Vandals are smashing SUV rear windows around town and not stealing anything. Austin Energy's fuel charge goes up in January. Trinity U. school officials discover multiple firearms in a student's dorm room after the student checks out for winter break. ...

Photo of the Walls Unit gurney from Britannica Student Encyclopedia 25 Years of Lethal Injection: What Have We Learned?Friday, December 7Texas Prison Museum (map) This Friday marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the first execution by lethal injection in the United States. Naturally, Texas, along with the city of Huntsville -- sometimes referred to as the "execution capital of the world"-- took this honor. With executions effectively on hold in Texas while the U.S. Supreme Court......

Photo by dground on flickr City Council considering the gathering of information about Austin's homeless and the expansion of services that help them. The council may also merge Park Police, Austin Aviation Police and City Marshals with APD. Travis County officials aiding Hays County officials in the search for a woman who may have witnessed the murder of her son. Williamson County man on the run from child sexual assault charges captured in Costa Rica.......

In Los Angeles, LAist most definitely celebrated Thanksgiving like no other. After all, one has to keep up all the energy to keep on walking the line at the Writers Strike and fighting the unfortunate return of the wildfires in Malibu, which single handedly destroyed over fifty homes within the first 24 hours. National outlets may be covering the fires, but CNN also found it is easier to buy a gun than fruit and......

Photo by Broken Piggy Bank on flickrThe Texas Youth Commission was in court Monday defending itself against advocacy groups claiming the TYC has overused pepper spray on its inmates. Texas Appleseed and Advocacy, Inc. say the TYC has doubled its use of pepper spray even after a settlement with the TYC back in September forced them to cut back. TYC has not commented on the case but Jim George, an Austin attorney who chairs the......

Image from RG4N websiteResponsible Growth for Northcross Austin (RG4N) is in court today claiming the city helped Wal-Mart through illegal city planning. They claim the Northcross Wal-Mart development requires the removal of 29 trees (breaking tree ordinances) and that the development breaks a plat note controlling runoff and pollution into Shoal Creek. The Allandale Neighborhood Association had part of their anti-Wal-Mart lawsuit thrown out last week but RG4N remains undeterred. Each group will have 2......

Silicon Wafer by kjetilv on stock.xchng Austin-based chip company Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has once again found itself in hot water, and this time it's over something far more visible than damaging the Edwards Aquifer. According to a lawsuit filed with the Travis County District Court on Wednesday, the company is responsible for multiple birth defects in at least one child of a former AMD employee who worked in the manufacturing "clean room." Austin resident......

Have a happy and safe Halloween! If you're headed to Sixth Street, leave your light saber/fake gun/billy club at home. Williamson County won't kick privately-run immigration detention center out of Taylor now that they aren't liable for it. Some Texas prosecutors will wait for the Supreme Court's decision next year before asking judges to set execution dates. After a soldier died in a Ft. Hood training exercise, his supervising officer is facing court martial.......

The Red Sox has permeated nearly every facet of Bostonist's lives. When they're not live-blogging the games, waxing poetic about the games, thanking Curt Schilling for his splendid work, or telling Dane Cook to watch his hair, they're watching certain presidential candidates hop on the Red Sox bandwagon (sorry, Gothamist). The Sox are so branded on the local brain that people are using the Series to spice up their sex lives. Speaking of spice, Bostonist......

Round Rock ISD announces another case of MRSA. Wash your hands, y'all! (see video at right) Woman attacked and sexually assaulted by man and two women in her South Austin apartment earlier this week; Police think she was specifically targeted, but didn't know her attackers. Laura Hall won't get a new trial, but her family isn't giving up. Southwest Key moves to their new facility. Local Ron Paul supporters ask Leslie to participate in......

