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5/19/2013
Ray Gutierrez’s green eyes twinkle and his cheeks dimple with a shy smile when he looks across the table at Evita Morin, the former intake worker at Haven for Hope, who he said helped save his life. “I probably would have been dead now,” said Gutierrez, 61, a recovering alcoholic. “I was helpless.” Haven for Hope in Bexar County is a 20-acre community that provides services, shelter and safety to people who are homeless or nearly so. Working with dozens of government agencies, nonprofit organizations, mental and medical health providers and religious groups, Haven helps people like Gutierrez make the transition from the street to a healthy home and a job. For the first time since state lawmakers made historic budget cuts a decade ago, legislators are dedicating hundreds of millions more dollars to mental health care. Haven serves as a model of the services and success they aim to accomplish.
http://www.texastribune.org/2013/05/19/transformational-funding-dedicated-mental-health/
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5/19/2013
This year, for the first time, Central Texas will host “Carry the Load”. Kim Kelsall is one of its organizers. “It’s not about sales and it’s not necessarily about that first weekend of summer. It’s about the men and women who have lost their lives defending our country, both overseas and domestically, with our first responders who put their lives on the line every day as well.”
Kelsall, and others who have lost a loved one, will be asked to walk 20-point-one-three miles with a weight that symbolizes the person who died in combat or as a result of terrorism. She says she’ll be wearing a five-pound back pack in honor of her brother, a Navy SEAL, who along with his team, died August 6, 2011, when their helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan.
They’ve become part of a sobering statistic. Since the War on Terror began, 6,687 service members have lost their lives in service to our country. Nearly 585 of those men and women called Texas home. Bereavement experts say that for every active duty military loss, there are 10 people, on average, significantly impacted including fathers, mothers, spouses, children, brothers and sisters, grandparents, cousins and other relatives. ...
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5/19/2013
The face of South Lamar Boulevard is rapidly changing – and one of the biggest transformations is happening at the former site of Lamar Plaza.
Most of the 50-year-old shopping center, at 1000 S. Lamar Blvd. at Treadwell St. in South Austin, was razed this year to make way for Lamar Union, a multistory mixed-use project that will feature 443 apartments and 85,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space.
All that remains today is the building that’s home to Alamo Drafthouse. The strip mall’s other structures are long gone and tenants have moved elsewhere. Construction crews are now in the midst of excavation work, making space for underground parking garages.
READ MORE: http://www.mystatesman.com/news/business/south-lamar-areas-transformation-continues/nXtDD/?icmp=statesman_internallink_textlink_apr2013_statesmanstubtomystatesman_launch
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5/19/2013
The clock is ticking for the ever-so-popular food trailers on South Congress. Next weekend will be the last for the dozen or so trailers still left in the spot on South Congress where a high-rise, boutique hotel is planned. Most vendors who spoke to KVUE News Friday said they already have new locations in mind that they would like to move to. “This trailer is moving to Lamar and Bluebonnet,” said Aubrey Baldridge with Austin Frigid Frog. Another vendor told KVUE News they are moving to Round Rock. We also learned Friday that it’s not just the food truck lovers who will miss them on South Congress when they’re gone, so too will some of the eclectic shops lining the street. “It's very Austin. They want to experience that and then they come and shop the most eclectic area in the city. Hopefully the ones that are still around will bring in the food trailer traffic and then the boutique hotel itself. I hope that brings in good patronage for us,” said Cory Firth with Crofts Originals. May 25th is the last day for the trailers.
