The people who fill construction jobs in Austin are workers, “just like many of you,” Jose Luis Rodriguez, a 35-year-old electrician, said Thursday.
“We are people with families waiting at home after a long day of work who hope we get back home safe and sound,” Rodriguez said at a press conference announcing a collaboration between federal and local officials to improve safety in the local construction industry.
Representatives of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and two Austin-based non-profit groups — Construction Safety and Health Inc., a safety training center, and the Workers Defense Project — signed an agreement forming the partnership. About 30 supporters of the workers group applauded the signing at their headquarters in East Austin.
“A strategic alliance is not only good for workers, it’s good for business by ensuring that responsible employers don’t have to compete with employers who don’t play by the (federal workplace safety) rules,” said project director Cristina Tzintzún.
Casey Perkins, the director of OSHA’s Austin area office, said the alliance combines the resources and expertise of the federal government and local organizations and gives construction workers another avenue to bring safety complaints to OSHA. He said the workers project has been particularly effective in bringing the complaints of Spanish-speaking workers to the government’s attention. OSHA is the the arm of the Labor Department that enforces federal laws on construction site safety.
A 2009 study on the Austin construction industry said that 70 percent of its workers in Travis County in 2006 were foreign-born. The same study by the Workers Defense Project in conjunction with the University of Texas’ Division of Diversity and Community Engagement depicted an industry plagued by poor and dangerous working conditions. One in five workers surveyed said they were not always paid for their work. Industry representatives have disputed those findings.
Tzintzún said that under the agreement, OSHA representatives will regularly attend the workers group’s meeting to train workers about their rights and take their complaints. She said the workers group will be able to refer construction industry employers to OSHA for possible investigation.
Elizabeth Todd, a spokeswoman for the Department of Labor in Dallas, said the new alliance is part of a broader effort by the agency to work more closely with local nonprofit and advocacy groups across the country to advise workers about their rights and health and safety hazards in the workplace.
At Thursday’s event, Betty Campbell, a deputy regional administrator with the labor department’s wage and hour division, said the department has limited resources. By working with groups such as the workers project, and non-profit and faith groups, unions, and Mexican consulates, the agency is leveraging its resources, Campbell said, adding that the wage and hour division began working with the Austin workers project in October 2009.
Tzintzún said her organization serves about 2,500 workers a year and receives about 50 calls a week from workers who report they weren’t paid for their labor or they suffered a serious injury on the job and don’t know their rights
Rodriguez, who is trying to recover wages he says are owed to him, said he didn’t understand his rights either until he called the workers project. He said the Labor Department is investigating his case.
On Tuesday, Philadelphians witnessed a barge crash into a stalled duck boat belonging to Ride the Ducks, a Norcross, Ga., company. Two passengers were killed and several injured. Ride the Ducks suspended operations at its five other locations around the country — Branson, Mo.; Newport, Ky.; San Francisco; Stone Mountain Park, Ga.; and Seattle, according to the company’s Web site.
But Austin Duck Adventures, which is independently owned by Paul Mahler, continues to operate. Mahler says other duck boats are often retrofitted World War II amphibious vehicles; his two duck boats, on the other hand, date to 2007, when he got rid of his three old duck boats and bought Hydra-Terras.
He said the Hydra-Terras are certified by the U.S. Coast Guard and National Transportation and Safety Board. And he said the new diesel-powered Hydra-Terras are unlikely to stall like the Philadelphia boats, which contributed to the crash.
“I’m very confident in our vehicles,” he said.
He said he had been approached by Ride the Ducks several years ago to open a franchise, but turned the company down.
Jaime’s Spanish Village, the Tex-Mex restaurant at 802 Red River St. known for its low-slung ceilings and margaritas, is closing after losing its lease.
John Kelso will write about the closing in tomorrow’s Statesman and on statesman.com.
Here’s an excerpt:
Jaime’s, which opened 79 years ago when Hoover was president, shut down temporarily on June 30 at the landlord’s order, said Charlie Tames, the current owner.
