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3/10/2010
Letters from the feds are due to arrive in mailboxes all over Central Texas this month. Those letters, which are more questions; ten, to be exact, are designed to gauge the needs of the region for the next ten years, as Washington sees them.
"In the past, I know that the census has been kind of onerous. They ask a lot of questions like how many cars you have, how many TVs, how many toilets and so forth. This is only a ten-question census," Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell said.
But local leaders are pleading with neighbors across the area to take the time and fill out the questionnaire and mail it back.
"The problems you may have with the criminal justice system, with immigration, others: that's none of our business, we don't care about that. We only care about counting you," Travis County Judge Sam Biscoe said.
Leffingwell and Biscoe were among several other leaders at a census summit at Austin City Hall Wednesday evening. They are hoping to prevent a repeat of one decade ago, the last time the census was taken. That's when they assert that the Austin area lost a combined $230-million or more.
"Two or three ...
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3/10/2010
Mayor Lee Leffingwell says he is pulling his support for a proposed bond election in November for a city urban rail system.
"Any blame for failing to meet the November 2010 goal rests firmly with me," Leffingwell says in a statement released today. "In retrospect, the timeline I supported was overly ambitious, failing to fully recognize the complexity of developing the urban rail proposal and overestimating the speed at which the City would be able to do so."
Mayor Pro Tem Mike Martinez has also released a statement, saying he supports the Mayor's decision.
"As the newly-elected Chair of the Board of Capital Metro, I’m particularly sensitive to the need to ensure that promises made are promises kept.," says Martinez.
Below is the full statement released by Leffingwell.
Doing urban rail right...
By Lee on 3/10/2010
Dear Friends:
After countless conversations and careful consideration over the past few weeks, I have come to the conclusion that it is not feasible for the City to bring a fully developed urban rail proposal to Austin voters this November.
Given especially that I made a commitment last year as a candidate for mayor to pursue an urban rail ...
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3/10/2010
The first dozen shovels of dignitary dirt were thrown Wednesday morning, officially marking the beginning of converting U.S. Route 290 east of Austin into a combination toll road and non-tolled road.
"We're very excited to be bringing our next project to you guys for the benefit of central Texas. We feel like this is a very important project. It connects [the] 130 [toll road] and I-35," Mike Heiligenstein, Executive Director of the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority said at the official groundbreaking ceremony.
According to information provided by the CTRMA, the project will cost about $193-million to make the massive upgrades between what will eventually be a stack interchange between U.S. 290 and U.S. 183 and where the first phase of the project will end, at Chimney Rock Road near Springdale Road.
"We think that this is going to help with our connectivity to 130. You can see that this is a heavily-trafficked road," Ray Wilkerson, CTRMA Board Chair said. "This is kind of a beginning of a process of building interconnectors that will make such a substantial impact on this region."
Part of the project was funded by money under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (stimulus), to the ...
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3/10/2010
Austin police are asking for the public’s help in putting an end to a series of purse snatchings they say started two months ago in grocery store parking lots across town.
Detective Chandra Ervin says the crooks target women who leave their purse in the grocery cart, as they're unloading it, usually in an H-E-B or Randall's parking lot. She says while they don't have a description of the thieves, they know what the get-away cars look like. She says they’re looking for three vehicles:
Black 1999 Mazda, Texas LP-BJ2J874
Black 1996 Acura, Texas LP-NJX878
Red Chevrolet Malibu (unknown year, license plate)
Detective Ervin says the purse snatchers appear to be working in pairs. She says, while in their car, they follow a woman returning to her vehicle and they appear to be waiting for a parking spot to open up. When the woman begins unloading her groceries, her purse is taken from her grocery basket and the crook jumps into the car driven by his partner.
If you have information about these crimes, you’re asked to call Austin Police at 512-974-5749 or Crimestoppers at 512-472-TIPS.
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3/10/2010
The city reveal a business-friendly model for road closures in downtown Austin during this year’s South by Southwest festival. News Radio 590 KLBJ’s Ryan Poppe has the latest on the story.
