Austin news

• Malicious actors trying to exploit global tech outage for their own gain

  20-07-2024 22:02 via kxan.com
  
  As the world continues to recover from massive business and travel disruptions caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, malicious actors are trying to exploit the situation for their own gain.
  Government cybersecurity agencies across the globe and CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz are warning businesses and individuals about new phishing schemes that involve malicious actors posing as CrowdStrike employees or other tech specialists offering to assist those recovering fr
  
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• Foundation holds 6th free Back-to-School Backpack Drive in Lockhart

  20-07-2024 20:12 via kxan.com
  
  LOCKHART, Texas (KXAN) — The Connie S. Amaya Education Aid Foundation, based in Lockhart, held its sixth annual Free Back-to-School Backpack Drive for students in Central Texas on Saturday.Students were able to pick out one backpack at no cost during the event. Other donated supplies were also available for students, according to organizers.Free backpack drive in Lockhart (KXAN photo/Lauren Ryan)Free backpack drive in Lockhart (KXAN photo/Lauren Ryan)Free backpack drive in Lockhart (KXAN p
  
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• Culinary instructor talks local benefits of Texas Michelin Guide

  20-07-2024 19:41 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) — Texas is close to having its first Michelin-star restaurant, with several cities, including Austin, becoming featured destinations. The announcement could benefit not only restaurant-goers but also local culinary students. RELATED | Texas could soon be home to a Michelin star restaurantJamie Vaughn, a culinary arts educator with Austin ISD, spoke with KXAN about Austin's recent recognition in the Michelin Guide, which could create more job opportunities for students and all
  
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• Do you really have to wait to go swimming after eating?

  20-07-2024 19:02 via kxan.com
  
  (AP) - Did your parents warn you against jumping in the pool right after eating? They were misguided.In most cases, there’s no need to wait at least 30 minutes after eating to go for a swim, doctors say.That old warning stems from worry that people might drown or struggle because blood will be diverted to their full stomachs instead of their muscles.In reality, people still have plenty of blood flowing to their muscles after eating, said Dr. Matthew Badgett of the Cleveland Clinic. A forme
  
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• These signs point to a potentially bad late summer for travel disruptions

  20-07-2024 19:01 via kxan.com
  
  YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) - The 2024 tropical storm season is off to a strong start after Hurricane Beryl became the earliest category 5 hurricane on record.
  The tropics have been quiet lately due to an influx of Saharan dust, but that is not expected to last. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) is forecasting an extremely active hurricane season with 17-25 named storms (14 is average), 8-13 hurricanes (7 is average), and 4-7 major hurricanes (3 is average).
  Hurricane season peaks in the late summ
  
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• 'She's really lucky': Dog saves owner with dementia after days lost in Utah heat

  20-07-2024 18:55 via kxan.com
  
  EMERY COUNTY, Utah (KTVX) – A dog is being credited with saving its owner, an elderly woman with dementia, after she wandered from a cabin in Utah’s central mountains and became lost for nearly three days amid the scorching summer heat.“She’s really lucky that she had her dog with her,” said James Thomas, the conservation officer who found the woman.
  The incident happened last month near Joe's Valley in western Emery County. On June 24, the woman went out for an eve
  
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• Taco Bell's newest item pays homage to classic menu staple

  20-07-2024 18:49 via kxan.com
  
  (KTLA) - Taco Bell’s latest limited-time menu offering is another twist on a classic menu staple.  The California-based chain debuted Cheesy Street Chalupas nationwide this week. The new menu item doubles as a new twist on Chalupa, which originally debuted in 1999, and a nod to street tacos and street food culture, the company said in a statement.The Cheesy Street Chalupas features fresh onions, cilantro, and a choice of protein, all wrapped in chalupa shells stuffed with melted mozza
  
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• Florida drivers tried to take selfie with 'depressed' black bear, sheriff says

  20-07-2024 18:47 via kxan.com
  
  *Video above: Black bear spotted in Florida's North Port community.TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) - Florida deputies are reminding residents to keep their distance from bears after onlookers tried to take a selfie with a "depressed" black bear on Thursday.The black bear was spotted hunched over near a telephone pole on the north side of Highway 98 near County Road in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, the Walton County Sheriff's Office said.
  The bear was "clearly not in the mood for pictures" and showed signs of se
  
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• Why your COVID symptoms may feel different with this wave of infections

  20-07-2024 18:45 via kxan.com
  
  (NEXSTAR) – Coronavirus levels are once again "very high" in several U.S. states as the country experiences a summer wave of COVID-19 infections. For many Americans it's been more than six months since they've had a booster shot or a recent infection, leaving them vulnerable to getting sick again.
  For those experiencing a reinfection, the symptoms they feel this time around may be different.
  "No two COVID infections really have behaved the same," Dr. Joseph Khabbaza, a pulmonary and critic
  
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• Pan Am is returning to skies in 2025, and packages start at $65K: What's included?