But Tames has reopened the place for most of the rest of this month so he can give the proceeds made at the restaurant during those weeks to his employees. The place was back open Thursday, but the last chips and salsa will be served on July 30. Tames has to be out by the next day.
“I have a day job,” said Tames, who runs the international department for Merrill Lynch here in Austin. “The easiest thing for me would be to turn off the lights and go back to my day job. But that’s just not right.” They’ll also take donations for the workers.
“If somebody donates, say, $15, to the employee fund, we’ll give ‘em a free jar of hot sauce,” Tames said.
Jaime’s is known for its hot sauce and queso, and for decades was a hangout for University of Texas students, and politicians wandering over from the Capitol.
If the clouds stay away early Saturday morning, Central Texans will be treated to a partial eclipse of the moon.
The moon will enter Earth’s shadow around 5:17 a.m., and a widening chunk will appear to disappear over the next 80 minutes, according to StarDate magazine. (Photo at right is from a January 2000 lunar eclipse by former American-Statesman photographer Taylor Johnson.)
The time of greatest eclipse — a shadow over about half the moon — will be at 6:38 a.m., and the moon will still be in eclipse when it disappears over the western horizon later in the morning, the magazine says.
And here’s what the magazine, published by the University of Texas McDonald Observatory, says:
The majority of viewers in the Central time zone will see most of the eclipse. Those in the easternmost areas of the time zone, like Chicago and Memphis, won’t see much, as the Moon will have set or be sinking below the horizon as the eclipse begins. But folks in the central and westernmost parts of the central time zone, including most of Texas, will see the majority of the event, from the beginning through greatest eclipse and some of the waning of the eclipse. The Moon will sink below the horizon before the eclipse ends.
The National Weather Service expects to see some clouds in Central Texas before dawn. “We’re in that time of year where we’re getting a lot of gulf moisture overnight, and that helps bring in a low stratus stack that burns off during the day, so early in the morning we do have partly cloudy (forecast)”, meteorologist Chris Morris said.
If the clouds or the early hour means you miss this one, there will be a total lunar eclipse — when the entire body enters Earth’s shadow — on Dec. 21.
Fado Irish Pub on Fourth Street was packed inside and out this morning as people nudged their way around to see the U.S. World Cup match against Algeria. People dressed in U.S. team jerseys with flags around their necks mixed with people in business suits who had taken a break from jobs downtown.
Micah Frazier, a software engineer for IBM, was working on his laptop during the match. “Thank God for wireless Internet,” he said.
The mood was tense as the game wore on, with people crying ooh and ahh as goals that appeared certain were denied. Some people considered leaving during the last 10 minutes.
But the place erupted when a late goal put the Americans through to the next round. People began singing and chanting USA! USA! USA!
Josh Molluer, dressed in a team jersey and sunglasses with USA in the lenses, jumped on a table and began waving an American flag.
“I called in sick,” said Molleur, who owns a video production company. “I work for myself so I convinced myself I was really sick today.”
Frazier said he doesn’t think he’ll go to work today. “I absolutely almost cried,” he said.
His friend Mohit Burman was dressed in slacks and a dress shirt. “I dressed like I was going to work today, but it’s not happening,” Burman said.
The Cathedral of Junk has been resurrected. At least for now.
The latest twist in the wrangling over South Austin artist Vince Hanneman’s yard art involved a meeting with city officials, a day after Hanneman announced he was tearing his monument to junk down.
Hanneman said city officials have told him that he will be allowed to keep the 33-foot tower of cast-offs that he has painstakingly constructed over the last 20 years. Hanneman had decided to dismantle it this week after months of back-and-forth city code enforcement officers over safety concerns.
Now, Hanneman said he has agreed to submit a letter from an engineer confirming the structure’s safety. He said he also will apply for a building permit early next week.
Once that’s all done, city officials said they will issue him a certificate of compliance in the following weeks—to be tacked onto the Cathedral’s ever-mounting pile of junk.
Alberto Martinez/AMERICAN-STATESMAN — Vince Hannemann, left, worked with a volunteer in March to shore up the Cathedral in hopes of preserving it.