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5/19/2013
The University of Texas will graduate 4,200 students today. We spoke to two of them. The University of Texas at Austin is expecting about 4,200 graduating students at the main commencement ceremony Saturday night with a total crowd of about 25,000. The commencement seating area will open at 5 p.m. Entertainment, including the university's steel pan ensemble, carillion concert and commencement concert will start at 6:30 p.m. The grand procession of degree candidates begins at 8 p.m. UT President Bill Powers will preside over the ceremony, with Olympic gold medalist Sanya Richards-Ross offering remarks. Rebekah Scheuerle is a UT senior graduating from the Cockrell School of Engineering. Scheuerle, a chemical engineering major, set her sights on working for Nicholas Peppas, a pioneer in the field of oral drug delivery.
http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/university-of-texas-graduates-4200
University of Texas graduates 4200
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5/19/2013
When students at Spicewood Elementary School use textbooks, which is rare, they compare the information in them with other sources, on the lookout for misinformation and bias. It’s all part of teaching students how to navigate what Principal Beth June calls a “fire hose” of information available today. The International Baccalaureate program school in Northwest Austin focuses on getting students to think critically and globally from kindergarten onward, which includes urging children as young as 5 to test the truth of what they hear and read. “There are things in textbooks that are true to the people who wrote it,” June said. “You always have to go beyond that.” That approach has paid off: Spicewood is the top-ranked elementary school in a seven-county swath of Central Texas, according to an annual study by Children at Risk, a Houston-based nonprofit that ranks schools in each of the state’s large metropolitan areas.
http://www.mystatesman.com/news/news/local/school-rankings-show-innovation-pays/nXwZC/?icmp=statesman_internallink_textlink_apr2013_statesmanstubtomystatesman_launch
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5/19/2013
Gov. Rick Perry's deal-closing Texas Enterprise Fund would receive a state audit under a bill close to clearing the state Legislature. The House on Friday used a simple voice vote to approve the measure that would require closer financial scrutiny of the decade-old program. The fund has awarded more than $485 million to private companies looking to expand or relocate in Texas. But critics have targeted it, and Perry's similar Emerging Technology Fund, over accountability and impact. The bill mandates an audit report no later than January 2015. It passed the Senate last month, but the House made some modifications. The measure must pass a final, procedural House vote. It then heads to conference committee to reconcile the latest version with what the Senate previously approved.
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5/18/2013
Beginning Sunday and continuing through the end of July, lanes along MoPac will be closed from Lady Bird Lake to Parmer Lane for 15-minute intervals between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. Next week, be prepared to see low altitude helicopters surveying the highway during the day, and starting May 28th loud drilling rigs collecting soil samples are expected to disturb nearby neighbors well into the night. According to Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, “nighttime noise will be an ongoing issue for the duration of the project, as much of the work will occur at night.”
"It will be an unpleasant couple of years as we build these improvements. There is a pay off in the end,” said Steve Pustelnyk with Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority.
Construction of a new toll lane in each direction along the 11-mile stretch of MoPac is expected to be finished by late 2015. There will not be lane closures during holidays or special events.
http://www.kvue.com/news/Prepare-for-delays-along-Mopac-for-next-several-months-207961411.html
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5/18/2013
The Texas Senate has voted to extend the life of the state lottery in a vote that was much less contentious than in the House, where some lawmakers tried to kill it off. In a unanimous vote with little discussion, the Senate voted Friday to continue the Texas Lottery for another 12 years. Last month, conservatives in the House led a charge to kill the lottery as an immoral tax on the poor. House members ultimately defeated that effort, but will get another crack at the bill next week. The Senate changed the bill to require an audit of charitable bingo halls to make sure they are giving money to charity. That means the bill still needs House approval. State lawmakers use about $2 billion from the lottery for education.
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5/18/2013
The Texas House has approved new rules to help small brewers expand. Lawmakers used voice votes Friday to alter the beer industry's pricing structure and overhaul regulations that apply only to craft breweries. That drew applause from brewers watching in the gallery. Current laws prohibit pubs like Freetail of San Antonio from packaging their beer for retail stores. They also prevent breweries like Houston's St. Arnold's from selling beer to tour visitors. The proposals split the state's distributors. In a compromise, brewpubs and small breweries would pay $250 for a license to sell only their own beer directly to consumers. Brewpubs would be limited to selling 1,000 barrels annually. The bills passed the Senate in March. They must clear a final House vote before heading to Governor Rick Perry's desk.
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