The story begins in New York in the year 2011. This is John McCain's recession-riddled America, where gas has edged above 8 dollars a gallon, the best-selling video game is Infidel Massacre: Los Angeles, and, with 10,000 troops still in Iraq, the war is still going strong....

Former Westlake High teacher resigns to teach at a lower-income school; less than pleased, Eanes school district attempts to get him suspended A UT journalism student has a nice chat with Dan Rather during a morning Jet Blue flight from Austin to New York City A routine traffic stop in Hunt County turns up two dozen embalmed human heads in the back of a tractor-trailer A woman in the Dallas/Fort Worth area comes forward with......

One burrito to rule them all: 10,000 lb burrito to be built at October fundraiser for local charities. Texan Dan Rather is suing CBS (and others related to his ouster) for $70 million. GOP presidential candidate Fred Thompson visited Dell today. Southwest Airlines is sticking with open seating, but families with small kids will no longer get to go first. A rabid bat was found this morning at St. Edwards. A local filmmaker is......

Dan Rather delivered a keynote address yesterday to a packed ballroom in the Hilton downtown. Among other things, Rather suggested that modern journalism needs "a spine transplant." He also had some interesting things to say about the nature of journalism in general and why he thinks it is the way it is. One important point he made was that the term "investigative journalism" is redundant because journalism, when done correctly, is inherently investigative. Having......

SXSW Presents returns to KLRU TV tomorrow for its third season, with four brand new episodes slated to run through the end of February. The critically acclaimed series, hosted by SXSW Film Fest Producer Matt Dentler, showcases some today's finest examples of independent filmmaking, many of which have a local emphasis -- past epiodes have featured Viva Les Amis, 24 Hours on Craigslist, and Witches in Exile. BBQ: A Texas Love Story February 6th,......

Tonight you might think that Dan Rather's jelly, because chances are he’s gonna be on a roll. Or something. The venerable newsman, and Wharton, Texas native, will be live on set tonight to analyze election results. But he won’t be working with Bob Schieffer or any other straight news reporters from around the nation, as he has done for the last 44 years. Tonight he saddles up alongside Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert on Comedy......