It was the city’s intent all along that the Cathedral be preserved, said Leon Barba, an assistant director with Planning and Development Review. Hanneman, Barba said, “probably misunderstood what the engineer said.”
Hanneman said he is happy that the structure will remain an Austin landmark but said working with through the city bureaucracy was unnecessarily complicated.
“This is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do,” Hanneman said. “It was like a cross between a divorce and a death.”
There are new rules for the Cathedral following the agreement: Hanneman will have to limit the number of people who visit the tower to 50 at a time, and visitors can no longer climb on the structure.
Hanneman still isn’t sure that the fight is entirely over.
“I’m still holding my breath, but I feel like the tide is turning,” he said. “We’re back on track towards trying to get a permit. I’m hoping that it will all work out.”
Watch that setting on the toaster; about 200 people were evacuated from a downtown office building this morning when a smoke alarm went off, officials from the Texas Department of Public Safety said.
The cause of the disturbance: Burnt toast.
Two DPS Capitol Police units responded to a call about 10 a.m. from the William P. Clements State Office Building on 15th Street and Lavaca Street, officials said.
Smoke rising from the kitchen on the 14th floor triggered the smoke alarm, officials said.
About 200 people made it out of the 15-story building before the order was canceled — six minutes later, officials said.
No injuries or structural damages were reported, officials said. It is unclear if the toast was eaten.
From the City of Austin’s Transportation Department:
Filming on E. Ninth St. to Affect Traffic Thursday, Friday
Road closures will take place between 5 a.m. Thursday, May 27 and 11 p.m. Friday, May 28 along East 9th Street between Congress Avenue and Brazos Street and along the alley just east of Congress between East 8th and 10th streets for a film production.
Austin Police Department officers will be on hand to help detour traffic and ease delays through the area. Alternate routes are suggested including eastbound along 7th Street and east and west along 11th Street.
A homeless man who has been standing on a billboard off Interstate 35 to draw attention to the city’s homeless population will move into a new home today, according to a website dedicated to the cause.
Since late April, Danny Silver has been standing on the 50-foot billboard just off Woodland Avenue on the southbound side of I-35. The billboard has a large arrow pointing at Silver and asks people to text “Danny” to 20222 to make a $10 donation to get Silver off the streets. Besides asking drivers to text, the billboard also directs them to the campaign’s website, www.iamheremlf.org, if they want to do more.
The campaign drew enough response that Silver and his wife Maggie, who uses a wheel chair, will move into their new home today, according to iamheremlf.org
The advertising campaign, called “I Am Here,” is a partnership between advertising agency T3 and Mobile Loaves and Fishes, a nonprofit group that feeds the homeless. T3 employees volunteered their creative services and Reagan National Advertising donated the billboards for four weeks to draw attention to Silver’s plight.
The goal is to create a new way to help the homeless - and it’s aimed at people who might pass a homeless person and not know what to do, Kate Donaho, T3’s group creative director, has said.
“It’s been overwhelming,” said Ben Gaddis, director of emerging media at T3. “It’s been extremely positive. The outpouring of not only donations but support from the community has been amazing.”
Danny and Maggie will move into a model home at the Royal Palms Community Manufactured Homes and RV community, close to Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, Gaddis said.
Gaddis said an event to commemorate the move will begin at the home at 11:30 a.m. today. And Danny’s daughter, who lost touch with Silver 15 years ago, is also expected to reunite with her father at the home after seeing his story on CNN, Gaddis said.
Gaddis said the buzz tied to the initiative has also been overwhelming. Silver’s story was picked up in 199 news segments in 30 markets, was the top video on CNN.com the day after the initiative was launched and reached 252,000 people on Twitter. In two days, the initiative reached it’s initial goal to raise $12,000 to move Silver and his wife into a new home, Gaddis said.
Gaddis said the initiative isn’t over yet, however. The program continues to raise money through text messages and other routes to put additional families in homes, and will be ongoing, he said.
A man lauded for rescuing several people from the IRS building in February after a pilot intentionally crashed his plane into it will be an honorary crew chief at the Texas Motor Speedway NASCAR Sprint Cup Saturday and Sunday in Fort Worth.
