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Barton Springs flow is low, officials preparing for next level of drought

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:48 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) – The Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District is on track to enter a Stage IV Exceptional Drought status, which would be the first time in the District’s 36-year-long history. Currently, the District remains in Stage III Critical Drought Conditions.Officials assess drought by measuring the flow into Barton Springs and examining levels at the Lovelady Monitoring Well. They say flow into Barton Springs is slowly approaching the Stage IV drought threshold.  MORE: Drought conditions cause several boil water notices throughout Central Texas “In Texas, we get both extremes – we get very extreme wet periods with flooding and extreme extended droughts. And we're in a drought cycle right now,” said Jeff Watson, a Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation Hydrogeologist.   “It is really important that when we're in these drought cycles, we are conserving water as much as possible,” he continued. To measure Barton Springs flow, officials ...

APD: Latest human trafficking case an emerging trend

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:48 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- The Austin Police Department's Human Trafficking Unit has arrested two people charged with human smuggling. According to the department, Gonzalo Rangel Romero and San Juana Dominguez-Armendariz smuggled a woman from Mexico to America, and then threatened her if her family did not pay them more money. Lieutenant Jim Beck with APD's Organized Crime Division said the woman's brother called APD for help. "The complainant had been contacted by suspects that helped smuggle his sister into America. [The family] paid approximately $5,000," Beck said. "The suspects were demanding another $5,800, otherwise they threatened to take her back to Mexico where they threatened her with serious bodily injury or even death."According to the arrest affidavits, the victim told her brother she was "being held against her will, not allowed to bathe or eat, and her leg was injured." The documents also claim the brother knew one of the suspects to be a known human trafficker, based on what ...

'Don't have enough inventory': Austin realtors said the market needs more affordable homes

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:48 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Austin needs more homes that most people can afford. Experts with the Austin Board of Realtors said the market needs more inventory. Wednesday, the Austin Board of Realtors hosted its 2023 Central Texas Housing Summit. Austin housing market optimism ‘continues to grow,’ ABoR says Housing Economist Dr. Clare Losey said it's not just that the city needs more homes, but that it needs more affordable homes. "There's that gap between home prices and income," Losey said. Losey said over the past several months, fewer than 10% of homes sold for under $300,000. "The median family income in Austin is about $110,000 and that's roughly equivalent to a $330-$350,000 home," Losey said. Managing Broker at Austin Home Source John Sheppard said, for the past decade, he's noticed a focus on building luxury housing downtown. He said while that helps the economy, there needs to be a shift. "At some point, we need a place for the people in the service industry, the people delivering t...

From pools to 311 calls: Austin's data portal has inaccuracies, audit finds

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:48 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- A new report published by the Office of the City Auditor found data provided to the public through Austin's open data portal can be inaccurate, sometimes by hundreds of thousands of records. It pointed to a lack of coordinated oversight and training. The datasets analyzed range from the city map showing which pools are open to information about fatal crashes and 311 calls. The data is intended to keep the public informed, but the city auditor's office said it also informs policy for city departments. "At its base level we're looking at our data and trying to determine whether or not what we're collecting and presenting is going to be important and going to be useful for the community," said Keith Salas, an assistant city auditor. “In the coming months, discussions will take place regarding new training methods and appointing a department to oversee the data portal," Interim City Manager Jesús Garza responded. "We are committed to making sure that the Open Data ...

What are some Zilker parking, shuttle options if the overflow lot closes?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:48 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- On Monday, the Austin Parks and Recreation Department Board voted to recommend closing one of the parking options at Zilker Park. Now, Austin City Council will decide at a later date whether or not to approve that recommendation, which proposes a Sept. 4 closure date.Polo Field, located between Andrew Zilker Road and Barton Springs Road, is currently open on weekends during the summer and some Fridays for special events or activities, according to the Austin Parks and Recreation Department. ICYMI: Parks and Rec Board votes to permanently close Zilker Park overflow lot in September The lot can accommodate approximately 750 spaces and is one of the largest parking options at Zilker Park. However, the board pointed to "extensive environmental degradation" due to parking and pedestrian circulation on the land, per documents.If council does opt to close the overflow lot, what other options remain? Here's a breakdown of available parking lots at or near Zilker Park, as...

