Actor Heath Ledger was found dead in his downtown Manhattan apartment by the police. Some reports say he died from an overdose. Vermonters get to weigh in this week on a bill before the Legislature that would decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana. Tens of thousands of Palestinians poured from the Gaza Strip into Egypt Wednesday after masked gunmen with explosives destroyed most of the seven-mile barrier dividing the border town of Rafah.......

On April 4, 1968, America's greatest civil rights leader was shot dead in Memphis, Tennessee. The following evening, one man bridged the gap between societal injustice and misery, just by being one of the world's most inspiring performer. ...

Photo by punchup on flickr East Austin halfway/"sober" house to close after neighbors complained. Mother and child hit by truck in Georgetown HEB parking lot. Double B Foods recalling 98,000 pounds worth of sausage roll products for listeria contamination. After a fight at Taylor High School, the police tasered a girl, arresting her and two other students. 109,263 mistakes in the math textbooks proposed to be used for the 2008 school year at Texas elementary......

Photo by Miss Barbara on flickr After all that this morning, no one was found inside McBride's after the police got in. Over the weekend, a Hays County deputy found 730 pounds of marijuana when he pulled over a Suburban in Buda. LaBare trying to get permits to set up shop off of Braker and IH35; the neighbors aren't too excited about it. Cops on the lookout for woman (and two accomplices) who robbed a......

Sad, but true: Sunday night, after having some drinks on Sixth Street, a young couple drove to Hutto and left their babies in the car as they indulged in margaritas at a restaurant. The children, a one-year-old boy and five-month-old girl, were locked in a Ford Expedition for half an hour on that warm evening before the cops were called. Luckily some people in the parking lot had noticed the small children in the......

We were strolling through West Campus this morning when we came across a gaggle of cops, endless yellow Police Line tape and, of all things, the bomb squad. Rio Grande between 22nd and 24th streets had been sealed off. Word was that some residences had been evacuated as well. Minutes earlier, the ubiquitous post-9/11 "suspicious package" reared its ugly head and was reported to the police. We stuck around, alongside the small crowd of bleary-eyed......

Seattlest watches as a S.L.U.T. is born and Seattle Flickr users go nuts over a local art installation. A restaurant critic demands a Diner's Bill of Rights over a gnat next to her drink, and, in lieu of a Portlandist, Seattlest debates with itself over the identity of the Northwest's crown jewel. Seattlest also joins the guys from Fantagraphics for an ill-fated gun party in the woods. Bostonist got a crash course in what not......

In Texas, one arrest for possession of marijuana costs the taxpayer $2,000, takes the police officer off the street for about three hours, and fills a space in an already overcrowded jail system for at least one night. However, once House Bill 2391 goes into effect on September 1st, you'll no longer get immediately carted off to jail—it's now up to the officer's discretion to cite individuals found in possession of four ounces (a quarter-pound)......

Would-be thieves attempting to rob a home in Northeast Austin last night were greeted by resistance from at least one of the residents, leaving one suspect dead. Sometime before 12:30 a.m. this morning, several people broke into a house near Parmer Lane east of I-35. One resident was shot in the arm; another fought back, dealing one of the suspects an ultimately fatal blow. By the time the police arrived, the rest of the thugs......

Horrified though we were that a woman was killed by a flying tire on I-35, we chalked it up to a random freak tragedy—the kind that gets coverage on the national news because of its wholly unbelievable nature. This might not be the case. Shortly after Monday's incident, a woman on internet activist site Actt Up posted about a strikingly similar accident that happened to her three weeks ago, also on I-35: My name is......

City Manager Toby Futrell announced a couple days ago that she will be retiring in May 2008. Ms. Futrell has served as city manager since 2001. She had been expected to retire sometime next year, since the city council recently approved a pretty sweet retirement package for her. Futrell has worked for the city since 1976; her current annual salary is $240,600, and the retirement package ensures her $167,000 per year. During her service......

From the tallest skyscraper in the City of Brotherly Love to Canadian tourism copywriting brilliance, here's what you should know from our -ist cities: This week, Phillyist took a gleeful listen to the White Stripes' exciting new release, watched in awe as their new tallest skyscraper was finally completed, found a cheaper way to get to Gothamist, invented a tasty new dessert, and brought back their Craigslist Round-Up feature with a bang. Bostonist watches......

Details on the murder that occurred on Juneteenth were sketchy when we posted yesterday (as we mentioned). More details of the event have been culled since then, and here is what the police think happened at this point. Two men in a Ford Taurus were driving near the Booker T. Washington housing development Tuesday night and accidentally hit a 2-year-old boy. The driver of the car got out (to check on the boy, perhaps)......

An act of anger and violence marred Juneteenth this year. After a Juneteenth celebration ended in central East Austin last night, a man called Victor ran into a kid in a parking lot at 900 Thompson St. Details are still sketchy, but it seems that a group of men began to assault the driver after the accident. The passenger in the car, David Rivas Morales, tried to halt the angry reaction by the men......

Are you worried about a use of force by APD so great that it warrants a federal investigation? Do you find the rift between the police department and Austin's black community unsettling? Are you satisfied with the choice for Chief? Do you think that APD is doing a great job and has been given a bum rap? Whatever your thoughts, Austin Listening wants to hear from you. The program is looking to get Austinites'......

