the Texas Center for Preventive Cardiology, where they offer the test. “The beautiful thing about understanding the health of your arteries is we can
  
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• Fort Bliss soldier gets 15 months for immigrant smuggling

  11-02-2017 00:20 via kxan.com
  
  CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) — A Fort Bliss soldier must serve 15 months in federal prison for trying to smuggling two immigrants through a South Texas border checkpoint.
  Joseph Edmond Cleveland of El Paso was sentenced Thursday in Corpus Christi.
  Cleveland in November pleaded guilty to conspiracy-related human smuggling counts. Officials say Cleveland last June tried to use his military status to drive two immigrants through the Falfurrias checkpoint.
  Cleveland and another Fort Bliss soldie
  
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• Man charged for making bomb threat against Texas Capitol

  11-02-2017 00:19 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) — A man arrested on Wednesday has been charged with terroristic threat for allegedly making a bomb threat against the Texas State Capitol building.
  Department of Public Safety troopers made the arrest following the threat made on Jan. 21 in Austin. Adrian Guerrero Hernandez, 32, of Austin, made the bomb threat against the Capitol and a local unnamed hotel, troopers say.
  Hernandez was taken into custody without incident and booked into the Travis County Jail. While the th
  
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• Book advising Indian students to kill kittens sparks outrage

  11-02-2017 00:03 via kxan.com
  
  NEW DELHI (AP) — A textbook has sparked outrage in India for instructing fourth-graders to suffocate a kitten to learn that living beings need air.
  The experiment described in the environmental science textbook for 9-year-olds tells the students to place two kittens in separate boxes, one of them without air holes, and wait to see the result.
  ‘Racist’ Mexican-American studies textbook up for debate
  The textbook titled “Our Green World” was published by PP Publicatio
  
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