Texas health officials on Friday recorded 3,646 people in the hospital for COVID-19 statewide, or about 26% of the summer peak total of 13,932 on August 26th. Meanwhile Travis County coronavirus data released Friday showed enough improvement in hospital trends for COVID-19 that health officials maintained the community threat level at Stage 3. The …

The Austin school district is defying a request from a Republican state lawmaker for select school districts to investigate and catalog library and classroom books related to race, gender identity or sexuality. On Friday, district spokesman Jason Stanford said in an email that district officials "decided that a response is not necessary, especially…

The San Marcos Activity Center at 501 East Hopkins Street will be closed indefinitely because of water damage that occurred in the building early Friday. Officials said the flooding appears to be the result of a 3-inch pipe that disconnected from its coupler, causing several inches of water to cover the entire facility. Police were flagged down at …

A Southwest Austin man, who had been in a standoff with police after firing a gun from the residence when city code personnel came to cut his lawn, was fatally shot by police after the home caught fire Wednesday afternoon. The man, who was only described by police as being in his 50s, was not immediately identified by Austin police on Wednesday nig…

Two freshmen at Texas A and M University are suing a fraternity after they say they faced “serious” bodily injury when industrial strength cleaner was poured on them. The students, Patrick Close and Jose Figueroa, filed a complaint in state District Court in Harris County against Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity Incorporated, A and M’s chapter of S-A…

Three large dinosaur statues stolen from a dinosaur museum in Bastrop County were found this week at a University of Texas fraternity house. The Dinosaur Park in Cedar Creek wrote in a Facebook post that the statues, which are 6 to 10 feet long, had been stolen last week from their exhibit areas. The statues were found and returned to the park on T…

Gas prices in Austin have risen to their highest level since 2014, according to industry experts, and local drivers and businesses are feeling the pinch. The cost for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in Austin increased 5 cents in the past week, reaching an average of $2.96 a gallon, according to industry website GasBuddy, which tracks fuel pr…

Powerful westerly winds buffeted Austin-area neighborhoods Wednesday, rampaging across lawns festooned with Halloween decorations and reportedly damaging trees in Wells Branch and Cedar Park. The gusty winds had been preceded by a fast-moving but noisy wave of thunderstorms that heralded the arrival of a cold front moving through Central Texas earl…

The average Hutto homeowner will see their taxes increase by about 52 dollars in the city's new budget. The average homestead property in Hutto has increased in taxable value by 16.5 percent, from $208,496.88 last year to $242,978.72 this year. Under the new tax rate, the average homeowner would pay $1,303.45. The average homeowner paid $1,250.98 l…

An organization affiliated with Eric Holder, who was attorney general in the Obama administration, has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn the state's GOP-drawn redistricting map for Congress on behalf of a Latino rights group and 13 Texas voters. Filed Monday in an Austin federal court, the lawsuit claims mapmakers in the Texas Legislature…

The University of Texas ranked as the No. 43 university in the world, according to the 2022 list of top global universities by U.S. News & World Report. The annual list, published Tuesday, ranked more than 1,700 universities in 90 countries based largely on academic research and global reputation. The calculations were based on 13 indicators, inclu…

Texas is already home to some of the highest levels of semiconductor output in the nation, but as the industry sees unprecedented federal investment, industry leaders want to ensure the Lone Star State remains at the forefront. Governor Greg Abbott has created a semiconductor task force that will work to attract semiconductor investment into the st…

Tesla has landed its biggest single order deal ever — estimated to be worth more than $4 billion — just weeks after the automaker announced it is relocating its corporate headquarters to Austin. Rental car company Hertz placed an order for 100,000 Tesla vehicles to be delivered by the end of 2022 — the biggest order for electric vehicles ever place…

Long security lines stretched throughout the departure concourse at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport on Monday, as thousands of Formula One fans headed home after a sun-dappled weekend at Circuit of the Americas. Austin-Bergstrom International Airport reported heavy traffic on Sunday and Monday. Sunday's confirmed total was 29,251 passengers,…

Texas health officials on Monday recorded 4,078 people in the hospital for COVID-19, the fewest number of inpatients with coronavirus in three months, and about 30% of the summer peak total of 13,932 on August 26th. The pandemic high was 14,218 Texans hospitalized in January. The Texas Department of State Health Services reported 708 available staf…

The unemployment rate in the Austin area fell to a new pandemic-era low of 3.5 percent in September, as local businesses clamored to hire workers amid the recovering economy and the lead-up to high-profile events such as the Formula One race this weekend and ACL Fest earlier in October. The region added 12,900 nonfarm jobs last month — with more th…

Some of the people who purchased credentials to attend the canceled South By Southwest festival in 2020 could be eligible to get part of their money back after SXSW LLC, the company behind the annual event, agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit over the event's no-refund policy. SXSW was called off a week before it was scheduled to start in March…