My how this city has grown. Austin used to be the kind of town where the summertime theatre offerings were slim pickings. Not so...not anymore. The joints are jumping, and this week is no exception. It's darn near impossible to offer a Pick of the Week, so this week we're suggesting not one but two productions we think you'll enjoy. First, however, we need to report on some awards show shenanigans that went down earlier......

The City of Austin has narrowed down the choices for APD chief. The five semi-finalists/candidates remaining include one female, three Texans, and one guy from Naples (Florida, that is). The female candidate is Cathy Ellison, who is currently serving as acting chief for Austin. If chosen to be chief, Ellison (who was the first African-American female police officer in Austin) would be the first African-American female police chief in Austin history. But let's not......

A father and son were walking home from church last night in the Capital Plaza area (around Cameron Rd. and Reinli) when they were robbed. After taking everything the immigrant family had on them, the robbers shot and killed the teenage boy, in front of his father. If you were in the area behind Popeye's Chicken and the Austin Cornerstone Church last night around 10pm and witnessed anything, please call 477-3588 (the homicide tip......

A prominent official at the Austin Museum of Art (AMOA) and his wife were arrested this weekend, after the two were caught trying to make off with paintings from the Fine Arts Festival. Austin Police Commander Michael Jung was on patrol near Republic Square Park early Sunday morning when he found a suspicious-looking Alexandra Sheppard, wife of former AMOA finance and operations director Nathan Sheppard, wandering around the Fine Arts Festival tents. In the process......

It was a fun-filled weekend with some so-so weather, let's hope that it didn't stop you from making some connections. Let's put off that global warming thingy as long as possible. It'll be 100 degrees before ya know it, and it's hard to look hot when you're sweaty. If you haven't yet had a chance to check for yourself you can read our collection of last week's Missed Connections... beauty bar 1 year anniversary......

Two local paramedics are being investigated by Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services after an attempt to help a former co-worker get away with drunk driving. A call was made to 911 early Tuesday morning saying that a man had passed out in a car near an Oak Hill intersection. The two paramedics were first to the scene, recognized their friend, and called the cops to say no police action was necessary. The cops came......

Sunday. Usually, a quiet, contemplative day in the Blogosphere. But not here in the Ist-a-Verse. Nonono! Just look below and see all of the wild and crazy stuff our staffs are up to. In Austin, bands are beginning to confirm for SXSW and the rumor mill is up and running. Good thing, too, because we all know how much Austinites love live performances. Austin also found itself in the national spotlight, with Longhorn Legend......

As 2006 ends and 2007 begins, the -ists look back not at the past week, but at the past year. So here it is, your Best of 2006 Spectacular. And from all of us at the -ists, happy New Year! Austinist was all about controversy as new construction to increase urban density ran rampant in 2006, as did threats to the city's image from gigantic corporations looking to set up shop in town, leading......

Classes have ended at The University of Texas and winter is finally here, the time when girls trade short skirts for sweatpants and guys replace short-sleeve UT shirts with long-sleeve UT shirts. For the students at UT Austin, it's been a pretty tough year. West Campus construction has kept them up all night, their football team choked, APD won't let them party as hard, and now, starting tomorrow, it's final exam time. Where do......

Round Rock police spent hours last Tuesday tracking down a prank caller who'd brazenly dialed 911 emergency dispatchers nearly fifty times, each call disconnecting amid peals of laughter. The prankster turned out to be a 7-year-old asshole boy, who'd happened upon a disconnected cell phone. The aspiring felon was evidently making the calls during class at Bluebonnet Elementary School. "He was just doing it for fun because he had a cell phone," said Round Rock......

Just hours after a bunch of road flares were mistaken for dynamite in Williamson County, authorities have converged upon 10th and West Lynn, where a suspicious package is sitting in a car. From reader Matt: [2:08pm] There is either a giant donut being cooked up over at the Galaxy Cafe on West Lynn, or something all the more serious. I counted eight squad cars, a hazmat truck, the bomb squad outfitted and ready to go......

If it’s true that every music writer wishes they were a musician – and we can say from personal experience that it probably is – then it is apparently also true that “every musician wishes they were in a cover band.” Such are the words of Aaron Miller, guitarist for Friday After Dark and the brains behind the quirky gala being held at Club DeVille on Sunday night. What started as an oddball idea for......

An engrossing and timely documentary, Abduction tells the story of young Megumi Yokota, a Japanese teenager who vanishes while walking home from school one afternoon in 1977. While her parents and the police initially suspect a typical runaway or child abduction scenario, two decades go by without any clue as to her whereabouts. The film lets the viewer know that a larger conspiracy is at play, namely that North Korea has kidnapped Yokota along......

Alex Jones must be grinning from ear to ear, as most conspiracy theorists do when they think their ideas, brushed off by most, are finding more and more credence. Today, the White House released The National Strategy for Combating Terrorism, a new security strategy that takes less emphasis on "extremist networks" like Al-Qaeda and more on the countries that back them, like Iran. No better timing for Jones, whose film, which premieres tonight, predicts steps......

Note: this post has been revised after receiving additional information from the Austin Police Department. According to the Daily Texan, the body of a student from St. Edward's University -- identified by the Austin Police Department as 19-year old James Henry Leonard -- was discovered by officers at a small apartment complex at 22nd and Rio Grande, mere blocks from UT Austin, earlier this morning. Meanwhile, News 8 Austin's article claims that "party noises"......