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When will Austin decide on its official light rail design?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:50:00 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Austinites have a little more than a month to weigh in on Project Connect's initial light rail options before work happens to finalize the official design.The Austin Transit Partnership debuted five scaled down options for the city's upcoming light rail system at an open house Tuesday evening. Greg Canally, ATP's executive director, referred to it as the program's initial investment in light rail, with options featuring between 6-mile and 10-mile-long routes that are projected to service up to nearly 40,000 people each day. ICYMI: Project Connect debuts five scaled down light rail options For community members who missed Tuesday's open house, ATP is offering a virtual version online, which residents can view and submit feedback on through May 2. A virtual light rail community update will also be held on April 6 from 5:30-7:30 p.m.Beyond that, officials said Project Connect leaders will host informational meetings with city and transit boards and commissions, neigh...

Texas committee to take up drag performance, story time restrictions

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:50:00 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — A couple of bills that would restrict drag-related events and even criminalize performers in Texas will come up Thursday for discussion for the first time during this legislative session. This debate follows a statehouse rally earlier this week that brought out hundreds to defend drag and call for more LGBTQ protections. Members of the Texas Senate state affairs committee will start discussions on Senate Bill 12 and Senate Bill 1601, both filed by Republican State Sen. Bryan Hughes. The meeting begins at 9 a.m. in the Senate chamber. PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Drag story time puts state funding in jeopardy for Texas libraries Senate Bill 12SB 12, if ultimately passed by both chambers and signed by the governor into law, would levy a penalty up to $10,000 against any business owner who hosts a "sexually oriented performance" with anyone who's younger than 18 present. A city or county would also not be able to host these kinds of performances on public property, according t...

Windy, humid weather ahead of storm potential on Friday

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:50:00 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Gusty south winds are bringing warm, humid air into the region as a western storm slowly approaches.Thursday will look and feel similar to Wednesday with morning clouds and a bit of drizzle, clearing into break of afternoon sun. Southerly wind gusts are expected to reach 25-35 mph, potentially affecting the Dell Match Play golf tournament on Lake Austin.The western storm drags a front through our area early Friday morning, bringing a broken line of strong to severe storms into the Hill Country before sunrise.Line of storms expected to move in early Friday morningThere is a marginal threat of wind or hail damage with these storms Friday, then sunshine returns Friday afternoon.Severe thunderstorm threat early FridaySevere thunderstorm threat daytime FridayOverall, rainfall totals look minimal with most of us not favored to see more than a quarter of an inch. Isolated higher rainfall amounts are possible in parts of the Hill Country where storms are stronger. BLOG: ...

Other voices: Law students shout down free speech

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:50:00 GMT

The disdain law students and their administrators show the First Amendment and differing viewpoints should be a major societal concern.Earlier this month, federal circuit court Judge Kyle Duncan appeared at Stanford Law School to give a speech. He came at the invitation of the Federalist Society. His talk was titled, “The Fifth Circuit in Conversation with the Supreme Court: Covid, Guns, and Twitter.” Such gatherings are one of the benefits of attending an elite law school.Instead, what took place would have gotten a preschooler sent home for the day. Many Standard law students were angry that Judge Duncan was coming, because he is — gasp! — a traditional conservative. Some held up profane signs in the room where he was speaking. As he began his lecture, many students shouted and heckled him with taunts such as “scumbag” and “you’re a liar.”This is wildly inappropriate, but it has become the norm from the “tolerant” l...

Theater review: ‘My Fair Lady’ returns with energy to Ordway

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:50:00 GMT

When the pandemic brought everything to a halt in March 2020, the last theater production I’d experienced was Lincoln Center Theater’s “My Fair Lady.” It had just completed a week at Minneapolis’ Orpheum Theatre, and I found the show curiously low on energy and heart. Yes, it was beautifully designed and choreographed, but the cast lacked much in the way of palpable enthusiasm for the material.In hindsight, I contemplate whether the performers were distracted by trepidation, for COVID-19 was starting to claim victims in much of the country, including the company’s home base of New York City. Surely, there were more important things on their minds.So I attended opening night of the production’s Twin Cities return – this time at St. Paul’s Ordway Music Theater – optimistic that a new cast would relish the return to live performance, and run gleefully into the arms of a musical theater masterpiece.And I’m happy to report that is indeed the case. This “My Fair Lady” is a high-energy del...