Robin De Haven has been named an “ExtenZe Local Hero” and will be the ExtenZe racing honorary crew chief for ExtenZe racing at the NASCAR race.
ExtenZe is a male enhancement product.
PHOTO CREDIT: Tony Gutierrez/Associated Press
De Haven, an employee of Binswanger Glass, was on his way to work Feb. 18 when he saw smoke rising from the Northwest Austin office building following the plane crash. De Haven grabbed his ladder and helped evacuate five people from the burning Echelon I building.
The pilot, Andrew Joseph Stack III, and IRS worker Vernon Hunter died in the incident.
EARLIER: If you haven’t filed your taxes by now, it’s now officially time to hurry.
Today marks the annual deadline to file your 2009 Internal Revenue Service tax returns, and the forms are due by 11:59 tonight.
For those mailing their forms by regular snail mail, check your local post office hours. Most are closing their retail windows by 4:30 to 5 p.m. today. And normal collection times apply for collection boxes outside, post officials have said.
“Postal customers should look for the last collection time posted on the collection box to ensure their return will have an April 15 postmark,” a release from the office said.
Big time procrastinators still have hope, however. The U.S. Post Office location at 8225 Cross Park Drive in Northeast Austin will be open until midnight.
Have your envelope stamped and ready to go if you go to this location. Employees will only be collecting mail and no retail service will be available.
Mailing supplies there “are going to be very limited,” said spokeswoman Barbara Pokorny.
The post office will have employees in the median collecting mail from drivers until midnight tonight, Pokorny said. And that could be tricky if the region gets the rain projected in the local weather forecast for today, she said.
Any questions about mail? Call the postal service at (800) ASK-USPS or (800) 275-8777).
If you’ve already filed your taxes and want to celebrate, or if you’re just looking for some good food and drink deals, check out a list of Tax Day specials.
During World War II, more than a thousand women flew 60 million miles in the fastest fighter planes and heaviest bombers in every type of mission except combat.
The Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASP, served in 1942 to 1944 as the first women pilots to fly American military craft. Dozens lost their lives on the job and at the end of the program in 1944, the 1,102 women received little recognition for their role in the war — until now.
Nearly 70 years after their service, the women will receive a Congressional Gold Medal for their service during World War II during a ceremony Wednesday in the nation’s capital.
The ceremony is scheduled to be aired live on the Pentagon’s Web Channel, www.PentagonChannel.mil, starting at 10 a.m. CST.
There will be one Gold Medal made by the U.S. Mint. This medal will be revealed to the public at the ceremony, and then will be donated to the Smithsonian Institution. More than 1,000 bronze medal replicas of the gold medal will be awarded to each WASP survivor and to a family member of those who have died. Additional duplicate bronze medals will be available for purchase from the Mint, for remaining family members and others interested in the WASPs.
“It feels marvelous,” said 87-year-old Susie Bain. The North Austin resident is in Washington for the ceremony. “I never thought it would happen in my lifetime. We just wanted something down in the history books. But this is amazing. They’re treating us like queens.”
Ralph Barrera/AMERICAN-STATESMAN 2009: Austinite Susie Bain was a fighter pilot during World War II who flew non-combat missions along with many other women who logged 60 million miles. Bain showed the Statesman a book of mementos and photographs taken in 1943 of her in her uniform upon graduation, left, and her flight jacket, right.
The bill to recognize these women was proposed in 2009 by U.S. senators Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas, and Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., and was signed by President Obama in July 2009.
About 300 WASP are still living, 31 of whom are from Texas. About half of them have headed to D.C. along with their families for the festivities hosted by the Women in Military Service For America Memorial Foundation.
“They didn’t expect this many people to be able to make it,” Bain said. “They thought these old ladies couldn’t get out of their wheel chairs.”
WASP did not receive veteran status until 1977. When the group was disbanded in 1944, the women received no benefits nor a memorial for those who had died.
Ceremonies begin today with a service of rememberance for the 38 women who died during duty and a ceremony at the Women in Military Service for America memorial.
For more information on the WASP, visit the Web site of the National WASP World War II Museum in Sweetwater, http://waspmuseum.org.