  20-07-2024 18:42 via kxan.com
  
  (NEXSTAR) – Longing to return to the airline industry’s “Golden Age” of travel, with spacious seating, in-flight freebies and an open bar?Just be prepared to pay for it.A Pan Am-branded plane will be returning to the skies in 2025, offering a select group of passengers a multi-destination travel experience that retraces some of the now-defunct airline’s original transatlantic routes for one “all-inclusive” price.The flight program, appropriately called &
  
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• Heat is to blame for thousands of deaths. Here's how it actually kills you

  20-07-2024 18:41 via kxan.com
  
  (NEXSTAR) – In an average year, heat takes more lives in the U.S. than hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes combined. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates the death toll of extreme heat waves to be around 1,220 annually.
  But the way heat kills people is less obvious than other violent natural disasters. The difference between life and death can be decided by just a few degrees, experts say.Your body's resting temperature is supposed to be around 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit
  
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• These Texas cities have the lowest quality of life, study shows

  20-07-2024 17:00 via kxan.com
  
  (NEXSTAR) — The state of Texas might be a major draw for relocators based on its economy and friendly tax laws but not everything is great everywhere in the state. Recently, lawn care information and research resource Lawn Starter compared the U.S.' 500 largest cities to determine which areas have the most going for their residents — and Texas did not fare well.The list's bottom-most entries are almost entirely made up of Texas cities. Texas ‘tourist traps’: Which ones ar
  
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• DSHS: Texas reports 76% increase in mpox cases this year

  20-07-2024 15:09 via kxan.com
  
  HARLINGEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — Texas Health and Human Services has issued a health advisory in reference to the ongoing transmission of mpox in the state.Mpox, formerly referred to as Monkeypox before it was renamed by the World Health Organization in 2022, is an infectious viral disease that can cause blistering.The infection spreads from direct skin-to-skin contact with the mpox rash or lesions from a person who has the infection, DSHS stated.
  After a global outbreak in 2022, the num
  
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• Home Depot unveils 'improved' giant Halloween skeleton that went viral

  20-07-2024 15:00 via kxan.com
  
  (WJW) – Home Depot’s Halloween decor, and its viral giant skeleton, are back in stores. This year, “Skelly” the skeleton even has some new giant friends. Debuted back in March, the 2024 Halloween collections include the viral 12-foot skeleton and seven new friends, including a 7-foot “Skeleton Dog” with LCD eyes.The 2024 version of the giant skeleton is “new and improved” with eight additional settings for his LCD eyes.Home Depot also announce
  
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• VIDEO: Man arrested in Texas for shining laser at helicopter, DPS says

  20-07-2024 14:59 via kxan.com
  
  HARLINGEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — A man is behind bars after allegedly shining a laser pointer at a law enforcement helicopter.Pedro Cortina (Photo: DPS)
  Pedro Cortina was arrested on a charge of illuminate aircraft with laser pointer, impairing operator, according to Cameron County Jail records.ValleyCentral spoke with Sgt. Maria Hernandez with the Texas Department of Public Safety, who said that Cortina shined a laser at a DPS helicopter that was in the area.
  Video provided by DPS shows
  
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• NASA sends Missy Elliott to Venus — kind of

  20-07-2024 14:58 via kxan.com
  
  Related video: Where do full moon names come from?(NewsNation) — NASA on Monday said it recently transmitted the lyrics for Missy Elliot’s song “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” from the DSN’s (Deep Space Network) Goldstone complex to Venus, a distance of about 158 million miles.The agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California sent the transmission at 10:05 a.m. PT on July 12.It’s the first time, according to the space agency, that a hip-hop song m
  
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• Widespread rainfall coming to Central Texas

