Obama takes South Carolina by storm in the Democratic Primary contest with 55% of the vote. Hillary came in second with 27% and Edwards landed in third position with 18%. The Vineland Festival - originally scheduled for its debut in August 2008 - has been temporarily canceled by its promoter, Austin's C3 Presents. New study claims that isolation's not only bad for human beings, but that it "breeds belief in the supernatural." English doctors......

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....

SFist saw Christmas Day turn tragic after a Siberian tiger escaped from her pen at the San Francisco Zoo, killing a visitor and mauling two others. Phillyist counted down the top ten items on Philadelphia's New Year's wish list. Gothamist looked at the wooden bikes being offered for NYC's first bike share program on Governors Island. LAist received a Christmas present in the form of a drunk Santa Claus in a g-string. Bostonist launched......

Four suspects have been arrested for the Wachovia Bank robbery yesterday. Probable murder-suicide in San Marcos; the couple was found by their teenage daughter last night. Student group at Texas State wants the right to carry guns around campus and to classes. This evening KEYE becomes the first Austin TV station to show local news in hi-def. It will still look the same on our old-school TV. Johns Hopkins calls Johnston High School (and......

We might actually watch our local news if it involved porn. Those lucky Swedes. Follow up: We told you a while ago about a judge who used a penis pump during trials; the man was convicted and sentenced to time in prison. All we want is to be loved to be rich to be influential to be famous. Express any kind of interest in anything remotely explosive at a public meeting, and you might......

Local: The U.S. Commerce Secretary recently met with local Austin business leaders in an effort to push Bush's platform to control illegal immigration. One concern facing business owners will be their ability to find skilled workers who can claim legal status. In other local news that we mentioned a while back: Your house may now be located in a flood plain. State: Democratic candidate for governor Chris Bell believes that the four-way race for......

Austinist is recruiting! We're looking for 5 or 6 proficient, dedicated writers. If you're interested in covering: Music Art Film Local News Politics Fashion Food Interviews with Austinites Then we'd like to talk to you. To get a sense of what joining our staff would entail, we've lifted this from our IST brothers and sisters over at Shanghaiist: Ask yourself What would I like to write about? If you're a good writer with style and......

Are we the only ones intrigued by KEYE's ads for the new male anchor starting on March 8? Fred Cantu, everyone's favorite huggable local news anchor, is returning to doing news in the morning. In the ad for his time switch, we hear Fred say something like "Fred loves mornings." So if Fred is returning to mornings, who's replacing him in prime-time? For contract reasons, KEYE can't officially announce the name until the new anchor......

Yellow haze cast over mediaAustinist struggles to find top local news stories to post, as Lance Armstrong's 7th win is pretty much the only thing the paid media cares about right now. [Statesman] Hmmm....can't seem to find any here . Ah, here, after a huge Web monument to Lance, there's a teensy picture of the Austin man who was found after being lost for five days in Hawaii. Lance was overhead saying, "Gilbert Dewey......

Local news channel KXAN alerted us of a nifty new feature on Austin City's website that allows the public to view restaurant inspection scores from the Austin/Travis County Health Department. The online records date back to early 2003, which means you might find up to three consecutive scores for local restaurants. Austinist ran a quick search on a few of our favorite eateries and some more famous ones, and found the following (scores out......

Last week, Austinist mentioned a story covered in the Statesman and local news that almost 200 convicted sex offenders in the state of Texas had received Viagra prescriptions, funded by taxpayers through Medicaid. On Friday, the state passed an immediate ban on anyone receiving Viagra prescriptions through Medicaid. According to the Statesman: The change in Medicaid policy came on the same day Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said that at least two of the......