Publication
Quake in Colombia leaves at least 111 dead
CALI, Colombia — A powerful 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia on Monday, killing at least 111 people, damaging hundreds of buildings and leaving many trapped under debris while their loved ones and rescue workers searched through...
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After latest flood, Kerr waiting for aid
After the deadly July 4, 2025, flood on the Guadalupe River, it took just two days for President Donald Trump to approve a major disaster declaration for the region, opening up significant federal assistance for Kerr County. Last month, after...
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Police protests shrink amid new tactics, fatigue
When Austin police killed Michael Ramos, an unarmed Black and Latino man, in April 2020, followed weeks later by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, thousands of Austinites took to the streets to protest police violence. Demonstrators...
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Camp sues to shield Eastland family
Camp Mystic is asking a bankruptcy judge to temporarily stop parents from seeking to hold members of the Eastland family personally responsible for the deaths of their children in last summer’s catastrophic flood at the Texas Hill Country retreat. In...
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Panel votes to hold Fauci in contempt
WASHINGTON — A Senate committee voted along party lines Thursday to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress over his refusal to answer questions at a hearing on his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, setting up a referral to the Justice...
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Austin police cases could head to trial
A Travis County judge on Wednesday rejected defense efforts to dismiss felony cases against two Austin police officers, saying it is too early to determine whether prosecutors mishandled evidence despite months of accusations that the district...
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Abbott orders audit of Texas data centers
Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday ordered state regulators to conduct an audit of all data center projects seeking permits in Texas before they give any more the green light, the latest sign the Republican governor is feeling political pressure to do more to...
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Families face hurdle in bankruptcy
The five lawsuits filed against Camp Mystic by parents of campers killed in last summer’s historic flash flood seemed to get stronger when members of the Eastland family testified during pretrial hearings about their responses to the...
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‘Without consequences’
On a crisp afternoon in January 2025, Austin police officer Daniel Kessler was feverishly texting his girlfriend — often with no hand on the wheel — as he raced through the city with his emergency lights and siren activated. Seconds before the crash,...
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How Tesla missed on tax breaks
To win the latest installment of its Travis County tax breaks, Tesla Inc. had to address a grave loss. The issue stretched back to a hot day in 2021, when a worker died at the site of Gigafactory Texas, the company’s sprawling plant and headquarters...
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Austin ISD closes Paredes abruptly
A South Austin middle school will close less than three weeks before classes start, bringing the number of Austin Independent School District campuses closed this year to 11, the school board has decided. The decision to close the school, which came...
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More video of fatal shooting
Newly released security video showing Austin police fatally shooting a 17-year-old widened the lens on what happened in the moments before Anthoneil Williams II died, including when he arrived at the Northeast Austin park where the encounter unfolded...
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Pushing back at SB37 ‘censorship’
Lisa Limeri loved her life in Lubbock. A biology professor at Texas Tech University, she earned tenure after half a decade at the institution and was committed to her work teaching students the fundamentals of biology and anatomy. But when the...
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Panel skeptical of data center exemption
A key panel of state lawmakers appeared open on Monday to repealing or limiting a decade-old sales tax exemption for data centers that has come under scrutiny for costing billions of taxpayer dollars amid the boom in artificial intelligence. Facing...
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Coalition takes aim at Texas data centers
Calls are growing among data center opponents for Gov. Greg Abbott to call a special session for lawmakers to rein in the projects that have roiled rural communities. On Monday morning, in advance of two interim hearings this week dealing with data...
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Kerrville businesses try to get back up
KERRVILLE — Last July, the parking lot of Gibson’s Discount Center was a hub for Kerrville’s recovery after an unimaginable flood. Volunteers cooked meals for flood victims in the parking lot, and residents bought cleanup supplies inside the store,...
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I-35 THEN AND NOW
In some ways, Interstate 35 has always been with us. While the current construction to widen and lower the freeway through Central Austin challenges and vexes us, its north-south axis, running parallel to the steep Balcones Escarpment to the west,...
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Financing plan for redevelopment OK’d
After a contentious meeting marked by hours of public testimony, criticism over a lack of transparency and some live music, the Austin City Council approved a financing plan for the redevelopment of the nearly 2,650acre Southeast Austin tract known as...
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Hinojosa wants freeze on new data centers
Gina Hinojosa, the Democrat running for governor, on Thursday called on Gov. Greg Abbott to halt all data center construction in the state until lawmakers craft rules for the projects, which have voters up in arms. The Austin state representative...
