Health officials on Tuesday confirmed the first death from the West Nile virus since 2003.
The Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services Department conducted the investigation. Officials say the victim was over 50 years old. This death is the first in the Austin area rom the virus since 2003, when two people died.
The Epidemiology and Health Statistics Unit says it is currently investigating three cases of West Nile virus in the Austin area. One patient was hospitalized and is now recovering.
Officials say the best way to avoid the virus is to eliminate standing water in your yard and around your neighborhood.
Austin police are searching for a suspect responsible for shooting four people on 6th Street over the weekend.
Detectives recovered the weapon involved in the shooting on Monday afternoon in a dumpster. According to APD, the suspect fired one shot that injured four people, following a fight that broke out outside the Blind Pig Pub.
The gunman is described as a heavy set Hispanic man, last seen running north on Red River.
If you have any information, you're asked to call police at 512-974-5750.
The NCAA announced this morning a series of "unprecendented" punitive measures against Penn State University's football program in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.
Among the punishments and corrective measures announced:
Authorities say a pickup truck has crashed in South Texas, killing 11 people in the vehicle and injuring 12. All 23 passengers were in the same Ford F-250 truck, according to officials.
Louann Presas, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, says the crash occurred about 7 p.m. CDT Sunday near Berclair when the truck ran off the highway and crashed into some trees. The unincorporated community is about 100 miles southeast of San Antonio.
"The truck left the roadway and struck two very large trees," Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Gerald Bryant told The San Antonio Express-News.
According to Bryant, a total of 23 people of "a variety of ages," including some children, were in the vehicle. The victims have not yet been identified, he said.
The alleged driver of the truck was ejected but is alive, Bryant said. Six others from inside the cab of the truck were pronounced dead at the scene. Another five victims outside of the pickup also died at the scene, he said.
She says the extent of the injuries to the surviving victims wasn't immediately clear. Crash investigators were still at the scene around 11 p.m. CDT.
A Goliad County sheriff's dispatcher deferred comment to a department spokesperson, who did not immediately return a message left by The Associated Press.
(CBS/AP) WASHINGTON - The FBI was too concerned about political correctness and did not launch an investigation into a man who was later charged with killing 13 people in the 2009 attack in Fort Hood, Texas, despite significant warning signs that he was an Islamic extremist bent on killing civilians, according to a lawmaker briefed on a new report about the terrorist attack.
(CBS/AP) WASHINGTON - The FBI was too concerned about political correctness and did not launch an investigation into a man who was later charged with killing 13 people in the 2009 attack in Fort Hood, Texas, despite significant warning signs that he was an Islamic extremist bent on killing civilians, according to a lawmaker briefed on a new report about the terrorist attack.
President Barack Obama is visiting Austin on Tuesday for two campaign events, destined to create transportation issues across the city.
The first event on the President's Austin schedule is a downtown fundraiser at the Austin Music Hall hosted by the LGBT Leadership Council. Tickets for the event, which will feature singer/songwriter Jerry Jeff Walker, range in price from $250 per person to $7,500 per couple. The event is expected to get underway at approximately 4:45pm.
He later will attend a second Capital city event hosted by Tom Meredith – Dell’s former finance chief. It's reportedly at Mededith's Four Seasons residence where couples can get in for $25,000.
The President will arrive at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport around 4:30pm after spending the first part of the day in San Antonio. The presidential motorcade is sure to cause issues along Ben White and Interstate 35 for the afternoon commute.
According to a release from Capital Metro, the presidential visit is expected to affect 2nd and 3rd Streets downtown, as well as Guadalupe, Lavaca, and San Antonio. As well, nine bus routes will be detoured from approximately 1 p.m. until 8 p.m. Tuesday afternoon and evening.
• #3 Burnet/Manchaca (southbound)
• #110 South Central Flyer (southbound)
• #171 Oak Hill Flyer (northbound & southbound)
• #935 Tech Ridge Express (northbound)
• #970 Lantana Express
• #982 Pavilion Express (northbound & southbound)
• #983 N. U.S. 183 Express (northbound & southbound)
• #985 Leander/Lakeline Direct (northbound)
• #987 Leander/NW Express (northbound)
Capital Metro urges riders to check their website or call 512-474-1200 for updated route information. Austin Police or the Secret Service could change plans at any time.
Sunday night's storms painted the bullseye on North Austin, with Doppler radar estimates and unofficial ground reports clocking nearly 5 inches of rain. Official totals amounted to 2.7 inches at Camp Mabry, which surpassed a 1931 record, and 2.23 inches at ABIA.
Low Water Crossings/Roads Closed due to Flooding:
Spicewood Springs between Loop 360 & Old Lampasas
Old Spicewood Springs Rd
Power Outages:
Approximately 75 customers remain without power in scattered locations. Call Austin Energy at (512) 322-9100 to report outages.
(CBS/AP) STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - Penn State's internal investigation into the Jerry Sandusky scandal found that senior leaders at the university displayed "total disregard" for the children victimized by the former assistant football coach, the lead investigator said Thursday.
