Austin news

• Trump and Musk solidify their bond with Texas trip for rocket launch

  19-11-2024 23:53 via kxan.com
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — For two weeks, Donald Trump has welcomed Elon Musk into his world. On Tuesday, it was Musk’s turn to play host to the president-elect.Trump flew to South Texas to watch as Musk’s SpaceX launched a Starship rocket near the Mexican border. Trump listened intently as the world’s richest man explained how the test would work and demonstrated with a model. And then Trump squinted into the bright sky to watch liftoff.It didn’t go perfectly -– the r
  
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• Austin's full capped I-35 'vision plan' could cost over $1B

  19-11-2024 23:39 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Fully executing the basis of Austin's proposed Cap and Stitch Vision Plan could cost nearly $1 billion, city transportation officials confirmed at an Austin City Council work session Tuesday.The draft Vision Plan outlines eight possible cap and stitch locations the city could pursue. Caps are deck plazas longer than 300 feet while stitches are essentially widened crossings running over the highway that are less than 300 feet long.The eight possible locations, if all pursued, wou
  
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• Finding community through sweat and friendship: The story of SweatPals

  19-11-2024 23:13 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) -- When Salar Shahini and Mandi Zhou moved to the U.S., they faced intense challenges in adapting to a new culture and making friends. Shahini moved to Boston, Massachusetts from Iran in 2012. He said he struggled and felt disconnected despite his best efforts to adapt.SweatPals connects people of all fitness levels to wide range of community workouts. (KXAN photo/Jose Torres)
  “Being from a different country, different culture, different language, different sense of humor, I
  
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• Two arrested in connection to 15 dead dogs found in south Austin creek

  19-11-2024 23:01 via kxan.com
  
  Editor's note: The details of animal cruelty in this case may be disturbing to some readers.
  AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Austin police have arrested two people in connection to what court documents say were 15 dead dogs found in South Boggy Creek behind Shiloh Drive in south Austin in April.Fried John Riess, 61, and Rafael Cantu Baez-Riess, 51, each face a felony charge of Intentional or Knowing Unauthorized Discharge. They also each face multiple misdemeanors in animal cruelty charges.Online court records
  
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• Two arrested after 15 dead dogs found in south Austin creek

  19-11-2024 23:01 via kxan.com
  
  Editor's note: The details of animal cruelty in this case may be disturbing to some readers.
  AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Law enforcement arrested two people in connection to what court documents say were 15 dead dogs found in South Boggy Creek behind Shiloh Drive in south Austin in April.Fred John Riess, 61, and Rafael Cantu Baez-Riess, 51, each face a felony charge of Intentional or Knowing Unauthorized Discharge. There is still an active warrant out for their arrest on that charge. They also each face mu
  
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• 20 Travis County ballots added to election totals Monday night, Watson still on top

  19-11-2024 22:24 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) -- After KXAN called Austin Mayor Kirk Watson the apparent winner in the mayoral race last week, a new batch of provisional ballots was added to the Travis County election totals Monday night, the night before official results are required to be posted.Watson is still above the runoff threshold, now by 13 votes, according to KXAN's results team. In Texas, even though Watson is more than 100,000 votes ahead of the next candidate, he's got to have more than 50% of the vote to avoid a
  
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• Austin-based app to connect vintage shoppers with local shops, pop-up events

  19-11-2024 22:18 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) — A group of native Austinintes are creating a solution to better connect vintage shoppers with local thrift stores and pop-up markets.
  The group of fellow thrifters created an app called Thryft, which highlights local thrift stores and pop-up vintage events around town. Co-founder Ryan Maddox said the app will let small businesses promote themselves and help consumers find new places to shop.
  "If you're not following the right accounts on Instagram ... if you don't know the
  
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• Bastrop Opera House expanding to meet growing youth program, local demand

  19-11-2024 21:48 via kxan.com
  
  BASTROP, Texas (KXAN) — The Bastrop Opera House has over a century's worth of performances in its history. The historic opera house hopes to keep the theater alive for the next hundred years with an upcoming expansion.The nonprofit-run theater is out of room for rehearsal spaces and youth programs, said executive director Lisa Holcomb. Holcomb said demand for youth programs has grown alongside Bastrop County's fast-rising population—to the point that the opera house has turned kids a
  
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• 'They're taxed': APD detectives busy after recent rash of homicides