A full list of downtown road closures can be found here:
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3/10/2010
The Austin father whose 18-month-old boy died after he forgot him in his Minivan and went into work has pleaded guilty in Williamson County. 34-year-old Kesen Hu had been indicted on a felony count of criminally negligent homicide and felony endangerment to a child. District Attorney John Bradley says Hu has pleaded guilty to misdemeanor endangerment to a child and has been given 2 years probation.
"There's a special statute that allows the District Attorney to ask the Judge to procede with a felony as if it were a misdemeanor," says Bradley. "In certain cases we can make the decision that the circumstances justify it being punished as a misdemeanor, and we made that decision in this case."
District Judge Ken Anderson put two special conditions on Hu's sentence, including an order for him to participate in a Public Service Announcement about the dangers of leaving your child in a hot car. The other condition is that Hu will not be allowed to use any electronic devices while he is driving his car, including a cell phone, during the term of his probation.
You can listen to more of Bradley's comments in his interview with KLBJ's Emily Trube:
...
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3/10/2010
After being released from the hospital where he was receiving treatment, manslaughter suspect 19-year Erick Nuncio-Moreno was taken to jail where posted bond. Police say Nuncio-Moreno was driving a car that crashed into a bus stop killing to women over the weekend. Nuncio-Moreno was released from jail after posting a $100,000 bond.
The families of those two women, 53-year old Maria Corona and 28-year old Adriana Catalan, both told FOX 7 that they were upset that Nuncio-Moreno was released from jail. Police believe that Nuncio-Moreno was attempting to engage in street racing before he lost control of his Toyota Celica and crashed into the bus stop at speeds of up to 90 MPH.
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3/10/2010
Here We Go Again…More Social Studies at SBOE
The State Board of Education begins three days worth of Social Studies debate today. It will be another long public hearing day, begun with a march by students from the University of Texas campus led by Garrett Mize, march organizer. “I do believe that when students and citizens speak loud enough to say we’re tired of politics in our classroom that the State Board might listen to us.” The Liberty Institute’s Jonathan Seinz advocates for keeping the standards pretty much the same and not including a whole bunch of new names in history books. “We’re going to be helping present that message and make sure that we have a balanced and accurate approach to Social Studies.” The State Board will spend Thursday and Friday debating the new standards and ultimately voting on them.
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3/9/2010
A proposal to convert Nueces Street into a bicycle boulevard, which has drawn commanding turnout from bicyclists in favor and property owners against the plan, got very little time before Austin's Urban Transportation Commission Tuesday night. The meeting was streamed live on 590klbj.com Tuesday evening.
"Although we had no real update until next month, I felt it was important to leave something on the agenda," Chairman Rich McKinnon told KLBJ. "To at least provide the real update that 'the real update is next month'," he said.
Four property owners and one office employee who works along Nueces were in attendance. We saw no advocates in the audience. Bill Mange, one property owner, feels slighted that he and his peers waited exactly two hours for the item, which was given roughly five minutes of presentation or update time.
"We're not even given the courtesy of being told, 'hey, don't bother showing up'. Clearly the bicycling community was told all upfront," Mange said.
"Every citizen is allowed to sign up for communication on an agenda item and no one did," McKinnon told us.
Jeff Casey, a property owner, believes city staff are concealing facts which do not support a need for a costly ...
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3/9/2010
Austin has the chance to lure Facebook into town, and city leaders are crediting Governor Rick Perry's Texas Enterprise Fund and the $1.4 million it is offering as a deciding factor in the deal. The Democrat running for governor, former Houston Mayor Bill White, is not so sure the fund should be given too much credit and questions whether or not tax dollars should be used in this way.
During a stop in Austin, White also speaks with KLBJ's Emily Trube about the homeless situation in Austin and how the problem can be addressed without relying solely on government money.
This week, the Legislative Budget Board released a report that predicts lawmakers will have to close a budget gap that will be between $11 and $15 billion during the next session. White says he does not think an across the board cut would be effective, rather he says the state needs to look at how the cost on vendor contracts can be reduced and how productivity could be increased.
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