City Council approves Ford site changes for University of St. Thomas facilities

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:48 GMT

The St. Paul City Council has officially amended the master planning document around the former Ford Motor Co. Twin Cities Assembly Plant site, now home to the Highland Bridge development, to accommodate new sports facilities for the University of St. Thomas.Working with master developer the Ryan Cos., St. Thomas is planning a 1,500-seat baseball field, a 1,000-seat softball field, an indoor training facility and a 330-stall surface parking facility in a southeast corner of the site, west of Cleveland Avenue. The university hopes to transform 13 acres of Canadian Pacific Railway land into a Division I sports destination, though officials have said several years of planning and fundraising are ahead.The council voted unanimously Wednesday to approve related changes to the Ford Site Zoning and Public Realm Master Plan. Councilmember Mitra Jalali was absent.Once contemplated for Highland Bridge, St. Thomas still plans on establishing Division I hockey and basketball facilities on its s...

Downtown Alliance won’t expand improvement district to West Seventh

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:48 GMT

St. Paul’s Downtown Improvement District will not expand to include West Seventh Street as the St. Paul City Council on Wednesday opted not to vote on the proposal after a contentious few weeks of talks.Last spring, several West Seventh business owners seemed interested in joining the district, which assesses a fee on property owners in exchange for street clean-up, graffiti removal, and street greeters. But business owners changed their tune after a process that restaurateur Dave Cossetta described as “misleading.”Cosetta’s frustrations centered around lack of clear communication from the Downtown Alliance, the district’s governing body.Cossetta’s Alimentari is among the prominent businesses on West Seventh Street. (Pioneer Press file)“If we had known what we were getting and for what price, I think most of us would have been more open to it,” he said.At a July 18 meeting, several West Seventh Street business owners said they kept the...

Justin Jefferson, T.J. Hockenson downplay contract extensions at Vikings training camp

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:48 GMT

It’s no secret that receiver Justin Jefferson and tight end T.J. Hockenson, two major stars on offense, are both in line to sign lucrative contract extensions with the Vikings at some point in the near future.Technically, the 24-year-old Jefferson has two years left on his rookie contract. But because he has been so dominant, it would benefit the Vikings to make him the NFL’s highest-paid receiver sooner rather than later Meanwhile, the 26-year-old Hockenson is in the final year of his rookie contract, so he’s probably looking for some sort of financial commitment soon, too.The biggest thing the Vikings have working in their favor is neither Jefferson nor Hockenson are holding the team’s feet to the fire at the moment. Both players downplayed any thoughts of a contract extension on Wednesday after wrapping up the first day of training camp at TCO Performance Center.“The contract is going to play itself out,” Jefferson said. “I’m just o...

Minneapolis man sentenced for firing shots in Mall of America Nike store

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:48 GMT

A man who fired three shots during a fistfight inside the Mall of America’s Nike store last summer was sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison.No one was injured in the Aug. 4 shooting, but the gunfire sent mall visitors screaming and running for cover and forced some shoppers to shelter in place for more than 90 minutes. The mall reopened the next day with a beefed-up law enforcement presence.Shamar Alon Ramon Lark (Courtesy of the Bloomington Police Department)Shamar Alon Ramon Lark, 22, of Minneapolis, pleaded guilty last month to felony second-degree assault in connection with the shooting at the Bloomington mall. Two other felony gun charges — intentionally discharging a firearm endangering the safety of others and carrying a pistol in a public place without a permit — were dismissed as part of a plea agreement he reached with Hennepin County prosecutors six days before a trial was set to begin.According to the charges, a fight broke out between six people in t...

Jamelle Bouie: What the Joe Manchin-No Labels fantasy gets wrong about America

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:48 GMT

For as long as Americans have had partisan political competition, they have hated partisanship itself.By his second term in office, in the mid-1790s, President George Washington faced organized political opponents in the form of Democratic-Republican societies that had spread throughout the country.“There was the Society for the Preservation of Liberty in Virginia, the Sons of St. Tammany and the Democratic Society in New York, the Constitutional Society in Boston, the Society of Political Inquiries, the German Republican Society and the Democratic Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and similar groups scattered in all the states,” historian Susan Dunn notes in “Jefferson’s Second Revolution: The Election Crisis of 1800 and the Triumph of Republicanism.”In the wake of the Whiskey Rebellion of the early 1790s, Washington blamed these societies for “encouraging dissension and fomenting disorder,” as Dunn puts it. He accused them of spreading their “nefarious doctrines with a view...