Junta allowing aid supplies to slowly come into Burma. Chinese team takes the Olympic torch up Everest. Oklahoma hit by severe storms. Campaign official basically admits that Clinton will be out of the race by June 15. American women waiting later and later in life to have their first babies. Vote for the best character on TV: c'mon, Olive Snook (or Liz Lemon)! What happens when gas costs over $7 per gallon?......

Employers cut fewer jobs in April. Hooray for April! Stocks jump after employment report. Barbara Walters had an affair with U.S. senator and I just threw up a little in my mouth. Bush wants $70 billion for war fund for 2009. Look at the size of this bridge! Texas gas prices continue upward trajectory. Madonna has some issues.......

Obama "outraged" by ex-pastor's "ridiculous propositions" US troop deaths hit 7-month high in Iraq What recession? Economy grows slightly in first quarter Albert Hofmann, father of drug LSD, dies in Switzerland Happy 75th birthday, Willie Nelson Paula Abdul gets confused on "American Idol" Spurs eliminate Suns to advance in NBA playoffs......

The economy "shed" 80,000 jobs in March. Hillary denies denial after "mishearing." 81% of Americans polled think the nation is heading in the wrong direction. How many Romans thought Rome was heading in the wrong direction? The Round Rock officers who shot and killed a naked man have been identified. What the hell is a WAG and why do they all seem cracked out? Formula One motor racing chief Max Mosley has sick Nazi......

Bill Richardson, the governor of New Mexico (and former presidential candidate), endorses Obama. A few people from the State Department peered into Obama's passport file. Soon there will be a horror movie about sting rays. Consumers are not getting the benefit of the recent Federal Reserve rate cuts. Bank of America customers look out! Judge Orders Starbucks to Pay More Than $100 Million in Back Tips. Man admits to having group sex with former......

The Wall Street Journal dogs the SXSW Conference. According to speculators on Wall Street, Tuesday is a "make-or-break" day for the U.S. economy... Yikes: Apparently there's a growing concern over hackers being able to hack into pacemakers and other implanted devices. Tibetan protests against the Chinese government have recently intensified. The Dalai Lama fears imminent bloodshed on a large scale...while the Chinese government has blocked YouTube viewing of the Tibetan protests. Many community gardens throughout Austin are at risk of being bulldozed for the sake of urban growth....

In Intimidad, documentarians Ashley Sabin and David Redmon follow the lives of Cecy and Camilo, a young couple living in Reynosa, Mexico. Cecy and Camilo both work for minimum wage in maquiladoras, trying to save money to buy land, build themselves a house, and bring their daughter Loida back to live with them....

Six missing after refinery explosion in Georgia. Economic stimulus package ready for president's signature. Checks should start arriving in May. Border-control activists not fans of McCain's rise. Does this guy creep anyone else out?...

Hillary and Obama play nice. Microsoft offers to buy Yahoo. Drug resistant flu virus on the rise. U.S. Economy loses 17,000 jobs in January....

More talk of the coming recession: "The question is not whether we will have a recession, but how deep and prolonged it will be." Meanwhile, Austin's economy may be uniquely positioned among the nation's cities to withstand a potential recession....

According to Microsoft, Santa likes to talk about oral sex. The space shuttle heads to the International Space Station this Saturday. The CIA destroyed vidoetaped evidence of their interrogations of two top terror suspects in 2002. Rest assured, this is probably an isolated incident. A positive sign for our economy. GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney is a mormon and nobody cares. The U.S. House sends kickass energy bill to Senate. City ordered to put......

The first U.S. troop cutback in Iraq has officially begun. The tentative working title for this one is "Operation Mistake Acknowledgment." Human rights organization takes the Kenyan police force to task on allegations of mass murder. In order to prevent the "destruction of culture," the French government has outlawed certain forms of P2P downloading. Event is referred to as a "victory" for the recording industry. Oh reeeeally? Economist suggests that we could soon know......

Senator Barack Obama delivered a rousing speech to thousands of die-hard supporters this past Saturday at the Backyard, touching on just about every hot issue at the core of next year's election debates. Pledging to shut down Guantanamo, restore habeas corpus, and renew the hunt for Al Qaeda, Obama stressed the need for a stronger international agenda and quoted Kennedy's famous inaugural address—"Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear......

The Waller Creek Tunnel project here in Austin is gaining ground. Major scientific breakthrough shows that cloning embryos is much easier than anticipated... U.S. clean energy stocks are doing better than the U.S. economy as a whole. Is classical music on the comeback? Norman Mailer dies in Manhattan at the age of 84. Writers Guild of America strike in Hollywood goes into week two... We will all have less privacy in the future, says......

I-35 frontage road shut down in south Austin due to accident. Judge rules in city's favor in Wal-Mart dispute. Ben S. Bernanke predicts the U.S. economy to grow more slowly in the coming months. Merck settles Vioxx suits for $4.85B. Congress hands Bush the first veto override of his presidency. Pakistani police backed by armored vehicles keep unarmed woman at bay. German Chancellor Angela Merkel to visit Bush at his ranch.......

strataTX is a non-profit organization looking to bring together young professionals to support creativity in the arts, culture, and economy. Photos courtesy of Keith Gaddis. If you can't view the Flash slideshow above, an alternate version appears after the jump.......

