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. ...

Last Thursday's Texas Conference for Women brought 7,500 folks to the Austin Convention Center for some estrogen-fueled networking and personal development. With panels on starting a small business and caring for children and elderly parents, the conference served its diverse demographic well. While we wished for a little more substance from some of the speakers and panelists — the keynote session featuring Nancy Giles and Elizabeth Vargas mined well-worn material to the point of blandness......

Hurricane Humberto leads to one death and Orange, Jefferson, and Galveston counties being declared disaster areas. More trouble for the Longhorns: Senior player arrested for marijuana possession. More trouble in the Texas Youth Commission: the overuse of pepper spray. Austin city council has allocated $40,000 to find a new City Manager, but they're not all very happy about it. Dallas County DA stops inmate's execution scheduled for tonight. Domo arigato, Roboto boy: Richardson inventor......

The national poverty numbers were released earlier this week, and while Texas isn't the poorest state (we are fifth down the list), we seem to be stuck in a rut. Even though we've seen five years of economic growth in our state, the poverty numbers for our state remain about the same: not great. 3.7 million Texans are living in poverty. And while the rich are getting richer, the poor are increasingly living without......

ACL Previews Interview: Midlake Interview: The National Preview: The Wonderful Harmonizers, Loretta Williams Gurnell Preview: JJ Grey & Mofro and Charlie Musselwhite Preview: Young Love and the Dynamites Featuring Charles Walker ACL Band Clash, Round 1: Spoon Vs. Queens Of The Stone Age Snapshots Lollapalooza 2007 Snapshots: Summer Extrav-O-Ganza 2 Weekly Features The Argyle Academy New Release Tuesday: Art in Manila, Flight of the Conchords & Marissa Nadler Feature Review: Okkervil River's The Stage Names......

Slide, slide, slippity-slide, hittin' switches on the block in a '65... oh, sorry, wrong kind of voyage. Anyway, this Cosmic Voyage promises to be pretty much as rad as anything Coolio's ever done. Based on early space travel theorist Konstantin Eduardovitch Tsiolkovsky's novel Beyond the Earth, Cosmic Voyage (Kosmicheskiy reys: Fantasticheskaya novella) portrays humans in space 25 years before Yuri Gagarin's historical journey. It's presented as part of the Austin Film Society's Other Minds, Other......

An elderly woman plowed her car into a West Austin Randall's market yesterday, after becoming disoriented in the parking lot. Much like the man who crashed his Buick Le Sabre through a Santa Monica farmer's market several years ago, the woman reportedly experienced a bout of "pedal error," stepping on the accelerator instead of the break. Four people inside the market were injured by flying debris, including the woman's son, who ended up pinned under......

If you didn't already have the day off of work or school courtesy Martin Luther King, Jr, you probably do now courtesy Mother Nature (or the rapture, your choice). Even the MLK parade is canceled! Austin roads are wet and slippery, the temperatures are dropping, and everything is going to get worse before it gets better. If you absolutely can't stay home today, please take a minute and familiarize yourself with the Emergency Conditions......

No one has had their fame stripped away from them in such short order as UT quarterback, Colt McCoy. The red-shirt freshman out of Tuscola, Texas had the enormously unfortunate job of replacing the most famous (and entertaining) Texas football athlete of the modern era--Vince Young. As that January 4th hangover started to wear off, Texas fans were uncertain as to who would replace VY during the preseason, McCoy or true freshman Jevan Snead.......

A Love to Hide (Un Amour A' Taire)Drama, Dir. Christian Faure, 2006 Screens: Tuesday, October 3rd at 7pm "An elegant, nuanced drama with horrific subject matter, A Love to Hide is set in Paris in 1942. Jean and Philippe, two young gay lovers in occupied France, risk their lives to hide a childhood Jewish friend, Sarah, whose family has been killed by the Gestapo. They struggle to survive as a makeshift family in a......

An 18-wheeler struck a pedestrian at the intersection of East Ben White and the south I-35 northbound service road just over an hour ago. Understandably, traffic at that intersection is extremely congested. From the Statesman's Blotter: A news release by the Austin Police Department: At approximately 2:50 p.m., APD patrol officers responded to a collision at East Ben White Boulevard and the south I-35 northbound service road. It is believed that an 18-wheeler was......

Sometimes you need to clean yourself up, get serious, and move in with daddie for a few months before you head to Latin America for a new gig. The District bid's Jenna Bush adios. D.C.-based television shows have an elderly audience and DCist has some suggestions to fix that. They're also throwing Butterstick the panda bear a birthday bash. Yeah, we may have a few issues with our World Cup broadcasters here, but this guy......

Northeast Austin residents may be under a boil water notice later this afternoon, following a drop in water pressure somewhere up north. The Statesman reports that Austin Water Utility is currently distributing free bottled water to those residing in the area "bounded by IH-35 to the west; U.S. Hwy 183 to the south; just north of Rutherford Lane to the north; and roughly Tuscany Way to the east." The water pick-up spot is at the......

As reported yesterday, the Austin Wranglers made an announcement today regarding team ownership. The announcement stated that Deion Sanders, former NFL star, will become part-owner of the Austin Arena Football League team. From the Press Release: As an owner of the Wranglers, Sanders will have an active role in all operational aspects of the team reaching from football operations to the team’s front office. Sanders is expected to play a leadership role in the......

As much as we love our Jack Russell Terrier and dogs in general, we're always a bit put off by the bigger, aggresive breeds at the dog park. "It's fine," we tell ourselves, "How dangerous could they possibly be? They have an owner!" Which is why it was with a certain degree of dread and a great measure of sadness that we read in today's Statesman about the woman in Milam County who was......

Usually when we find someone lodged in a trashcan, we can't help but giggle a bit. But when it happens to a frail elderly lady? That's nothing to cackle about! Two years ago, septuagenarian Christian radio talk-show host Evelyn Davison was pulling out of the driveway of her North Austin home when she found her neighbor's trash can blocking the path. Somehow, in the act of pushing it aside, she managed to lose her......

We know you love living in Austin, where there's always a live music event happening. But the best is when the music benefits a good cause. This weekend, there are a couple of shows that will do just that... All day today, at Threadgill's on Riverside, KGSR will be hosting a drive for Family Eldercare called FanFare Friday! Donations will be accepted until 7pm and go towards the purchase of fans and funds for......