A Texas judge has temporarily blocked the Obama administration’s directive on transgender bathrooms, ruling that federal agencies overstepped their authority under the 1972 law banning sex discrimination in schools. U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor of Fort Worth made the decision late on Sunday, merely hours before students resumed fall classes. The ruling comes roughly three months […]

Scientists argue recess is one of the most important aspects of the day for school-age children as it allows them to expend energy, exercise, develop crucial social skills and simply be children. However, as educational requirements become more stringent, schools systems are starting to reduce playtime, use it for physical education or cut it out […]

An activist who helped lead the fight against water fluoridation has joined the mayoral election in San Marcos. Sam Brannon, a six year resident of the fun-loving college town located smack dab in the middle of Austin and San Antonio, joined three other candidates last week in the race to become mayor. Brannon graduated from […]

A handful of professors at the University of Texas have made it their mission to block students from carrying concealed handguns in college classrooms. Last year, the Texas Legislature passed a law allowing individuals over the age of 21 to carry firearms inside classrooms and other facilities on public universities as long as they have a concealed handgun […]

The Texas Water Development Board recently awarded Austin Water Utility a $165 million loan that will likely be used to transition consumers over to electronic smart water meters, as well as expand the city’s reclaimed water use program. Hundreds of consumers affected by unusually high water bills last summer prompted Austin Water to apply for […]

In 2014, the City of Austin adopted a 10-1 system of geographic representation for electing City Council members with the hope that residents would be more fairly represented. An expectation of the new system was that it would “improve representativeness and responsiveness of city government.” Neither of those goals, however, seemed to have been reached, […]

An array of highly toxic chemicals leaching from a Houston area Superfund site has residents on edge after health officials issued a warning to avoid drinking their tap water. Harris County Public Health sent letters to a number of residents warning that harmful chemicals, including dioxins, may have contaminated residents’ well water. Dioxons are extremely […]

In recent months, the Austin Police Department has been working to develop policies that will govern its new body camera program. Implementation is expected to begin at the end of September with the outfitting of 500 police officers with lapel cameras, as well as coordinating iPhones that will be used to view the footage. As […]

The City of Austin is facing a lawsuit from vacation rental owners, less than six months after passing aggressive regulations governing short-term rentals. The City Council voted in February to completely phase out type 2 rentals – second homes unoccupied by the owner – by 2022. Lawmakers took the regulations one step further, barring guests […]

Austin’s war on ridesharing continues as police are now aggressively targeting drivers working for Arcade City, a peer-to-peer-based transportation service that uses Facebook to connect people with rides. The group has an estimated 10,000 members and growing, despite the fact that it doesn’t even have an app yet. “How it works is riders post if they […]