A 27-year-old San Marcos man was sentenced to life in prison without parole Thursday after a jury convicted him of murder in the death of his 1-year-old son on the Fourth of July in 2018. Stevie Dwayne Williams Jr. and his wife had called 911 claiming that they found their son, Mason, not breathing after a nap. First responders in Kyle tried to res…

The Austin Police Department released officer body-worn camera and dashboard camera footage Friday of a downtown shooting earlier this month in which a 17-year-old was killed and a police officer fired his weapon. It's still unclear whether the teen, identified by police as Michael Carothers, was struck by the officer's weapon. Austin Police Chief …

While the duel between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen [vehr-STAH-pin] at the top of the Formula One driver standings has captivated fans, Valtteri Bottas [vahl-TAYR-ee BOH-tahs] briefly stole the spotlight in the opening practice round of the U.S. Grand Prix. Bottas nipped both second-place Hamilton and third-place Verstappen on a scorching trac…

A key indicator that helps Austin Public Health determine COVID-19 guidelines to protect the most medically vulnerable in the community has dropped to its lowest level since early July, signaling a possible shift to a safer stage of the pandemic. According to Travis County coronavirus data released Friday, only nine people were newly admitted to th…

Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick wants Governor Greg Abbott to call lawmakers back to Austin for a fourth special legislative session, this time to tackle two election-related measures that did not pass during previous sessions this year. The third special session ended Tuesday, with most of Abbott's agenda items adopted. Patrick called it a "strong…

In the first of several expected legal challenges, a Latino rights organization has filed a federal lawsuit pressing to toss out all four Texas redistricting plans, arguing that the Republican-drawn maps illegally and unconstitutionally dilute the voting strength of Latinos. Coming out of the third special session of the Legislature, the maps that …

Texas health officials on Wednesday recorded 4,739 people in the hospital for COVID-19, which was about 200 fewer than the previous day — and 1,000 fewer than a week ago. But the day's total number of coronavirus inpatients was about a third of the summer high of 13,932 on August 26th. The Texas Department of State Health Services reported 647 avai…

A worried caller led police to discover the bodies of two adults and a 6-year-old boy in a Southeast Austin home late Monday. The latest killings bring the city's homicide death toll to 69 so far this year, Austin police records show. Police found the bodies of James Robertson, 6, and Jennifer Robertson, 36, according to a statement from Austin pol…

The third special session of the Texas Legislature came to a close early Tuesday morning with lawmakers delivering on six of the 10 tasks assigned to them by Governor Greg Abbott, including newly drawn political maps that could cement Republican power for the next decade. Republicans also passed a law to limit the participation of transgender athle…

The University of Texas and Texas State University would receive millions in funding for campus construction projects under a bill sent to Governor Greg Abbott early Tuesday. Senate Bill 52 authorizes more than $3.3 billion in tuition revenue bonds for the construction of research buildings, health facilities and various other projects at public un…

Texas on Monday recorded 4,950 people in the hospital for COVID-19, slipping below 5,000 for the first time since mid-July and extending a streak of declining figures after reaching a summer high of 13,932 on Aug. 26. The pandemic high was 14,218 Texans hospitalized in January. The Texas Department of State Health Services reported 710 available st…

Lloyd Doggett, a longtime Democratic congressman from Austin, is running to represent a newly formed U.S. House district that encompasses much of the city. Doggett, 75, currently represents the 35th District, which stretches from East Austin to San Antonio. But now his sights are set on the 37th District, one of two new congressional seats drawn wi…

Compared with its previous frenzied pace, Central Texas' housing market is continuing its "calming trend" across the region, according to the latest data from the Austin Board of Realtors. In September, sales declined in the region and within Austin's city limits, even as the median home-sales prices in both areas rose by double digits to set Septe…

Bitcoin miners are flocking to Texas. Many of those seeking their fortune are likely to be from China, where the government has been cracking down on Bitcoin mining, the practice of competing to extract digital currency from the blockchain or document data transfers using high-powered, energy-hungry computers. The state of Texas has no income tax, …

The Biden administration will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to halt a Texas law banning most abortions, a Justice Department official said Friday, while an appeal to the law goes forward. It's the latest attempt by the federal government to block the law. The announcement came hours after a federal appeals court sided with Texas officials a second tim…

With a few days remaining in the special legislative session, an effort to codify Governor Greg Abbott's COVID-19 vaccine mandate ban faces an arduous path forward. Democrats object to the effort due to public health concerns, and some lawmakers from both parties have voiced opposition to the government interfering in the decisions of business owne…