  20-07-2024 14:25 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Temperatures were slightly higher on Saturday compared to Friday. Most locations reached the mid and upper 90s. Along with the heat, we saw some scattered cumulus clouds across the sky. No rain fell from these clouds, but that's about to change.Scattered cumulus clouds were seen across the area on SaturdayAn increasingly wet and stormy weather pattern is about to take hold of our weather. Beginning on Sunday, expect some afternoon scattered showers and thunderstorms. Not everyon
  
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• Bright and hot to start the weekend

  20-07-2024 14:25 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Our newscast this morning is preempted by the golf tournament.
  The day dawned mostly sunny. It will stay that way through the morning. Fair-weather clouds will lead to a mostly sunny to partly cloudy sky this afternoon. Area high temperatures will heat up to the upper 90s to a few Hill Country locations in triple digits. Today's normal high is 97°.Pre-sunrise showers and thunderstorms were active over some of Caldwell and Hays Counties. In fact, a Flood Advisory was issued f
  
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• Microsoft glitch shuts down border crossings, causes hours-long delays

  20-07-2024 14:02 via kxan.com
  
  SAN DIEGO (Border Report) -- The Microsoft global outage on Friday caused delays along the U.S.-Mexico border and even forced ports of entry in the San Diego-Tijuana region to shut down for several hours, affecting countless commuters.People described being stranded for hours while trying to cross the border."I got in line at 3 in the morning," said Alejandro Ornelas, who was still waiting in line four hours later when he spoke with Border Report.According to the Smart Border Coalition, about 20
  
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• Downtown Austin leaders call light rail key to advancing affordability, growth

  20-07-2024 14:00 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Later this year, the Austin Transit Partnership will unveil its draft environmental impact statement, a detailed look at all the potential environmental, social and economic impacts of Austin's upcoming light rail system.The draft EIS is a requirement under the National Environmental Policy Act, applied to any projects that receive federal funding. ATP announced in May phase one of its light rail implementation program had entered into the Federal Transit Administration's projec
  
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• Can you get compensation if your flight was delayed or canceled by the CrowdStrike outage?

  20-07-2024 14:00 via kxan.com
  
  (NEXSTAR) – Travelers worldwide were delayed or left stranded by a massive tech outage that was still being resolved Friday.
  The trouble was sparked by an update issued by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. It only affected its customers running Microsoft Windows, but as the world's most popular operating system for personal computers it created widespread disruption. Businesses and governments worldwide experienced hours-long disruptions — their computer monitors glowing blue with erro
  
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• Mason County reopens courthouse after 2021 fire

  20-07-2024 13:36 via kxan.com
  
  MASON COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) - Mason County reopened its courthouse July 13, three years after it burned in an arson fire.According to a press release from the Texas Historical Commission, a crowd of 750 cheered as former County Judge Jerry Bearden cut the ribbon on the newly restored building. PREVIOUS: ‘The heartbeat of our community’: Fire damages Mason County courthouseBearden served as county judge when the building burned on Feb. 4, 2021.
  The Historical Commission gave the county
  
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• Security expert talks about impact of Crowdstrike outage

  20-07-2024 13:28 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) - As Austin and the world recover from Friday's Crowdstrike outage, a University of Texas at Austin professor said the failure is a reminder of the importance of backups.
  Kumar Muthuraman is a professor at the Department of Information, Risk and Operations Management and the Department of Finance at the McCombs School of Business.FURTHER COVERAGE: AUS & CapMetro impacted by global tech outageMuthuraman told KXAN Friday afternoon that the outage at Austin-based Crowdstrike and t
  
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• Amber Alert issued for two boys in Gonzales County

  20-07-2024 13:22 via kxan.com
  
  ROSANKY, Texas (KXAN) - The Gonzales County Sheriff's Office said Saturday morning it is looking for two boys.The Texas Department of Public Safety issued an Amber Alert for Lucas Mendez, 6, and Lukane Mendez, 2.
  According to the alert, Lucas was last seen wearing blue shirt with shark on it, blue shorts with gray stripes and blue Sonic the Hedge Hog Crocs. Lukane was last seen wearing a black shirt and white diaper. The children were last seen at 8 p.m. Friday in Rosanky.Lukane and Lucas Mendez
  
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• Amber Alert ends after children found

  20-07-2024 13:22 via kxan.com
  
  ROSANKY, Texas (KXAN) - The Gonzales County Sheriff's Office said two children were found after an Amber Alert was issued for them Saturday.
  The Texas Department of Public Safety issued an Amber Alert for two boys earlier Saturday.The sheriff's office did not share information about the adult last seen with the children.
  