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Trump honors 4 service members killed during fighting in Middle East
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. — President Donald Trump on Wednesday honored the lives of four U.S. service members who were killed in the Middle East and returned to their families at an Air Force base in Delaware. The president saluted as four transfer...
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A RARE SIGHT
Water fills Natural Bridge Caverns on Friday after heavy rainfall in San Antonio. The natural phenomenon allows visitors to view the Trinity Aquifer, which is usually hidden, and has not been visible for 10 years. The attraction offers tours daily.
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600 Hill Country homes damaged in flood
KERRVILLE — About 600 homes and 100 businesses were damaged in the Hill Country northwest of San Antonio during last week’s flooding, state officials said Monday. Kerr County, which was the epicenter of last summer’s fatal July 4 flood, has also...
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Warnings help limit deaths this time
For Lorena Guillen, one of the worst parts of the flood that roiled the Hill Country last week was the terrible memories it dredged up. In the early hours of July 4, 2025, she’d rushed from one recreational vehicle to the next at her Blue Oak RV Park...
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A prescription for huge medical bills
Last October, Caitlin Musignac experienced chest pain. The Austin mom of two who has health insurance through the federal Affordable Care Act Marketplace went to the emergency room. At St. David’s South Austin Medical Center, she received an X-ray....
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Warrant shows FBI examining van tied to Texas ICE shooting for drugs
A federal search warrant obtained by the FBI shows that investigators are searching the van driven by Lorenzo Salgado Araujo for evidence of drugs after he was fatally shot by a federal immigration agent. An FBI agent requested a warrant from a U.S....
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2 killed as floods hit Hill Country, S. Texas
At least two people died after being swept away by floodwaters and scores of others were rescued from their inundated houses, vehicles and campgrounds Thursday as heavy rain and thunderstorms pounded the Hill Country and parts of South Texas. Swollen...
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PINK IN PUDDLES
A woman shields herself from the rain Wednesday in downtown Austin. The flooding risk in Central Texas will linger Thursday before sunshine and heat return.
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VISIT BY THE VEEP
TOP: Air Force 2 waits on the tarmac of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport ahead of Vice President J.D. Vance’s departure Tuesday. RIGHT: Vance’s motorcade exits the lot for Korrect Fitness, the gym associated with Joe Rogan’s Onnit brand, in...
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Lack of transparency from ICE ‘unacceptable’
A week after an ICE agent shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare’s office still doesn’t know the names of the agents who were there. “That is unacceptable,” Teare said during a Monday news...
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Vigil honors man killed by ICE
Pictures of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, the 52-year-old Mexican man fatally shot by federal immigration agents, sat atop makeshift altars throughout Wildflower Church in South Austin as community members gathered to honor his memory and call for...
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Families search for new roots
On a March morning, thirdgrader Talia Martinez began class in the back seat of her mother’s maroon Honda sedan. She and her co-teacher, kindergartener Lily Dowis, instructed a class of make-believe students to write sentences. The girls traced letters...
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IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, the man shot and killed Tuesday by a federal agent in east Houston, was not the initial target of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation, U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia said Thursday evening. “The acting director of ICE has...
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Hundreds protest Houston ICE killing
Around 1,500 protesters packed the streets in Houston’s East End on Wednesday night, standing yards away from where a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot a Mexican citizen on his way to work the day before. Lorenzo Salgado...
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‘My father did not deserve this’
HOUSTON — The son of a Mexican citizen shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer during a “targeted enforcement operation” in Houston’s Magnolia Park neighborhood said his father would have stopped the van he was driving if he...
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Full payouts for disability vouchers rare
Texas’ school voucher-like program promised students with disabilities up to $30,000 to pay for private schooling. Out of 28,700 students with special needs, fewer than 25 received the full amount, records show. The Texas Education Freedom Accounts, a...
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Report: Camp patriarch held lots of power
Richard “Dick” Eastland exerted tight control over Camp Mystic’s operations, according to a report prepared for state lawmakers. So when a deadly flood hit the Texas Hill Country retreat in the early morning hours of July 4 a year ago, camp employees...
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Noncriminal migrants primary targets of ICE
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Texas initially ramped up arrests of immigrants in the country without legal permission who were charged with or convicted of crimes during President Donald Trump’s first full year in office. Then...
