After making landfall in Florida last night as a Category 4 storm, Hurricane Helene is now a tropical storm. So far, three people have died.
Volunteers from Central Texas are already getting in position to help.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) requested help from Texas A&M Task Force 1. After approval from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, crews are headed to Florida. (KXAN-TV)
An update on Helene…
The Carolinas are bracing…
The Travis County Attorney’s Office has a warning for county residents – beware of phone calls claiming to be TCAO and demanding money to remove warrants. (KXAN-TV)
Austin Public Health officials say they’re investigating an increase in possible human cases of West Nile virus. (Fox7 Austin)
Austin City Council has approved a resolution directing the city to find funding to keep the Marshalling Yard emergency homeless shelter open beyond its slated March 2025 closure date. (CBS Austin)
Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO) is looking for around 1,200 volunteers to help conduct surveys for the biannual Point In Time Count for January, 2025. The PIT Count is a one-night survey to count the number of people who are experiencing homelessness in the Austin area. (KXAN-TV via Yahoo! News)
The Austin Police Department initiated a joint investigation into an East Austin game room following numerous complaints and a significant number of arrests at the site over the past several months. (CBS Austin)
Austin police responded to a shooting Thursday morning in Central East Austin. One person was injured.
A jury found an Austin man guilty in the 2022 murders of his wife and stepson and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. (Fox7 Austin)
The trial of Austin policeman Christopher Taylor resumed Thursday. So far seven people have testified.
The Austin Police Department provided more details on an incident where a man allegedly killed his wife and then himself in a northwest Austin apartment complex Tuesday.
Austin’s new police contract is almost a done deal, but some council members have raised concerns over how personnel files (‘”g-files”) will be treated going forward. (KVUE-TV)
Travis County Commissioners have set aside millions of dollars in their nearly $2 billion budget for the county’s justice system.
The Austin City Council approved an ordinance Thursday that will soon require residents to microchip their pets. (Austin American-Statesman)
City Council also approved $1.9 billion in contracts for a planned expansion of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. (CBS Austin)
Austin City Council made several changes to its meeting rules that the city hopes will improve public engagement and transparency. (KUT 90.5)
CapMetro will launch Rapid Routes next year with slower service and diesel buses. (KUT 90.5)
A wave of lawsuits contend that the power outages during the 2021 ice storm in Central Texas were, in fact, a result of market manipulation by some of Texas’s biggest fossil fuel companies. (KXAN-TV)
An early morning update on what is now Tropical Storm Helene.
An earthquake with a magnitude of 2.1 on the Richter Scale hit about six miles southeast of Canyon Lake, just before noon on Thursday. (Texas Public Radio)
Low temperatures dipped below 60 degrees in some areas of the region this morning. The trend of warm afternoons and cool mornings will continue through at least the next five days.
Civic and business leaders are embracing the inevitability of an Austin-San Antonio metroplex. (Austin Business Journal)
A former vice president of the Houston Livestock and Rodeo organization pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. (Lonestar Live)
The Supreme Court of Texas on Thursday night denied Attorney General Ken Paxton’s emergency filing seeking to overturn the State Fair of Texas’ policy banning all firearms from its fairgrounds. The fair is set to start today. (KXAN-TV)
The State Fair of Texas opens today.
Fort Bend County Judge KP George was booked into jail Thursday evening hours after his indictment for an alleged election scheme involving racist social media posts. (KTRK-TV)
A Texas state legislator is vowing to ban the use of unclaimed bodies for research after it was learned a local medical program obtained and studied hundreds of human specimens without families’ permission. (NBC News)
A Texas commission unanimously on Thursday approved the Permian Basin Reliability Plan, which is designed to expand power grid infrastructure in the United States’ largest oilfield to accommodate rapidly growing demand from the oil and gas industry. (Reuters)
Why a national Democratic group is investing in the race between Ted Cruz and Colin Allred. (Austin American-Statesman)
The Odd Couple: How Ted Cruz and John Cornyn went from fractured to friendly. (Texas Tribune)
A new poll indicates Ohio Senator JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential candidate, is less popular among voters than his Democratic rival, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. (KVUE-TV)
The two presidential candidates continue to battle with 39 days until the election.
Kamala Harris will visit the southern border today while Donald Trump will campaign in Michigan. (NBC News)
Donald Trump has agreed to a last-minute meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky despite repeatedly criticizing him on the US campaign trail. (BBC)
SPORTS
The Dallas Cowboys were hit with injuries in last night’s 20-15 win against the Giants in New York but they are now 2-2 on the season. (NFL.com)
How the Cowboys, despite imperfections, buckled down to earn a crucial win. (Lonestar Live)
Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said Thursday the decision on whether quarterback Quinn Ewers plays in the Longhorns’ Southeastern Conference opener will come today.
The SEC just means more, but so does Texas football. (Daily Texan)
Thursday night Central Texas high school football scores. (KXAN-TV)
In baseball, the Houston Astros had Thursday off and headed to Cleveland where they will face the Guardians in the final series of the regular season. Houston has already secured the AL West division title.
Meanwhile, the Texas Rangers lost at Oakland yesterday, 3-2, in a game only significant because it was the final MLB game to be played at the Oakland Coliseum. The A’s will play the next two seasons at a minor league ballpark in Sacramento before moving permanently to Las Vegas in 2027.
Fair Park is home to the State Fair of Texas and has a rich history…