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• Bangladesh imposes strict curfew with a 'shoot-on-sight-order' following deadly protests

  20-07-2024 12:36 via kxan.com
  
  DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Police imposed a strict curfew with a “shoot-on-sight” order across Bangladesh as military forces patrolled parts of the capital Saturday after scores were killed and hundreds injured in clashes over the allocation of civil service jobs.
  The curfew began at midnight and was relaxed from noon to 2 p.m. for people to run essential errands, and is expected to last until 10 a.m. Sunday, allowing officers to fire on mobs in extreme cases, said lawmaker Obaid
  
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• Rapper Sean Kingston and his mother indicted in $1M fraud scheme

  20-07-2024 05:18 via kxan.com
  
  MIAMI (AP) — Rapper and singer Sean Kingston and his mother have been indicted in South Florida on federal charges of committing more than $1 million worth of fraud.Kingston, 34, and his mother, 61-year-old Janice Turner, made their first appearances Friday in federal court, according to court records. A Miami grand jury returned an indictment earlier this month accusing Kingston and his mother of participating in a scheme to defraud victims of high-end specialty vehicl
  
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• Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee dead at 74

  20-07-2024 05:10 via kxan.com
  
  Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), who served in Congress for nearly three decades, has died at the age of 74, her family announced Friday evening.“Today, with incredible grief for our loss yet deep gratitude for the life she shared with us, we announce the passing of United States Representative Sheila Jackson Lee of the 18th Congressional District of Texas,” her family wrote in a statement shared to her account on X.Her family did not specify a cause of death, but the news comes ju
  
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• Where did the 'atx' sign go?

  20-07-2024 03:46 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Austinites may notice an iconic 3D sculpture missing as they are driving down North Lamar Boulevard and Fifth Street.
  The iconic 'atx' sign was removed earlier this month and was replaced with a 2D sign with a note written behind it from the City of Austin, saying it needed a "restorative vacation," according to a news release from Ion Art Inc.Austinites may notice an iconic 3D sculpture missing as they are driving down North Lamar Boulevard and Fifth Street. (Courtesy Ion Art I
  
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• Two deaths linked to listeria from meat sliced at deli counters

  20-07-2024 01:15 via kxan.com
  
  At least two people have died and more than two dozen were hospitalized in an outbreak of listeria food poisoning linked to meat sliced at grocery store deli counters, federal health officials said Friday.At least 28 people in a dozen states have gotten sick, though the largest number, seven, were in New York, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The people who died were from Illinois and New Jersey. Samples were collected from May 29 to July 5 and so far, all of the
  
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• Media Poll: Texas picked to finish second in the SEC behind Georgia

  20-07-2024 00:05 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) — Texas football is projected to finish second in its debut season in the Southeastern Conference. The SEC preseason media poll and All-SEC teams were released Friday morning as the 2024-25 season inches closer.
  The eight-time national champion Georgia Bulldogs received the most votes to be crowned SEC Champions with 165 total points. Quinn Ewers ‘exuding confidence’ heading into third year as Texas Longhorns QBSteve Sarkisian's Longhorns are projected to finish s
  
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• Media Poll: Texas picked as runner-up in debut SEC season

  20-07-2024 00:05 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) — Texas football is projected to finish second in its debut season in the Southeastern Conference. The SEC preseason media poll and All-SEC teams were released Friday morning as the 2024-25 season inches closer.
  The eight-time national champion Georgia Bulldogs received the most votes to be crowned SEC Champions with 165 total points. Quinn Ewers ‘exuding confidence’ heading into third year as Texas Longhorns QBSteve Sarkisian's Longhorns are projected to finish s
  
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• LIVE Horns Report: What does the SEC think of Texas? We found out at SEC Media Days

  20-07-2024 00:05 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) — Texas football is projected to finish second in its debut season in the Southeastern Conference. The SEC preseason media poll and All-SEC teams were released Friday morning as the 2024-25 season inches closer.
  The eight-time national champion Georgia Bulldogs received the most votes to be crowned SEC Champions with 165 total points. Quinn Ewers ‘exuding confidence’ heading into third year as Texas Longhorns QBSteve Sarkisian's Longhorns are projected to finish s
  
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