  19-11-2024 21:37 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Austin police held a news conference on Tuesday after at least four homicides happened in city limits within a week.While officers said that count is a little higher than the same time last year, the crimes are keeping homicide detectives especially busy. 4 homicides in 1 week: Austin police give update on investigationsPolice Chief Lisa Davis said hours earlier at a breakfast with downtown leaders the staffing situation "would be stabilized" in about two to three years.APD staf
  
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• Gov. Greg Abbott issues executive order targeting Chinese government operatives in Texas

  19-11-2024 21:30 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (The Texas Tribune) -- Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order on Monday, directing the Texas Department of Public Safety to target and arrest people trying to execute influence operations on behalf of the Chinese government to return dissidents to China.Abbott’s action is in response to “Operation Fox Hunt,” a Chinese government initiative that is intended to root out corruption in that country but in practice has also been used to intimidate Chinese citizens living
  
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• The darkest evenings of the year are just days away

  19-11-2024 20:28 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) -- We're working our way through the first few weeks of Standard Time and we're already almost at the earliest sunsets of the year!The earliest the sun sets in Austin in any given year is at 5:30 p.m. We will begin to see the sun setting at that time beginning this coming Sunday.These early sunsets will continue at 5:30 p.m. through the first and into the second week of Dec., marking the darkest evenings of the year.Earliest sunsets of the yearAs we head through Dec. the sun will g
  
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• Elgin High School students cook up winning barbecue, advance to state meet

  19-11-2024 18:52 via kxan.com
  
  ELGIN, Texas (KXAN) — Students at Elgin High School are grilling up winning barbecue.
  Next, the student team will compete in the state meet in May in Burnet, Texas.
  The Wildcat BBQ team won fifth place overall at the National High School BBQ Association competition Saturday, according to Elgin ISD. They competed among 26 teams in the regional qualifier.
  This was the high school team's second year competing. The group also won second place for chicken lollipops, fifth place for grilled chee
  
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• Frontier to launch four new nonstop flights from Austin in March 2025

  19-11-2024 17:37 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) — Low-cost Frontier Airlines will launch four new nonstop routes from Austin in March 2025, the airline announced Tuesday.Service to Chicago O'Hare and Orlando will begin March 6, while flights to Cincinnati and Phoenix will launch March 7. The Chicago and Orlando flights will operate three times a week, while the Cincinnati and Phoenix routes will be serviced twice weekly.O'Hare is currently served direct from AUS by American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines,
  
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• LIVE: 4 homicides in 1 week: Austin police give update on investigations

  19-11-2024 16:59 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Austin police are expected to give an update Tuesday after four homicides happened within a week of each other last week.Between Sunday, Nov. 10 and Saturday, Nov. 16, four separate homicides happened throughout the city. Those were Austin's 59th-62nd homicides of the year, according to the Austin Police Department.APD is holding a press conference Tuesday at 11 a.m. to "provide overviews and updates" on those incidents. The conference will be live-streamed in the video player a
  
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• 4 homicides in 1 week: Austin police give update on investigations

  19-11-2024 16:59 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Austin police are expected to give an update Tuesday after four homicides happened within a week of each other last week.Between Sunday, Nov. 10 and Saturday, Nov. 16, four separate homicides happened throughout the city. Those were Austin's 59th-61st homicides of the year, according to the Austin Police Department.
  APD is holding a press conference Tuesday at 11 a.m. to "provide overviews and updates" on those incidents. The conference will be live-streamed in the video player
  
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• Demand for senior services grows in Central Texas as elder population booms

  19-11-2024 14:40 via kxan.com
  
  WILLIAMSON COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) — As the number of people over 65 in Texas is expected to increase by 90% in the coming decades, local elder care advocates say now is the time to start planning for life's later stages especially as resources are already in high demand.According to the Texas Health and Human Service Commission's Aging Texas Well Strategic Plan, Texas had the third largest population of people 50 years and older in the United States as of October 2023.The trend of a growing
  
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• Texas State University awarded $1.3 million for crisis intervention programs

  19-11-2024 14:05 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Texas State University was recently awarded a federal grant of more than $1.3 million to help improve its crisis intervention programs.
  The $1,390,000 grant will go toward improving security through crisis intervention programs like violence prevention and crisis response training for law enforcement and school resource officers, firearm safety training for community members, and data collection, technology, and information-sharing to reduce violence, according to a press releas
  
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• City of Kyle seeking proposals to develop hotel and convention facility

  19-11-2024 05:16 via kxan.com
  
  KYLE, Texas (KXAN) -- The city of Kyle is actively searching for experienced developers to help construct a hotel and convention facility, according to a press release from the city.The new development will be located right along Interstate 35 near the city's emerging Lake Park District, the release said.
  "The selected development partner will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of Kyle by contributing to the city’s economic vitality," the release said.
  This project to develop a prem
  
