Austin news

• Williamson County celebrates expo center groundbreaking

  02-12-2024 22:54 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) — Williamson County officials celebrated the groundbreaking of the Williamson County Expo Center in Taylor on Monday.Located at 5350 Bill Pickett Trail in Taylor, the new facility received its funding courtesy the 2023 Williamson County Parks Bond. The upcoming site will include a 175-foot by 450-foot covered arena alongside restrooms and showers, two covered picnic pavilions and an expanded parking area.Williamson County leaders celebrated the groundbreaking of the Williamso
  
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• Texas' highway fund boosted by $2.74B from excess tax revenue

  02-12-2024 22:33 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) — Texas' State Highway Fund received roughly $2.74 billion from excess tax revenues, Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar's office announced last week.Hegar confirmed the additional dollars came courtesy crude oil and natural gas production tax revenues "in excess of 1987 collections," per the release. According to his office, when either tax generates more revenue than the 1987 threshold, 75% of that excess is transferred elsewhere.“These transfers into the ESF and SHF show t
  
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• Intel CEO steps down as chipmaker falters, lays off staff

  02-12-2024 21:52 via kxan.com
  
  (The Hill) -- Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has stepped down after a three-year stint leading the company, the chipmaker announced Monday. Two senior executives, David Zinsner and Michelle Johnston Holthaus, will take over as Intel’s interim co-CEOs amid the search for a new chief executive. Intel to cut workers in Austin amid cost-cutting move“Leading Intel has been the honor of my lifetime – this group of people is among the best and the brightest in the business, and I’
  
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• Travis County gets $1.6M to combat overdose deaths tied to county jail

  02-12-2024 21:31 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) -- After finding that a disproportionate number of people leaving jail are overdosing and dying within months of being released from custody, the county is focusing harm reduction and treatment efforts on that population.
  Travis County Judge Andy Brown said people leaving county jail are eight times more likely to die of an overdose than the rest of the community in the first six months after being released."That's largely because their tolerance has changed and they're not on an i
  
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• Man pleads guilty, gets 8 years probation on assault against public servant charge

  02-12-2024 21:18 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) -- A man was sentenced to eight years of deferred adjudication after he pleaded guilty to aggravated assault against a public servant following a 2023 incident in southeast Austin, according to Travis County court documents.Christopher Vanover was charged with the first-degree felony after a SWAT situation in December 2023. The Austin Police Department previously said it responded to a call reporting Vanover had intentionally harmed himself inside of a home.Ultimately, officers at
  
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• Austin vs Houston: Report compares affordability, food and culture

  02-12-2024 20:50 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) — It's no surprise to anyone living in Texas that the Lone Star State has experienced a massive population surge in recent years, coupled with more companies and businesses relocating their operations down south. But when it comes to affordability, how do two of Texas' (and the country's) most populous cities — Austin and Houston — compare?Real estate experts at Redfin compared the two Texas cities, centering their analysis around housing market prices, costs of l
  
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• 'Little to no' traces of PFAS found from year's worth of testing Austin Water quality

  02-12-2024 20:44 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Austin Water officials on Monday released results from a year's worth of water quality testing that was part of a nationwide effort to determine the presence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), or "forever chemicals," in public drinking water.
  Austin Water said the results revealed little to no detectable traces of PFAS in the city’s drinking water.
  The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a rule called UCMR5 (Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule 5) that
  
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• State report shows which students are lagging behind at Texas colleges

  02-12-2024 20:36 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (Nexstar) -- The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board released its inaugural study on the impacts of Senate Bill 17, which outlawed the use of diversity, equity, and inclusion offices (DEI) on public colleges and universities.Universities across the state closed DEI offices this year and fired staff to comply with the new law that went into effect in 2024. The study released by the THECB on Sunday doesn't show the impact SB 17 had this year because it is only looking at data from 202
  
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• Texas false starts less on the road than at home this season. A coincidence? No, Sarkisian says

