Latest Austin News
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The age of IRAs
If you are in your 20s or 30s, I have a tip for you: Learn about IRA accounts. They are the retirement vehicles for your future.Few have figured this out. Individual Retirement Accounts get little attention because our personal and media focus is on 401(k) and 403(b) accounts sponsored by employers. Worse, IRA accounts have much lower contribution limits. This year, the maximum contribution to ...
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Retirement in sight for longtime orthopedic surgeon
Dr. L.D. Greenway, an Austin orthopedic surgeon in practice for 50 years and change, swears he's going to retire this year from his practice at the Austin Bone and Joint Clinic, and one of the factors driving him to that move is out of his control: He has cancer.We profiled Greenway, much admired for his work ethic, attention to patients and unimpeachable sartorial sensibilities, in June ...
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30 years ago MCC consortium helped ‘put Austin on the technology map’
Way back in primitive times -- 1983 -- Austin was a smaller and simpler place.Willie lived in the neighborhood, but the Armadillo World Headquarters was already ...
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Are Texas lawmakers too gullible spending your money
How gullible are Texas lawmakers?A Rutgers University expert on economic incentives posed that question to me as I was researching House Bill 2061,which would have provided loans to small businesses in poor ...
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Top Local Business Stories of the Week
Austin-area home sales jump 32 percent in April: Continuing on their upswing, Central Texas home sales jumped 32 percent last month, the highest level for an April in nine years, the latest figures show.The area's median home price rose 8 percent from April 2012, with half the homes selling for more than $227,250 and half for less, the Austin Board of Realtors said in its monthly report.The ...
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The top local stories of the week
Andria Stanley, 32, was sentenced to 50 years in prison after she was convicted last week on four felony charges in a vicious attack on her ex-husband in February 2012. A Travis County jury on Friday found Stanley guilty of aggravated kidnapping and burglary of habitation with an intent to commit a felony, and two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly ...
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Special session appears likely
While nothing is official, the prevailing assumption around the Capitol is that lawmakers, and their staffs, will be called back to work quickly for a special session.Gov. Rick Perry refused to address the possibility when reporters hounded him on the House floor Friday, but legislators from both parties said they expect the governor to order them back to work soon after Monday, the final day of ...
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Sexual assault reports and prosecutions rise at Fort Hood
Reports of sexual assault at Fort Hood, the nation's busiest wartime deployment hub, have nearly doubled in recent months, with more than 200 such reports filed since October 2011, according to officials at the post.Fort Hood soldiers made 100 reports from October 2011 to September 2012; they made just as many -- 101 -- in the following seven months, according to information from Fort ...
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More school money but Austin and other districts don’t get much of it
Austin school leaders cannot bank on Texas legislators making the district whole after losing more than $95 million in funding over the past two years.Nor can the Round Rock, Eanes, Lake Travis, Leander and Manor ...
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Safety agency curtails West explosion investigation
Five weeks after an exploding fertilizer plant devastated a wide swath of the town of West, the federal agency charged with finding out how such industrial accidents happen has curtailed its investigation, saying the blast site has been so disturbed by the search for signs of criminal wrongdoing that it can yield little useful evidence.The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, ...
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Hit-and-run victim’s father sues Nestande bar
The father of Courtney Griffin, the woman killed two years ago by hit-and-run driver Gabrielle Nestande -- an incident that prompted changes to state law -- has filed a lawsuit against Nestande and the bar that served her drinks the evening of the incident.The suit, filed late Thursday in Travis County Probate Court, alleges that Clive Bar servers knew Nestande was impaired but continued serving ...
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Chemical safety board had recommended beefed-up regs for chemicals like ammonium nitrate as early as 2002
More than a decade before roughly 30 tons of ammonium nitrate exploded at the West Fertilizer Co. plant, killing 14, wounding 200 and damaging dozens of homes in the city of West, an obscure federal agency recommended the government pay more attention to managing potentially explosive chemicals like ammonium nitrate.But the recommendations never fully took hold. Had they been adopted, company ...
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Tepesch ready Ogando getting close
Email SEATTLE -- Nick Tepesch is ready to rejoin the Rangers' rotation, and Alexi Ogando is not far behind. Tepesch threw approximately 50 pitches in the bullpen on Thursday without any problems with the blister on the middle finger of his right hand. Tepesch was supposed to pitch on Wednesday against the Athletics but was pushed back because of the blister. He will start on Sunday against ...
