Headlines / Quote of the Week
Fri., March 21, 2025
Changing Downtown Traffic: A new strategic plan for Austin’s Downtown is advancing, and it involves fully converting several streets from one-ways to two-ways – Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth streets. Urbanists support the plan, the Austin Monitor reports, as they say evidence from conversions in other cities slow traffic down in a way that makes streets safer and increases engagement with businesses. Some Planning Commissioners oppose the plan, saying it’s not friendly to people who rely on cars downtown, and that it would require eliminating some bus lanes.
A Women’s Sports Bar is Born: Texas’ first women’s sports bar has opened up in Austin, KUT reports. The 1972 Pub across from UT campus plans to only show women’s sports. “I can come be with like-minded people and watch women’s sports and get riled up,” an attendee of an early watch party at the pub told KUT. “Every time UT scores, like the whole bar is going crazy. And that’s just really cool.”
Big Ol’ Tusk: You can feel it when you’re in the Big Bend – ancient bones of a lost world lie under your feet. The latest of these to be discovered, a big mammoth tusk, was found this winter. KUT reports that a hunter stumbled upon a tusk of ivory about the size of a person on a private ranch last December. It once belonged to a mammoth, a species of beast which stood 10-12 feet tall at the shoulder, weighed 10 tons, and became extinct 12,000 years ago – but not before humans crossed into North America and began hunting them.
Construction Risks: Federal authorities and local law enforcement are investigating the tragic crash on I-35 that killed five people, including two children, on March 14 in North Austin. The feds will assess the safety of the highway construction zone where the crash occurred and research the background of the semi-truck driver who has been charged with five counts of intoxication manslaughter. Austin police say the driver was under the influence when he smashed into cars which had slowed to a stop at a work zone for the ongoing highway expansion near Parmer Lane, where three highway lanes reduced to one.
Reducing Traffic Deaths: I-35 is certainly a frightening stretch of highway to drive. But the Travis County Commissioners Court is hoping to change that reality, voting last week to set a goal of reducing traffic fatalities by half in the next 10 years and completely eliminating them by 2050 with its Safe Streets action plan. The county solicited input from 1,200 residents in formulating the plan. “A lot of the challenges are not so much dangerous portions of roads, but driver behavior,” Dan Malson, consultant project manager for the plan, told the Austin Monitor. “[We’re] trying to build roadway safety culture within Travis County.”
Case of the Missing Bluebonnets: It’s the most beautiful time of the year in Central Texas, but where are all our bluebonnets? Usually, huge swaths of the cheerful state flower blanket the sides of local roadways and open fields starting right about now. But with much of the area in a severe drought, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center – the authority on such matters – says there will be many fewer bluebonnets this year. The center’s lead horticulturist, Hannah Armstrong, recommends driving east if you’re looking for places to take the traditional springtime-among-the-bluebonnets family portrait.
First Abortion Arrests in Texas: After a monthlong attorney general investigation, two people have been arrested and charged with performing illegal abortions in Houston, The Texas Tribune reports. The abortion charge is a second-degree felony carrying up to 20 years in prison. A press release from the AG’s office said the woman leading the network of clinics “unlawfully employed unlicensed individuals who falsely presented themselves as licensed medical professionals.”
UT Bans Drag: The hysteria over drag shows has seeped into higher education. Last week, UT-Austin became the latest Texas university to ban the shows, several weeks after Texas A&M did the same. The drag bans are part of Republicans’ fearmongering and persecution of trans people. In January, Donald Trump ordered federal agencies to ensure public funds aren’t used to promote “gender ideology.” Gov. Greg Abbott directed state agencies not to “distort commonsense notions of biological sex.”
Sheriff’s Deputies Enforcing Immigration: Republicans are advancing a bill – SB 8 – that would force county sheriffs to collaborate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A priority of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, SB 8 would require Texas counties with more than 100,000 residents to deputize county officers to question people about their immigration status. At a hearing this week, sheriffs, even those who support the idea, warned that doing immigration enforcement could overburden their operations, particularly if the Legislature doesn’t provide them extra funding.
Religion in Schools: On Tuesday, the Senate approved a pair of bills that critics say would favor Christianity over other religions in public schools. SB 10, a bill requiring public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every schoolroom in the state, was approved and sent to the House for consideration. So was SB 11, a bill allowing school districts to schedule time each school day for students to pray and read “the Bible and other religious texts.”
Let’s Not Burn Down: The city of Austin is planning to dramatically expand the amount of area where homes are considered at risk of wildfire damage – in fact, it will amount to half of the city, KUT reports. As summers have gotten hotter, Austin now ranks fifth in the country among cities with the highest number of homes at risk of wildfire damage.
Sink or... Actually, Just Sink: Have you ever fallen into a sinkhole? It could happen. A giant sinkhole recently opened on a ranch outside McCamey, a stretch of utterly barren West Texas, north of Fort Stockton. The sinkhole formed around an oil well sunk in the 1950s. “The Kelton family, which owns the ranch, became alarmed recently as a sinkhole around the well rapidly grew,” The Texas Tribune reports. “Water pooled in the bottom of the sinkhole. Then crude oil began migrating up from underground and formed a dark layer over the water. By mid-March, the sinkhole was roughly 200 feet in diameter and 40 feet deep, big enough to fit a four-story building. The smell of crude permeated the air.” Yeah, don’t fall in a sinkhole.
Quote of the Week
“It’s suddenly much larger. And it’s suddenly got oil.”
– Bill Kelton, telling the story of a massive sinkhole where an oil well was plugged in Upton County
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