or hiltch/flickr The effects of job cuts announced last year at Freescale are starting to be felt locally. Documents filed with the Texas Workforce Commission indicate that the company plans to lay off 138 people at their Travis and Williamson county facilities in January 2009. On the optimistic side, Midway Games has begun hiring for six positions in their Austin studio. In August, Midway laid off 90 people by canceling a project in production at......

On October 17, a UT student committed suicide in the Gregory Gym pool. Austin unveiled Texas' first hybrid school bus yesterday. Those helicopters flying over Austin yesterday were "supposedly" practicing for this weekend's football festivities. New study finds that most Texas High School graduates are not prepared for college. Clever: Give inmates jobs. Borderline: Give them jobs cleaning cars. Not-so Clever: Leaving the keys in the ignition. Even more proof that in this day......

Tomorrow, November 3rd, the Step It Up Campaign gathers once again to see which of our politicians are stepping up and taking action about global warming. Following up on the first event back in April, the campaign unites ordinary folks concerned about global warming and demanding action from the candidates of 2008 to take bold steps on climate change. Millions will be gathering across the country to address representatives on three key priorities to stop......

*The views expressed in Truesday are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole. Thank heavens.* -The Editors It was sometime after four in the morning. Several years ago. July of the summer months. We had just finished a night out making mistakes all over the city, the lake, the river, and some apartment off Riverside where we smoked out with football players who were the largest hulks of humanity......

Have you been missing out on NBC's Friday Night Lights? Did last season's Wednesday night showing time not gel with your schedule? Well, we're going to give you five reasons why you should make time to watch this award-winning, but low rated, show. 1. The show is filmed in Austin. Local landmarks show up on the show, from EZ's in the opening credits to the Dairy Queen on Manor (where Matt works) to Brackenridge Hospital......

*The views expressed in Truesday are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole. Thank heavens.* -The Editors I used to have a friend-in-drinking who worked with me, many summers passed. We were pretty tight cohorts. Stood up for each other at the work place, and then poured liquid disaster-hammer all over our livers after punching the clock. “He’s a good guy,” I’d say to anyone who tried to disparage......

Could there be a better emblem of corporate "zaniness" than the Segway? You know, the two-wheeled "personal transporter" device that, while marketed as a solution to traffic congestion, is in fact a really annoying adult toy that gets in everyone's way? To filmmakers Hunter Weeks and Josh Caldwell, however, the Segway scooter embodies the American Dream. Or something like that, because they decided, after purchasing a Segway "on impulse" (note: the things cost 5 grand......

Every year comedians from around the area assemble to compete for the coveted title of "Funniest Person in Austin." For this month's installment in our interview series with performers from Austin's local comedy scene, we caught up with this year's winner—Bryan Gutmann. How long have you been doing stand-up? About three years now. I had been thinking about trying stand-up longer than that, but it took a while to get up the courage. What brought......

Don't look now, but Mitt Romney might really be the Republican nominee. They found that fake Steve Jobs guy. Some couple in Arkansas just had their seventeenth child. Would it be rude for us to send them a copy of The Population Bomb? Stevie Wonder is going on tour! (The real Stevie Wonder, not the fake Stevie Wonder.) Bad cops in Bangkok have to wear Hello Kitty armbands. That's supposed to be a punishment?......

The Cabela's hunting/fishing/outdoors outfitter superstore located in Buda, Texas, is apparently not doing so well. For the second year in a row, the store has missed mandatory employment targets set as a condition of subsidies given to the store by the City of Buda, Hays County and the State of Texas (via Governor Perry's Texas Enterprise Fund). In a nutshell: To date, Cabela's has received over $61 million in government subsidies (read: taxpayer money) as......

Less than two hours are left before Apple's "revolutionary new mobile phone" is finally unleashed to the ravenous hordes. Like in every other big city in the country, Austin's gadget geeks and conspicuous consumers are eagerly awaiting the sweet sound of that six o'clock bell—when they'll finally get to the suckle from the engorged teet of Steve Jobs' brilliant marketing machine. Hell, we'd be camping out, too, if we had $500 to throw around.......

We expect this to be the most popular news bits ever, as well as the best day ever, since everybody's favorite drive-in eatery (Sonic, duh) is giving away FREE root beer floats tonight from 8pm till midnight. Go ahead, locate every Sonic in town and drive around getting free floats until you can't drink root beer floats anymore. This is such a big deal, even Forbes wrote about it. And if you don't get......

Today, Governor Rick Perry officially recognized that when it comes to filmmaking, cash does indeed rule everything around us. After months of determined effort from the Texas Motion Picture Alliance, the Texas Film Commission, Rep. Dawnna Dukes and Sen. Bob Duell, Perry signed the dotted line on House Bill 1634, freeing up some $20 million in incentives to lure production crews--and the myriad jobs they generate--to the Lone Star State. The gaming industry also scores......

Josh over at random graphs has an interesting scoop indicating that internet behemoth Google might be opening up an office in Austin. An "Engineering Director" position was recently posted to the Google Jobs site. The req states that the opening is "available in Austin, Texas" and, more interestingly, calls for the chosen candidate to lead a "group of 100+ engineers" and deal with "an informal startup environment." The posting doesn't elaborate on whether said "projects"......

*The views expressed in Truesday are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole. Thank heavens.* -The Editors Predictability seemed paramount at the time. The end-all, want-all. It was the sole reason we were even living here back then. Our purpose. Goals and whatnot. We’d had enough of the side-dealings associated with chaotic under-tabled business ventures and the perils of potential imprisonment (by either: society in prisons, or society in......