The clouds threatening rain mean that the 82nd Annual Zilker Kite Festival will happen on Sunday, March 14th instead of tomorrow, organizers said.
“We’re very sorry for that, but we really think that next Sunday we’ll have a better kite festival,” an organizer said in a recorded message.
That’s likely. The clouds, according to the National Weather Service, are going to stick around. Tomorrow, there’s a 70 percent chance of rain with a lot of low clouds, a National Weather Service forecaster said. The best chances of rain will be in the afternoon or evening. The lows for tonight will be in the low to mid 50s. Tomorrow, the high will be in the low 60s and the low temperatures will be in the mid to upper 50s.
Martin Middle School history teacher Michelle LaRocque found the perfect field trip for her Texas history students this morning: the cowboy breakfast at Auditorium Shores.
So LaRocque and other Martin teachers and their seventh-grade students filled up two school buses and hit the road. The breakfast kicked off at 6 a.m., marking the start of the Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo.
“It brings what we are teaching to life,” LaRocque said. “What better way to teach them about cattle drives and Texas?”
AMERICAN-STATESMAN/Rodolfo Gonzalez: Cowboy trick roper and entertainer, Kevin Fitzpatrick of Bandera, ropes a whole group of students from Cowan Elementary School’s safety patrol during their visit to the Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo Cowboy Breakfast.
The Martin students joined thousands of others — from moms to children to workers coming off the night shift — enjoying the annual free cowboy breakfast, including classics such as biscuits and gravy and coffee served from black kettles. Attendees also had the chance to ride on a longhorn or dance to country music.
“It’s probably the best crowd we ever had,” said Hap Feuerbacher, a board director for the Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo. “At 6 a.m., it was jam packed. You could hardly walk.”
Feuerbacher said the most inspiriting part of Friday’s event were the number of children who attended the breakfast.
They “get to learn what the rodeo is all about, which is raising money for kids,” he said.
Last year, the rodeo raised $1.5 million that went for youth-related programs, including scholarships, he said.
The Austin Zoo and Animal Sanctuary may have a lion family that can help resurrect a subspecies scientists believe to be extinct.
The zoo last year received Cleopatra and Caesar, and Cleopatra gave birth to two cubs on Jan. 12. The lion family’s genes are being tested in Germany to determine if they are part of the Barbary Lion subspecies.
The Barbary lion formerly ranged in North Africa, from Morocco to Egypt, and was among the heaviest of lions. Males, which sported a distinctive thick, dark mane that extended from the groin to end in a golden halo around the face, weighed up to 500 pounds, and females weighed up to 350 pounds, according to BarbaryLion.com.
If Austin’s lion family shares a significant number of genetic markers with the Barbary line, the animals will be released into a national park in Morocco and bred selectively. The breeding will be overseen by the Barbary Lion Project by Wildlink International and Oxford University. The zoo could receive test results in a few months.
“This is the first time animals have been conceived at the Austin Zoo,” said Patti Clark, executive director and president of the sanctuary and zoo. “These lions and their cubs can be potentially helpful in resurrecting this species.”
Meanwhile, the zoo is allowing visitors to view the cubs from 3 to 4 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays . For more information, visit www.austinzoo.org or call 288-1490 .
The Austin Women’s Club building downtown was named to Preservation Texas’ annual list of most endangered historic places in the state, officials with the nonprofit group said today.
The building, which was built in 1874 at 710 San Antonio St., suffers from deterioration and antiquated infrastructure,” according to a statement from the group.
The 2010 list also includes all historic buildings in downtown Austin, a drive-in theater in Granbury, the Old Llano County Jail and the San Jacinto Battleground.
“The members of the Austin Woman’s Club, like members of many other civic organizations, struggle to preserve their historic headquarters while continuing their history of serving the community,” Preservation Texas President Susan Lassell said in a statement. “This … structure with its strong ties to Austin’s political and cultural growth merits community support.”
Downtown Austin, an area bounded by Interstate 35 to Lamar and Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd, to Lady Bird Lake, has seen an increase in the number of residents and large buildings that threaten many historic places, the statement said.