The SMART car, one of Europe's most eye-catching two-seaters, is finally coming to the states next year. If you can't wait to get behind the wheel of this fuel-sipping sub-$12k urban commuter, head over to Bookpeople post-haste. As part of its pre-US-launch promotional push, SMART is taking the European version of its "fortwo" vehicle on a 50-city road show. Austin is the final leg in its Central Tour, which started in Minneapolis back in June.......

Nearly 1 million people have been displaced by the California wildfires. Heckuva job: Former FEMA director Michael Brown is making himself available for interviews about the wildfires. Home sales went down 8% in September. Russia's "Chessboard killer" found guilty of 48 murders. Turkish planes attacked Kurdish positions in Turkey today, just outside the Iraq border. It may be more beneficial to the environment to be a carnivore who eats locally-made meat than to be......

The University of Texas raised $26 million in athletic donations in 2006, putting it 16th among all U.S. universities. A study by The Chronicle of Higher Education found that money for athletics accounts for more than one-quarter of all contributions to some universities. The Chronicle survey reported that the country's largest athletic departments and booster clubs raised more than $1.2 billion in 2006 and 2007. The University of Texas wasn't the top athletic fund-raiser in......

There will always be chatter about Austin's changing landscape, much as there will always be supporters for both developers and the environment. We want the privilege of taking a dip in a glistening spring-fed pool, but we also want to have a robust economy that allows us to continue working and living in this city. Some would argue that the two desires aren't mutually exclusive, but we all know that it's a sticky subject.......

Next week, the City of Austin will officially unveil Town Lake Park, the latest chunk of land to join the already expansive family of city parks. Austin Parks and Recreation are responsible for some 206 parks, 26 greenbelts and 12 nature preserves, totaling a whopping 16,682 acres. Add 20 acres to that total on August 29, when the city officially celebrates the opening of Town Lake Park. Where is this all coming from, you ask?......

Three rescue workers killed and six others injured in attempt to save trapped miners. The sleeping giant and his laughing poodle play with guns. Former "enemy combatant" Jose Padilla convicted on all counts. Two of Michael Vick's co-defendants plead guilty to federal dogfighting conspiracy charges. A Federal Judge will not block Whole Foods take over of Wild Oats Market. Markets rebound after Feds cut interest rate. Dutch men arrested for adding maggots to meat.......

Wall Street has faith in the Texas economy Dell scores low in the latest American Customer Satisfaction Index A boy swimming in Lake LBJ contracts a fatal strain of meningitis and is now fighting for his life at the Dell Children's Medical Center. Austinist wishes you well, kiddo. A 9-year-old was responsible for one of the Dollar General fires Is Whole Foods buying Wild Oats just to take 'em out? Customs officials in Hidalgo confiscate......

Quick, get me the Pentagon. American superiority is waning in the human longevity department. Can't we just bomb somebody over this? A lengthy but entertaining goodbye to Factory Records founder Tony Wilson, recently deceased. Informative readers' Q&A with Floyd Norris, chief financial guru at the New York Times, on the current state of the U.S. economy (not suggested for feel-good reading). Instead of simply fading away into the annals of big hair rock, Van......

Austin and Round Rock bested nearly 400 metropolitan areas to be named the number one place for business in the country, according to results recently released by independent research firm Economy.com. Since 2001, Economy.com has published the Economic Vitality Index, a closely-watched ranking of the nation's largest metropolitan areas based on current economic conditions, future trends, and potential risks. The Index also takes into consideration such factors as employment growth (Austin's job market grew by......

In a lot of ways, Trinidad, Colorado isn't so different from other small towns. They've got a population of 9,000, the local economy is transitioning away from once-prosperous mining and ranching, and Christ is Lord. But Trinidad, like many of its visitors, has a little something extra: Over the past forty years, six thousand people have traveled there to undergo sex-change operations. Dr. Stanley Biber secretly began performing genital-reassignment surgery, or GRS, in 1969, hiding......

*The views expressed in Truesday are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole. Thank heavens.* -The Editors It isn’t always easy to strike out all by your lonesome, to do your own thing. Lots of weight to take on. All that responsibility and shit. People watching with a mix of curiosity, hope, and ravenous jealousy. But I know how it is: the desire’s always been there, just not the......

Hot on the heels of the Austin City Council rolling out the incentive red carpet to keep Friday Night Lights turned on, the Texas Legislature passed House Bill 1634 this weekend, also known as the Texas Film Incentive Program. The bill, authored by Rep. Dawnna Dukes (Austin, represent!) and spearheaded by Sen. Bob Deuell (R-Greenville) along side our very own Governor Rick Perry, will set aside $20 million worth of incentives to entice future productions......

We all know that Austin is a great city for kids looking to date around or have a drink, but according to a new study, it's also among the top ten job markets for college grads. Bizjournals, the national publisher of metropolitan business newspapers with branches in over forty cities, reports that current economic conditions couldn't be better for the million-plus college seniors entering the workforce this year. "The outlook this year is very good,"......

Austin City Council yesterday voted unanimously to approve economic incentives for NBC's drama series, "Friday Night Lights," in order to keep the production based here. An economic development grant of $40,000 would be offered to NBC Universal if the network commits to filming the second season in Austin; a subsequent $40,000 grant would be presented upon completion of filming. "Austin is becoming the alternative to Hollywood as the kind of ground-zero for independent digital......