We all know that Austin is a great city for kids looking to date around or have a drink, but according to a new study, it's also among the top ten job markets for college grads. Bizjournals, the national publisher of metropolitan business newspapers with branches in over forty cities, reports that current economic conditions couldn't be better for the million-plus college seniors entering the workforce this year. "The outlook this year is very good,"......

As you might recall, a homeless man inadvertently started a fire on the outdoor patio of Mother's Cafe earlier this month, causing an estimated $500,000 in damage. No charges were filed against the man, John Evans, who was merely trying to stay warm; Mother's co-owner Cameron Alexander demonstrated an extraordinary degree of compassion in agreeing with fire investigators that Mr. Evans should not be punished. While no one was injured by the blaze, much......

Jona Bechtolt is no more a normal human being than a toaster is a Ferrari. His eye and ear-boggling work with his pet project YACHT testifies to the hamster on acid that is constantly running in the wheel full speed in his head. As part of the duo that is The Blow, he is at least partly responsible for last year's awesome Paper Television. We e-cornered him to share a bit about himself and......

The Golden Globes are not the most esteemed of the arts awards, but their nominations can sometimes be a sign of what films/people/TV shows will be nominated for Oscars and Emmys. If you are into that kind of thing, you probably already picked your favorites when the nominations were announced Thursday morning. Our GG items of note: Penelope Cruz is up for best actress in a drama for Volver. We saw this film at a......

We have a confesstion to make: We are not expert gift-wrappers. We can admit it; it's cool. While we have always thought that there was a bit of charm in our mishmash newspaper and (visible) Scotch tape wrap jobs, the truth of the matter is, our friends and family were probably just being kind as they gave an obligatory chuckle upon viewing our shabbily-wrapped tidings. Furthermore, if you’re giving said shambles to certain adorable......

For those of us who pine for a centrally-located Craftsman's-style bungalow, but refuse to pony up two fiddy per square foot or hold down an extreme job to bankroll it, this week's column focuses on the house that made America's heartland great - the ranch-style home of the 1950s and early 60s. A spate of home construction in Austin during this time--in areas that were then considered 'suburban'--provides creative and cost-concious house hunters with......

Some people marry for love. Some for companionship. And yes, there are some thrifty evil souls out there who marry for riches. But we romantics at the Austinist are happy to know that at least two people in this hardened nation of ours have married for a reason even purer than true love: rock and roll. Back in 2001 Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel decided to ditch their day jobs, get hitched, and begin......

We learn this afternoon from trustworthy sources that NBC has ordered a full season's worth of episodes of Friday Night Lights. This means more shooting in our area, more jobs for local actors, and it's a great vote of confidence by the network for a show filmed outside of Hollywood. Tomorrow night it's Homecoming in Dillon, and all hell breaks loose. Street now knows that his girlfriend is gettin' it on with his best......

Halloween is Tuesday, which means this weekend is really the time for all of the –ists to celebrate. And whether they’re designing super-spooky costumes or talking about the super-spooky upcoming elections, we’d say that they’re doing a fine job of it. Austinist knows that few things in life are scarier than zombies, people with way too much money, and politicians who try too hard to be funny. Slightly less scary, depending on whom you......

The good folks at Hyde Park Theatre and Austin Script Works are gearing up for next year's FronteraFest, January 16 - February 17, 2007. They've got jobs. They've got deadlines. Here are the details. Jobs FronteraFest is searching for fun-loving, dedicated people for the following positions: Marketing Director, Box Office Manager, Attendants, House Managers, Stage Managers, ASMs, Venue Managers, and Board Operators. All positions paid. Email or send resume and letter of interest to:......

Multi-instrumentalist and programmer Evan Mast and guitarist Mike Stroud are very busy boys. Between day jobs running record labels and graphic design, studio and tour stints with the likes of Ben Kweller and Dashboard Confessional and a wide assortment of side projects, the New Yorkers formerly known as Cherry found time to record one of the summer's most talked-about albums and are now touring the U.S. The sound is a more studio developed one......

Last week Austin police seized 850 balloons of heroin in South Austin. Yikes, that's a lot to swallow. Pat Buchanan thinks Gore can beat Hillary in the Democratic primaries. Pat Buchanan, that great liberal mind. Saddam Hussein has some head-crushing in mind. On that note, soon scientists will be able to tell how smart you are with their improved brain imaging techniques. So there, IQ tests! People are taking their revenge for Steve Irwin's......

In the NYTimes today, Frankie Andreu admits to using EPO, a performance-enhancing drug, for a couple of races. Andreu was a long-time teammate of hometown cyclist Lance Armstrong in past Tours de France and other races. Earlier this year, he and his wife testified in court that Armstrong had told doctors 10 years ago that he had used performance-enhancing drugs. No doctors confirmed their statements, however, and the case they testified for (between Armstong......

The City of Austin unveiled its newest online employment application system this past weekend. Dubbed the "Electronic City of Austin Resource for Equal Employment and Recruiting," or simply "eCareer," the site hopes to make the hiring process clearer for both potential employees and employers. "This new system will make it even easier for people to apply for City jobs," said Roberta Byram, Human Resources Department. "It’s simpler to use, more secure and enables users......

Well Goddamn. DJ Mel’s equipment got TOOK. Someone done gone and threatened the Rocking of The Casbah! Luckily, Mel has made assurances that the show WILL GO ON, but he is short some personal equipment along with his sense of security. Apparently, some time last night in the early morn, his car got broken into, and a load of rather important equipment was taken. At least they didn’t get any vinyl. Here’s a list......