“Preservationists have urged the city to articulate a vision for Austin that includes the preservation of its historic buildings,” the statement said. “As the city continues to grow - up and out - the pressure on the small-scale historic buildings can only increase.”
Preservation Texas, a nonprofit group that raises money and awareness for saving historic places, has been releasing a list of endangered historic places since 2004.
“The sites on our 2010 list represent the most eminent needs and highest probability for positive action,” Lassell said. “By calling attention to them now, we want to encourage residents to act while there’s still time.”
Other Austin-area sites that have been on previous lists include the Congress Avenue historic district, Governor’s Mansion and the Hamilton Pool Preserve.
An Elgin-area foundation that uses horses in therapy to treat autistic and special needs children is calling for donations of tack, saddles, horse blankets and the like after a fire last week gutted the converted farmhouse that the foundation used for children’s playdates and occasional therapy and instruction.
“The big thing is we’re still operational,” said Rupert Isaacson, who started the Horse Boy Foundation after his son, Rowan, showed startling improvement after a horseback trip to Mongolia. The story of Isaccson and his wife Kristin Neff’s journey with their son was the subject of a book Isaacson wrote, “The Horse Boy,” and a 2009 documentary film of the same name by Austinite Michel Orion Scott.
Isaacson said the structure was “gone and gutted” after the fire, which broke out about 10 a.m. Friday. The structure was insured. The contents were not, Isaacson said.
The cause is still under investigation, but the South Africa-born Isaacson said an investigator told him the cause was likely electrical. No one was injured. Isaacson estimated the house was worth about $140,000.
That Isaacson will continue his work is good news for the 20 to 30 children, their siblings and parents who used the facility. The plan now is to move operations to the Isaacson’s next-door neighbors, who have a guest house Isaacson hopes to furnish in a manner similar to the destroyed structure.
People interested in helping out can visit horseboyfoundation.org or call Isaacson at 294-1561.
If the census, the decennial effort to count every person in the country, is all about numbers, consider this figure — $235,980,000.
That’s the amount of federal money Travis County officials believe the county missed out on as the result of a 2000 census undercount of about 16,000 residents, County Judge Sam Biscoe said today.
Biscoe cited the figure to underscore that the upcoming 2010 census is important because it determines how much federal money flows to local communities.
“That’s a lot of bread. That’s a lot of do-good money,” Biscoe said, drawing laughter from an overflow crowd of elected officials, census staffers and volunteers who attended this morning’s opening of the 2010 Census office in Austin.
The roughly $236 million figure was calculated by Austin city demographer Ryan Robinson and Deece Eckstein, Travis County coordinator of governmental relations, who said they based it on a 2001 Pricewaterhouse Coopers study —which estimated 2000 census undercounts across the nation — and the amount of federal money distributed to local communities as a result of the census. Robinson said he adjusted for inflation, population and differences in the pots of federal money available.
At Wednesday’s event, Biscoe and other speakers, including Gabriel Sanchez, the director of the Census Bureau’s Dallas region, repeatedly emphasized the importance of participating in the census.
Besides determining how the federal government annually allocates more than $400 billion to communities, the counts shape political power — used as a benchmark to determine each state’s congressional seats and to redraw legislative districts.
According to Sanchez, among all states, Texas is expected to add the most population growth since the 2000 census.
Sanchez said the totals impact everything from road construction to resources for schoolchildren to the business decisions that are made every day in every town.
“Everything has a root in census numbers,” Sanchez said.
But the census traditionally faces a number of challenges to getting an accurate count — “misinformation, fear and indifference,” said Biscoe — and this year is not expected to be different.
“People say, ‘Well, all I want is to be left alone.’ Complete that 10-question (census) questionnaire, mail it in and we’ll see you 10 years later,” Biscoe said. “You can’t be left alone more than that.”
County Court at Law 2 Judge Eric Shepperd said some mistakenly believe that the census shares the information it gathers with other federal agencies. Sanchez said it is not.
“We have to dispel the myths,” Shepperd said. He and Biscoe said a coordinated city-county team of volunteers will reach out to various segments of the community, including the homeless, Spanish-speaking immigrants, and other ethnic groups.