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Recovery lagging in Travis County
Reminders of the family Terry Traugott and Sherry McCutcheon lost in last year’s Central Texas floods are everywhere in their Manor home. Their momma’s pink cane, covered with dirt they can’t yet wipe off. The burned-out living room light bulb because...
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‘Blanket of sadness’ over Kerr County
KERR COUNTY — As Pam Umstead walked her dog, Joy, along the Guadalupe River on Friday morning, Louise Hays Park was calm. Behind her, people worked to set up tents and tables for Kerrville’s annual Fourth on the River celebration, when crowds are...
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Kerr residents call for wider inquiry, not just in camp deaths
The post popped up on Alicia Baker’s Facebook newsfeed when she was scrolling on her phone. By the time she looked, it already had dozens of comments, some from people she recognized. “It’s been nearly a year since a devastating flood along the...
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Kerr still in recovery a year after disaster
KERR COUNTY — Tracy Moore stood on the stage at Crider’s Rodeo and Dancehall, watching as a crowd gathered to sing along with Texas musician Gary P. Nunn while couples were two-stepping their way around the dance floor. For a century, the business on...
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BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP UPHELD
WASHINGTON — A divided Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a broad conception of birthright citizenship, rejecting President Donald Trump’s executive order declaring that children born to people who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not...
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Casar hits back at Oracle over layoffs
Democratic U.S. Rep. Greg Casar on Monday denounced layoffs by the Austin-based cloud computing company Oracle and promoted legislation that would require tighter federal scrutiny on companies that use artificial intelligence to replace workers. “For...
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Year after flood, owners live with tough decisions
KERR COUNTY — Any time rain begins falling in the Hill Country, Shawn Ligon gets anxious. She recalls waking up nearly a year ago on July 4 to find water rushing into her and her husband Jay’s house in Ingram, across Texas 39 from the Guadalupe River,...
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Talarico pushes to unite Democrats
CORPUS CHRISTI — James Talarico used the Texas Democratic Convention to first mend party divisions, then begin making his case to the Republicans and independents he needs to win the Senate race in November. Talarico spent hours meeting with Black...
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Texas to mandate Bible readings
The State Board of Education on Friday gave the final approval to a literary list that will require students to read a dozen passages of the Bible, enshrining Christianity as part of classroom instruction for all 5.5 million students in Texas public...
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Final vote nears on school Bible readings
AUSTIN — Texas would make Bible stories required reading for more than 5 million public school students under a proposal that has reignited debate over widening efforts in the U.S. to put more religion in classrooms. A final vote by the...
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Camp files for bankruptcy
The company operating Camp Mystic, the storied Hill Country girls camp where 25 campers and two counselors died in catastrophic Fourth of July flooding, is seeking bankruptcy protection. It filed for Chapter 11 reorganization at 1 a.m. Wednesday, but...
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Moms of missing protest at World Cup
MEXICO CITY — On the outskirts of Mexico’s capital, in the thick forests of the Ajusco mountains and the extinct volcano Xitle, Ana Ameli’s grandmother prepares for another painstaking search for her missing granddaughter. Lucrecia Franco Pavón, 75,...
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State overhauling social studies content
The State Board of Education is set to make sweeping changes to Texas’ social studies standards this month that could drastically change what the state’s 5.5 million public school students learn about history. Republicans on the board put forward a...
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Scores climb after ISD rethinks its approach
LOCKHART — On a Monday in May, Borchert Loop Elementary’s first school year came to a close as students ran around the playground, ate snow cones and tie-dyed T-shirts. Away from the festivities, Principal Jamee Griebel worked in an office where...
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Hinojosa looks to concerns on public schools
FORT WORTH — Gina Hinojosa’s recent campaign swing felt more like a public vent session than a conventional political tour. A teacher at her Richardson stop detailed his frustrations with his school district’s broken air conditioning and aging...
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Concerns raised about puppy yoga
One white, scraggly mutt named Lambchop won over the crowd at a Northwest Austin puppy yoga class — until he relieved himself on someone’s sweater. Across the room, another puppy named Winston repeatedly interrupted the instructor, prancing around the...
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OBAMA CENTER OPENS
Former President Barack Obama, joined by former Presidents Joe Biden, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, celebrated the opening of his presidential center in Chicago on Thursday in an event that brought together politicians, A-list celebrities, athletes...