UN issues their Global Environmental Outlook report, GEO-4, while population blogs about Britney Spears' new tattoo. The U.S. dollar continues its downward spiral. Wildfires continue in California, but firefighters say they are gaining ground. Iran remains defiant in the face of new U.S. imposed sanctions to prevent their nuclear dream. Supreme Court of Georgia frees teen in controversial sex case. Texas gas prices are up for the second week in a row. Astronauts begin......

Louisiana elects the first Indian-American to ever serve as governor of a U.S. state. Is nuclear power (excuse us, we meant "nuke-ular") in the cards for America's post-petroleum energy future? Greenpeace takes issue with the environmental friendliness of the iPhone. Bill that seeks to increase court control over government surveillance passes through the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee. The ISP war against file sharers intensifies; BitTorrent comes under heavy fire. Prediction: Apple + Google =......

Governor Rick Perry today announced his official support of Republican presidential candidate and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, whose pro-abortion stance has enraged many conservatives. Perry, in today's declaration, admitted that reconciling the hot-button issue was the biggest obstacle in his endorsement. Giuliani, in turn, pledged to nominate hard-line "strict constructionist" judges to the Supreme Court. Perry replied that he was "comfortable" with this answer. "For the last six months, I have cogitated,"......

Contrary to popular opinion, feminism and romance are not incompatible and feminism may actually improve the quality of heterosexual relationships. The Statesman reports that the ACLU and LULAC have complained about the location of the new municipal court. US House of Representatives has voted overwhelmingly to renew the ban on taxing Internet access — but only for 4 years, not permanently. MySpace will offer members of its popular social network free Internet phone calls......

CAMPO approved the toll roads . . . who didn't see that coming? UT's statue of Cesar Chavez was unveiled today. GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee was in town over the weekend. Austin resident Marion Jones has given back her 5 medals from the 2000 Olympics and may have to give up $100,000 of prize money after admitting to steroid use. The Supreme Court won't hear the appeal re: the 1999 Aggie bonfire deaths......

Yesterday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals - the state's highest criminal court - decided to stay the lethal injection of Hilberto Chi, a 28-year-old Honduran man convicted of killing a men's store manager in Arlington back in 2001. This ruling comes one week after the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider whether a specified form of lethal injection constituted the infliction of "cruel and unusual punishment," a practice prohibited by the Eighth Amendment. Last......

Last Friday in Houston, a young girl brought a loaded 9mm pistol to school and started pointing it at people. She is 12 years old. The U.S. Supreme Court's new term starts this week. Why exactly is socialized medicine such a bad idea? Interesting article... The guy who tried to extort $1 million from Tom Cruise commits suicide. Article about the bloggers who helped bring the story of recent government oppression in Burma to......

Old Pecan Street Festival, UT home game, Silicon Labs Marathon Relay, and Alzheimer’s Memory Walk are all in the downtown area this weekend. Watch for street closures! Sheryl Cole's Safe Surrender program will allow people with outstanding warrants to turn themselves in at area churches. APD is supporting Jennifer Kim's anti-panhandling ordinance; a public hearing on the ordinance is set for October 18. The US Supreme Court stopped the execution of Carlton Turner Jr., who......

Editors’ note: The opinions and ideas expressed in this opinion piece are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the outlook and belief of anyone else in the Ist network. I hadn't initially planned to attend The Flaming Lips show at La Zona Rosa this past Tuesday, opting to avoid possible run-ins with any "Furries", but a last-minute ticket to a Lips show is not something to turn one's nose up......

Burma continues to adopt China's interpretation of "restraint" when it deals with protests. President Gen. Pervez Musharraf continues to be the bee's knees of Pakistan with the recent ruling from Pakistan's Supreme Court. Jena 6 Defendant Released on Bail. Holy crap! The FDA is understaffed and overwhelmed. Laura Hall's attorney asks to be replaced in order to appear as witness for the defense. If Gov. Rick Perry lives outside Austin city limits, are we......