Thomas Friedman: Everything, everywhere is going to change all at once

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:50:00 GMT

I had a most remarkable but unsettling experience last week. Craig Mundie, the former chief research and strategy officer for Microsoft, was giving me a demonstration of GPT-4, the most advanced version of the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI and launched in November. Craig was preparing to brief the board of my wife’s museum, Planet Word, of which he is a member, about the effect ChatGPT will have on words, language and innovation.“You need to understand,” Craig warned me before he started his demo, “this is going to change everything about how we do everything. I think that it represents mankind’s greatest invention to date. It is qualitatively different — and it will be transformational.”Large language modules like ChatGPT will steadily increase in their capabilities, Craig added, and take us “toward a form of artificial general intelligence,” delivering efficiencies in operations, ideas, discoveries and insights “that have never been attainable before...

Cory Franklin and Robert Weinstein: The health of Americans is a big reason for our high COVID-19 death rate

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:50:00 GMT

For the past three years, the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated, and will continue to demonstrate in the future, that America is one of the unhealthiest countries in the industrialized world. Critics on the right and left harp on how the pandemic was handled, but in fact the dismal outcomes in the U.S. do not reflect management of the crisis so much as our underlying health as a country.With the caveat that the actual figures from China are unknown, in the past three years, the U.S. is the only country in the world that has suffered more than 1 million deaths from COVID-19. The U.S. death total exceeds that of every other country, except Brazil, by more than half a million. Even when normalized for population, the U.S. per-capita death rate is just outside the top 10 in the world and rising steadily.This is not the result of the policies of President Donald Trump or President Joe Biden. Nor does the explanation for the high number of U.S. deaths lie in an abnormally high case total...

Letters: Building enduring relationships is what matters

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:50:00 GMT

Building relationshipsMayor Melvin Carter signed a proclamation making March 18 Vic Rosenthal Day. Vic led the Minnesota Senior Federation for many years before deftly guiding Jewish Community Action as its longest-serving executive director before retiring in 2017. Even in retirement, though, Vic kept active, leading many diverse elder talking circles while serving on the City of St. Paul’s Reparations Legislative Advisory Committee.He would still be doing this important work. However Vic entered hospice care on March 17.Vic is one of those ordinary people who did extraordinary things in his life.At a time when the societal leaders who too frequently garner our attention are those making the loudest noises, Vic’s leadership style was decidedly different. He preferred making the necessary connections behind the scenes, while encouraging and mentoring everyday people into public leadership roles. Vic has always been most interested in working with society’s underdogs. He had a chip o...

St. Paul man sentenced for sexually assaulting 15-year-old girl on Green Line train

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:50:00 GMT

A St. Paul man has been sentenced to five years in prison for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl on a Green Line train.Brandon Trumanue Lindsey, 39, pleaded guilty to third-degree criminal sexual conduct in August and was sentenced Monday by Ramsey County District Judge Kelly Olmstead.Brandon Trumanue Lindsey (Courtesy of the Ramsey County sheriff’s office)According to the criminal complaint, the girl boarded the train at the Rice Street stop at 8:35 p.m. Sept. 2, 2021, to ride to the Dinkytown area near the University of Minnesota. As she was getting on the train, a man later identified by police as Lindsey asked her to hold the door for him. He sat near her and offered her marijuana, which she declined. She told police she could smell alcohol on him.Lindsey then grabbed the back of her neck and forced her head into his lap, demanding she perform oral sex on him while he groped her, the complaint states. He got off the train. The girl continued to Dinkytown, told her sist...

FBI Albany to host recruiting event for women

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:50:00 GMT

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — The FBI Albany Field Office is hosting a special recruiting event for women, next Tuesday, March 28. Special Agent in Charge, Janeen DiGuiseppi, said women play a crucial role in law enforcement—making victims and witnesses feel more comfortable. Get the latest, news, weather, sports and community events delivered right to your inbox! "Women naturally want to help, and to support, and bring a different perspective that a male may not bring," explained DiGuiseppi. "It's more comforting and easier to speak to a female." The event on Tuesday is not just about recruiting. A panel of women will share what it's like to wear the badge, touching on that growing need for diversity. Colonie High School partners with FBI to combat ‘Sextortion’ "They're going to be able to demystify for women that you can have a family and be in law enforcement," continued DiGuiseppi. "There's a balance, and it can be done, and you can be successful as a law enforcement officer."In...