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Austin tech leader dies in jet crash
Capital Factory founder Joshua Baer, a visionary force in the Texas technology and startup ecosystem, died Tuesday night in a private plane crash near Laredo. The jet’s crew reported mechanical issues to Laredo International Airport and was attempting...
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AISD takeover risk grows as scores lag
Despite improvements in state test scores at three North Austin middle school campuses, the percentage of students on grade level remains far lower than state and district averages, escalating the threat of a state takeover of the entire school...
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Delayed choices put district in hole
Rachel Preston became a teacher more than a decade ago, she fell in love with helping Austin students learn French. “Sometimes, I get to see the kids go from zero to conversant, almost fluent in the language,” said Preston, who teaches at the Liberal...
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IVF, election rules make GOP platform
Texas Republicans passed a platform Saturday that urges lawmakers to prioritize further tightening the state’s election rules, including laws to bar mail-in balloting for seniors, require proof of U.S. citizenship to vote and close the primary. The...
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What growth builds and what it erases
Long before Rainey Street became known for luxury towers and nightlife, it was a small residential neighborhood sitting at the edge of downtown Austin. Former Austin City Manager Toby Futrell says the change over the past two decades is striking....
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AISD deficit balloons again
With less than a month left in the financial year, the Austin Independent School District’s 2025-26 budget deficit has swelled to $95 million. The newly announced deficit will cause the district to dig into reserves, eating up more than half of its...
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Trump cancels latest threat against Iran
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — President Donald Trump said Thursday that he had called off new military strikes on Iran, citing a breakthrough in negotiations to end the war just hours after he threatened to escalate the conflict by seizing control of...
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UT leads effort to fill semiconductor jobs
The University of Texas is leading a semiconductor project across 10 states that will prepare students to fill 29,000 new jobs by 2030, rising to meet the significant expansion of a high-demand industry. The project — the National Network for...
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Israel, Iran appear to pause after trading fire
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Israel and Iran appeared to back away from further strikes Monday, hours after they traded fire for the first time since the U.S. agreed to a ceasefire with Tehran two months ago. Both countries warned that they were ready...
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Relief limited for Texas ranchers
For the past five years, Texas ranchers have been struggling against drought. Now, those with cattle to sell are finding a bright spot — but it’s one causing pain for consumers and politicians. It’s not a clear win for ranchers, either. Despite...
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Attacks are latest test for ceasefire
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TWICE AS NICE FOR LONGHORNS
Texas players including infielders Viviana Martinez, left, and Jaycie Nichols celebrate the Longhorns’ sweep of Texas Tech in the NCAA Women’s College World Series finals on Thursday at Devon Park in Oklahoma City. With the Game 2 win, the Horns...
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Groups aim for Dream Act’s survival
Thousands of college students across Texas lost access to instate tuition last June when a judge blocked a 25-year-old state law, immediately making noncitizen students responsible for significantly higher tuition bills.
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Cornyn stands by criticism of Paxton
WASHINGTON — Sen. John Cornyn will support the “Republican ticket” in November, but he says he still believes Attorney General Ken Paxton is a lawbreaker unfit for office and will put the seat at risk in November. “I stand by everything I said during...
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Austin moves to regulate e-motos
Austin and Travis County officials are moving to crack down on the use of electric motorcycles after reports of teens weaving through traffic on major roads and downtown streets. The Austin City Council on Thursday took the first steps toward...
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How 3 officers ended the Buford’s shooting
At 1:58 a.m. on March 1, Austin police officer Nicholas LaBarbera stood with about seven other officers at Sixth and Neches streets, waiting for thousands of Saturday night revelers to spill from downtown bars at closing time. Generally assigned to...
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Are Texas school police too rough on kids?
Agirl was fighting her classmates. A police officer at her school, near Houston, blinded her with pepper spray, then kneed her in the face. A boy threw a punch during a lunchroom brawl. A school officer in Irving yanked him off his feet and slammed...
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‘Lighter days’
The Austin City Council on Thursday unanimously approved a record $35 million settlement with the three men — and the family of a fourth — who were wrongfully accused of murder in the 1991 yogurt shop killings. One of those men, Michael Scott, told...
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Camp Mystic health chief barred from direct care
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Paxton ousts Cornyn
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton defeated veteran U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in the GOP runoff Tuesday, toppling the four-term incumbent in a fierce duel that centered on who was more loyal to President Donald Trump. Paxton will now face off against...
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