  02-12-2024 20:09 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) — Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, the site of the Southeastern Conference championship game Saturday, is technically supposed to be neutral. Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian knows that won't be the case against the Georgia Bulldogs, and he's already embracing it.Since a 41-34 loss to Oklahoma State on Oct. 22, 2022, in Stillwater, the Longhorns are 11-0 in true road games. Coming off a 17-7 win in perhaps the most hostile environment in the country at Kyle Field, it feels l
  
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• LIST: How to donate to families in need this holiday season

  02-12-2024 19:59 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) — It's the season of giving, and there are plenty of families and community members in Central Texas in need of some extra holiday cheer this year. For those looking to give back this holiday season, here's a round up of Angel Tree drop-off sites and Blue and Brown Santa initiatives providing to those in need.Angel Tree drop-off locationsThe Salvation Army Austin has operated its Angel Tree program since 1979, which helps provide Christmas gifts and wishes to children up to 1
  
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• New Texas DPS Director Freeman Martin officially sworn in

  02-12-2024 19:35 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) -- The new director of the Texas Department of Public Safety was officially sworn into the role Monday morning.Gov. Greg Abbott administered the oath to ceremonially swear in Freeman F. Martin at the Fallen Officers’ Memorial Site at the DPS Headquarters in Austin Monday morning. DETAILS | New DPS director announced as Col. McCraw’s tenure comes to an endThe Public Safety Commission (PSC) announced Martin as the 14th director of DPS on Nov. 20. According to the Texas Co
  
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• 'Moana 2' is officially the biggest Thanksgiving release ever: Which movie did it dethrone?

  02-12-2024 18:56 via kxan.com
  
  (NEXSTAR) – “Moana 2” sailed to the top of the box office over the long Thanksgiving weekend, giving Disney yet another record-shattering opening for an animated film.The movie, featuring the voices of Auli‘i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson, grossed an estimated total of $225 million in U.S. theaters over the five-day Thanksgiving weekend (Weds–Sun), according to Disney. That figure is enough to make “Moana 2” the biggest Thanksgiving release in history, as
  
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• 'Brain rot': Meet the Oxford University Press word of the year

  02-12-2024 18:56 via kxan.com
  
  LONDON (AP) — Many of us have felt it, and now it’s official: “brain rot” is the Oxford dictionaries’ word of the year.Oxford University Press said Monday that the evocative phrase “gained new prominence in 2024,” with its frequency of use increasing 230% from the year before.Oxford defines brain rot as “the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now p
  
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• Texas university offering esports scholarships

  02-12-2024 18:38 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) — Esports are on the rise and now many colleges and universities are offering scholarships.Concordia University started its esports varsity team in 2019. Game on! University of Texas opens Esports Arena on campus"I love playing with my teammates," said Kaitlin Morgan, who is on the Concordia University esports team.The team has about 40 members with most of them receiving a scholarship to play."I was drawn to Concordia because they had an esports team," Morgan said. "We
  
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• Longhorns stats: UT held conference opponents to two touchdowns per game in first SEC season

  02-12-2024 18:02 via kxan.com
  
  This story is part of the KXAN Data Hub, where numbers help tell the whole story.
  We've created several data-driven stories and databases on topics including weather and climate, politics, education, sports and growth in Texas. Each story in the KXAN Data Hub is updated as new data becomes available.AUSTIN (KXAN) — Touchdowns, third down conversions, penalty yards. When it comes to Longhorn football, there are a lot of numbers to keep track of.Follow along with the charts below as we trac
  
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• Can AI visualize an environment from sounds? UT researchers put it to the test

  02-12-2024 18:01 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Just how well can artificial intelligence listen?University of Texas at Austin researchers worked to determine whether sound clips are enough for AI to know what the environment it's hearing looks like, a skill previously unique to humans.To do so, the team sampled 100 YouTube video and audio clips from cities around the globe to initially train its model on what various environments look and sound like. From there the technology was fed 10-second, audio-only clips, and asked to
  
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• District 7 residents go back to the polls -- why do we do runoff elections?

