Photo from olganza.comIf all goes as planned, Austinites may soon be able to get out of the country for less than the cost of a cab ride to the airport. Mexico's no-frills airline, vivaAerobus, was recently granted access out of Austin Bergstrom International Airport by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The carrier, which seems to be the Mexican equivalent of UK's wildly popular Ryan Air, claims that it'll begin offering one-way tickets for as low... more ›

Several state reps, including Joe Farias and David Leibowitz, and Congressman Ciro Rodriguez have recently begun to ask questions about the Texas Department of Transportation's ad campaign promoting toll roads and the use of budgetary funds to lobby Congress. Specifically, they are asking the Attorney General whether TxDOT's actions are legal. Legal or not, ad campaigns and lobbying seem like a poor use of taxpayer money for any state agency, especially one that is... more ›

One of the country's biggest private mortgage companies goes belly-up, leaving 120 Austinites newly jobless The Texas Department of Transportation releases a list of over 2,000 "structurally deficient" bridges across the state, with 10 in Travis County Nicole and Jeffrey Rank of Corpus Christi are awarded $80k after being wrongfully arrested at a Bush rally in 2004 Tax-free holiday weekend starts on Friday Whole Foods gets the go-ahead to buy out Wild Oats The... more ›

A San Antonio-area nonprofit is suing to have their chimpanzees returned from Louisiana Is someone trying to take down the Dollar General? The City of Austin has opted to extend the waterway ban on Lake Austin until Friday The Texas Department of Transportation begins inspections on possibly suspect bridges A 6-year-old girl in North Texas crashed her bike into a parked trailer and gets her head punctured by 4 inches of rebar Bars and... more ›

Local media discovers, loves Craigslist 41-year-old drunk driver manages to slam into two houses in North Austin Just one of the sixteen amendments proposed for the November ballot in Texas: stripping the constitutional powers of the Inspector of Hides and Animals Roughly four percent of Texas bridges are considered "structurally deficient," says the Texas Department of Transportation Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo announces his executive staff A lawyer for the Federal Trade Commission calls... more ›

Anyone who's recently purchased a vehicle from Central Austin's Century Motor Car might want to give those folks a call: your personal information is probably strewn along Burnet Road for all to see. Employees at the car lot were relocating to an adjacent building when they, in their haste, decided to toss their clients' paperwork in the trash without first shredding it. The dumpster used turned out to be busted, and winds scattered the... more ›

The Texas Department of Transportation's plan to replace the part of the four-lane stretch of 290/71 west of MoPac with a 12-lane, partially elevated superhighway has come up against opposition from the people who live nearby and would have to look at it and hear it. As we mentioned a few months ago, a group of those people have come together to form the Fix290 Coalition, which is proposing a relatively sensible 8-lane alternative. more ›

DMJM Harris, the consultant hired by the Texas Department of Transportation to look at ways to squeeze more lanes onto MoPac between Lake Austin and Parmer, says that they will likely announce their solution in December. That "solution" appears to be to squeeze another lane in between the existing lane and the train tracks. That lane would not be for normal traffic - only buses and people willing to pay tolls. A lane for... more ›

The Don't Mess With Texas slogan, created in 1986 for the Texas Department of Transportation, is a candidate for Advertising Week's Favorite Slogan award. The ad campaign, created by Austin design agency GSD&M, was developed to help reduce littering on the roadways of Texas. Although popular within Texas, we'll have to wait and see how popular it is nationwide once voting is completed on September 29th. Others in the running include: “It Takes a... more ›

The 21st Annual Lake Travis Parks Cleanup is this Saturday, June 17 from 9 a.m. to noon. Last year, the event drew more than 400 volunteers who were able to clean up over 4,500 pounds of garbage. All linterested volunteers are welcome, and will be invited to a thank-you party following the event, which will have free t-shirts, food, and entertainment. This year's event is part of the Texas Department of Transportation's Don't Mess with... more ›

KEYE reports today on a new initiative by the Texas Department of Transportation and Austin waste management, aimed at preventing all that crap you're stowing in your truck beds from flying out on the highway and hitting, say, a nondescript white family sedan: more ›