University of Florida journalism student provokes John Kerry, gets Tasered by campus cops. A 10-year-old boy has woken up with a posh English accent after undergoing life-saving brain surgery. Betty Perry is charged with resisting arrest and failing to maintain her landscaping, both misdemeanors. Fed up with the threats, tired of natural disasters, Nebraska's longest-serving state senator is using his legal muscle against who he says is the culprit - God. State Sen. Ernie......

Longhorn football player James Henry has been suspended indefinitely from the team after being charged with felony counts of retaliation and tampering with physical evidence. Police say the charges are in connection with the alleged armed robbery involving former Longhorn football player Robert Joseph. Court records indicate that Henry, 19, confronted witnesses on behalf of Joseph, who was arrested June 27th on aggravated robbery charges. Police say that Joseph called Henry from jail the......

Felix, Category 5 hurricane, is hitting Nicaragua. Oh, the times they are a'changin (finally): A female joins the ranks of the Beefeaters at the Tower of London. Bush arrives in Australia today amid protests from Australians. Slate reviews O.J.'s book: "The narrator of 'If I Did It' introduces his story not as an exercise in counterfactual speculation but rather as the God's honest truth." Author Anne Lamott censored from speaking at Creighton University? Hybrid......

It's official: Whole Foods now owns its biggest rival, Wild Oats Markets. Despite a juicy scandal over Chairman and CEO John "rahodeb" Mackey's anonymous web postings and the Federal Trade Commission's earnest efforts to prevent what they believed was a serious antitrust violation, the deal was given the green light by a federal appeals court last Thursday. Whole Foods' buyout offer called for purchasing all outstanding shares of Wild Oats for $18.50 a pop;......

Three British soldiers killed by American friendly fire in Afghanistan. A new database will crack down on uninsured drivers. Former astronaut Nowak appears in court. Lawmakers to probe safety at Utah mine. Texas parks receive financial boost. Love hurts. Is finding a new place to live in Russia more painful than having fire set to your private parts?......

An Oklahoma man has been charged with aggravated assault and battery after attacking a man who wore a University of Texas shirt into an Oklahoma City bar. What kind of attack? Brace yourself: Thomas hit the other man several times before several bar patrons intervened, but Thomas said Beckett didn't let go until Thomas heard his scrotum tear and blood ran down his leg. Allen Michael Beckett, 53, of Oklahoma City, has not been arrested......

Looks like Round Rock ISD is headed to court over their policies on organized prayers at school events. Washington-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State, representing six students and one former student, have filed suit against the district, saying that its policy of allowing school-sponsored prayer at graduation ceremonies violates the First Amendment principle of church-state separation. Every year, each of the four Round Rock high schools (Round Rock, Stony Point, McNeil......

Tonight, unless an unlikely eleventh-hour reprieve is granted, Texas will execute its 400th inmate since the state resumed the practice in 1982. Johnny Ray Conner32-year-old Johnny Ray Conner was convicted for murdering Houston resident Kathyanna Nguyen during a grocery store robbery in 1998. Nguyen, the store's owner, had been trapped behind the counter and was surrounded by a bulletproof enclosure; the killer reached his gun through the change slot and shot her in the head.......

Browse and contribute to the 2008 SXSW Interactive Panel Picker. Lifehacker: Mozilla preps Firefox Campus Edition, which is pre-bundled with student-centric extensions like Zotero, FoxyTunes and StumbleUpon. What extensions would you give to our young academics? The Department of Justice wants to come up with an official list of every porn star in America - and slap stiff penalties on producers who don't cooperate. What has better sound: vinyl, or a CD? Any record......

The Funniest Filmmaker in Austin contest returns to Cap City Comedy Club, with semifinals emceed by Bryan Gutmann, winner of the 2007 Funniest Person in Austin contest NYC's uber-scenesters The Misshapes hold court at Beauty Bar with Riot in Belgium and KidIndie Zilker Park hosts the very last installment of KGSR's Blues on the Green, featuring Marcia Ball & Band DJ Mel spins the killer 80s jams at the quarterly Rock the Casbah dance......