Abby Breyfogle wears a silver charm bracelet that represents her achievements at Camp Mystic, the all-girls Christian camp destroyed by the Independence Day floods.
The memo arrived nearly two months after Austin lost a $105 million grant for the Interstate 35 cap-and-stitch program, which was initially awarded last year. That funding was lost as part of a national rescission of unobligated Neighborhood Access & Equity awards, even though the city had already committed $104 million in local money to ensure structural supports are included in TxDOT's rebuild of I-35 through downtown.
The agreement late Friday ends a weekslong stalemate after the Austin Firefighters Association rejected of a proposal that it said wouldn't substantially increase wages for its personnel. The AFA agreed to a deal that would raise wages by at least 3 percent over four years. The contract also would eventually reduce firefighters' hours to fewer than 50 per week, a key provision that the city pushed back on.
The Austin Police Department announced on Friday that they have, through "a wide range of DNA testing," identified a suspect in the murders covered in HBO's The Yogurt Shop Murders. According to the Austin American-Statesman, Robert Eugene Brashers has now been connected to the crime. He had no other connection to Austin besides these murders. Brashers has also been linked to three other murders in the 90s, as well as the sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl in 1997.
The city of Austin is no longer considering using artificial intelligence to help catch people breaking into cars and committing other crimes at parks and greenbelts, at least for the time being. Dozens of incidents, including car break-ins and stolen valuables, are reported at popular green spaces each year. Earlier this year, the city stepped up security measures, increasing police patrols and installing security cameras. Austin police in March also arrested 12 people in connection with car break-ins at public parks.
Nicks noted that he told the city manager and City Council in January that firefighters want a work week reduction and the same kind of wage offer EMS and Austin Police have achieved. Basically, Nicks said, while police and EMS employees received wage increases close to 6 percent, 5 percent and 4 percent, the city is offering most firefighters no general wage increase in the first, second, third and fourth years of the contract.
For the past four years, Melissa has served as editor of The Boston Globe's Great Divide team, investigating educational inequities throughout Massachusetts and leading coverage of Boston's school desegregation and the state's special-education system. Under her tenure, the team has won multiple national awards, including an Edward R. Murrow Award that recognized the newsroom for its overall excellence. She has been honored with National Association of Hispanic Journalists' New England's Impact Award and was recently recognized with an Amplify Latinx's ALX100 award.
The city will not renew its contract with Urban Alchemy to manage two key downtown homeless shelters following the discovery of improper data handling by the nonprofit's staff. The Homeless Strategy Office confirmed the contract will end on Sept. 30 and that another service provider, Endeavors, will assume operations under an emergency contract. According to a memo dated Sept. 15, the decision was made after Urban Alchemy staff were found to have "improperly, and without permission, misrepresented Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) exit dates and records." Although the data was later corrected, the city characterized the breach as serious enough to warrant an immediate end to the relationship.
Garner State Park, located in Concan, Texas, about three hours southwest of the Live Music Capital of the World. It's a popular destination for tubers who like to float the Frio River, but come fall, the park dazzles as trees turn from green to golden, orange, and red. Founded in 1941, Garner State Park is one of many parks built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, a program created by President Franklin Roosevelt to combat the unemployment crisis of the Great Depression.
even with the most generous of the options, we would still be paid on average $20,000 less than our counterparts in the County Attorney and District Attorney's offices. We are doing the same work, and we are making 60 percent less than these people. And if you look at other big cities in the state, and Harris County and Dallas County, these public defense investigators are also making $30,000 more than us on average, and they don't have disparity with their prosecutorial counterparts.
Currently, the city of Austin is working to negotiate ownership of the trestle, and until (ownership is established) it's not really appropriate to move forward with a bunch of alternatives for designing and rehabilitating this asset when it's not 100 percent clear that the city has complete ownership.
Top 5 Can't Miss The capital of Texas, Austin is a bustling metropolis that attracts everyone from tech giants to wannabe Willie Nelsons. It's known as the Live Music Capital of the World, and every night of the week, you'll find crooners belting out tunes at ramshackle dive bars and world-class theaters. Whatever genre you're into, you'll find it in Austin.
Attorney Aleshire argues that the ballot language is misleading and does not clarify that the tax increase, if approved, would be permanent. He emphasizes that the City Council is attempting to mislead voters into accepting a significant tax hike.
The Art In Public Places (AIPP) program, created in 1985, allocates up to 2 percent of eligible capital improvement budgets for visual art on city projects. Staff say the revisions are intended to clarify program procedures, broaden participation and address long-term care of artworks.
The new concrete barricades will stand 3.5 feet tall, shorter than the current plastic ones, and run along both sides of the street for two blocks, from San Jacinto Boulevard to Neches Street.
"We definitely want to keep this as safe as possible," said Charlotte Tonsor, executive projects director with The Trail Conservancy. "We understand what this will do to the daily use, to the weekly use, to the visits."
Sharmila Mukherjee presented findings indicating Austin's public transit recovery is 9% ahead of comparable metro areas, although ridership is still 20% below pre-pandemic levels.
Kyle Hawley and Noah Hawley's house in Austin, Texas, has five bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms and no closets. The unusual setup forces the couple and their two children, 12 and 17, to be selective since they store their clothing in hallways. Mr. Hawley, who is the Emmy Award-winning showrunner and creator of the hit FX series Fargo, believes that the lack of closets encourages editing during the year, requiring them to make choices about what they keep as they acquire new items.