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Moreland moves up to No. 2 spot
Email SEATTLE -- David Murphy was out of the lineup on on Friday night with Mariners left-hander Joe Saunders on the mound, so Mitch Moreland was moved up into the second spot in the lineup. Manager Ron Washington had moved Murphy into the No. 2 spot when Ian Kinsler went on the disabled list. Murphy is 5-for-18 with two home runs in five games as the No. 2 hitter and is hitting .314 with four ...
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Rangers undecided if Wolf will start Monday
Email SEATTLE -- Ross Wolf earned his first Major League victory on Wednesday, but it has not guaranteed him another start. The Rangers officially remain undecided on their starter for the second game of Monday's doubleheader against the Arizona Diamondbacks. "We're still looking over our options," manager Ron Washington said. "We haven't made a decision on that ...
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Olt is working out again
Email SEATTLE -- Rangers infielder Mike Olt, who has been sidelined for a month because of blurred vision, has been cleared to resume baseball activities. Olt has been seen by several eye specialists and has been taking medication and eye drops to clear his vision. Olt has been sent to the Rangers' training complex in Surprise, Ariz., to begin working out again. He will work up to game ...
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Police Man sexually assaulted teen in North Austin
Two 15-year-old girls told police a man sexually assaulted one of them after they got in his car in North Austin, according to an arrest affidavit.Frank Edward Nelson, 25, has been charged with sexual assault of a child and driving while intoxicated, records show. He was in the Travis County Jail on Friday night on $75,000 bail, records show.According to the affidavit, the girls were hanging out ...
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Travis County faces ambulance shortage
Austin and Travis County are growing. With that growth comes an increased need for emergency services. The disagreement is how to make sure there are no gaps in geographical coverage. "We started this journey back in October 2012 when the commissioner's court unanimously approved to move forward with the three ambulances necessary for appropriate coverage," said Tony Marquardt, ...
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CSCOPE wont get a state review
AUSTIN (AP) - AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- The State Board of Education is scrapping its special panel to review a controversial curriculum system, after its creators agreed to stop offering lesson plans. CSCOPE had helped teachers adhere to state educational requirements by offering Web-based lesson plans and exams. But some conservatives claimed CSCOPE promoted anti-American values. That prompted the ...
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Crews investigating reports of smoke at downtown building
Fire crews said smoke could be seen coming from a vent at 301 Congress Ave. downtown, but no flames were reported.Several fire trucks lined Congress Avenue and Third Street to investigate a report of smoke about 6:45 p.m. Friday.Police blocked a portion of Third Street at North Congress avenue to assist ...
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Senate confirms 3 nominees to UT board
Three nominees to the University of Texas System Board of Regents won confirmation Friday evening by the state Senate. The vote was 30-1, with Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, casting the no vote.Two of the regents are new to the board: Houston businessman Jeff Hildebrand and McAllen lawyer Ernest Aliseda. Gov. Rick Perry reappointed El Paso businessman Paul ...
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Budget agreement avoids layoffs at UT System
The University of Texas System would be spared from having to lay off about a third of its more than 600 employees under the proposed two-year state budget crafted by Texas House and Senate negotiators.But other spending restrictions -- regarding board travel, food and meeting expenses, as well as investigations of the 15 academic and health campuses -- would be imposed on the UT ...
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Austin Marine donates his bar for Memorial Day
AUSTN (KXAN) - This Memorial Day weekend, a Marine veteran turned Austin bar owner is opening his business to honor wounded and fallen service members. We have a couple groups were going to try and push money towards, said Jason White, a Marine Staff Sergeant about to retire after ten years with the Corps and live life in the private sector. Last February the 34 year-old White opened the The ...
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Community News Memorial will honor Johnston high’s Vietnam veterans Austin Community College campus in Elgin hosts fair
means it is premium content -- and it continues on the all-new site. Premium stories, plus all the news from the printed edition of the paper, are included. Until June 11, you can enjoy a free preview of all the premium content on ...
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UT beefs up disclosure policies in wake of fracking controversy
After a conflict-of-interest controversy involving a natural gas drilling report that roiled the University of Texas last year, the university has expanded its financial disclosure and peer review policies, according to a letter written this spring by the university provost.The 2012 report, published by the university's Energy Institute, had declared in its summary that there was little or ...
Austin Digest
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Austin among the leading US cities emerging from recession
The financial crisis, now refered to by some as the Great Recession, has battered cities across the country, but Austin has become a pocket of hope where jobs are available and the population is growing, suggesting that the city may be among a few in the US leading the country out of the recession.
Austin has been ranked in the top 20 US cities with strong population growth, the study was done by the Census Bureau, this is a reflection of the sound economic performance of Texas as whole (the state had several of its cities in the top 20), and subsequently may be given four additional House seats following the 2010 census. Read more
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