A team led by former federal judge and FBI director Louis Freeh interviewed hundreds of people to learn how the university responded to warning signs that its once revered former defensive coordinator — a man who helped Hall of Fame football coach Joe Paterno win two national titles while touting "success with honor" — was a serial child molester.
"Our most saddening and sobering finding is the total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky's child victims by the most senior leaders at Penn State," Freeh says in prepared remarks released in advance of a press conference. "The most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who Sandusky victimized."
Freeh says the investigation found that Paterno; athletic director Tim Curley; Gary Schultz, a university vice president who oversaw the campus police department; former university president Graham Spanier "never demonstrated, through actions or words, any concern for the safety and well-being of Sandusky's victims until after Sandusky's arrest."
Drivers who use the 183-A toll road in Cedar Park and Leander will soon be able to drive just a bit faster.
Beginning in early August, the speed limit will increase from 70 mph to 75 mph, in response to a new state law that increases the maximum legal speed limit allowed in roads like 183-A. A speed study was conducted by TxDOT to determine the appropriate, safe speed limit for the roadway.
The 183-A toll road is an 11.6 mile expressway operated by the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, stretching from RM 620/SH 45 in Northwest Austin through the cities of Cedar Park and Leander.
Drivers must continue to travel at the posted speed limit until the new signs are installed.
Officials are investigating a body found in Lake Travis Wednesday night.
Travis County Sheriff's deputies were called out to Bar K Park in Lago Vista to help search for a reported missing person around 6pm. After conducting a search, authorities found a damaged jet ski along the shoreline but could not find the driver.
STARflight was called out and later found the body in the water.
No signs of foul play have been found; the case remains under investigation.
(CBS/AP) WASHINGTON - House Republicans generally avoided talk of replacement measures on Tuesday as they mobilized for an election-season vote to repeal the health care law that stands as President Barack Obama's signature domestic accomplishment.
Instead, they lambasted the 2-year-old law as a threat to the nation's economic recovery and predicted some Democrats would join them in repudiating it.
An evacuation order has been issued for residents in Webberville, off Old Commanche Trail.
The notice issued just before 9 a.m. followed reports that a crew was dispatched to Farm to Market 969 in Webberville to rescue someone from high water. Also, officials in Bastrop County also said that the access roads of State Highway 71 were flooded just west of State Highway 20.
Doppler radar estimates show heavy rains have soaked the area, with some spots indicating upwards of 5 to 6 inches of rain having fallen in the area over the past 24 hours.
The evacuation notice applies to all resident on Comanche Trail off FM 969. Any residents trapped should call 911 immediately. Travel along FM 969 is discouraged.
Two overnight fires in Austin turned deadly despite firefighters' best efforts.
One fire in East Austin broke out in a neighborhood near Airport and Springdale around 2:30am. Next door neighbors saw the fire, called 911, and then tried knocking on doors to get people out of the burning home. Three people were rescued from a house at the front of the property; rescuers pulled a fourth from a building at the back of the property. A search revealed a fifth victim dead inside the home, reported to be an elderly woman in her mid 90s.
A second, unrelated fire in Southeast Austin was called in shortly after 3:00am at 6226 Wagon Bend Trail, in the Dove Springs neighborhood. Neighbors told officials they heard popping sounds and heard a woman screaming in the yard about her chidlren. Seven people were in the home at the time; sadly, two young children, ages 5 and 7, were pronounced dead at the scene.
In both cases, no indication of cause has been determined yet.
Austin police are investigating a homicide case in North Austin, discovered early Monday morning.
A caller to 911 around 5:50am Monday morning reported seeing a car in the middle of the street with a body inside, in the 200 block of West Lola Drive near Georgian and US Highway 183. When police arrived, they found Alejandro Hernandez Jr. slumped over the wheel of his truck. His death has been ruled a homicide by gunshot wound, officials said.
Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call the Homicide Tip Line at 512-477-3588 or Crimestoppers at 512-472-TIPS.
Texas' Voter ID law is going before a federal court in Washington, beginning today.
The trial is expected to last all week and will determine whether the state can implement the law requiring voters to show photo identification before casting a ballot.
The state claims the law will prevent voter fraud and is seeking to persuade a three-judge panel to uphold the statute. The Justice Department and a slew of intervening groups say the law disproportionately affects minority voters and violates the federal Voting Rights Act.
The salaries of top executives at the Texas Department of Transportation have spiked more than 40 percent in the past year amid deep cutbacks elsewhere in state government.
A report published Sunday by the Austin American-Statesman revealed that the agency's three top paid officials make an average of $250,000. That includes executive director Phil Wilson, whose salary is $292,500 and was set to make even more before criticism halted an $88,500 pay hike.
Wilson told the newspaper the salaries are necessary to lure top talent to the often embattled agency. Wilson was hired in October to help overhaul the department after years of legislative and internal scrutiny.
The ballooning paychecks haven't trickled down to TxDOT's rank-and-file, where the average salary of $48,000 is just 3.7 percent more than last year.