According to the Census Bureau, 120 million U.S. households will receive census forms in mid-March. The 10-question form is the shortest in the nation’s history and takes about 10 minutes to complete, census officials said.
For more information about the upcoming census, visit www.2010census.gov
Happy Festivus, everyone. Let’s all celebrate together, using Twitter. It is, after all, the holiday “for the rest of us.”
Festivus was brought to light by a “Seinfeld” episode that aired 12 years ago. The wacky holiday, which apparently was real in “Seinfeld” writer Dan O’Keefe’s household, includes an aluminum pole, the always-popular “airing of the grievances” and the “feats of strength”, which involve wrestling the head of the household to the floor (please be careful during this part).
We want to focus on the “airing of the grievances” - and we want you to help us celebrate by tweeting your grievance. Give us 140 characters of grievances. Annoyed by your in-laws? Tired of traffic? Annoyed by taxes? Air it! Just use the hashtag #ATXGrievance to participate.
Not on Twitter? You can also air your grievance in the comments of this blog post. You’ll feel better. Please keep it clean.
A day after the Zilker Tree Holiday Festival ended with a free sing-along featuring Asleep at the Wheel, crews are removing displays and cleaning up the area. It’s too early to tell whether the curtailed version of Austin’s popular Trail of Lights was a success, according to city spokesman Reyne Telles, and what the future holds for the annual event.
The festival was scaled back this year because of a budget crunch. Telles said public response to this year’s edition of the festival varied from those who loved it to those who preferred the larger version.
He said there’s no attendance estimates yet.
“Really, there has been no assessment as far as how things have gone and what we will be doing next year,” Telles said. “We anticipate that to happen very early when we return from the New Year.”
The free festival lasted nine days this year instead of the usual two weeks and included about half the displays as in previous years. The length of the trail was cut from 1.25 miles to a half-mile on the south side of Barton Springs Road. The city budgeted $374,000 for the event this year, instead of nearly $1 million.
It included more than a dozen displays and two stages for free music shows.
City officials have said they would seek a contractor to run the festival next year.
“I’m sure our parks and recreation department will be working very closely with all the city departments involved making the holiday festival a success next year as well,” Telles said.
The Asleep at the Wheel & Friends Holiday Sing-a-long starts at 8:30 p.m. Music starts at 7 p.m. with Rosie Flores, according to the Web site of the City of Austin, which runs the Zilker Tree Holiday Festival (formerly the Trail of Lights but scaled back this year amid a budget crunch). A special stage will be erected in Zilker Park for the concert, city spokesman Victor Ovalle said.
Tonight is the last night of the festival, which features a yule log and lights displays.
American Airlines is the latest carrier to add extra flights for fans heading to the January 7 BCS National Championship game between the University of Texas and the University of Alabama, according to an Austin airport spokesman.
The game is January 7 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., near Los Angeles.
American regularly runs three daily nonstop flights between Austin to Los Angeles International Airport, said Jim Halbrook, a spokesman for Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. The airline is adding an additional flight from Austin to Los Angeles on January 6 and an additional return flight on January 9, Halbrook said.
JetBlue Airways and Southwest Airlines have already announced additional flights to accommodate the Longhorn faithful
Click here for more information on the JetBlue and Southwest flights.
UPDATE: We have winners! At 8:24 p.m., Tiffany Herrera took her hand off the sandwich, allowing previous winner Seth Mazow and his fiancee Erin Mohr to share the title. Herrera walked away with $160.
UPDATE: It’s down to three.
EARLIER: Four people remain in the Hands on an Eggplant Sub contest, in which the person who keeps their hand on the sandwich the longest receives free Home Slice pizza for a year.
The contest started about 1:45 p.m. Saturday as part of the Carnival-O-Pizza sponsored by the pizzeria on South Congress Avenue in honor of its fourth anniversary. The rules say contestants must stand and touch the sub continuously, save for bathroom breaks every 10 hours.
The last time Home Slice held the contest, it ran for more than 24 hours. Officials said the contest could last until Tuesday.
