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2/22/2012
Growing concern about the childhood obesity epidemic brings some of the best medical minds, and a national conference, to Austin. KLBJ's Perry Watson has the sto
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2/22/2012
The Austin City Council has called for a full-audit of Austin Energy. The debate over raising electric rates has put a spot light on what Austin Energy really needs to function. Councilman Bill Spelman: "I don't know whether or not I have the authority to ask for this or not, but I think it would be helpful if we all had a chance to talk with our attorneys about this."
Austin Energy is proposing to raise rates 8.7 percent this year, and a 3.8 percent increase in 2014. Residential customers would see an average increase of around 20 percent, once the increase is fully in place. Some say the city-owned utility needs to prove how much MONEY they need to operate and why smaller increase over several years is not enough.
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2/22/2012
A developer hopes to get 17 million dollars in mortgage revenue bond money for an apartment complex at Lamar and Justin.
Andrea Shields with the Travis County Housing Finance Corporation says in exchange, they'll make about half the units 'affordable'. "Henderson Partners proposed 20 percent of the units be income restricted to families earning 50 percent or less of the average median income and then 90 percent of the units would be restricted to families earning 120 percent of the average median income or less."
Shields says right now, the apartments, Argosy at Crestview, are being leased at the market rate. She says the housing finance corporation will be holding a public meeting on the project March 13th at 1:30.
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2/22/2012
Austin's police chief defends his department against a grandfather with a blog that's gone viral, slamming his officers during a kidnapping call that turned out to be false.
The chief played 911 tapes and video of the night Scott Henson was detained falsely on a report of kidnapping. Chief Art Acevedo says Henson's allegations wrongly embarrassed the department as Henson's blog got picked up by national websites. "Today, all we're doing is correcting the record and most importantly, by releasing this information, letting the public make their own judgement."
Henson, a caucasian, was detained for 13 minutes not far from the Millennium recreation center in east Austin while police separately questioned he and his young granddaughter, who is african american.
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2/22/2012
The news that the STAAR end of course exam won't count for 15 percent of a student's grade is welcome news in Hutto ISD.
Superintendent Doug Killian says they were struggling with how to implement the rule anyway. "There hasn't been a lot of guidance on what we would do in terms of scale score conversion, and whether it applies to GPA and class rank and all that."
Dr. Killian says to the critics who say students aren't being held accountable, that's just not true. Since the ninth graders of today won't be able to graduate in four years without a real comprehension of the subjects they'll be tested on. He predicts the legislature will be taking up the issue next year.
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2/22/2012
Many eyes will be keeping their sights on the lake levels of Travis and Buchanan over the next week.
Under the LCRA's current *emergency water management* plan, if both lakes go up another foot by March 1st, it will allow for the release of water to downstream rice farmers that will drop Travis roughly another 8 feet, even though it's already 50-feet below full. Spokesperson Clara Tuma says it true, but it's unlikely the lakes will go up that much.
Terrel Cass with the 911 Lake Crisis Group says this is just one example, even with proposed water management changes, that the LCRA continues to cater to rice farmers at the expense of those who rely on the Highland Lakes for their livelihood. "We're going to be down to 700 thousand acre feet, which is far less than what we had three weeks ago. That's how messed up this water management plan is. How can we have all this wonderful rain and be worse off?
16 representatives of Colorado River water users worked over a year to come up with a new water-management plan. The LCRA Board has been criticized for tweaking it with red-line changes that can be seen ...
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2/22/2012
If he really wants to run for another term as governor — as he told The Texas Tribune on Tuesday — Rick Perry has some work ahead of him. While 39 percent of Texas voters said they would be likely to support him in 2014, 51 percent said they wouldn't, according to the new University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll. The supporters are less intense than the opponents: 21 percent said they would be "very likely" to support another term for the governor, while 42 percent said they would be "very unlikely." One in 10 voters were undecided on the re-election question.
http://www.texastribune.org/texas-people/rick-perry/uttt-poll-voters-divided-another-term-perry/
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2/22/2012
The man who chased down the driver charged with running down University of Texas soccer player Kylie Doniakwas honored Tuesday by a crime victims' rights group. The nonprofit organization, Crime Victims First , awarded 47-year-old Sisto Perez with a medal and a certificate of appreciation for his single-hand apprehension of the man who is facing drunken driving and other charges in the Feb. 3 incident. Perez, who was riding his motorcycle downtown when a car ran over Doniak and others, said he was just helping police when he sprang into action.
'Hit-and-run hero' receives honor: kxan.com
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2/22/2012
A Texas biologist says recent milder winters may attract some new, bloodthirsty wildlife to South Texas. Vampire bats are native to South and Central America and Mexico. Texas State University biologist and wildlife disease expert Ivan Castro-Arellano says that if the mild winters continue, colonies of the nonmigratory species could resettle in Texas in 50 years or less, and the state should prepare. The biologist is one of more than 40 scientists working with the Institute for the Study of Invasive Species in Huntsville grappling with the potential threat. The concern is the cost to livestock, since the bats feed off the blood of mostly sleeping mammals. Castro-Arellano says Vampire bats cost Mexican ranchers millions of dollars in losses annually.
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2/22/2012
Taylor Patrick still has tremors, flashbacks and nightmares. In those dreams, he is kicked and punched by his fellow students. In a lawsuit filed last week in district court against the Leander school district, Patrick said he was bullied for years in middle and high school. The 20-year-old has Asperger's syndrome, a developmental disorder that affects his ability to socialize or communicate effectively. Because of his disability, he was frequently teased, said his mother, Leah Patrick. The Patricks are suing the district for not protecting Taylor Patrick for what they said was years of bullying, beginning in middle school. District officials said they are barred by privacy laws from discussing specific student discipline matters but said they immediately investigate and address reports of bullying.
http://www.statesman.com/news/education/mom-of-former-special-education-student-sues-leander-2191340.html
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