  02-12-2024 17:50 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Austinites in north Austin are going back to the polls starting Monday to once again vote for their pick in the Austin City Council District 7 race after no one candidate reached more than 50% of the overall vote in the general election.It's called a runoff election.Who’s running for Austin City Council District 7? Meet Mike Siegel"One of the things about runoffs is it guarantees that the person who represents you does have an actual majority of the vote, whether it be in
  
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• Cedar is back... earlier than expected

  02-12-2024 16:48 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) -- It was only a matter of time before the most dreaded of the Central Texas pollens started to affect the area. It's the pollen that seems to cause the worst of the allergies.We normally don't start seeing numbers show up until the middle of December. However, the Austin area saw its first cedar numbers of the season on November 23.
  Cedar season normally peaks in mid-January during which we can see counts in the thousands and ten thousands. In a typical season, we see numbers begi
  
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• Longhorns down West Virginia to win Gulf Coast Showcase, stay unbeaten

  02-12-2024 05:29 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) — No. 5 Texas used an 18-5 advantage on the offensive boards to create 26 second-chance points and edge former Big 12 Conference foe No. 12 West Virginia 78-73 to win the Gulf Coast Showcase on Sunday in Estero, Florida.The Longhorns outscored the Mountaineers 26-6 in second-chance points and held an advantage at the foul line, sinking 26 free throws to West Virginia's 18. Texas forced 20 turnovers and outrebounded the Mountaineers 37-23.MORE THAN THE SCORE: Stay up to date o
  
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• 2024 was Austin's hottest meteorological Fall on record

  02-12-2024 04:27 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) -- The 2024 meteorological fall season, which ran from September 1 to November 30, was the hottest fall season on record for Austin, Texas, with an average temperature of 75.8° at Camp Mabry.Numerous heat-related records were set during the 2024 meteorological fall season, including the latest ever triple-digit day in recorded history (101° on Oct. 11).2024 was the hottest fall on record in AustinThe 2024 meteorological fall season was also the eighth driest on record, with
  
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• Texas to host first two rounds of NCAA volleyball tournament, takes on TAMU-Corpus Christi

  02-12-2024 03:51 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Texas volleyball team will host the opening two rounds of the NCAA volleyball tournament Thursday and Friday.The Longhorns were awarded a No. 3 seed in the 64-team tournament and will open against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in Gregory Gym. UT Arlington and sixth-seeded Southern California will play at 4 p.m. with the winners meeting Friday at 6:30 p.m. for a spot in the Sweet 16.MORE THAN THE SCORE: Stay up to date on sports stories like these, a
  
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• Texas safety Michael Taaffe honors Jake Ehlinger, 'feels sorry' for fan who made sign mocking death

  02-12-2024 02:31 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) — Texas senior defensive back Michael Taaffe had three tackles, a pass breakup and an interception in the Longhorns' 17-7 Lone Star Showdown win over Texas A&M on Saturday at Kyle Field, and then defended a fallen friend after the game from an egregious sign shown on television earlier in the day.Taaffe had strong, passionate comments regarding a sign held up by a fan in the crowd for ESPN's College Gameday, broadcasting from the Texas A&M campus the morning before th
  
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• Texas high school football playoffs: Regional final matchups, sites, times

  02-12-2024 00:22 via kxan.com
  
  AUSTIN (KXAN) — Get ready for another regional final edition of the Battle of the Lakes.Westlake and Lake Travis will clash in the 6A Division I Region IV final at 7 p.m. Friday from Kelly Reeves Athletic Complex, highlighting Austin-area teams still vying for a spot in the state championships. The powerhouses will meet in the regional final round for the second consecutive year. The game will be aired locally on KBVO.MORE THAN THE SCORE: Stay up to date on sports stories like these, and s
  
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