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• FCSO: Flatonia Golf Course vandalized over the weekend

  19-11-2024 05:03 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) -- No arrests were made as of Monday after the Fayette County Sheriff's Office said the Flatonia Golf Course was vandalized over the weekend, the agency said on social media.Around 9 a.m., FCSO responded to the golf course and found damage caused to "three separate putting green and a flag pole." The agency believes those involved were "driving an ATV or UTV."The Fayette County Sheriff's Office said the Flatonia Golf Course was vandalized over the weekend. (Courtesy FCSO)The Fayett
  
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• Former officer sentenced for beating a man with a baton 45 times in Los Angeles

  19-11-2024 03:22 via kxan.com
  
  (KTLA) - A former police officer with the Veterans Affairs Police Department (VAPD) has been sentenced for hitting an unarmed man dozens of times with a baton, officials announced Friday.Juan Anthony Carrillo, 46, of Alhambra, was sentenced to one year in federal prison for striking the man about 45 times with a baton in less than a minute, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The sentence is the statutorily maximum available for this offense, said the DOJ.
  According to reports, around 4
  
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• VIDEO: California theme park riders suspended in air for over 2 hours

  19-11-2024 02:42 via kxan.com
  
  BUENA PARK, Calif. (KTLA) – Thrill-seekers at Southern California amusement park Knott's Berry Farm were unexpectedly stuck on one of the theme park's rides for over two hours Monday afternoon.Video from Nexstar's KTLA showed what appeared to be the Sol Spin, which sends riders up to six stories in the air as they rotate independently on one of six spinning arms."Sol Spin is a high-speed spinning ride that rotates the riders in three directions simultaneously. Riders on the freely rotating
  
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• 2 hospitalized after California theme park riders stranded mid-air

  19-11-2024 02:42 via kxan.com
  
  BUENA PARK, Calif. (KTLA) – Two thrill-seekers were hospitalized Monday after they became stranded for more than two hours on a malfunctioning ride at Knott’s Berry Farm in Southern California.The two riders were among 22 people who were suspended in air on Sol Spin, a ride that sends guests up to six stories in the air as they rotate independently on one of six spinning arms.Video from Nexstar's KTLA from around 4 p.m. showed the ride stuck motionless mid-air with some riders trappe
  
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• Diddy tried to reach out to witnesses from jail, prosecutors allege

  19-11-2024 02:35 via kxan.com
  
  Related video above: Diddy seeks bail, citing new evidence(NewsNation) — Prosecutors said in a court document last week that Sean "Diddy" Combs tried to contact potential witnesses for his upcoming sex trafficking trial from jail."The defendant has continued to engage in a relentless course of obstructive conduct designed to subvert the integrity of these proceedings," prosecutors said in a court filing asking the judge to reject Combs' $50 million bail request. "The defendant has sho
  
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• Lottery-type selection determines new Austin police oversight group

  19-11-2024 01:46 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Inside Austin City Council chambers on Monday, the Office of Police Oversight (OPO) randomly selected 11 positions from a pool of 31 applicants to serve on the revamped Community Police Review Commission."They can oversee pretty much anything the Austin Police Department does, policies, practices, complaints against officers," said Sara Peralta, the communications director for the OPO. "They can look at materials related to a critical incident and they can also see the office of
  
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• Debris falls from roof at home of Cowboys before game against Texans; no injuries reported

  19-11-2024 01:22 via kxan.com
  
  ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — A piece of the roof at the home of the Dallas Cowboys fell to the field while the retractable portion of it was being opened at least three hours before a game against Houston on Monday night, officials said.
  AT&T Stadium was mostly empty when the incident occurred, and team officials said nobody was injured. The roof was closed without incident about an hour later.
  Officials said winds gusting to 30 mph during the day contributed to the incident, which was bein
  
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• APD looking for suspect in deadly crash on North Lamar Boulevard

  19-11-2024 00:55 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Austin Police identified a pedestrian killed in a crash that happened in north Austin in August, the agency said Monday in a news release. Police are also looking for the driver connected with the crash.The pedestrian was identified as Sauvan Pham, 49, according to police.On Aug. 4, officers responded to the 10800 block of North Lamar Boulevard about the crash between a vehicle and a pedestrian, later identified as Pham, that happened shortly after 2 a.m., the release said. Pham
  
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