Defense attorneys and prosecutors will get to make their final arguments Monday about whether the murder conviction of death row inmate Rodney Reed should be upheld. In another stage of the legal process, attorneys on both sides will appear before state District Judge J.D. Langley in Bastrop County to make their final arguments about whether Reed w…

After 10 hours of emotional, contentious debate, the Texas House voted Thursday night to block transgender athletes from competing in public school sports in their gender identity. Democrats forcefully, and sometimes tearfully, attacked House Bill 25 as a dangerous foray into discrimination that seeks to address a nonexistent problem — sacrificing …

Despite shifting to loosened coronavirus guidelines in Travis County this week, local hospital numbers on Friday were slow to meet hopeful expectations for an end to masking and social distancing this fall. Austin and Travis County on Friday recorded 23 new hospital admissions for COVID-19. The rolling seven-day average of new daily hospital admiss…

A noisy, lightning-filled band of storms slowly crawled across Central Texas late Wednesday into the wee hours of Thursday, dumping up to 8 inches of rain in spots along the Interstate 35 corridor. By daybreak, the storms drifted southeast, away from the Austin area, but the better news is that the Austin area is unlikely to see any more heavy rain…

This month in the Austin area marks eight years since the Halloween floods of 2013 and six years since the Halloween floods of 2015. Combined, those two disasters locally destroyed more than 100 homes, damaged more than 1,000 others and triggered higher insurance premiums on renters and homeowners. Concerned that area residents might not be fully p…

Joan Elizabeth Means Khabele [kah-BELL], instrumental in the integration of Barton Springs Pool and Austin High School, among a lifetime of other civic achievements, died in Austin of leukemia just after midnight on Monday morning. She was 78. One of five children, Joan Khabele was the daughter of Austin educator and civil rights activist Bertha Sa…

The Texas House early Wednesday approved a map for new political districts that would solidify Republican control of the chamber, protect incumbent lawmakers from both parties and reduce the number of competitive districts across the state. Democrats criticized the map for failing to reflect the rapid growth of the Hispanic and Asian population ove…

Central Texas university officials say they are able to provide more opportunities and support to Hispanic college students with the help of federal grants offered to minority-serving institutions. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas hosted a roundtable discussion Tuesday with representatives from Austin Community College, St. Edward’s University and Te…

The U.S. Army identified a soldier found dead behind his company barracks at Fort Hood last week as 26-year-old Specialist Maxwell Hockin. Fort Hood leaders at the Central Texas post said Hockin died Saturday but they did not release his identity until Wednesday. The incident is still under investigation by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Comm…

Two of the nation's largest airlines — Southwest Airlines and American Airlines — both based in Texas, said Tuesday they plan to follow looming federal guidelines and require that their employees are vaccinated against COVID-19, despite an order from Gov. Greg Abbott that attempts to block such mandates. Dallas-based Southwest Airlines last week or…

Austin Public Health on Tuesday moved the community to Stage 3 of the agency's risk-based COVID-19 guidelines, allowing many Travis County residents to safely unmask while shopping and dining indoors. But Austin-Travis County Health Authority Dr. Desmar Walkes, who announced the positive change during a joint Austin City Council and Travis County C…

In a move that it says reflects its commitment to grow along with Central Texas, JPMorgan Chase & Co. has signed a lease for the top two floors of a new 25-story office tower in downtown Austin. The New York-based investment banking giant said it will occupy about 35,000 square feet of space on the 24th and 25th floors of the building, which is cal…

A federal appeals court late Friday allowed a Texas law banning most abortions to be enforced, suspending a lower court ruling from two days before that had blocked the measure. Attorneys for Texas filed an appeal with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals earlier Friday, asking the court to take action "as soon as possible" to ensure that the stat…

Rain has been rare this fall, but the Austin area could finally get a decent soaking this week, according to the National Weather Service. A low pressure system — where lower air pressure allows warmer air to rise and rain clouds to form in the unstable air — will move into Texas from the northwest Tuesday into Wednesday. The remnant of the soon-to…

Travis County coronavirus data released Monday showed continued improvement in hospital numbers for COVID-19. The county recorded 16 new hospital admissions for COVID-19. The rolling seven-day average of new daily hospital admissions, which helps Austin Public Health determine guidelines for the most medically vulnerable members of the community, d…

The Austin area's public health chief said Friday that if trends keep improving, the community could move back to Stage 3 pandemic guidelines by early next week. Dr. Desmar Walkes, Austin-Travis County health authority, decided to wait a few more days before loosening pandemic restrictions. Four cases of COVID-19 were confirmed among ACL attendees …

One of the biggest economic development announcements in Austin history came with little fanfare and almost no warning. Speaking to shareholders Thursday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk mentioned almost casually that the electric automaker — one of the world's best-known and most valuable companies — has decided to move its corporate headquarters from Califor…